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Wilson Staff Di11 Irons Review Thread

SuperStroke
Mjfraioli said:
Ive hit both. I purchased the steel uniflex before I even had a chance to hit the half and halfs. Both are quality clubs. half and halfs will increase swing speed, feel is better then graphite. I just liked the feel of the uniflex steel seemed like I was hitting it too high with the half and halfs. But I only tried the half and halfs on a simulator
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Thanks for the info mj, i think i will go with the steel shafts! Can't wait to get them now...
 
Great stuff guys. I'm still just in love with these irons, they are in fact 3* off for me right now, and I still love hitting them. Its going to take a very special set of irons to get these out of my bag.
 
coolbreeze said:
Great stuff guys. I'm still just in love with these irons, they are in fact 3* off for me right now, and I still love hitting them. Its going to take a very special set of irons to get these out of my bag.
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No kidding. I absolutely love these sticks.
 
SFCoach said:
No kidding. I absolutely love these sticks.
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Amen to that man. Some of my buddys were heckling me about playing Wilson's when I first got my sticks, that has all changed now. These clubs helped bring me my lowest score ever and I can pretty much out hit anybody I play with. I just have the 4-GW set and man the 4 hits an absolute long ball. I still can't get over the quality of these clubs!
 
Yep, that's my favorite thing so far regarding the Di11's - the 4 and 5 iron are just buttery smooth for me.
 
First post, new here. Great thread, I actually read through the whole thing. lol Drove down to Green Bay a few days ago to hit the DI11's at Dicks on the LM. Really liked them, I think the looks are great, and they feel great also. My first swings with the fat shafted version were not good. I was hitting the ceiling in the hitting booth with the 7 iron, in other words the ball was going practically straight up. it could be that I was really trying to pick the ball because I have never hit off a mat like that, or in an LM , for that matter. I hit the ball pretty high with all my clubs ~90-100ft, and was concerned about hitting pop flys with these. I was pretty disappointed because I really wanted to like these clubs. Hit a bunch of other clubs that day, G15's, i15's, s56, ci9's, you name it, and they were all about the same. funny thing is that I hit the the s56's and the ci9's the straightest, while the others were a little better distance but really wanted to get left most of the time. I finally realized that I was hooding the club at address because the offset was throwing me off making them appear open. Anyway, long story short, I grabbed a cleveland hb3 7(iron? hybrid?) just for laughs, and found that my average carry was getting up to 166 and 109-112 BS 24* LA. Looked at the shaft and it was some sort of 65g low kick point shaft, certainly not something I would have ever tried because I figured it would balloon horribly. Then I mentioned to the sales associate about wanting to try out the half and half shaft but they didn't have any. He said "wait here let me check in the back." He came out a few minutes later with a box of them. So, I tried hitting the 7 iron for comparison, and Wow these felt and performed really well. My SS with the 7 iron was around 82, but I could get it close to ninety with coming out of my shoes. I think they were the standard uniflex half and half shafts. I would have probably left with those that day, but I have been there before, and figured it best to sleep on it for a few more days.
After sleeping on it for a few days I have a few question that weren't brought up on the thread iirc.
One is how do the half and half compare to the uniflex wide tip as far as resistance to twisting on a toe hit? I saw some great examples of extreme toe hits with the steel shafts that had good results but didn't for the other, unless I missed it.
Another is, do any of the testers fight hitting the ball too high at times IOW a bit flippy at times?
I really, really like the half and half's but, like an idiot I don't think I tried hitting the fat shafts again for comparison would be nice to save the "upcharge" if I could but no biggie. Also, I wish I could hit these in "actual reality" on a range instead of just an LM. I guess I'm just sort of old school and not sure if I can trust LM numbers, and would like to see the ball flight for myself. Again great thread, really enjoyed all the candid reviews. I've always been a W/S fan anyway, glad to see them coming back.
 
coolbreeze said:
Great stuff guys. I'm still just in love with these irons, they are in fact 3* off for me right now, and I still love hitting them. Its going to take a very special set of irons to get these out of my bag.
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Me too man. These irons just knocked my socks off
 
BamBooBender said:
First post, new here. Great thread, I actually read through the whole thing. lol Drove down to Green Bay a few days ago to hit the DI11's at Dicks on the LM. Really liked them, I think the looks are great, and they feel great also. My first swings with the fat shafted version were not good. I was hitting the ceiling in the hitting booth with the 7 iron, in other words the ball was going practically straight up. it could be that I was really trying to pick the ball because I have never hit off a mat like that, or in an LM , for that matter. I hit the ball pretty high with all my clubs ~90-100ft, and was concerned about hitting pop flys with these. I was pretty disappointed because I really wanted to like these clubs. Hit a bunch of other clubs that day, G15's, i15's, s56, ci9's, you name it, and they were all about the same. funny thing is that I hit the the s56's and the ci9's the straightest, while the others were a little better distance but really wanted to get left most of the time. I finally realized that I was hooding the club at address because the offset was throwing me off making them appear open. Anyway, long story short, I grabbed a cleveland hb3 7(iron? hybrid?) just for laughs, and found that my average carry was getting up to 166 and 109-112 BS 24* LA. Looked at the shaft and it was some sort of 65g low kick point shaft, certainly not something I would have ever tried because I figured it would balloon horribly. Then I mentioned to the sales associate about wanting to try out the half and half shaft but they didn't have any. He said "wait here let me check in the back." He came out a few minutes later with a box of them. So, I tried hitting the 7 iron for comparison, and Wow these felt and performed really well. My SS with the 7 iron was around 82, but I could get it close to ninety with coming out of my shoes. I think they were the standard uniflex half and half shafts. I would have probably left with those that day, but I have been there before, and figured it best to sleep on it for a few more days.
After sleeping on it for a few days I have a few question that weren't brought up on the thread iirc.
One is how do the half and half compare to the uniflex wide tip as far as resistance to twisting on a toe hit? I saw some great examples of extreme toe hits with the steel shafts that had good results but didn't for the other, unless I missed it.
Another is, do any of the testers fight hitting the ball too high at times IOW a bit flippy at times?
I really, really like the half and half's but, like an idiot I don't think I tried hitting the fat shafts again for comparison would be nice to save the "upcharge" if I could but no biggie. Also, I wish I could hit these in "actual reality" on a range instead of just an LM. I guess I'm just sort of old school and not sure if I can trust LM numbers, and would like to see the ball flight for myself. Again great thread, really enjoyed all the candid reviews. I've always been a W/S fan anyway, glad to see them coming back.
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First welcome to THP, glad you really enjoyed the thread and the giant read you must have had. As for the shafts, I haven't hit the half and half and am testing the Uniflex, but the half and half shafts are supposed to be higher launching than the Uniflex, but if they worked better for you than the Uniflex steel than thats what I would go with. I don't ever fight hitting the ball too high with these in terms of balloning or just height in general, but I do sometimes struggle keeping the ball low enough in the wind. You can flight the ball lower, but not crazy low, so when the wind is really blowing, like 30mph, you can struggle keeping it under that wind, but how often does that really happen? Hope I answered your question, and hopefully RonInThornton who was the one tester with the half and half shafts can get back to you soon.
 
BamBooBender said:
First post, new here. Great thread, I actually read through the whole thing. lol Drove down to Green Bay a few days ago to hit the DI11's at Dicks on the LM. Really liked them, I think the looks are great, and they feel great also. My first swings with the fat shafted version were not good. I was hitting the ceiling in the hitting booth with the 7 iron, in other words the ball was going practically straight up. it could be that I was really trying to pick the ball because I have never hit off a mat like that, or in an LM , for that matter. I hit the ball pretty high with all my clubs ~90-100ft, and was concerned about hitting pop flys with these. I was pretty disappointed because I really wanted to like these clubs. Hit a bunch of other clubs that day, G15's, i15's, s56, ci9's, you name it, and they were all about the same. funny thing is that I hit the the s56's and the ci9's the straightest, while the others were a little better distance but really wanted to get left most of the time. I finally realized that I was hooding the club at address because the offset was throwing me off making them appear open. Anyway, long story short, I grabbed a cleveland hb3 7(iron? hybrid?) just for laughs, and found that my average carry was getting up to 166 and 109-112 BS 24* LA. Looked at the shaft and it was some sort of 65g low kick point shaft, certainly not something I would have ever tried because I figured it would balloon horribly. Then I mentioned to the sales associate about wanting to try out the half and half shaft but they didn't have any. He said "wait here let me check in the back." He came out a few minutes later with a box of them. So, I tried hitting the 7 iron for comparison, and Wow these felt and performed really well. My SS with the 7 iron was around 82, but I could get it close to ninety with coming out of my shoes. I think they were the standard uniflex half and half shafts. I would have probably left with those that day, but I have been there before, and figured it best to sleep on it for a few more days.
After sleeping on it for a few days I have a few question that weren't brought up on the thread iirc.
One is how do the half and half compare to the uniflex wide tip as far as resistance to twisting on a toe hit? I saw some great examples of extreme toe hits with the steel shafts that had good results but didn't for the other, unless I missed it.
Another is, do any of the testers fight hitting the ball too high at times IOW a bit flippy at times?
I really, really like the half and half's but, like an idiot I don't think I tried hitting the fat shafts again for comparison would be nice to save the "upcharge" if I could but no biggie. Also, I wish I could hit these in "actual reality" on a range instead of just an LM. I guess I'm just sort of old school and not sure if I can trust LM numbers, and would like to see the ball flight for myself. Again great thread, really enjoyed all the candid reviews. I've always been a W/S fan anyway, glad to see them coming back.
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I hit the ball pretty high normally and didn't notice anything all that different with the Uniflex shafts that I played. These do hit the ball high but they did not balloon at least for me.
 
Thanks for the info. It's been a real struggle to not just go ahead and order a set, gotta have patience right? That's one drawback to living in the North woods of WI, have to mail order a lot of stuff, or take road trips, not really any golf shops locally. All the local courses only seem to have Titleist fitting carts and such, nothing wrong with Titleist though, I still can't find a replacement for my beloved 905s/Graf Blue, but I keep trying. I would be thrilled to see Wilson banner at a demo day, but not willing to drive 5-6+ hours for it. If any Wilson reps look at this board: how about some love for us backwoods, NE WI, U.P. MI, country folks. lol
 
Almost forgot, I did find a little driving range/golf shop/ par3 course in De Pere that had a half and half d-fy six iron demo. I hit a bucket of balls on the range with that, and it was really windy. The ball flight was stupid high and short with that club, but didn't appear to balloon, they didn't seem to just hang in the air forever and not go very far, if you know what I mean. Not really a good test, but it was the best I could come up with atm.
 
BamBooBender said:
Almost forgot, I did find a little driving range/golf shop/ par3 course in De Pere that had a half and half d-fy six iron demo. I hit a bucket of balls on the range with that, and it was really windy. The ball flight was stupid high and short with that club, but didn't appear to balloon, they didn't seem to just hang in the air forever and not go very far, if you know what I mean. Not really a good test, but it was the best I could come up with atm.
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If the half+half in the D-fy's didnt work for you then in my opinion the half+half in the Di11's wont either.I have hit the half+half in the D-fy's and in the Di11's and i hit them both in the clouds,just way too hi.They do have the half+half in a stiff flex now but i have never seen 1 anywhere and,probably never will.If the uniflex steel shafts worked good for you when you hit em,thats what i would go with.No matter how much i liked the regular half+half shafts (and i liked them ALOT) they were too hi launching for my swing and not stiff enough for my s.s. and, it sounds like you had the same results.
 
I took these out on a proper length course for the first time today. This was also the first time for me on a normal course (as opposed to the range or the par three course where I've been for the last four to five months) for nearly 20 years, so I had a ready made excuse!

I would love to give a hole by hole, but given that I only played the course for the first time today, I've already forgotten the details!

Anyway some highlights:
-First, I only had time to play 8 holes and was 6 over par by then, so not too shabby for me.
-Second, the irons were very nice to hit, especially 4. I don't have anything longer than this in my bag, so I teed off with it on all the par 4s and 5s. I was playing in a group with the club pro as part of a lesson and he was very impressed by the irons and especially the distance with the 4.
I hit quite a long ball and the 4 took me regularly 200 metres off the tee.

The short irons were also nice. I have a few swing issues (too upright hitting out to in) which means that I have to be careful not to hit left. This happened a few times. However, although the direction was off, the contact was still very sweet.

As always, the irons helped me out when my ball-striking was less than spectacular. A couple off the toe still went straight and lost maybe 25 metres or so off the tee.

My favourite shot was a five to a par three which was about 170-175 metres (about 185-190 yards) to the flag. I could only see the top off the flag, but managed to hit a nice 5 iron pin high (but about 10 yards to the left so just on the green).
when I got there the pitch mark was about 6 inches in front of the ball. I love the ball flight when it goes high and then just stops. Now if I could learn to go straight...

So I'm really enjoying the irons currently. I'm also in no hurry now to get hybrids or woods to complete the bag. I'll try a few and see. I'm thinking about doing my first ever competition on Friday, so that should give me a benchmark and I'll certainly let you know if I do it.

PS-apologies for the mixed metric and imperial measurements. The difficulties of an Englishman in France:bashful:
 
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smoothduffer said:
If the half+half in the D-fy's didnt work for you then in my opinion the half+half in the Di11's wont either.I have hit the half+half in the D-fy's and in the Di11's and i hit them both in the clouds,just way too hi.They do have the half+half in a stiff flex now but i have never seen 1 anywhere and,probably never will.If the uniflex steel shafts worked good for you when you hit em,thats what i would go with.No matter how much i liked the regular half+half shafts (and i liked them ALOT) they were too hi launching for my swing and not stiff enough for my s.s. and, it sounds like you had the same results.
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Thanks for the info smoothduffer. Looks like I'm gonna have to take another road trip, to do some more demoing, life is rough eh?:golf:
BTW How are the CI9's treatin ya?
 
fern said:
I took these out on a proper length course for the first time today. This was also the first time for me on a normal course (as opposed to the range or the par three course where I've been for the last four to five months) for nearly 20 years, so I had a ready made excuse!

I would love to give a hole by hole, but given that I only played the course for the first time today, I've already forgotten the details!

Anyway some highlights:
-First, I only had time to play 8 holes and was 6 over par by then, so not too shabby for me.
-Second, the irons were very nice to hit, especially 4. I don't have anything longer than this in my bag, so I teed off with it on all the par 4s and 5s. I was playing in a group with the club pro as part of a lesson and he was very impressed by the irons and especially the distance with the 4.
I hit quite a long ball and the 4 took me regularly 200 metres off the tee.

The short irons were also nice. I have a few swing issues (too upright hitting out to in) which means that I have to be careful not to hit left. This happened a few times. However, although the direction was off, the contact was still very sweet.

As always, the irons helped me out when my ball-striking was less than spectacular. A couple off the toe still went straight and lost maybe 25 metres or so off the tee.

My favourite shot was a five to a par three which was about 170-175 metres (about 185-190 yards) to the flag. I could only see the top off the flag, but managed to hit a nice 5 iron pin high (but about 10 yards to the left so just on the green).
when I got there the pitch mark was about 6 inches in front of the ball. I love the ball flight when it goes high and then just stops. Now if I could learn to go straight...

So I'm really enjoying the irons currently. I'm also in no hurry now to get hybrids or woods to complete the bag. I'll try a few and see. I'm thinking about doing my first ever competition on Friday, so that should give me a benchmark and I'll certainly let you know if I do it.

PS-apologies for the mixed metric and imperial measurements. The difficulties of an Englishman in France:bashful:
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No need to apologize at all for the metric to imperial, the silly americans are the only ones still using the imperial system, but we still love them and their backwards ways. Glad that you are hitting them so well right away man. 200 meter 4 irons is a long way man, keep us updated with your progress.
 
CB, while you were American bashing you forgot to end it with the all important "eh"
 
coolbreeze said:
No need to apologize at all for the metric to imperial, the silly americans are the only ones still using the imperial system, but we still love them and their backwards ways. Glad that you are hitting them so well right away man. 200 meter 4 irons is a long way man, keep us updated with your progress.
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mikedean441 said:
CB, while you were American bashing you forgot to end it with the all important "eh"
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I never american bash, especially not on Independence day, eh. I don't think me call you "silly" for the imperial system is bashing in any way....eh.
 
coolbreeze said:
I never american bash, especially not on Independence day, eh. I don't think me call you "silly" for the imperial system is bashing in any way....eh.
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all in fun, maybe bashing was a poor choice of words eh?
 
BamBooBender said:
First post, new here. Great thread, I actually read through the whole thing. lol Drove down to Green Bay a few days ago to hit the DI11's at Dicks on the LM. Really liked them, I think the looks are great, and they feel great also. My first swings with the fat shafted version were not good. I was hitting the ceiling in the hitting booth with the 7 iron, in other words the ball was going practically straight up. it could be that I was really trying to pick the ball because I have never hit off a mat like that, or in an LM , for that matter. I hit the ball pretty high with all my clubs ~90-100ft, and was concerned about hitting pop flys with these. I was pretty disappointed because I really wanted to like these clubs. Hit a bunch of other clubs that day, G15's, i15's, s56, ci9's, you name it, and they were all about the same. funny thing is that I hit the the s56's and the ci9's the straightest, while the others were a little better distance but really wanted to get left most of the time. I finally realized that I was hooding the club at address because the offset was throwing me off making them appear open. Anyway, long story short, I grabbed a cleveland hb3 7(iron? hybrid?) just for laughs, and found that my average carry was getting up to 166 and 109-112 BS 24* LA. Looked at the shaft and it was some sort of 65g low kick point shaft, certainly not something I would have ever tried because I figured it would balloon horribly. Then I mentioned to the sales associate about wanting to try out the half and half shaft but they didn't have any. He said "wait here let me check in the back." He came out a few minutes later with a box of them. So, I tried hitting the 7 iron for comparison, and Wow these felt and performed really well. My SS with the 7 iron was around 82, but I could get it close to ninety with coming out of my shoes. I think they were the standard uniflex half and half shafts. I would have probably left with those that day, but I have been there before, and figured it best to sleep on it for a few more days.
After sleeping on it for a few days I have a few question that weren't brought up on the thread iirc.
One is how do the half and half compare to the uniflex wide tip as far as resistance to twisting on a toe hit? I saw some great examples of extreme toe hits with the steel shafts that had good results but didn't for the other, unless I missed it.
Another is, do any of the testers fight hitting the ball too high at times IOW a bit flippy at times?
I really, really like the half and half's but, like an idiot I don't think I tried hitting the fat shafts again for comparison would be nice to save the "upcharge" if I could but no biggie. Also, I wish I could hit these in "actual reality" on a range instead of just an LM. I guess I'm just sort of old school and not sure if I can trust LM numbers, and would like to see the ball flight for myself. Again great thread, really enjoyed all the candid reviews. I've always been a W/S fan anyway, glad to see them coming back.
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Hello triple B and welcome to the forum. Let me start by apologizing for not getting back to you sooner, I was on a 3 day golfing trip with my bro in laws.
I am the only tester who has played the half/half shafts and personally, for me I will never play another shaft style.
They do play differently, there is no doubt about that, but with a "breaking in" period of you getting used to the club I have no doubt whatsoever that you will see dramatic improvements in your game.
They do fly high, but not to the point of ballooning, and by closing the face slightly you get deep penetrating shots. The scoring irons are incredible! 7 through the wedges I know I am not missing a shot.
To demonstrate how well the half/half Di11' work I was consistently shooting in the 110-115 range with my Pings, I am now shooting in the low 90's consistently. I think that right there says it all about how amazing these clubs are.
 
BamBooBender said:
Thanks for the info smoothduffer. Looks like I'm gonna have to take another road trip, to do some more demoing, life is rough eh?:golf:
BTW How are the CI9's treatin ya?
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No problem BBB,i luv my Ci9's,they are just a great set of irons with a awesome shaft that i may pull out and put on my next irons,if i ever switch that is :smile-big:
 
RonInThornton said:
Hello triple B and welcome to the forum. Let me start by apologizing for not getting back to you sooner, I was on a 3 day golfing trip with my bro in laws.
I am the only tester who has played the half/half shafts and personally, for me I will never play another shaft style.
They do play differently, there is no doubt about that, but with a "breaking in" period of you getting used to the club I have no doubt whatsoever that you will see dramatic improvements in your game.
They do fly high, but not to the point of ballooning, and by closing the face slightly you get deep penetrating shots. The scoring irons are incredible! 7 through the wedges I know I am not missing a shot.
To demonstrate how well the half/half Di11' work I was consistently shooting in the 110-115 range with my Pings, I am now shooting in the low 90's consistently. I think that right there says it all about how amazing these clubs are.
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Thanks Ron, no apology needed though, hope you had a great time on your outing. BTW your rapid improvement is fantastic, congrats to you, I know that's a great feeling. I bet you will begin to see an eight as the beginning number of your final score soon.

I did really like how the half n half felt, but it's hard to buy until I can get one out on the range to see the flight for myself. I did enjoy the lighter weight too, my back and I were still on speaking terms the next day after hitting countless shots with them. Just not to sure if I should trust the LM, especially at a big-box store. I'm not saying they would deliberately try to deceive me, just that maybe it could be off or improperly set up, etc. I have been sitting on my hands to keep from just going ahead and ordering a set. it would be nice if they had a "test drive" program or something, so if the honeymoon ends abruptly I'm not stuck with em. lol

Almost forgot, what was your take on the forgiveness on toe hits with half n halfs? What some other testers reported about extreme toe hits with the wide tip shafts was pretty interesting.
 
BamBooBender said:
Thanks Ron, no apology needed though, hope you had a great time on your outing. BTW your rapid improvement is fantastic, congrats to you, I know that's a great feeling. I bet you will begin to see an eight as the beginning number of your final score soon.

I did really like how the half n half felt, but it's hard to buy until I can get one out on the range to see the flight for myself. I did enjoy the lighter weight too, my back and I were still on speaking terms the next day after hitting countless shots with them. Just not to sure if I should trust the LM, especially at a big-box store. I'm not saying they would deliberately try to deceive me, just that maybe it could be off or improperly set up, etc. I have been sitting on my hands to keep from just going ahead and ordering a set. it would be nice if they had a "test drive" program or something, so if the honeymoon ends abruptly I'm not stuck with em. lol

Almost forgot, what was your take on the forgiveness on toe hits with half n halfs? What some other testers reported about extreme toe hits with the wide tip shafts was pretty interesting.
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heel and toe shots both were very forgiving. Hitting either toe or heel shots with these were still much better shots than any I hit with my Pings. Checked the Wilson website and no demo days in in Wi.
Pretty sure if the honeymoon ended you wouldn't be stuck with them. The one set that was put up for sale here was snapped up pretty fast.
 
Just bought these irons and traded in my Nike (Original Slingshots) for these. Can't wait to play this weekend and see if I truely like them. Loved the way they hit at my courses demo and never knew of the fat shaft system. Also saved my self about $400-$500, was thinking about the Titlest AP1s. Got these instead.
 
Hey Ron - do any of the local Golfsmith or Golf Galaxies have these around for hitting on the simulator? And by local, I mean the greater Denver area. Never mind that seems like a silly question - I imagine they do.! Might head down that way next week to try and demo as much as I can before purchasing.
 
RonInThornton said:
heel and toe shots both were very forgiving. Hitting either toe or heel shots with these were still much better shots than any I hit with my Pings. Checked the Wilson website and no demo days in in Wi.
Pretty sure if the honeymoon ended you wouldn't be stuck with them. The one set that was put up for sale here was snapped up pretty fast.
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Thanks for the info, really appreciate it.
 
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