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Wilson Staff FG Tour V2 Review Thread

SuperStroke
great job so far testers....

This question is for all of you...What would you say the forgiveness of these clubs best compares to?
 
One-T said:
great job so far testers....

This question is for all of you...What would you say the forgiveness of these clubs best compares to?
Click to expand...

I'm learning a bit more about the forgiveness each time I play these irons. They are obviously not as forgiving as my old irons, but I haven't really been stung too badly by them yet. I would say on observations alone, they would be similar to something like the VR Splits or TM MC's, but I can't say that definitively.

I will say that hitting them high on the face robs distance and I'm going to have some detailed thoughts on that in the write ups I'm working on right now. I will give you a perfect example. It's actually in one of the videos I posted last night. Here are the details:

121 to flag in a very shaggy fairway - V2 8 iron - I clubbed up a bit on this shot because the ball was literally in almost two inches of grass in this 'fairway'. The video doesn't make it seem like it, but I hit slightly behind the ball and was a bit high on the face. I was about 10 yards short of the flag and had a pretty lengthy putt. In all, I was about 15 yards short of the distance I would normally expect to hit this iron. I think that the high grass contributed, but its clear that these clubs do not like to be hit high on the face.
 
Thanks to the testers for all the wonderful input! Great Job too all.
 
Testing Date: September 19, 2011
Ten holes of golf on a course that is in subpar condition
Conditions: Sunny, 70's and a slight breeze
Focus: Distances, getting familiar, and performance out of various lies



First, a quick note on my round. It was pretty average for me. I shot a +7 over ten holes. 3 pars and 7 bogeys. I hit hit two GIR and 4/5 fairways. My misses were either short or left. I was playing a weak hook at times until I weakend my grip a bit. Ball striking itself was actually very good in that I was hitting the center of the clubface pretty often.

Thoughts on Distance

I'm still working on determining my distances with the V2's. I think I learned quite a bit yesterday as I was able to take some extra shots from random spots on the course. I have a pretty good hold on what I am capable of with them and where my mis-hits are ending up.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll give what I believe my typical distances are in good conditions with a good ball strike. These were taken via laser or GPS reads:

4 - 170 yards
5 - 160 yards
6 - 150 yards
7 - 140 yards
8 - 125 yards
9 - 115 yards
P - 105 yards

Now, I've hit them all a bit farther and a littler shorter, but this would be a normal shot with a good swing. As you can see, I don't hit the ball far at all and the V2's are about 10 yards shorter than the Redlines for me. Interestingly, I've actually been able to hit all of the clubs. I struggled at times with the Redline 6 and 7 irons and I can't say that there is a club in the 4-PW V2 set that I'm uncomfortable hitting. Even the 4 iron, which is taking the distance gap that my old 5 hyrbrid had.

You may notice a gap from my 7-8 iron. This is something that I tended to do in the Redline set as well, just with different numberd irons. I don't know why, but I hit scoring irons and wedges a bit shorter than I 'should' and the V2's are the same in that regard. Not sure why.

I thought I'd talk about a couple well struck shots and their corresponding results.

Shot 1 - Tee shot on 165 yard par 3 - V2 5 iron - I chose the 5 iron here because I had a tiny bit of wind behind me. I struck the ball just perfectly and was given a mid-high ball flight that rose pretty steadily and peaked right before coming down. The ball stopped very quickly and when I got to it, was pin high about 10 feet left of the pin. I got about 5 yards more than normal, but I was hoping for that with the breeze.

Spoiler
DSC01649.jpg


Shot 2 - 170 yards from the fairway - V2 4 iron - I hit a pretty poor tee shot here, but was still in the fairway with 170 yards into a slight wind. I chose 4 iron and probably should have grabbed the hybrid, but again, I'm still learning distances. I hit the ball really nicely and it flew just as high as the 5 iron, just peaking a little later. I was pleased to see the higher ball flight with the 4 iron as most of my shots with it up to this point were not as high. The ball was on a straight line for the flag, but ended up falling about 3 feet in front of the green. It GPS'd at 166 yards. I'm guessing the wind cost me a bit of distance.

So far, I have mixed feelings on the distance aspect. On one hand, I just want to hit the ball farther. The thing is that I want to hit it farther with all my clubs, not just these. It's sort of deflating to read about and see other guys hitting the same club 30 yards farther than I do.

At the same time, I'm able to cover all my gaps in the bag right now and I've hit the ball well with each club, which is a good thing. If I hit they 5 iron 160 yards and I'm confident that it will go where I want it and be easy to hit, I'll be just as happy as if it was a 6 iron.

More thought to come...
 
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Dude, hopefully with more golf under your belt those distances increase. I think it will as you just mature as a golfer.
 
Hitting out of the rough

I hit the ball out of the rough quite a bit it seems, so I should have some great thoughts over time about this subject. My preconceived notions about the V2's were that the smaller head and sharper leading egde would make hitting out of it easier that my previous irons. In ways, I am finding that to be true and in ways, I'm not.

First off, it is actually easier to physically hit the ball in the thick stuff with the V2's. The club head really cuts through the grass well and doesn't seem to get caught up like the Redlines did (this was one negative I saw from those clubs). I've appreciated the ease with which the V2's get to the ball in bad lies.

My negatives so far have been mostly related to inconsistent distances out of the rough due to missing high on the face. I have two shots to highlight that should explain that for you.

Shot 1 - 150 to back of the green from deep rough - V2 6 iron - In this situation, the pin was towards the front of the green. I chose the 6 iron since it is the club I could normally get to the back of the green with and I figured I was clubbing up enough for the lie. I turned out that I was about 6 feet short of the green even though it seemed like I hit it well when looking at the ball flight. I looked at the face and the mark from the grass was high on the face. Probably should have choked up a bit looking back.

Shot 2 - 125 yards to back of the green from deep rough - V2 8 iron - Again, the pin was up front and I chose a club that should get me to the back of the green under normal circumstances. I choked up a bit and hit it as clean as I could. The ball was high and actually hit the back of the green, leaving me a very long putt from above the pin. I hit this one in the center of the face.

So, as you can see, I had the exact opposite experience with the two shots. It was obviously a bit of user error, but I did learn a valuable lesson in that I should account for the ball sitting above the ground and adjust my grip accordingly.

Interestingly, my miss with the Redlines in the rough wasn't distance as much as it was directional. I had a tough time hitting the ball straight out of the rough with the Redlines, but could get the distance I was expecting pretty consistently. With the V2's, I'm able to hit the ball quite straight, but I have to be careful about the distance.
 
TC said:
Dude, hopefully with more golf under your belt those distances increase. I think it will as you just mature as a golfer.
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I think so too. It sucks at times, but playing the right tees makes a big difference.
 
Hawk said:
I'm learning a bit more about the forgiveness each time I play these irons. They are obviously not as forgiving as my old irons, but I haven't really been stung too badly by them yet. I would say on observations alone, they would be similar to something like the VR Splits or TM MC's, but I can't say that definitively.

I will say that hitting them high on the face robs distance and I'm going to have some detailed thoughts on that in the write ups I'm working on right now. I will give you a perfect example. It's actually in one of the videos I posted last night. Here are the details:

121 to flag in a very shaggy fairway - V2 8 iron - I clubbed up a bit on this shot because the ball was literally in almost two inches of grass in this 'fairway'. The video doesn't make it seem like it, but I hit slightly behind the ball and was a bit high on the face. I was about 10 yards short of the flag and had a pretty lengthy putt. In all, I was about 15 yards short of the distance I would normally expect to hit this iron. I think that the high grass contributed, but its clear that these clubs do not like to be hit high on the face.
Click to expand...

Thanks buddy, I understand that you need a little more time with them to really get a grasp of the forgiveness. I would compare the FG Tours to the same clubs you compared. So, that being said, what are the differences you see between these and the FG Tours?
 
I only hit the FG Tours a few times during Demo Day, so I can't give really detailed information on that, but I will say that the V2's seem a bit lighter through the swing to me, which I've been told is likely is a product of the different shafts (KBS Tours in the V2's/DG's in the V1's). They seem less head heavy to me and a little more balanced overall.
 
One thing that has been interesting to me is that, in general, I'm seeing a bit lower ball flight with these, but the more I play them, the higher I'm hitting the lower irons. I've really had to focus on hitting down into the ball. I'm curious how I'll be hitting them a couple months from now.
 
Hawk said:
One thing that has been interesting to me is that, in general, I'm seeing a bit lower ball flight with these, but the more I play them, the higher I'm hitting the lower irons. I've really had to focus on hitting down into the ball. I'm curious how I'll be hitting them a couple months from now.
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The evolution of the shot with the irons man! Thats what is so great about long term testing. You get to grow with the irons if they're a good fit.
 
thanks Hawk!!
 
Hawk said:
One thing that has been interesting to me is that, in general, I'm seeing a bit lower ball flight with these, but the more I play them, the higher I'm hitting the lower irons. I've really had to focus on hitting down into the ball. I'm curious how I'll be hitting them a couple months from now.
Click to expand...

Hawk, one thing I was impressed with was the differences I have seen from my first range session, first round, and range session yesterday. My first couple of shots with these were all line drives, I would adjust, and hit another line drive. After hitting, and hitting some more, I started seeing better ball flight, still not as high as I would like, but better. Carry that over to my first round, and I was seeing some great height on my shots, and felt overall more comfortable swinging the V2s. Carry those firs two times to my range session yesterday, and see that I am able to really hone in on getting high ball flight + work on accuracy. As much as I wish I could just pick these up and game them without missing a beat, that's not going to happen for me. There will be growing pains, and I will have my moments of brilliance with them, as well as my share of dufffs.

Like Yoccos said, thats the beauty of long term testing. I can work with them, grow with them, and hopefully, if they fit my game well enough, continue to get better with them.
 
Hawk said:
One thing that has been interesting to me is that, in general, I'm seeing a bit lower ball flight with these, but the more I play them, the higher I'm hitting the lower irons. I've really had to focus on hitting down into the ball. I'm curious how I'll be hitting them a couple months from now.
Click to expand...

This is something I will be looking at for sure. I think this is something cool that happens during testing. You may have an adjustment period like most do with new irons, but its the end result that matters.
 
Yoccos said:
The evolution of the shot with the irons man! Thats what is so great about long term testing. You get to grow with the irons if they're a good fit.
Click to expand...

I agree completely. Thought I was hitting mine decently at first but almost 3 months later and it is definitely quite a bit different from both a ball flight and a distance perspective.

I felt like a goober half the time because my opinion about something would change from one week to the next after I realized that slight tweaks were needed and I started seeing a completely different result.

One thing that several testers found with ball position was that we had to move it back a bit coming from the GI irons to players irons because we did not have as much forgiveness in the turf interaction department. Curious if any of the 3 of you have to do that eventually.
 
I've purposely not been talking swing or set up changes, but I will say:

1) I'm playing the longer irons a bit farther back than normal.

2) I'm working hard to come down through the ball.

3) I've strengthened my grip a bit in the hopes that I can keep my leading wrist firm through the ball.
 
Man, Hawk those distances would be hard for me to deal with. Maybe not hard to deal with but that sure would be a big change to the norm. Seems like Id have to rearrange the whole bag set up.
 
They are 10 yards shorter or a little more for me. They probably look shocking to you, but remember that you hit it farther than I do to start, so adjust accordingly haha.

I could keep the 5 hybrid in there and just go 5i-PW and still be basically gap free at the moment. It would be difficult if I couldn't hit the clubs that cover the distances, but it hasn't been an issue so far. I've only had them a week though, so it's impossible to say how it will affect me in the long run.
 
Hawk said:
They are 10 yards shorter or a little more for me. They probably look shocking to you, but remember that you hit it farther than I do to start, so adjust accordingly haha.

I could keep the 5 hybrid in there and just go 5i-PW and still be basically gap free at the moment. It would be difficult if I couldn't hit the clubs that cover the distances, but it hasn't been an issue so far. I've only had them a week though, so it's impossible to say how it will affect me in the long run.
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Yeah I bet as you keep working with them you start hitting them further. I'll admit I was a little shocked haha but were all different so I understand. How consistent are the distances you are seeing so far?
 
Very consistent if I hit the center of the face. I lose some yards pretty quickly if I hit the ball high up on it. At first I couldn't figure out what was going on, but it all makes sense now.
 
That makes sense. I have the same thing happen when I hit high on the face or the fat shot.
 
@hawk do you think the shaft it to stiff? I'm more think out loud but these distances you are posting combined with the lower ball flight got me wondering. Watching WarEagle's video showed me a nice ball flight is your lower than what he posted? Just curious...keep up the great reviews, I for one am learning a thing or two about these clubs.
 
I don't really know, tbh. I hit a pretty high ball with the Redlines and these seem lower, but they are not 'low' by any means. I will watch his vids again and get back on that part.

Honestly, I just don't have a very fast swing speed.
 
Tadashi70 said:
@hawk do you think the shaft it to stiff? I'm more think out loud but these distances you are posting combined with the lower ball flight got me wondering. Watching WarEagle's video showed me a nice ball flight is your lower than what he posted? Just curious...keep up the great reviews, I for one am learning a thing or two about these clubs.
Click to expand...

My initial thoughts with the club were that I was getting a lower flight than I wanted to. The more I have hit the clubs, the better I have gotten at getting the ball up. It could be due to the increase in shaft weight, on top of switching from an iron like the 2.0s to the V2s.
 
Holw cow you guys are doing a great job in this thread, love the pics and videos! The losing distance high on the face would have me a little worried especially hitting these out of the rough since thats my most common miss from the rough.
 
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