Srixon Z F85 Fairway Woods & Z H85 Hybrids

[JonD]

Over the weekend the fairway got more attention than the hybrid did, mostly because I'm finishing off the Honma hybrid review. But I did get a quick range session in the with the Srixon hybrid.

Hybrid: Will start here because as I said, it was a short range session, maybe 20 swings and I struggled with it. No so much of a struggle directionaly, that was fine. But I could not get the thing to elevate, and if I can't elevate a hybrid in this spot in the bag, it is going to be no good for me. Now I'm not looking too much in to this as I have plenty of more testing opportunities coming up with it. Going with HZRDUS black as a stock hybrid offering is a curious move to me. The initial difference I saw between this and the Launcher HB, the HB felt much easier to get in the air. Don't read a whole lot in to this one as of yet though....

Fairway: Oh man was this club good on the course. From the rough, fairway, and tee I felt like I could hit some seriously good shots with it, and I did. @jman mentioned the triangular shape of the 585 driver, and that shape is pretty present here too. Even with that though it sets up nicely behind the ball in all of those situations. Whether it is or not, I don't know, but it does appear to set up a touch closed at address, which was mentioned to me by some other golfers besides myself. The sound, OH MY GOODNESS is so good. I have another fairway wood that has a carbon crown and it's more tingy, this one is just a great marriage of carbon and metal at impact. HZRDUS Red seems like a solid pairing for this clubhead too. I would say off the ground I was getting some good launch, nothing crazy different in that department, but had several shots that seemed to go a bit further than normal. One that sticks in my mind was on a par 5, lasered the pin at 247, front of the green was 220, the ball took off like a rocket, carried the front part of the green, hit and rolled past the pin. Now I don't know about you guys, but for me carrying that shot from the turf is kind of an abnormality for me. Off the tee, it was a great positional club while still producing solid numbers.

It's still wicked early in the process, but so far the fairway has treated me better than the hybrid. More to come this week.

Well damn now I want one...

 

[JonD]

OK some observations based on yesterdays round. As I said it was my old home course and it relies alot on precision off the tee(esp the first 10 holes). With that in mind these two clubs were used quite a bit.

The fairway wood was really good with the exception of one swing from the turf when I tried to go at an elevated green from 240. Really I just wanted to try and smash it and see what happened, well the result was no bueno. Blocking that swing from memory, I'm very pleased with how this performs. Srixon nailed the sound, and while it's a duller at impact, it still presents itself has been pretty powerful. Believe it or not I was able to hit a couple of controlled fades off the tee which set up perfectly for those particalur holes. Like most 3 woods, it's easier off the tee than it is the turf, but I haven't really struggled with it off the turf either, those results are more of a mid flight laser. Going to try to see if I can get more height on that shot the next time out.

Hybrid still baffles me and I continue to struggle with it. Time and weather permitting today I'm going to set up my net and go to work on the GC2 with it to see if I can figure something out. The only two shots that I saw good results on were tee shots at 8 and 9. Both had that flat trajectory which provided plenty of run to them. But outside of those two shots, this club for me has been more difficult than I wish to get in the air with enough distance to it. Without blaming the shaft because I don't want to be that person, the stock offering of HZRDUS Black might have just got in to my head.

Dean, I forget what you've got in the bag for 3W, but how does this one compare distance wise?

Love the HZRDUS Red as the stock pairing. That's a great shaft for me in 3W.

 

[sabig27]

Your a smart man, where did you go to college?

Yeah I totally understand that, but I also think when they shut down the cleveland iron/wood line up it was when the Srixon was trying to figure out their line up and how the brands worked together. Now they have it dialed in and think they will be releasing GI and SGI in odd years under Cleveland (basically the 155/355 became Launcher HB and Launcher CBX last year) and the players distance, players CB and possibly a MB line in the even years under Srixon (585/785/985).

Then XXIO is it's kind of own unique super high end GI where they experiment with R&D that will likely trickle down into the other lines. Or maybe I have a super positive outlook on it based on the way their marketing people seemed very excited for the upcoming (this release here) lines.

 

[hedley_lamarr08]

The 16 hybrid looks great. Not a big fan of low lofted fairway woods

 

[O'Carroll]

"Good" data haha

I'm going to see if I can sneak @o'carroll out for a session with it. He mashes hybrids.

Range Monday?

 

[ddec]

This thread needs some updates. Earlier this week I was able to set up my little test center and get to work on some numbers. I had some other things going on as well, so these were kind of held towards the end of the session. Anyway, I can throw up some screen shots later but here is what I am looking at in terms of numbers.

F85(from the deck)
Ball Speed: 135 mph
Launch Angle: 13.8°
Back Spin: 2451 rpm
Carry: 211(top being 220 twice)

Will try to get some tee numbers tonight or tomorrow, depending on the weather.

Now for the hybrid. Numbers on this don't tell the real story for me. Once again it was a bit of a struggle. I feel like I am really having to work hard to get this ball to stay in the air and achieve some carry distance. The overall feel of it is on the heavy side to me and maybe that is part of it. Peak height on these did average out to 27 yards, which is fine, but like I said, I really feel like I had to work to make that happen. When I look at the misses with them, that number doesn't get up to 20.

H85
Ball Speed: 127 mph
Launch Angle: 14.6°
Back Spin: 3160rpm
Carry: 194 yards(top being 204)

After getting frustrated with how things were going, I took one swing with my Launcher HB 3 hybrid. Now 1 swing, I can't really take TOO much out of that. But here were those numbers.

Ball Speed: 132 mph
Launch Angle: 13.4°
Back Spin: 3648 rpm
Carry: 203
Peak height: 29 yards

 

[ddec]

Wanted to add one more thought. I am generally really confident in hybrids, in fact I much prefer them to lower irons so I will hit them whenever I can. If I am in between shots, or have a shot where I know I need to strike it well, I lean towards a hybrid if I can. So for me, the struggle with this one has been baffling to me. There isn't anything that bothers me about it looks wise, in fact I quite like how it sits behind the ball.

 

[Jman]

You saying you feel like you have to work to get the hybo up like that worries me, because you have ALWAYS launched the snot out of hybrids in the years we have played together.

But the fairway, you have me super curious about.

 

[ddec]

You saying you feel like you have to work to get the hybo up like that worries me, because you have ALWAYS launched the snot out of hybrids in the years we have played together.

But the fairway, you have me super curious about.

yeah it's such an odd feeling for me. If I was someone who tends to shy away form a hybrid, I'd understand it, but I embrace the crap out of them. Plus I just reviewed another one of the same loft in the last couple of weeks. That one I had no issues with. Still a little more testing to get a better look.

 

[ddec]

I will talk about it a bit in the article, but I made some changes to my setup and way of attacking this hybrid. My normal mode of hitting hybrids is to hit more down on the ball instead of sweeping it. As I have said numerous times, but I have always felt comfortable doing so. With this setup, I just could not get it to work. So what I did was make a bit more of a sweeping motion and shallow out that angle and the results were much more consistent. Ball flight was noticeably better, and distance was back in an area where I would want it to be. Perhaps unfairly, I compare to the recent results I saw with the Honma UT, and when doing so this one comes up a bit shorter. Now a lot of that could be quality of strike. But when comparing the two, I average about 4 mph less in ball speed and about 6 yards shorter in carry. That's all fine, comes down to strike and consistency. This one just feels a bit heavier to me and it SW at D4. But I feel like I did solve it, which makes me feel a bit better. It is mentioned in the article, but I do think guys who have more swing speed will tend to like this hybrid.

 

[ddec]

3 more shots with this during my 9 hole round and it's more of the same. The first two shots were bad, the club is in my head. However on the third shot, this thing took off like a missile from 210, hit on the front of the green and just rolled to the fringe. I think the head on it is really good and part of the struggle for me is the thought of the shaft pairing. I feel like I have to work to make it work. Silly mental game. Anyway, since the fairway review hit this morning, I know this one is coming up very soon too.