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Bridgestone J815 Driver Review

SuperStroke
So I FINALLY got out for a round of golf yesterday after a work meeting cancelled in the afternoon. Was not expecting much as I haven't played or practiced in weeks. Anyways, I hit some great drives with this thing. Hit some bombs on the 2 par 5s: GPS 549 dead straight par 5, and had 228 to the middle of the green after my drive. Just a perfect, mid flight draw on that swing and a few others yesterday. Makes it really fun to pull the big stick. But my most impressive drive was on a Par 4 where I put a pretty crappy swing on it, and hit the ball a good 3/4 of an inch towards the heel. It still got up and carried about 270 yards. I had to double check the ball mark on the driver face because I was expecting far less distance. It also stayed pretty much straight and left me a little SW into the green.

The combination of forgiveness and lower spin just works perfectly for my swing. The mid, mid-high flight I get is also ideal in this 10.5* head set in the neutral position. Honestly, I'm finding it difficult to get excited about all the new driver releases this time of year as I can't see anything performing better than this is for me right now.

And while we're on the subject, I really like the AD MJ shaft. Truly rewards a less agressive tempo swing which I am trying to groove. I don't feel any kick in this shaft, just a smooth transition and great results. My longest drives were ones I started down from the top the most deliberate. Can't wait to get out and play again!
 
I may have picked up one of these grotesque beauties.
Has anyone fully mastered the hosel adjustments on this thing? What does each setting do?
 
ArmyGolf said:
I may have picked up one of these grotesque beauties.
Has anyone fully mastered the hosel adjustments on this thing? What does each setting do?
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The L and R are your draw/fade settings. Going R(fade) will also reduce loft a bit and goin L(draw) will increase it slightly. Bridgestone hasnt given out any exact numbers on that though.
 
greggdrews said:
The L and R are your draw/fade settings. Going R(fade) will also reduce loft a bit and goin L(draw) will increase it slightly. Bridgestone hasnt given out any exact numbers on that though.
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What does the Upright setting do?

Paired mine with a Kusala Blue 72 and so far it's really freaking solid.
 
ArmyGolf said:
What does the Upright setting do?

Paired mine with a Kusala Blue 72 and so far it's really freaking solid.
Click to expand...

Upright will favor a slight draw, so consider it a draw setting
 
Took this driver to POUND Town tonight at the range. I'm DYING to get this on a monitor to compare ball speeds and other numbers against my other drivers.

Oh, and its ugly.
 
I may or may not have one of these about to be put into play in the near future.
If anyone has any extra B'stone weights floating around, I may know a guy….
 
Got this on the range twice this week - not sure what is going on, but I hit one fade in two sessions. Draw, straight, and a couple if hooks. Today, I mentally hit my home course tee shots and only one ball would have been out of play.
Good mid- high flight, so forgiving, and really easy to align due to the transformer on the crown.


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10/11 fir with the new driver. Can't complain about that!!


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Slapped an 815 head onto an old Kai'li 62 I had lying around yesterday.
Hit 8 of 10 fairways. The 2 misses were complete overswing blocks that went way right. My fault. I would like to magically know if there's a more suited shaft for me but I don't have unlimited resources. I have a couple more I could try, and one I really wanted to check out won't fit the adapter, so that sucks.
 
T0AD said:
Slapped an 815 head onto an old Kai'li 62 I had lying around yesterday.
Hit 8 of 10 fairways. The 2 misses were complete overswing blocks that went way right. My fault. I would like to magically know if there's a more suited shaft for me but I don't have unlimited resources. I have a couple more I could try, and one I really wanted to check out won't fit the adapter, so that sucks.
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im a fan of addi and speeder shafts in this head.
 
My Kusala Blue performs awesome in this head. My good swings with this combo are absolute bombs with a penetrating mid flight.

I feel like the head wants to go left and I'm always trying to go right so there's a bit of a battle going on.
 
ArmyGolf said:
My Kusala Blue performs awesome in this head. My good swings with this combo are absolute bombs with a penetrating mid flight.

I feel like the head wants to go left and I'm always trying to go right so there's a bit of a battle going on.
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This combo is a bomber. Took a couple cuts with it and the forgiveness is borderline silly. It does seem to have a little draw tendency though that makes me slightly uncomfortable, but it's probably just me. I'm so afraid of the lefts right now it's not funny haha
 
I have played this head recently. I like it - best fir percentage this year with this head.
I also seem to draw this head a bit more than others, and I can pretty much take the right side of the fairway out of play on my good swings.
This may be the best driver for me that I have hit to date.
 
This really is just such a solid head for so many golfers! Its a fairway finder for everyone!
 
greggdrews said:
This really is just such a solid head for so many golfers! Its a fairway finder for everyone!
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All it needs is a little matte black Krylon.
 
greggdrews said:
If they released in black I do think they would sell way more.
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Black head with black and orange shaft sure would look better, but I can get over that if it performs.

Which it does.
 
Still intrigued about this driver from the 10 or so swings in Pittsburgh...
 
i want to hit this thing so badly, but i don't think anyone in orlando carries it
 
T0AD said:
Slapped an 815 head onto an old Kai'li 62 I had lying around yesterday.
Hit 8 of 10 fairways. The 2 misses were complete overswing blocks that went way right. My fault. I would like to magically know if there's a more suited shaft for me but I don't have unlimited resources. I have a couple more I could try, and one I really wanted to check out won't fit the adapter, so that sucks.
Click to expand...
You were a fairway finding machine Sunday!
 
Michigan Slice said:
Still intrigued about this driver from the 10 or so swings in Pittsburgh...
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When you get tired of no golf in MI and road trip to Phoenix, you can swing mine!!


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Bridgestone J815 Driver Review

I bought a 9.5 head from a thp'er and a DVS 60 s flex shaft (also have others coming to test). I took the combo to the range today, and for 18 holes at a tight and challenging driving course.

at the range I had this set at the highest loft so it was pretty closed. I hit some huge drives, some lasered at carry over 250, with only a small percentage totally off the reservation.

the DVS was recommended to me by the callaway fitter at the Annika academy after seeing some very low spin numbers and a tendency to launch the ball too low. we never hit the DVS though. waggling and practice swings make a swish that suggests faster chs than I'm used to. on the range I found this combo easy to get after. off-center strikes had a bit of twangy feel.

but it had a tendency to go left, so I bumped it down to neutral and took it to the course. i didn't find the sweet spot once on the course. some of that is probably due to the high premium on accuracy, but I really lost confidence pretty early on. I mentioned in a different thread that I played an older generation prov1 today, so maybe I was getting too much spin? my missed weren't wild, but hitting 0 fairways with this on its maiden voyage was disheartening. I'll keep tinkering, maybe switch it to fade bias and see what happens. coming off the myfly8 adapter, I do not like this bstone adapter at all. I have no idea what loft I'm playing it at, or what the in between settings mean. I guess I'll try to find a manual online.

EDIT: I didn't mind the head design at all from the first swing. it's not distracting and definitely a topic of conversation.


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I took the 815 for a test drive near the end of the season. I liked the colors and was pleased by the performance but could not get the sound out of my head. It was very "tinny". Keep tinkering and you will be very pleased with the purchase.


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