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With so many enthusiasts and hobbyists these days building and working on their own club, we've decided to start offering an array of club making tools.  We'll carefully select club making equipment that is high quality and mostly made in Japan so that you can build your own clubs at home!  How many of you want to re-grip your clubs but have no confidence in safely removing old grips without marking or damaging the shaft. How bout those old or tough cord grips that just won't come off?  The first product we'll offer is the made in Japan, ALC Grip Cutter which removes an old grip in seconds and without ever damaging the shaft.  The AGC sits firmly on any table and does not need to be secured or viced and is quick and easy to use. Imaging removing an entire set of grips in just a couple of minutes. Below is the Grip Cutter in action. Cost is 215.00 + shipping to your destination (about 3kg weight). Contact us to order or look for it in the pro shop soon!

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.

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So with the very promising performance of the Quelot Royal Excellence drivers in my earlier testing, I decided to build myself an ultra light performance driver using the Quelot. Though it's hard to measure actual performance gain of a non conforming head, especially for average swing speed players like myself, I still decided to go for the non conforming Hi-Cor Alpha Spec model. If anything its psychological using a non conforming model.

The Quelot Gold Alpha Spec uses the SP700 Titanium face and features 0.87 COR. SP700 is said to be more springy at impact than the cheaper and more typical 6-4 titanium so it will be interesting to see if there is any feel or performance difference from the conforming models I tested earlier including the 6-4 ti Quelot Silver.

There were several things to consider when building this driver. These days drivers lengths are getting longer and longer with many at 46" or even 46.5 and 46.75" all for the sake of gaining some head speed and more distance. If I remember correctly an extra inch in length adds approximately 2 m/s or 4.5mph to ones swing so going from a 45" driver to a 46.5" driver theoretically would add 3m/s or nearly 7mph in swing speed. The catch is, the longer the driver is in length the hard it is to hit the sweet spot consistently on that driver. A shorter driver can provide more consistency and accuracy resulting in more net distance. A longer driver becomes harder to square up at impact resulting in lost control and lower smash factor which leads to ultimately less distance.

Its all about finding the right length for each individual. Surely there are those who have no problems hitting a 46" driver and reap the benefits of the extra speed and distance. Then there are those who simply need a short driver to keep it in the fairway thus use lengths between 44 and 45" or even shorter.  I typically play a driver around 44.5" and can handle a 45" and maybe 45.25" driver and still remain consistent. As the driver gets longer than that, I lose distance as my smash factor decreases and I begin to go towards the right as I become late squaring the head. The Quelot Gold A-Spec is a very light head at 188g stock spec. It is meant to be built at 46" or longer lengths in order to keep an acceptable swing weight.  I knew this would be a problem when I built this club so I asked Geotech to pick out the heaviest head they could find and they sent me a 192g head (which they told me is very rare as its usually plus or minus 2g at most). This helped a bit as for every 2g that the head weight increases, swing weight goes up 1 point. Still at this length if I wanted to build a driver at 44.5" the swing weight would be unacceptably low.  Every half an inch equals 3 swing weight points so if at stock spec, the Gold Alpha at 46" is an approximate C8-D0, then dropping down to 44.5" would drop the swing weight 9 points or to around C0! So in the end I decided the target finished length would be 45.00"  though there was still some work to do to get to an acceptable D0 swing weight which is what I was hoping for.

I decided in building this driver that it would also be a chance to try out the new XDB High Modulus shafts. I wanted to use the 90t XDB65 model but they were heavier than what I wanted (though that would have helped gain a touch of swing weight) and the softest flex was Stiff/Regular. I ended up going with the XDB55 Regular which is the 50t model. The raw uncut weight of the XDB55 was 57g. Working with lighter shafts also make reaching swing weight more challenging.   The weight of a shaft also has an effect on swing weight. Every 8 to 9g equals 1 swing weight point so a heavier shaft helps increase swing weight. Once the XDB55 is cut to length, its weight will become even lighter. Just some info on the XDB55, unlike the XDB65 which uses a 4 Axis butt with 90t mid section and 50t tip section, the XDB55 has a 4 axis weave with a 50t mid and tip section.  I think I've explained what carbon grading is many times already on the blog but just in case for those first time readers, I will copy and paste what I wrote before.

Shafts are created with carbon fibers weaved together, and these fibers are measured by their modulus of elasticity in tension. Typical golf shafts are around 24t or 30t, the measurement of tensile strength. These lower grade shafts are more flexible and because of this the shaft is slow to regain its original shape on the downswing creating inconsistent impact where a player must rely heavily on timing due to the flexibility of the shaft. As the tensile strength increases, the carbon weaves are more dense, more rigid and return more quickly to their original shape. The flex and rebound of the shaft becomes more predictable equaling more consistent shots and much tighter dispersion. The higher tensile ratings ratings in golf shafts are also related to the higher grades containing more glass and metal particles which are more rigid and lower grades containing more flexible rubber particles.

Finally the last part of the driver build that can have a large impact on the finished swing weight is the grip. Grips these days average around 48-52g and a lighter weight grip helps increase swing weight. Think of a seesaw where the less weight you put on one end the heavier the other end feels and gets and that side of the seesaw goes down. The same goes for the golf club as the grip side decreases by 4g you gain approximate 1 swing weight point (and the opposite if the grip weight increases by 4g). I previously resorted to Golf Pride DDM Light's which were around 37-38g and always helped me gain back approximately 3 points which in this case was not enough.  I decided to find the lightest grip I could on the market which is the Winn Lite Xi5. Personally I don't use Winn Grips and I don't necessarily like the way they look of feel however nothing is as light as the Xi5's spec'ed 25g. Thanks to Winn Japan, they actually sent me a 23g one which certainly helped as it is 25-27g lighter than the average grip.

Butt trimming the shaft to length dropped about 4g off the shaft weight and dry installing it at 45" and taking a swing weight measure with the grip and ferrule and the measurement came out to approximately C8.8. I had 2g of tungsten powder mixed into the epoxy and installed the head with the nice dual gold band black ferrule. Once it dried the swing weight was checked again and it was right on D0.

I always have the CPM of every club I use checked as a reference and idea of how "stiff" that club might be. CPM is only one tell tale characteristic of a clubs perceived "stiffness". It does not tell you how a shaft will perform, feel or even how that stiffness is distributed within a club/shaft. It is however a useful reference for general comparison as there is no standards in flex and CPM's can wildly fluctuate from brand to brand. There are also many factors affecting CPM measurements like, machine used, clamp size, measured with grip without grip, head weight, shaft balance point etc, will all effect CPM. Measured as a fully finished club at 45" with a 7" clamp, the Quelot Alpha Spec with XDB55 Regular came out at a soft 227CPM. I will be frank and say this concerns me especially since a  lighter head weight should actually increase CPM meaning that the XDB55, at least CPM WISE, is on the soft side.  I won't jump to conclusions and say this shaft is too soft but for the moment the CPM of the club is lower than what I hoped (my Crazy LY-01 R2 Flex finished driver was around 242 CPM if I remember correctly). The bottom line will be real world testing and how the club performs. For the moment I have a nice looking non conforming 272g ultra lightweight driver that I hope will provide good distance for an average swing speed and average level player like myself. Now I just need it to warm up a bit so I can get out there and hit this driver for part 2.

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.

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I was in Tokyo earlier this week and had the chance to go for a meal with some Japan golf industry insiders including representatives from both OEM brands and actual manufacturers. We talked golf and gear while enjoying some delicious ramen and yaki gyoza and as always I listened carefully to pick up some interesting inside information about new products on the market and in development.

One interesting topic that always comes up with any gear enthusiast is where a club is made or forged. It's a common question we always get as well, especially when a new model comes out "Who forges that iron?", "Where is that driver made?". Brands shift manufacturing depending on design and budgets and sometimes its hard to keep track of what is made where these days especially if manufacturing remains within Japan. It's hard to tell these days as many brands list Made in Japan/Made in China or Made in Japan and Assembled in China. Several top brands like Tourstage and Callaway Japan while maintaining manufacturing in Japan have moved assembly to China or Thailand to save costs when it comes to standard spec equipment (most Japanese manufacturers will still do all custom order assembly in Japan).

I happened to bring up a recent magazine article where new drivers were rated based on performance especially for distance and feel. I noted that this article had the new PRGR 505 Red and Titleist VG3 both rated very highly for average golfer performance with soft feel.  I was glad to find out that both drivers are in fact made at Endo Japan which actually does not surprise me. It is common to find Endo producing the most advanced designs and most premium titanium drivers which is also why those drivers always seem to be at a premium compared to other brands. Endo Manufacturing is a rather pricey golf club producer but it is undoubtedly top notch. I had thought that PRGR had only moved their irons and wedges to Endo but the 505 Red is made there as well. I had suspected the VG3 to be made at Endo considering the Titleist/Endo relationship and the advanced multi piece forged head that the VG3 is.  Other clubs made at Endo are ones we probably already knew about like Fourteen 2010 models, Yamaha woods and irons and Callaway's Legacy line.

We also chatted about gear trends on the Japan tour which is always indicative of what gets hot in the Japanese market. As most know, Graphite Design's DI series shaft has claimed the number one spot on the JPGA men's tour. Graphite Design has long been the run away leader on tour here in Japan, easily out distancing Fujikura and Mitsubishi Rayon. Other news included Yuuji Miyagi of Cool Design MTI Wedge leaving the PRGR stable and going to Yonex where he is developing the new Nano V wedge that will be in play by Ryo Ishikawa.

Speaking of wedges, there is buzz about a new brand on the horizon called Seven Hills. Their prototype wedge has appeared on the Japanese tour and looks to be a very clean design. It  is forged in Himeji of premium S25C JIS steel. I'm always interested in writing about  new wedges that may be of interest to our customers (like Sky Dream Jump and others) so I have a couple of heads be sent to me. I look forward to getting them for testing and will report back soon on the blog and officially introduce them to the market as TSG has taken a huge interest in Seven Hills' development (and I mean literally (^_^)

For once I don't have any pretty golf club pictures to post since it was just a casual lunch get together. I do have pictures of where we went and what we ate though which is what you see above. (^_^)

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.

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In trying to learn more about how Crazy shafts work and perform I have learned a lot about my own swing along the way. After much contemplation, I built a driver using a Callaway Legacy Aero 10.5* head and Crazy Longest Yard 01 R2 flex. As I noted in my post Crazy Install Part 2 the CPM came out at 239cpm which I retested during the week multiple times on different machines using a 5" clamp. The final number was 241cpm which is about 15cpm firmer than what I usually play.  So did this build fit my swing, even though the CPM's were higher than what I am used to?

Before I get on with how the driver worked out for me, I wanted to note that testing the driver only reinforced how important it is to know your swing and be fit for the right equipment. Nothing beats lessons and learning to swing properly but when you're ready to take your game to the next level, having the best equipment for your swing is a necessity in getting the best performance out of your game and swing.

Over Spec Under Spec...

This brings up an aspect of golf I call Over Spec and Under Spec. It's the effect of a player playing with a club way under proper specs or way over proper specs which all end up in poor performance and results. In Japan, this is a very common problem. Based on surveys among may Japanese golfers, a large percentage of golfers choose equipment "based on what their favorite pro plays". The problem with this is that most Japanese average golfers are no where near a pro players playing level, yet they choose clubs that provide little forgiveness and are aimed at single digit players and professionals simply because their favorite pro plays it. This is what I call Over Spec.

Click Read More to find out how the Crazy Shaft worked out for me!

With Over Spec, Average Golfer A chooses a compact cavity and heavy S200 shaft along with a 9.5* compact pear shaped driver with open face and stiff shaft simply because his favorite pro plays it. Turns out Average Golfer A has 90 handicap and a 92 mph driver speed, slices the ball and can't get enough carry or distance.  The driver low loft and open face, too stiff a shaft and lack of forgiveness only makes Average Golfer A's slice worse, due to his inability to hit the sweet spot and average distance drop. Might I also add that besides not knowing ones own swing, Over Spec is also sometimes the result of  a golfer's ego, and stepping beyond their playing level's comfort zone.

Many actually underestimate their swing...

On the other side of the spectrum is the Under Spec crowd. Believe it or not, there are indeed many Under Spec players. Playing a loft too high, a shaft too soft, a driver face too closed all can be considered Under Spec. I went from being an Over Spec player a few years ago, always wanting the best athlete model clubs which usually had the best feel and looks to realizing I would never get better unless I played more average golfer type of clubs more suited to my handicap. I went from Over Spec to Under Spec because I knew I had a slower swing (88-90mph) and battled a slice. So I always went for the softest shaft, highest loft, closed face driver.  While this worked to some extent, it required a lot of timing and many times erratic control and unpredictable play.

For example with a softer shaft, if I loaded it too much and it could not unload in time, it actually worsened my slice with the shaft not returning the head to a square position at impact, leaving the face wide open. Trying to adjust and time the shaft could sometimes result in over adjustment and a pull or hook and with the high loft, trajectory far too high plus excess spin. This I believe is a problem for many slower swinging average golfers. They right away assume their lack of distance and slice means they need a softer shaft, more closed face or higher loft, which is not always the case. I definitely realized this for myself.

Crazy Longest Yard works... for ME

It all depends on the individual and their swing but for me getting the Crazy shaft which plays stiffer than most brands was a big breakthrough for me. I can play this shaft even though it is more stout and I have to honestly say I HAVE FOUND MY SHAFT. I've tried several JDM shafts considered great control shafts including the Tour AD W-50, Rombax 5V06, Bassara Hawk, Axiv V, and of course many many other JDM shafts from all the biggest brands like Mitsubishi, Fujikura, Graphite Design, Ozik etc. The Longest Yard is easily the longest and the straightest.

With the Crazy and Aero combination I have been able to swing away with no thought about timing at all and every drive not only went dead straight, but 10-15 yards further than I usually hit them. On my home course here in Kiminomori, I typically average around 220y but was reaching around 230-235y regularly with the new setup. My playing partners were surprised at how straight I was, and my trajectory actually came down. I was getting less spin and more run. Needless to say I am very excited about the results so far but I still had questions about why Crazy shafts CPM'ed out so high yet were so playable. A member on our forum bogeydog had a Kamui built with a Longest Yard TJ-46 Stiff/Regular flex which CPM'ed out at 266 at 45" finished length with a 5" clamp. Again like my build, this was more CPM than he expected and was used to however, he had no problems playing the club and was in fact also 10-15y longer than his usual driver setup.

Why the High CPM numbers?

So this week I contacted Crazy to have a discussion about their shafts and what kind of CPM builds using the Longest yard typically had. Crazy gave me the Longest Yard TJ-46 as an example, since it is moving to the forefront as Crazy's distance champion. These are approximate numbers that their shafts target with a 45" finished build and approximately 199.5g head using a 5" clamp for measurement.

Regular 248-252
Stiff/Regular 258-262
Stiff 268-272
X-Stiff/Stiff 278-282
X-Stiff 288+

Both bogeydog and I while playing CPM higher than what we are used to both agree the club does not feel a stout as the measurements suggest.  Crazy explained that a combination of higher torque and top quality carbon allow for the head to store max energy and always return to square at impact without any worry of timing or loss of control. Though I am sure I have said this many times on the blog here is a quick reminder for those not familiar with different quality grades of shafts. Higher grades contain more glass and metal particles which are more rigid and lower grades containing more flexible rubber particles. With higher grades, flex and rebound of the shaft becomes more predictable equaling more consistent shots and much tighter dispersion. Consistent square impact on the sweet spot equals maximum smash factor and an increase in average distance. The right shaft can certainly contribute to this and help transfer energy efficiently and on target with the ball. But that's the hardest part, finding the right shaft and knowing your own swing.

So far the Crazy Longest Yard is achieving what I want in a shaft, optimal distance and control without worrying about timing or manipulating the shaft and simply swinging away.

Lessons + the right gear = (^_^)

So its not easy finding the right specs and many people are in fact Over or Under spec. I'm not saying these people cannot enjoy golf or play their clubs, they just may not be getting the best performance they can due to the wrong spec. We all want to have fun playing golf, and we all don't mind shooting a good score.  Having the right equipment is a step in the right direction.

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.

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I decided to start blogging some of my club builds with hopes that readers will gain a better understanding of our products at TSG.  This build is for a good customer, really cool guy let's call him Big E.  Big E was interested in trying the highly rated "Longest Yard" TJ-46 in SR flex.  I have the same shaft in my driver now as well.  It's designed for the more aggressive swinger who needs a higher launch and sometimes battles a push or slice due to an over swing leaving the face open.

Big E was also interested in an new EponAF-151 head we had in stock.  It's 9.5 at the standard head weight.  When ordering Epon heads you have the ability to select custom head weights lightest being 192 grams and the heaviest 205 grams.  It just so happened that the one we had was 194.5 grams which by U.S standards is considered light.  Our goal was 45.75" at D1/D2. Click "Read More" to find out if we were able to meet the customers requests.

First thing I did was prep the shaft tip very carefully. Crazy is known for it's thin wall structure in the tip section. This is one of the biggest reasons why Crazy Shafts get more distance, it's that  active tip profile.  They highly suggest using a light grit sand paper and doing the tip preparation by hand instead of by machine.  For drivers Crazy's standard tip instructions are no tip cut at all.  It's a butt trim to length type of shaft.  We weighed the shaft prepped at  58 grams, the grip at 50 grams and the AF-151 head at 194.5 grams.

I most often do dry fitting before the epoxy process.  The dry fitting includes putting all parts together to know in advance the swing weight, final length including gripbutt cap, and even CPM's.  How I do cpm's is by using fishing line and wrapping it around the area that's inserted into the hosel, thatkeeps the head stable while I twang the club over the digi flex.  The reading before final assembly is usually very accurate.  If everything check's out during the dry fit I can move forward, if any red flags are raised I can stop the build and consult with the customer.

I use a spine finder tool but like most other high end shafts the "Crazy"  kicks straight along the graphics by design.  I did a second spine test by twanging the head.  The shaft moved back then forward exclusively.

After selecting the best looking ferrule I begin preparing the epoxy, I always use a little bit of glass beads and of course black dispersion ink mixed in.  I use long cure 2 part epoxy just to be sure the bond is as strong as possible.  After 24 hours to cure I turn the ferrule and use acetone to clean it up.  The grip is installed and I finish up by putting a light wax over the head and shaft.

I go over the entire club once more before packing.  I double check the swing weight, length, and then lastly the CPM's. In this case it was spot on matching our dry fitting done before we sealed the deal.   It's 252 cpm's which is where the TJ-46 should be with a head at 194.5 grams @ 45.75" long.  Crazy shafts play stiffer than most other brands. I will be switching to an SR flex TJ-46 very soon.

In regards to the thin walls in the tip section, we strongly suggest having a gifted club maker do the assembly we also recommend that you not lean against it as support or flex it unnecessarily.  Only if  the shaft is purchased from an Authorized dealer will you get a serial code warranty card.   Another catch is that you must be the first owner of the shaft as well for that card to be valid.  Main thing is that you do not abuse your driver, It should be used as a fine precision weapon.

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The Cave...
In this blog I will go through the steps I took to make my extra garage into a hobbiest club making workshop.

I had most of the equipment collecting dust in storage that used to be part of a store we owned  in California before we moved.  It's not easy to liquidate club making gear so I decided to use my extra garage space for my hobby instead of junk and boxes.

Step 1: Clean out my garage and bring in the slatwall.

Storage is key and with such a small area I needed a way to keep things off the ground without using storage cabinets.  I decided a nice slatwall with brushed pewter laminate was the look i was shooting for. It allows me to use YKY club fixtures to hold irons, woods, or other miscalanious items.

Step 2: Slat Wall Installation

It was very easy, we just had our handyman drill it into the beams with long metal screws made for wood.  The hardest part about this was cutting the slatwall straight so that it was flush with the floor and ceiling.  Before the install I regret not purchasing metal pieces to fit in between the grooves so that the wood color didnt show, In my opinion it would look so much  better without the brown. We also cut holes for the lights and electrical outlets before securing the slat in place.

Step 3: Applying a durable sealant over the concrete.

Epoxy and Ink on concrete just doesnt look good so we decided to consider a variety of protectants to apply over the cement. I ended up going down to my local home depot and picked a pretty good 2 part garage protectant. You can have them tint it to the color you desire but we just went with the stock gray to match the walls. Our concern of it being slippery was solved by adding paint chips adding traction under your feet.

Step 4: Drilling the holes into the concrete

When working with club making equipment it must be bolted properly into a very hard surface so that all readings come out clear and accurate especially when dealing with Loft and Lie.  We had to use special bolts that split into the concrete once deep inside to secure the gear in place. This was scarry because in many of today's home's including mine metal cables run below and if you hit or damage one it can tear up quite a large portion of the floor. We had our fingers crossed and everything turned out fine.

Step 5:  Bolting in the Loft/Lie Bender and our Grip n Rip.

This was pretty straight forward we just used tight heavy duty bolts to install our Mitchell equipment into the ground. It's as sturdy as a rock and has been since the workshop was setup. I have made a few new additions like an MOI matching machine and some pretty cool Japanese toy's we found at the Tokyo Golf Show. I tell yea the Japanese clubmaking equipment just keeps being reinvented year after year.

Step 6: Protecting more wood

I needed some new craftsman tables so I picked up several at Sears but again I didnt want epoxy and all sorts of stuff to ruin them. I put a nice gray covering over it and secured it in place using an industrial adhesive. I did have to cut it to size before doing so. It was cheep stuff and added another modern effect  to our tables.

Finished! : The final step was moving in all of the other equipment and making the layout efficent for my needs. I've been very happy with it so for,  I pretty much only use it for my personal gear and helping close friends tweak their equipment. It's also a great place to sneak away at night for a beer. We also added a small wall mounted 24" LCD and Direct TV cable box that is connected via HDMI to my laptop's output. In order to get audio to transmit we used an optical cable and splitter from the back of the TV to the DTV box.