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The last time I went to the Vancouver Golf show was 11 years ago. Dick Zokol was the featured attraction, and the show was as boring as heck. This year the featured attraction was Dick Zokol, but I had a much better time.
The attendance on Sunday was pretty light, so I had a chance to take my time and hit everything I wanted to. There were also a lot of launch monitors around, so if you were in the mood to check out drivers, you could compare lofts and flexes from companies such as Callaway, Ping, Nike, Tour Edge (Bazooka), and a few others. I am taking a hiatus from the "Driver of the Week" club, so although I did use a few launch monitors, mostly it was to check the health of my swing, which is not bad, although I do have a tendency to take the club to the inside. At any rate, I was there to check out some of the new hybrid clubs, and to hit some top-line irons. Before I continue, I should tell you that I was hitting off mats into a net about 25 feet away, so all I could really judge was the sound and feel of each club. 25 feet of flight is no real indication of how these clubs would work in the real world.
There were no examples of the Hogan Hybrids, but I did hit the Nike, Bazooka, Callaway, and Wilson Staff. I own a Taylormade Rescue Mid 3 with a steel shaft, so I looked at the comparable models. The Callaway and Nike were the best of the bunch here. I was a bit disappointed that the Nike was unavailable with steel, but it was still a very good feeling club. I don't think a person would go wrong with either of these. The Bazooka was a tiny step down in performance, but I feel a large step down in looks and, to show you how shallow I am, a large step down in cachet. It has a bit too much face progression for me in the stock model, but there was a “Tour” model with minimal offset. If I was to go this route I would look at the Tour. I don’t know what the price of the that model is, but the regular model retails for about 50-80 bucks less than the Callaway or Nike, which makes you wonder what cachet is worth. The clear loser here was the Wilson. I was a big fan of the Wilson Staff line until they lost their way in the early nineties when they quit producing their beautiful forgings. I really wanted to like their Hybrid, but it had little going for it other than the name. It made a thin, tinny sound, and lacked the feel of the others. When I hit the new hybrids, I try to swing smoothly and just let the weight of the clubhead do the work. The Wilson didn’t feel like it brought enough mass to the party. Oh well, someone has to place last.
I had a lot of fun with the irons. I hit the Nike Slingshot and Pro Combo, Cleveland TA7s and CG1 muscle back, Wilson Fi5 forgings, Ping S59, and the Tour Edge JMax and “Exotic”. A quick note, because I was hitting off a very forgiving surface, and could not observe ball flight, I can only point out the gross differences between these clubs. All feel very good hit on the sweet spot, and all were well balanced and easy to swing. Despite the fact that I am a fan of thin toplines, and smallish clubfaces, I think I could play very effectively with any of these. In terms of cosmetics however, I have some clear preferences. I find the Ping in particular to be very unattractive. At address it has the visual cues that I like, but the miniscule cavity back, and the black plastic insert, just don’t appeal to me in any way. I have never cared for the Slingshot either, but I must say that the sense I had of the ball exploding off the face might make me reconsider this viewpoint. The Nike Pro Combo worked well, but the cosmetics somehow remind me of a knockoff set that one might find in a department store. I was hoping I would like the Wilsons and I did, although I have some reservations. They felt wonderful in the muscleback short irons, but I thought they were a bit too light in the cavity backs. It may have been nothing more than a swing weight issue, and I am willing to give them a real chance. The short Irons are every bit as lovely as the FG-51s were. I would love to see them produce a set of complete muscle back irons, but from a marketing standpoint, I can see why they would be a bit gun shy about giving up all game improvement features at this point. Hopefully they will remain in the game and reclaim a decent share of the market. I refuse to believe that people won’t at least try clubs that look as good as these.
The Cleveland irons are both attractive, but I hit the CG1 a lot better. The cosmetics of the CG1 are perhaps not quite as nice as the Mizuno MP 33s which they resemble, but the feeling at impact inspired confidence. For some reason I hit the TA7s a bit thin. They look fine, but I just didn’t hit them as well as the other clubs I tried. I wish I knew why, they had comparable shafts, looked good at address and felt good in my hands, but just didn’t seem to work for me. Oh well.
The Tour Edge clubs were a surprise. The JMax Bazooka irons had obvious game improvement features, undercut channel, thick topline, and were easy to swing. I had the sense that one could take a fairly awful cut at the ball and still get decent results. When I was hitting them, the person manning the booth brought over a club that he thought I would like. He said that they would be out in a few weeks. The Tour Edge “Exotic” looks a lot like the Mizuno TZoid but with an undercut cavity. There is a hypersteel face, but the metal of the lower back is tungsten. Hitting these irons was my biggest surprise of the show. I mentioned earlier that the ball seemed to explode off the Nike Slingshots, but these irons took that feeling to a new level. There was a tremendous sense of power with these. The sound was different as well. There was a serious crack of the ball and just the most subtle higher pitched ring similar to the sound that the hybrid irons make. Don’t get me wrong, it was in no way offensive, just a slightly different sound. If these perform as well as I think they might, it is a sound I could love to get used to. The salesman told me that these would retail at around $1000 in steel, and about $1200 in graphite. In terms of how they felt, and how much clubs of similar quality from other manufacturers cost, I can understand why they might be priced where they were, but I would think that in the real world there would have to be some serious discounting to get people to even look at these. While the “Exotic” irons bring a lot to the table, the Tour Edge name does not. Their marketing department is going to have their work cut out for them moving those irons at Callaway or Ping price points. At the Nevada Bob’s store at the show, Hogan Apex forged irons (not sure the model, but not the Edge CFTs) were selling for $395. Going to be hard for Tour Edge to make a significant penetration into the market at their planned level, but who knows. I’ll say this, if you have a chance to hit them, take it.
So there you have it. I had a lot of fun, didn’t spend too much money, and had a chance to get in a lot of swings. Who knows, I might even go back next year. There’s a chance that Dick Zokol might be the featured attraction.

I was at this show as well, the club that I was most impressed by was the Wilson Staff Forged Irons. A great looking set, and felt really nice to hit ( I really liked the 8 iron - the 3 iron was... pretty good). If I was looking for a new set of irons I would seriously be considering a forged muscle-back type design.
Unlike yourself... I did like the Ping S-59! It was a pretty sweet club.
I tried not to hit any of the drivers... i stuck to mainly trying the hybrids and the irons. There was a great selection of clubs to try out... I had a great time... im sure you did too.

I have to say that I like the way the Ping felt, I just felt that cosmetically it was pretty unattractive. Did you try the Wilson Hybrids?

Yes I did. I was not very impressed.... i liked the Taylormade Rescue MUCH better. :nodsmiley

I was also at the golf show
Overall it wasn't bad, though i wish hogan and titleist would attend this event i was interested in trying out their new clubs, and was dissapointed that they werent there