I have now been using these clubs for a month of at least twice-a-week golf (yes, I've found enough days even in the rainy northeast). I put the Star Grips on my older irons (Jetstreams), so the comparison would be more realistic.
Bottom line: the Ravens are still in the bag. I hit them straighter than any other irons I can remember using. I lose distance (but surprisingly not direction) on toe hits. I hit a bunch of very good irons shots today, including two wonderful 4-irons of about 190 yards. (Both left me makeable -- and made -- putts, one a tap-in.)
I do have a beef with them: the finish is, as Cub also noted, far too delicate. I corresponded with Tony Miller of Raven who noted:
* The finish is more for feel than durability. (No kidding!)
* They may possibly make the same design in soft stainless next year. That sounds like a good idea to me.
Anyway, the way I'm hitting them I'll put up with a little cosmetic rust and extra maintenance for a while.
Two points about the Star Grips:
(1) There was some discussion earlier of their being harder to install. I've found a very easy technique that is halfway between conventional and blowing the grips on. (My basement compressor is broken, and I probably won't fix it during golf season.)
- Apply a 3" strip of 3/4" grip tape. Just apply the middle of the strip to the butt, and extend the "flaps" down the shaft about an inch on each side.
- Now proceed to apply solvent as if there were a full length of tape. You'll be wetting mostly metal with the solvent.
- Slide the grip on with two hands. It will be easier than it was with a full-length tape job. You just need enough tape (thanks, Arnie) to get it started.
Advantages:
* Easy to do -- very easy.
* Use very little tape.
* Almost no tape to remove when you regrip.(2) I was concerned about how the grips would perform when my hands sweat. Today I had a chance to test that. It was 92*F and humid on the course. I used the stick anti-perspirant trick on my hands, then compared the Star Grips to the few Victory Cord grips I still have. The Cords did stay drier. But I had no slippage problems with the Stars at all. They were certainly better than other wrap grips I've used. (The Golf Pride Tour Wrap gets positively SLIMY in these conditions.)
Hope this is useful info for somebody. DaveT
At 06:37 PM 5/22/03 -0400, Dave Tutelman wrote:
I thought it was worth following up my reply to Dan with a few real numbers. I measured some dimensions on the 3-iron for each set: NearNet and Jetstream. (I chose the 3-iron because one of each was in the garage.) The dimensions were the distance from the center of the hitting area to:
(1) 1/2" from the edge of the toe. I figure that is where the ball will flatten over the edge if you miss by that much, and will cause a particularly severe lose-it-to-the-right. (A toe hit will be lost to the right anyway, as the blade twists during contact. But this is a second effect moving the ball right.)
(2) The point where the ball has to be to touch the hosel. This is how much you can miss toward the heel before it becomes a shank.
Here are the measurements:
NearNet Jetstream 1/2" from toe 1.1" 1.3" Ball touches hosel 0.8" 1.2"
So why do I keep playing the NearNets?
* They feel better than the Jetstreams, whatever that means.
* The ball will usually be closer to the direction I intended. (True, the misses are worse; but the decent strikes are better.)
* I think the shorter blade gets through thick rough better.
Once I have Star Grips on the Jetstreams, I'll probably alternate rounds for a while and see which I prefer.
Cheers! DaveT
At 04:59 PM 5/22/03 -0400, Dave Tutelman wrote:Dan,
I'm pretty sure that all but one were toe misses. Yes, the direction of a shank and a bad toe miss will be similar. But consider:
- A shank and a toe shot FEEL very different. These felt like toe shots.
- These are new clubs, with a near-virgin mirror finish except in the striking area. For most of these misses, I could look at the clubface and see a fresh ballmark out at the toe.
But the larger point is that the short blade is less forgiving than the Jetstreams of misses toward either the heel or the toe. There isn't as much room on the face, and there isn't as much moment of inertia.
Hope this clarifies it. DaveT
