Summer Bag

A Peek Inside The Bag

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DRIVER

HEAD: PRGR TUNE 02 10.5°

SHAFT: Fire Express RR-B 6-TX

Photo: PRGR Tune 02 1W 10.5°

PRGR is not one of the major brands, but PRGR is always pushing the envelope for being such a minor company in the golf world. As a benefit from the Hole-In-One Insurance coverage by a friend, this driver was the first fully fitted club in my bag. More than anything, this club and shaft pairing drastically reduced severe hooks and slices. The miss is still two-way but picking good targets now means that I can step up to the tee and not have doubt of where my ball is going to go.

The club is great in terms of speed and head weighting but its main drawback is a lack of an interchangeable sleeve. Once the club is glued together, there is no going back on the setup. The sleeve does add a lot of functionality but can also hurt for weighting.

FAIRWAY WOOD

HEAD: Titleist TS2 18°

SHAFT: Fire Express RR-B 7 TX

Photo: Titleist TS2 5W 18°

For no known reason, this club works so well for me. It was bought used with a Speeder shaft which was too whippy. Even then, it was still producing a lot of speed. Once I got a matching shaft with the Hole-In-One Insurance coverage, this turned into a deadly club off the tee and also a good “Send it!” club on par fives. The interchangeable sleeve means that any sort of swing change over time (hopefully under the watchful eye of a coach) can mean that I can keep my clubs if they do need to be changed slightly.

HYBRID

TaylorMade 2020 SIM Gloire U5 23°

Photo: TaylorMade SIM Gloire U5

Everyone who takes a look in my bag takes this club out with a chuckle. The Gloire series is the brand most commonly associated with lower-swing speed golfers such as seniors and ladies. Although the Gloire brand takes many of the same technologies from the flagship series of TaylorMade, it is commonly overlooked when looking for deals. This particular club was a bargain special to compliment the longest iron I have. While my longest iron will have a lower height and longer run out, utility/hybrid will get a higher peak and steeper descent angle. Each club has its uses throughout the course.

IRONS

Honma TR20V (#5〜AW)

Photo: Honma TR20V

Another head-turner when people peek into the bag are the TR20V irons. Honma is known for their Beres series which makes some extremely expensive irons using exotic materials. Honma also has some more earthly-priced irons ranging from extremely chunky cavity-backed irons to sleek blades. These are right in the middle and provide enough support on mishits while not being too big to get through the turf.

Honma makes clubs but they also make great shafts too. During the fitting process, we started in the steel shafts but all of the steel shafts that Honma had on hand were not enough. Their regular customer is someone nearly double my age and struggling for speed. As a last-ditch effort, they threw on a Honma produced Vizard 100 S shaft and it proved to be the shaft that best suited me within their available options.

WEDGES

Cleveland RTX ZipCore (54° / 58°)

Photo: Cleveland RTX ZipCore

Opting for the mid bounce in the 54° and high bounce in the 58°, these are pretty forgiving in terms of wedges. But these were very light from the factory. After plastering weight all over the lower back of the wedges, they are finally in a good spot. For the average Japanese golfer, they may have been right on, but for a younger person with high swing speed and grip power, it was difficult to feel the head at first because of the overall light weight. They are getting a little old and have a lot of wear on them, but they still stop a ball on hard greens so still good in my book.

CHIPPER

Cleveland Smart Sole 2.0 Chipper

Photo: Cleveland Smart Sole 2.0 Chipper

When this club is pulled out, the snickering and cackling always begins. Around the green sometimes there are many options, but I choose to use the easiest. Sometimes you have great lies and many options but other times there are those bare lies that make a putter seem like the best option until you see the random clumps of grass that turn your ball into a game of Plinko. This is where the chipper shines. The chipper gives the ball just enough flight to get over those clumps and get on the green safely to roll out. This club gets mocked time and time again, but when I save par and my group members are all chunking or thinning a chip, I know I chose the right club.

I’m also not the best on approaches so this club tends to get used quite a bit. Time and time again this club is a life-saver that I have come to embrace.

PUTTER

PING 2020 Tyne C

Photo: PING 2020 Tyne C

Coming from a traditional blade putter, I was fitted into the center shafted design of the Tyne. Using the putting assessment app that PING has built, the shop staff had a few choices of putters that were best suited for me. From these, the Tyne C was the most appealing to me. The prior blade putter is still at home and is always a good refresher to get back on track to which club is best for me, but the PING Tyne C has been a reliable putter at this stage. The softer face can prove challenging at times for lag putting but it feels nice.

BALL

Titleist Pro V1x

Photo: Titleist Pro V1x

The most underrated tool for scoring in the golf bag. Sure, a golf ball is necessary for golf to happen, but so many people focus on the clubs in the bag and not the ball that goes into the hole. Balls can affect your golf in many ways and for each player, a different ball suits a different golfer. I migrated from a two-piece ball after playing a round with a fresh pro golfer at the time. Time after time I had great shots but couldn’t stick the green. It was after the pro told me to hit three and none of them stuck, he threw me a sleeve of premium three-piece balls. All three hit the green and stopped dead. From that moment on, I knew that I could never go back to a two-piece ball.

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