Father’s Day Wishes

This Father’s Day I am going to spend some quality time with my Dad. But instead of enjoying the scenery at one of our many local courses, I will be watching the US Open from the couch while periodically going out on the deck to check on the delicacies warming on the grill. In fact, this has been our annual ritual for the past several years.

Unfortunately my Dad is unable to enjoy the pleasure of playing golf like I do. Even though he has aged gracefully, injuries over the years have made it nearly impossible to walk any distance, bend down and put a tee in the ground or swing a club and maintain any sort of balance. Even a trip to the local Putt Putt course may even prove to be a considerable challenge. No, we will watch the best players in the world face a tough course under enduring conditions. I say we, only because he will be in the same room with the TV on, but I am not really sure if he enjoys watching it or not. If you asked him, he would politely say he does, only because he is in the company of his son.

The great thing about people mature in age is the stories they can share with others and my Dad has many. Of course none of which have been embellished throughout the years – well, perhaps they are slightly as some things are impossible recall just exactly as they might of occurred six decades ago. But as his son, I need to believe they are all true. Like the time when he was young and the Ohio River froze over and they could driver across the iced over river to Indiana or during the depression when all they could afford to eat was pink soup (that’s ketchup and milk if you are wondering). Those things I can believe.

At some time during the telecast when all is quiet, our bellies are full of barbeques ribs, chicken or steak, my Dad will recall his one golf story. I can recall it just as folksinger Arlo Guthrie does in “Alice’s Restaurant”. It goes something like this:

During college at the University of Kentucky, my Dad would have to walk to football practice, sometimes cutting across the golf course to do so. He was a good athlete back in those days as he ran track, played basketball and his favorite was playing baseball. But one day while cutting across the course a friend of his yelled over and said “Bill, come over here!” There lay a golf ball in a greenside bunker. He told my Dad to go ahead and hit the ball. From the depth of the bunker, all that could be seen was the very top of the flag. He handed my Dad a club, as never playing golf before would have no idea of which one to choose. With no practice swing or quick tutorial by his golfer friend, he struck the ball and it came out of the bunker toward the hole not exactly knowing where it landed. Nowhere to be found on the putting surface, they looked quickly around the green only to come up empty handed. Finally, the golfing buddy decided to look into the bottom of the cup. Lo and behold – there it was!

The only shot my Dad ever made on a golf course and it goes in. He decided at that time why give up his good fortune and hit another shot. After all this was an easy game. But if that one day, by chance, what would have happened if he would have missed? Being the athlete he was and competitive nature, would he have taken up the game? Would we all mention him in the same breath as Byron, Jack, Arnie, Tiger and Bill?

I seem to think so. I hope you all have your Father’s Day wishes come true.

Sincerely,

Jeff Summitt
Technical Director
Hireko Golf

Product Review: True Temper GS75

The True Temper GS75 – touted as the world’s lightest steel shaft – was one that I had put an asterisk next to it when we first heard of the introduction from our True Temper representative. While shafts of slightly higher weight had been made in Japan since the earlier part of the 1990’s, those shafts were dedicated to golfers who possessed low clubhead speeds (A-flex offerings), yet the GS75 was coming out of the block in standard R and S flexes.

For the catalog we like to obtain samples so that we may include them in the annual Shaft Fitting Addendum as well as additional information in the catalog regarding swing speed ratings. The static testing is done primarily in the winter months to measure the frequency, torque, flex distribution, etc. However, being located in the Midwest, it takes longer to field test the products once the weather decides to cooperate.

The GS75 on paper will appear to be very flexible, as evident in the data laid out in the Shaft Fitting Addendum. But as I have said many times over the years that you need to compare shafts of like weight in order to obtain a true apples to apples comparison. Well unfortunately the GS75 does not have any peers as the closest shaft would be the Apollo Spectre Lite weighing in at 10 grams heavier at comparable cut length.

Just by bending the club with my hands or waggling the club, it confirmed that this shaft was indeed more flexible than any I had tried, including many L-flex shaft. However, applying the acid test – hitting balls and watching the ball flight – I was pleasantly surprised. The shaft didn’t feel flexible at all. The S-flex model I made up for me was honestly as stiff as the majority of S-flex steel shafts, even knowingly cognizant of the fact of what all the data indicated.

I had a fellow golfer at the range hit the demo club. His Ping iron was equipped with a CS Lite S-flex (very similar to the True Temper TX-90) which he hit side-by-side. I only told him that it was an S-flex club, but he still had to look at the label to confirm. I asked which of the two felt stiffer and his response was the GS75.

We all have a lot to learn not only about shaft fitting, but shafts in general. I remember years ago when Royal Precision came out with the Precision FCM Lite (pre-Rifle days), there were frequency-matched to be identical to their heavier counterpart. While the FCM Lite was no where near as light as the GS75, I do remember what a boardy-feeling shaft it was compared to the standard FCM shaft, even though they had identical frequency reading and theoretically should have felt the same.

I guess my point is regardless what the numbers indicate, if you are looking for an extremely lightweight shaft, but like the control you get with steel, the GS75 might be for you. This is a shaft not to go by the frequency numbers (deflection or any other information that can be derived from any static testing) and taken off your list of shafts to try because of it. As indicated in True Temper’s product literature, the ball flight is indeed higher too.