Question:
Last week I took 6 shots with my partners Taylor Made Bubble Burner driver. I was dumb-founded at how well I hit the ball. I would really like to pick up a club like this, but I don’t really have the coin for it. I called a local shop which supplies club components and asked them if they could sell me a knock off of this stick. They replied that the knockoffs are often of marginal quality, but they could build me a very similar club (for about 1/3 of the TM price). Question: How standard are the components? If I tell them to go ahead and make this club for me, what is the likelihood that it will react very similar to the original club? Thanks Tom Ott
It’s all in your swing, along with personal preference. I myself play a knock-off of the Burner Bubble, and I am very pleased with the results. Actually, I love the club. If you practice enough with any new club, you can get it to "react" almost any way you wish. Dale "Get A Grip!" Custom Clubs and Repair http://www.mixi.net/~dalek
Response:
Question: How standard are the components? If I tell them to go ahead and make this club for me, what is the likelihood that it will react very similar to the original club?
Those are two _very_ different questions. 2–Don’t count on it being the very same performance as the $200 club, but pretty decent for everyday golfers. 1–Pretty good, as long as the clubmaker exercises his role as the final inspector. In other words, standardization is only as good as the clubmaker. In fact, the clubmaker’s part of the job is more important (and easier to fluff up) than the component maker’s job. As you may have read here before, my Ping clone irons (made by Omega Golf of Lyons NY (they do mail-order) using Z-Model II heads) do swing and perform very consistently (better than I do…) With these clubs, misclubbing is now extremely rare for me. Illustrative tale of my day (a 91, but improvement with the driver and fairway woods is very encouraging–topped only two and had more hit fairways than bad slices): We get to the 12th, I’m the only one who’s played this course before. I’ve got the honor, look at the sign, look at the tee (whites way back in the box, 5 yds ahead of the blues, look at the blue flag saying the pin’s in back (the tough customer thanks American Golf for this idea!) and tell the other guys to "ignore the card, the hole’s playing at least 160, maybe 170 and into the wind. Take a club more than you think." Look again go back to the bag, and say "maybe two more." Then hit a nice easy four-iron onto the right edge, hole high. Of course I then get my only [blasphemy] three-jacker of the day, which caused the rest of the day’s putting to go to blazes. 12 putts the front nine, 18 the back…. As before, JAS (and tough) C Dr. Matt.