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amanda
21st August 2004, 07:09 PM
Bugger - I just typed a huge review and then pressed some stupid key on my keyboard that took me back a page and erased it all :evil:

So here goes again (I've typed this is in Word and copied it to be on the safe side) - it's a bit long - sorry!

Ashton 15.5* 3 wood and 19* 5 wood.
Both shafted with Nippon NS Pro GT 700 series (70g) shafts, R flex. Grip is a Golf Pride Whisper - not as soft as a Winn Grip - if I ever need to re-grip, I will change it to a Winn. 3w is cut to 42", 5w to 41". The 3w is swingweight C5 and the 5w C6. Shafts were FLOd and spined (Terence assures me this is a good thing). These clubs replace a 17* 3.5 wood - SMT Solitare. A great club when I bought it - straight and (at the time) long. Just recently it's started taking unauthorised right turns :evil: as my swing has become a little more tight and SS is now faster.

Looks:
The clubs have a nice shiny finish - black. The sole is also a mirror finish - however the sandy nature of my course means that it's moving more towards a satin finish! That's cool with me.
Clubs sit square and the face fills me with confidence - shallow so the ball will pop up quicker.
A lot of the sole of the club sits flat on the ground - this is quite different to the SMT where only the middle section of the sole about 2cm wide sits on the ground.


Playability:
Didn't hit too many fairways today. However, on the fairways I did hit, the club was easy to hit off nice fairway lies and tightly mown lies (I don't know what type of idiot they get to do the mowing - it's always almost down to the dirt :? )
Club was very easy to hit off light rough (which is where I was most of the time). Didn't try any deep rough - not enough rain here in Sydney to grow any!
Also easy to hit off the tee into some long-ish par 3s (145m, 148m) - I set the tee about 5mm off the ground.

Distance:
Boy is this club/shaft combo long! To use an expression from the SMT forums - this club sucks :twisted: Most times from 150m out, I would take 3.5w and then a half-PW shot to the green. Today, when 150-160m out, I was landing just short of the green and rolling on or just before :shock: . This is huge for me! Unfortunately my chipping game was crap and I would muck up my opportunities for good scoring caused by this amazing increase in length. I never really needed to chip a lot before - distances less than 30m - so it's a new experience. The ball flight is nice and high and I get a good amount of roll. Even shots I skulled/thinned went a good 120m.
I tested the 5w on our 2 longer par 3s (about 140-150m) - first one my swing got all out of control and I hit a worm burner into a tree :lol: . The second swing was much better. Usually on this particular par 3 I hit a 3w and then have to chip. This time, I was in the centre of the green :D .

Ball flight:
When I demoed these clubs, the ball flight was nice and straight - maybe a really small fade - I was swinging the club really well that day and releasing nicely. Today my swing was disastrous - couldn't drop the club into the slot and I also couldn't release very well - mostly resulting in big blocks right :evil: . In spite of this - the ball flight (excluding the block) was very straight, sometimes a small fade if I was trying to rush my swing and things got ugly.
The few shots where I did manage to get everything to go right were fantastic! On the par 3 where I landed on the green, usually I aim about 5m right of the left edge to counter the wicked slice. Today I threw caution to the wind and aimed about 1m left of the flag. I hit a beautiful shot that actually started to draw a little bit but was right on target.

All up, these things are bloody awesome! I'm not sure if it's the head, the shaft or a combination of both - but I'm a happy chappy :D :D

And as a bonus - I took the Gopher to the course today for his first round (somehow I've decided it's a male). Cover works really well, no signs of ever falling off - I just had to make sure he was always facing out so that he wouldn't complain about being buring amongst the other headcovers :wink: .

Jono
21st August 2004, 07:50 PM
Sounds great, Amanda. I didn't play today but had some time to go to the Terry Hills Golf Paradise driving range.

Ashton driver (7.5*) has slightly lower trajectory then my 7* Spectrum. Probably because of the deeper face. Couldn't really compare the distance because the range is only about 190 meters long (slightly downhill). They both feel solid ... none of the "tingy" sound of some titanium drivers. The Ashton looks much bigger at address than the Spectrum (probably because it IS ... ) and probably slightly more forgiving. I actually prefer the size of the spectrum, but I'm sure I'll get used to the bigger head. BTW, both drivers have Accuflex ICON V2 shafts in them ... Stiff in the Spectrum, and Regular in the Ashton. Just as an aside, ICON V2 has virtually no spine. ie. it is stable in all directions. I was very surprised when I saw this. Graphite shafts usually have prominent spines.

Ashton 3 and 5 woods were shafted with Nippon NS Pro light weight steel. 42.5 and 41.5 inches respectively, D2 swingweight. These feel solid but again I can't really comment on the distance. They seem to be long. Pretty easy to hit off the driving range mat.

Playing a round tomorrow, so I'll report back in the evening. So far, I'm happy with the Ashtons.

Ona
21st August 2004, 09:11 PM
great review amanda :D sounds like your gonna be having alot more putts pretty soon :roll: :twisted: it's very interesting that even with less loft and stiffer shaft the aston 3 is going further.. your swing must be coming along quite nicely.

jono that driver must be a bloody good looker. what do they say.. once you go black... :shock: Ive heard the X1 goes lower than most, one fella said he's never fitted someone for less than 12* when using his launch monitor :? would you say the icon reg plays like a firm to your mind?

goughy
21st August 2004, 09:59 PM
I don't know if this holds true for nippon graphite shafts, but when gci fitted me for a 3 wood shaft they suggested that regular shafts were spot on the mark for me. Hence when I picked up my 3 wood with nippon ns pro95 shaft it was a stiff flex, and I'll guarantee you it was not a traditional stiff flex.

Goes to show you why you see a clubfitter because shaft designations can be darn confusing.

Good to see it working amanda. It looks like a lot of things are on the forward move for you lately :D

On a side note, I think there may be a few people here who won't touch nippon steel shafts again (at least the ns pro95). I doubt I'm the only one.

Jono
22nd August 2004, 06:42 AM
On a side note, I think there may be a few people here who won't touch nippon steel shafts again (at least the ns pro95). I doubt I'm the only one.

Is that because they play softer than stated flex? Some other reason perhaps?

My wedges have been shafted with Nippon NS Pro95 and I'll soon be reshafting all my irons with them. The wedges are Regular flex and I'm going to soft step the Stiff in the irons. The Nippons feel good to me. I like the lighter weight and the softer feel. Terence has these in his irons and he was hitting these with very good, dare I say almost pro-like, ball flight (well, at least on one occasion - when we played at Strathfield :wink: )

One thing I did notice though. The Nippon steel shaft has a really big spine. When you put it through the spine finder, it is really noticeable. On my 3W shaft, it was difficult to achieve FLO because of this large spine.

Jono
22nd August 2004, 06:51 AM
jono that driver must be a bloody good looker. what do they say.. once you go black... :shock: Ive heard the X1 goes lower than most, one fella said he's never fitted someone for less than 12* when using his launch monitor :? would you say the icon reg plays like a firm to your mind?

In the looks department, Ashtons are hard to beat. I would have preferred the driver to be slightly smaller in terms of the crown surface area, whilst maintaining the deep face. I am a high ball hitter and the 7.5* loft seems to go slightly lower than my Spectrum 7*.

To tell you the truth, there isn't a whole lot of difference between ICON V2 regular and stiff (in terms of feel). The stiff flex still has a bit of kick to it and the regular flex is very solid (as you say, probably a firm flex). If your clubhead speed is between 95 and 100mph, you could go with either. When I get a chance, I'll find out their frequencies.

goughy
22nd August 2004, 07:35 AM
Just hated the feel of it, and it seemed really flimsy (best word I can think of). Jaster was happy to be a lefty so he couldn't hit my 3 wood with it. Decided to go to steel from graphite for consistancy reasons; had done lots of research on the nippon shafts while it was being done and was confident it would be a good shaft for me. It wasn't an issue of hitting something people don't recognise (being brand conscious). I've had full bags of components before and didn't care.

Can't remember hitting one good shot with it (and I know someone who'll tell you he never saw me hit a good shot with it). I know of 2 other people on ozgolf who would probably agree with me.

I bought a club off one of them that also had this shaft (bought it for the head) and had it pulled so fast it would make your head spin. I think the shaft was one of the reasons he sold it. I also think the shaft was the reason the other ozgolfer sold his 3 wood too.

Once bitten 10 times shy. I'll stick with tt steel shafts for now. At least

Ona
22nd August 2004, 01:10 PM
whats the heel to toe length on the three wood peoples?

amanda
22nd August 2004, 05:29 PM
On the face, heel to toe is 8.6cm - on the club head overall - about 9.5cm

Ona
22nd August 2004, 05:33 PM
ta amanda

Ona
22nd August 2004, 05:37 PM
my 3 wood is very old so i cant really compare.. is 8.6 long for a 3 wood nowadays? in some pics, with the shallow face and what seems to me long heel-toe it looks a little weird..(i havent seen a new 3wood for years)

Jono
23rd August 2004, 06:20 PM
Hmmm ... it sounds like you had a pretty traumatic experience with the Nippon shaft, Goughy ... :( I've already commited to the Nippon steel shafts, so I'll see how I go. The irons are going to be soft stepped stiff, regular in the wedges and the fairway woods. The hybrids will be in stiff. I'm getting these at very good prices, so I think it's worth a go.

On paper, the Nippons certainly look attractive. Very tight tolerence in terms of weight (constant 95 grams across the set) and frequency. However, the only way to tell is to try them I suppose. :)