I'm trying to be honest with myself Jimbo as well as you lot too , I can only compare these clubs with my old clubs and how I feel they are working for me personally , I have noticed improvement in my iron play and I'm still adjusting my game to these new yardages they are giving me , I'm also disregarding cock ups I know for definite that are my fault , I'm still strugglling with the Driver and 3 Wood and to be honest I don't think I will ever get them working for me , but I will try to do just that on Tuesday .
When I was asked to test these clubs I swore I would give an honest opinion on them and that's exactly what I will do regardless of what you or anyone else thinks , I will be writing Reviews on all of these clubs after I have played 6 rounds with them , I still have 2 rounds to go , so far I've written one review and thats on the Chipper (something I don't need to use 6 times to know how it performs ).
Don't get me wrong Jimbo , I understand your suspicions but be assured I won't say crap is good just because I was given the chance to test them AND keep them , if they are crap then crap I will call them , but if they are good I will say that as well , whether you or others believe me , or not.
I've never allowed myself to be used in the past and I'm a little too long in the tooth to start now.
And before you say it I'm not upset that you voiced your suspicions , to be honest I would have thought and said the same had our positions been reversed , I will tell it like it is Jimbo .
I think that the system has worked for you as the irons are much more suitable and you have discovered another club, i.e. the chipper, which you are very happy with.
There's no shame in the driver and 3 wood not being as suitable for you personally, I guess it's all part of the swings and roundabouts of the web-fit system.
I went and got fitted at Callaway in 2005 (day before Liverpool v AC Milan, I met Alan Hansen, "Liverpool will thraaaash them..."). The irons I ordered were awesome, I only sold them last August, but the Driver was awful and I used it for one round only.
That's all part and parcel of not being able to try out beforehand on the course/range, and if a club doesn't quite suit the person it's not a bad reflection on the player or the clubs.
Pasty , I know exactly what you mean , all and I do mean all my previous clubs have been bought without trying them , either from shops as second hand/used or from over the internet , most I haven't even been able to feel the balance or weight of never mind swing or actually hit a ball with them
I have had to adjust my swing to each set and each single club I have ever bought , most of my purchases have been at the budget end of the market as finance has dictated which clubs I could afford , I started with Memphis , then two sets of Donnays one graphite shafted then changed to steel shafted and then moved on to Fazer , then an Old set of Wilson 1200 Gear Effect that were described by someone on here as being like Russian Agricultural tools and they still had the illegal dome on the end of the grips and I had to regrip them myself , I then bought a set of Maxfli Tremours from JJB's , and finally I jumped on a bargain from American Discount Golf (yet again online and unseen ) of a set of MacGregor 565s with 5.5 rifled shafts for £99 , all the above were over the 6 years I have been playing , not one set was more than £120 .
My most expensive purchase was the Taylormade R5 at £180 new, I've tried umpteen Drivers and woods and hybrids most were budget or used too.
All the above I have had to adjust to , none have been fitted or altered to fit me (is it any wonder my game is crap) anyway , thats why I know what you mean by some clubs not being suitable for me personally , most I have managed to make them work , some just got sold or given away as they were just wrong for me , the rest have been mothballed or saved for selling on E Bay when I can get round to doing it or should I say motivated in to doing it.
I'm trying to be honest with myself Jimbo as well as you lot too , I can only compare these clubs with my old clubs and how I feel they are working for me personally , I have noticed improvement in my iron play and I'm still adjusting my game to these new yardages they are giving me , I'm also disregarding cock ups I know for definite that are my fault , I'm still strugglling with the Driver and 3 Wood and to be honest I don't think I will ever get them working for me , but I will try to do just that on Tuesday .
When I was asked to test these clubs I swore I would give an honest opinion on them and that's exactly what I will do regardless of what you or anyone else thinks , I will be writing Reviews on all of these clubs after I have played 6 rounds with them , I still have 2 rounds to go , so far I've written one review and thats on the Chipper (something I don't need to use 6 times to know how it performs ).
Don't get me wrong Jimbo , I understand your suspicions but be assured I won't say crap is good just because I was given the chance to test them AND keep them , if they are crap then crap I will call them , but if they are good I will say that as well , whether you or others believe me , or not.
I've never allowed myself to be used in the past and I'm a little too long in the tooth to start now.
And before you say it I'm not upset that you voiced your suspicions , to be honest I would have thought and said the same had our positions been reversed , I will tell it like it is Jimbo .
I have had to adjust my swing to each set and each single club I have ever bought , most of my purchases have been at the budget end of the market as finance has dictated which clubs I could afford
Just to play devils advocate, and it's been mentioned earlier in the thread, you shouldn't have to make allowances in your swing for the clubs, else whats the point of custom fitting;(just as well grab another set off the shelf) obviously custom fit cant fix everything but its supposed to be able to help get the clubs to fit YOU and YOUR swing better. OK you have an adjustment period to become a little more acclimatised to new clubs but anyone who plays the game knows just how difficult it is to drop old habits, hence the custom fit idea to instill some confidence in your equipment.
Now I'm not accusing you of bad habits Sham the point Im making is that most if not all wouldnt be able to maintain a swing change to accomadate a new set of clubs for long without returning to their earlier indiscretions defeating the point of it all.
As usual its the Monkey on the end who really has a solid repeatable swing who'll get the best from any club combination, and use custom fit to fine tune.
Youve either got it or you dont Sham, you can join me in the latter group if you wish Boss.
Jimbo , You are playing with semantics and pulling my chain at the same time you should know better than anyone as you've heard me moaning for long enough that I don't have a repeatable swing , I have more bad habits than a Druggies re-hab clinic , and I don't profess to know about the ins and outs of custom fit be it in person or online , I'm just an old Fart given the chance to test the system and clubs and as thats still a work in progress why not wait till I'm finished before putting the boot in you never know I may agree with you , I certainly agree about joining you in the latter group
Have really enjoyed reading all your posts and golf is great for all the opinions, isnt it. I just thought I would let you know a bit about the company and the fitting system and the product ranges.
We invested a huge amount of money and time in developing the online custom fitting system that you see at www.forgan.co.uk - you can only imagine the amount of data at the back end to be able to fit precisely such a range of options.
We looked at all the manufacturers fitting guidlines as were amazed at the variances between them. To work out the perfect system we worked with our tour pro's, Ian Woosnam and D.J. Russell and a number of club pros.
Having written the system we then checked it out on 100's of golfers and only when we were confident that it was exact did we launch the site. People say how can that work online but what it does is fit your clubs to your physical characteristics. One of the problems in doing it by a few swings is that put a couple of bad ones on and you get completely the wrong thing - trust me in my 25 years in the industry I have seen some horror fittings!
In terms of the make up and quality of the clubs dont be deceived by the price. As I am sure you are all aware all manufacturers make in the Far East now and we use the same factories as many of the household names and we never compromise on the quality. All the clubs are then custom built in the UK to your exacting requirements.
I know this may sound like a bit of sales spiel but we are so passionate here about the brand I thought we would let you know what we are upto. Would love to hear from you with any comments or suggestions.
Simon, Its good that you have gone to lengths to post and explain your Companies fitting system.
Can you please clarify a point for me!
Do Ian Woosnam and D.J. Russell actually USE your Clubs or are they just paid Ambassador's for your Company?
I Only ask as I seem to remember Woosie heavily endorsing Hippo Golf clubs and in reality playing Callaway!
Call me an cynic, But this was old ploy used by some lesser know club manufacturers in the past, Pay a Top/Well known Golfer to promote a product knowing that they would never in a million years actually use them in anger.
Im Thinking in particular of Sam Torrance and Tony Jacklin who almost flogged to death Slazenger EZee and F.A.S.T Irons.
oooops! sorry I'm late with my final summing up of the whole test of the system and clubs , I got a mauling by my course on Tuesday , sadly most of it was caused by my inability to hit a ball and the vicious attack made on me by the Golf Gods .
As far as the ease of use and the Speedy Service the online system gave me I can only say spot on and I doubt that part could be bettered , The build quality was also very good and I couldn't find a single fault and I did try to find one believe me .
I have used the clubs for 6 rounds now and I must say the Irons , wedge and chipper AND the Hybrid have improved my game , the irons have increased my yardages by on average a good ten yards , some slightly more , the hybrid is very easy to use and really gobbles up the yardage on the longer par 5s the erratic yardages achieved are definitely down to my swing and abilities , the 60 degree L/W has worked perfectly and has the added bonus of increasing my usual 35 yard full swing shot to 50 to 55 yards , this has made a difference to the shots I can now take on due to the longer range , all the above have Senior Flex Apollo shafts in them and I put the increased yardage down to this as they suit my swing speed better than my previous irons and similar clubs.
I can actually feel the loading and unloading of the shafts on each shot , they feel stronger with more power in them than my previous clubs .
Unfortunately not every club has worked for me , the Driver and 3 wood gave me trouble from start to finish , it wasn't until the last round that I managed to get the ball to come out of the middle of the face , the shaft I found was 3/8ths of an inch longer than my TM R5 even though it was shortened by .25 of an inch in my fitting specs , why the TM R5 is so short I don't know but the difference though small had a greater effect than I would have thought it had , anyway , the 6 or so I hit out of the middle were slightly louder than I'm used to and they were 30 yards down on what I usually achieve , the 3 Wood produced a slice each time I used it and this is probably down to my technique , this was also shorter distance wise than I'm used too , and I struggled to use it off the fairway , much harder to use than my TM V steel 3 wood , my playing partner had no trouble using either club and got the same distance and amount of fade on his shots so I can only surmise that the poor performance is down to me , either the regular shafts in these two clubs were wrong for me or my lack of ability were to blame , pity as they are great looking clubs.
I believe any kind of Custom fit be it in person or online won't cure all ills , a bad swing is a bad swing no matter the type of fitting , my final opinion of the whole experience is a positive one , the hybrid , irons and wedge and chipper will remain in my bag as they are an improvement performance wise compared club for club with my MacGregor's 565s , the Driver and 3 Wood will definitely not be in my bag whether the fault be mine or the clubs , they have cost me too many shots and won't improve my play.
I will be writing reviews on each club over the next few days so it will be next week probably before they make it in to the Gear Sections Reviews.
Thank You Forgan for the oppurtunity to test your system and Clubs , I've tried to be objective and honest throughout the test .
In response to the last few posts here are the answers to some of the questions.
Do Woosie and DJ play our clubs?
Right now no they dont. Why? The clubs that tour players require are quite different to the clubs that the majority of club golfers. What we asked them to do is work with us to create clubs that work for our customers, the club golfer. By doing that we havent had to compromise the features required for game improvement.
We could have done what other companies do and get some blank heads and stamp them up but we decided not to. The feedback we get from them in how to improve performance is worth way more to us than any compromise.
As we further expand our range we will get clubs designed and produced for Pro's but right now we know where the priority is and all I can say is that their support is invaluable.
In terms of an error in the shaft flex sent is of course correct but we ALWAYS reply to all emails but some do get caught up in spam filters. However our telephone number is all over our website and we have a real office with real people who will deal with all problems at once. You wont get through to some call centre!!
Please by all means keep the questions coming - the one guarantee is I will give you the truth!
PS We just won Best Value Irons for the IWD model and Best Value Hybrid Irons for the F3 based on performance, quality and price with Today's Golfer and their panel of club testers.