my new friends..

So after much too-ing and fro-ing (mainly in the Nottingham depot of Parcelforce) I finally collected my new Titleist 755 irons.  I bought these from the US as I could buy them for around �100 cheaper than in the UK and after a nervy 9 days (which probably accounted for 200 page impressions on the USPS and Parcelforce tracking website from me) they finally arrived.

I picked them up in person from the ParcelForce depot and immediately raced home with them on the back seat of the car, anticipating opening them and looking at them for the first time.

And what joy it was.  I poured myself a glass of wine, in order to truly savour the moment.  I took a pair of scissors and carefully opened the box.  Inside the box, individually wrapped in Titleist cardboard filler were each of the clubs.  I slowly took out each club, plastic wrapper on the grip and club head, gleaming.  And unwrapped.

After looking at them so many times on the web it was great to finally have them here and couldn�t wait to get on the range to try them out.  I went to bed with a smile on my face, looking forward to the next day when I could try them out.

In the last 18months since taking up golf seriously, I�ve grown to like the Titleist marketing and ethos and hoped one day they would down the "serious golfer" ethic of their sweet-looking blade irons and make a game improvement set of irons that blended Titleist's looks and performance with a more Callaway- or Ping-like level of forgiveness.

First impressions:

Unlike the 735.CM and 775.CB irons, each of which feature designs that visibly change from the long to short irons, the 755s look essentially the same throughout the set. Each forged stainless steel iron has a cavity with a weight shelf across the bottom of the cavity. The center of this weight shelf area - directly behind the center of the clubface - is cut out and replaced by a red and silver aluminum chip. According to the website, this design serves two purposes. First, it allows Titleist to move significant weight to the heel and toe of the clubhead for increased forgiveness and resistance to twisting on off-center hits. Second, the forged aluminum chip acts as a vibration dampener to give you a smooth feel at impact.

The notch cut out of the weight shelf - and the red aluminum chip - are the dominant visual element in the 755 irons. The angular red chip gives the irons a sleek, modern look. The only other adornment on the clubs is the Titleist script logo in the upper toe of the cavity, and a FORGED stamp (my girlfriend thought they were fake!) and two black rings on the hosel. The area around the aluminum chip has the same milling marks that were first seen in the cavities of the 775.CBs, but employed more subtly.

The lines of the cavities are smooth and clean-looking, and the clubheads have the classic Titliest shape: high, squared toe, low heel area.  According to the website, Titleist designed the 755s with a thin face area, concentrating even more of the weight around the perimeter.  These are some great-looking irons, and the durability of stainless steel means that they stay looking great longer than softer carbon steel forgings.

Compared with a more blade-like 600 series iron, which a friend has just bought, the 755 has much more weight toward the heel and toe areas which obviously promotes forgiveness.

Titleist has gone to a new standard steel shaft with the 755 irons, the 755s come standard with the Titleist TriSpec steel shaft. This lightweight steel shaft, likely made by True Temper and badged with the Titleist name, is available in regular and stiff flexes.  I was in a dilemma, as when I originally hit the demo club, the 6-iron was a stiff flex � I hit it really well.  However, after further investigation, with my swing speed of 85-90mph, I chose the regular flex, and found it to be a good choice when I put a smooth swing on the irons. The Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips (with Titleist logo faced down) are standard as well, and you can't do much better than that.

Background:

As I mentioned earlier, Ive been playing for about 18months now and bought a set of Big Berthas early last year, these have been superb clubs, are very forgiving and has seen me drop from shooting low hundreds to shooting low 90s on a regular basis.  I also invested in a few lessons which helped.  I�ve been putting my cards into this system and my handicap is based on these rounds is 21 - although this is mainly due to my short game being appalling.  Overall, I hit my irons well and worked hard on getting this right with my pro.  Initially I was a little concerned as these clubs are for low-mid handicap level and thought I may be out of my depth with them.

However great as the Callaway BBs are, they are so forgiving its difficult to know whether I hit a good or bad shot as the feedback is very minimal.   So the reason I purchased these is mainly for feedback reasons and I wanted a club that offered enough forgiveness so that I could get away with a few bad shots per round and were a club that I could keep in my bag for the next couple of years and grow with my game.

The test

Anyway, the test.  There�s a "range" near my office (very clever idea btw - http://www.topgolf.co.uk/  which I finally got to around 7pm last night.  So, I purchased my balls, took out from the neatly arranged clubs - a 7 iron.  When setting up to the ball the clubs instantly feel longer, which I since found out not to be the case after measuring them against other clubs.  I can only assume that this is because of the small, almost blade like, forged head.  They�re also light and glide through the air very easily.

I set up for what was going to be my first hit, buzzing from the anticipation of a long and rewarding relationship with my new clubs, 'Tonk', it hits the hosel and flies left.  Oh dear, first date nerves perhaps.  I then took the 8 iron, this will be ok, I�m normally perfect with this club - 'thud' - hits it fat it to about 50 yrds.  Not good.  Not happy at all.  I was hitting the 6-iron demo club perfect at the range before buying these.  So I took this out, topped it.  Overall I hit about 3 in 10 shots ok but nowhere near acceptable.  The monitor had me down as a 42 handicap after my session which added insult to an already miserable day.

So my head is down, utterly annoyed and frustrated and cursing myself for being so stupid, �150 down (after selling my old clubs) and seriously thinking about going back and putting them on ebay.  I went back and sulked.

When I�m staying away with work, I generally try and book myself into a hotel which has a golf course attached/nearby so if I get a spare moment there�s always the possibility of a quick 9 holes.  I�m staying at Selsdon Park, nr Croydon at the moment which has a superb 18-hole course on the grounds, so I decided to wait until I play a real course before making any decisions on the future of these clubs.  So my alarm was set for 7am, at which time I would get up, go to the pro-shop and get 9holes in before I have to leave for my meetings.

It was a beautiful morning, slightly frosty on a really nice course, and stood on the tee of the par 5, 1st - this was the moment of truth.  I decided not to use a driver on any hole so I could get used to hitting long irons of the tee.

Whoosh � the 3 iron went straight down the middle, confidence slightly restored but not getting carried away, I then took a 4iron to lay up � again perfect, effortless, straight.  I chipped up and made par � good start.  The second hole was a 360 par4, I took a 4iron off the tee, the ball rose lovely and landed around 170yrds from the hole � I took the same club again and hit the green, my putting let me down on the hard green (that�s my excuse and I�m sticking to it!) so was one over after two.

I purchased 3-PW and didn�t have a 3iron in my old set so it was novel to be able to have this option, normally Id just take the rescue club.  Hitting this was like hitting the rescue, and equally as long. Even when I hit the ball into rough, the blade-like heads seemed to cut through the grass and make good contact.

So the round continued in this vain and was growing in confidence after each shot.  To cut a long story short, I was very apprehensive about taking these clubs out today after the disasterous night at the range, I thought they were too good for my handicap.  So to be sure, I went through the set (sometimes taking another ball out to prove it wasn�t a fluke) and hit 95% of the shots where I wanted them to go hitting 7 FIR and 5GIR.  I left the 9holes at 6over (lots under my handicap of 21) only bogeying holes after poor chipping/putting and sand play.

So as of yet I�m over the moon with these clubs, lord knows why they didn�t �work� on the range but then I suppose we all have times where we cant hit anything.  I�m glad that they performed well on the course, and looking forward to playing my full 18 with them on Saturday!)

Apologies if this is long and waffle � not had time to do a read through.

Thanks to the guys on scoretracker who I�ve played with that offered to lend me clubs whilst waiting for mine.

Thanks for the help with this post sandytrap

Tim

you should have bought a second hand set of Ram Concept II's.  I know someone who's got some for sale...

Seriously though, glad to hear you've got them at last, you sounded a bit stressed everytime you talked about them the other week.  Hopefully you'll get used to them quicker than I have my new ones, I had the opposite problem to you.  On the range I was pinging them at random targets with ease, but on the course?  Aaargh.

Will therefore will be looking for a 13th hole win on the N v S comp from you.