Titleist 962's--Great Clubs, but not for Everyone
Written: Aug 05 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good look, Great for creating shots, Consistent accuracy from PW-2 iron
Cons: Hard to hit for high handicappers, No offset, Small sweetspot
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| kungfulu2's Full Review: Titleist DCI 962 Irons |
The Titleist 962 Irons are as attractive as they come, simple and classic look, but obviously designed using some of golf's most advanced technology. The irons are a combination of blades and cavity backs. The faces of the clubs are very small in comparison to most midsize irons, but not as small tour irons. Also, there is very little offset in these clubs, making them ideal for players who like to work the ball. The clubs come in standard steel shafts (which I recommend), light graphite shafts, and also extra light graphite shafts that are mainly for seniors. The grips are very nice salt and pepper colored golf pride wraps.
I noticed that for golfers with high handicaps, these are some of the hardest non-blade irons to hit. In fact, Titleist markets these clubs for the better player, having a separate line of more forgiving irons for higher handicappers. This is because the 962's give better players great playability from all distances. You can make up shots you never thought possible, with these clubs. There’s no more spending minutes on deciding what to hit from 165 yards. You can simply go into your bag and pull out a 6 iron, and just work the shot depending on how far and high you want the ball to travel.
Unfortunately, unless you have a swing speed that’s over 100 mph (which very few people do) you will be left with shots that travel shorter than what you’d expect. This is mainly due to two factors. First, the forged steel on the clubs makes the faces extremely soft. Also, the sweet spot on the iron face is about the size of a nickel (Compared to a penny on a set of tour clubs, and a quarter on some new oversized faces). What advantage this does provide is great control on miss hits. All that is lost when missing the sweet spot is distance, there is very little loss of accuracy. It was surprising that the only way you could feel the miss hits was by watching the ball flight. It was hard to determine the balls’ path just by feel.
After asking two of my friends (both high handicappers) to hit the club, I noticed a few things. The lack of offset on the clubs tended to cause many slices. This was evident throughout the set, from the nine to three irons. Also, the small sweet spot produced very inconsistent shot patterns, even though the distance was basically consistent. After I (14 handicap) hit the clubs I saw the lack of offset took away slightly from my draw, but not enough to disturb target line. In addition, the small sweet spot made very little difference in accuracy, but my distance did suffer. I ended up hitting these clubs much straighter, but ½ club shorter than my present irons.
If you truly want to buy these clubs, but remain unsure, try out the Titleist DCI 981 Irons. They’ve got almost the same feel, but have more offset and a larger sweet spot.
(Make sure you get the clubs customized from a local proshop)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kungfulu2
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Member: Amit Khanna
Location: ny, ny
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 11 members
About Me:
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