Equipment
Top 3 ways to easily customize your clubs
At GolfWRX, we show off a lot of cool stuff that often requires some serious tools or expensive equipment—for example getting your hands on a full-scale launch monitor can cost upwards of $15,000. So, we want to show you some of the ways you can refresh and customize your current gear at home within a “do-it-yourself” budget.
Change your grips
Changing your grips for the sake of customization, or because they are finally on their last legs, can completely reinvigorate a set of clubs. It doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor, and it’s one of the easiest club repairs you can do at home as long as you have a few simple tools and some time.
Most grip manufacturers have a variety of colors to choose from, with one of the newest being Golf Pride’s new MMC Teams line of grips featuring 15 different color options.
From a club building perspective, you used to have to be cautious about mixing and matching colored grips because they could vary in weight by up to 5 grams because of added dies but the Golf Pride MMC team grips all come in at 50g in standard size so you can mix and match colors to your heart’s content.
Stamps & Paint Fill
For the simplicity of the tools required to stamp clubs, you will need some potential practice (old wedges are great for this) or some serious confidence to pull this off for the first time.
Stamping is an easy way, once you get the hang of it, to customize your clubs and have a lot of fun along the way trying to come up with silly things to stamp—I often go with movie quotes.
Stamps and small anvils can be found at hardware stores, my go-to stamp set is this: Lee Valley letter & number stamp set.
Custom Ferrules
Of all the ways to customize clubs at home, this one takes a bit of club building knowhow and some proper tools but similar to stamping once you get the hang of it you can make pretty quick work of a set.
The most popular, highest quality, and coolest by far come from BB&F (Boyd Blade & Ferrule Co.) and they have an ever-evolving palette to choose from. If you can do this job yourself, it is an inexpensive way to seriously jazz up any set, but if you are getting them done by a club builder, you can expect to pay a premium since the installation process involves complete disassembly—as shown in the video below.
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Equipment
Aretera officially launches Alpha One shafts, available at Club Champion
As we reported earlier this year, Alex Dee, along with a group of industry veterans, have officially launched their own golf shaft company, leading with the Alpha One. Now you can get your hands on that shaft at Club Champion.
The Alpha One Blue and Gray series are debuting Aretera’s PowerGrid technology. Aretera is the first company to use spread tow woven carbon fabric in multiple layers at full length comprising over 50 percent of the shafts weight in design for maximum stability with a uniform feel.
These materials, novel in their application at this level, aim to offer high-level structural benefits compared to traditional unidirectional composites.
Speaking on the new shafts, Alex Dee stated:
“A lot of shafts have had to sacrifice feel to get stability. We’ve found ways to get it back. And it’s not a compromise.”
Aretera launches on April 1, 2024 at all Club Champion locations nationwide.
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Whats in the Bag
Stephan Jaeger’s winning WITB: 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open
Driver: Ping G430 LST (9 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 60 TX
3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond HL (16.5 degrees @15.8) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 7 X (43 inches)
7-wood: Ping G425 Max (20.5 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Yellow 83 6.5
Irons: Ping S55 (3-PW) Buy here.
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (50-12F @49, 54-14F @53, 56-14F @57) Buy here.
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Odyssey Ai-One 2-Ball Buy here.
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol 1.0
Grips: Golf Pride ZGrip Cord
Ball: Titleist Pro V1 Buy here.
The winning WITB is presented by 2nd Swing Golf. 2nd Swing has more than 100,000 new and pre-swung golf clubs available in six store locations and online. Check them out here.
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News
Bettinardi BB1 Wide putter review – Club Junkie Reviews
Bettinardi has long been known as one of the best putter manufacturers in golf. The BB line is considered the company’s flagship. This year, Bettinardi took more input from the tour in order to optimize CG placements and refine the feel in the lineup. To optimize the CG and ensure that the sweet sport is in the correct location, Bettinardi engineers reshaped the shoulders and bumpers on the back of the head for better weight placement. The face also features a brand new Perpetual Flymill milling that enhances feel and feedback as well as gets the ball rolling more consistently. You can check out all of the details on the 2024 Bettinardi BB line of putters in our launch report. For a full review check out the Club Junkie podcast on all platforms or on YouTube below.
I have been using a Bettinardi BB8 Wide for the past two years, both previous generations, and really loved those putters. They were the first blade putters I have actually gamed in well over 10 years, so you know I was excited to see the 2024 BB lineup.
The BB1 Wide jumped out to me immediately, because it is similar to the BB8 Wide, just a little softer and with more rounded edges. Out of the box, the BB1 Wide looks great, and I think the new Black Pearl PVD finish has a slight shine to it that looks a little nicer and more high quality than the matte grey from the last generation. The gloss black stepless shaft and bright blue Lamkin grip are solid editions to the whole package and give the putter a little glitz that doesn’t distract. Finally, Bettinardi updated the BB covers to magnetic closure, and I am way too happy about that!
Out on the green, the BB1 Wide frames the ball well and you can easily see that it has a shorter heel-to-toe measurement than the BB8 Wide. From face to back the putter is wide, but I think the stubbiness of the head makes it look a touch wider than it really is. The look from address also greets you with a softer and more rounded look from the bumpers and overall shape of the head. As you would expect the flange is longer and includes a single site line for alignment. I like this setup as a single, longer, site line tends to be what I line up the best. A thicker topline is slightly rolled for a softer and thinner look that blends in well with the profile of this putter head. If you like the larger mallets that have been trending lately then I think you will enjoy looking down at the BB1 Wide.
On the course and the putting green, the Bettinardi BB1 Wide offers a great soft feel at impact, softer to me than last year’s BB8 Wide. Bettinardi’s Perpetual Fly Mill face has deeper grooves that provide this softer feel while still putting a nice roll on the ball. The greens up here in the north are still long and bumpy, but the BB1 Wide provided as smooth of a roll as it could under the conditions. Some playing partners were dealing with big hops and jumps in the first foot of their putts, but I never had that problem with the BB1 Wide. The initial roll limited the hop and skip more than I expected, and I felt like it started the ball on line very well. Aiming the putter was simple and easy as I had the same single site line on my previous putter.
The sole of the BB1 Wide is a little unique as it has a sound slot that runs the length of the cavity from heel to toe. We don’t see a lot of sound slots on retail putters but they are used to fine-tune the sound of a putter at impact. The use of the sound slot on the BB1 Wide definitely increases the audible sound at impact and gives it a slightly more metallic sound. I was a little worried that the sound would have too much “ting” to it or be offensively loud, but I was impressed that it was much more dialed down. Feel off the face was soft, definitely softer than the previous BB line. Now while that softer face is great, it does reduce a little of the feedback on where you struck the shot. You can tell the misses are there but they are a little softer than you would expect from a fully milled putter.
Forgivness with this putter is pretty good, and it will allow you to get away with less-than-perfect strokes. The amount of mass out on the toe and heel make the putter much more stable than a lot of blades. While it isn’t high mallet MOI stable the putter will show you that shots off the toe or heel will stay online well and come to rest right next to the hole. Distance control is precise and you won’t be stunned by a ball that jumps off the face with too much speed or the opposite. Putts on the putting green from the same spot just consistently toll to the same finish line, if they don’t drop into the cup.
Ultimately, a new finish, face milling, and design keep things fresh and high-performance but in a very classic package. Bettinardi did a great job mixing those things to keep the traditionalist and the gear junkies both happy. While the lineup doesn’t feature a massive amount of head shapes, it nails some core designs and should be a big hit for Bettinardi.
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Pingback: 2020: The year of the DIY golfer – GolfWRX
Jackson
Aug 16, 2020 at 1:52 pm
What size stamps do you use?
Can’t pay more
Aug 13, 2020 at 9:27 pm
Paying $5 per “artisanal” ferrule sorta makes me wish for a leather apron and a muddler. At least I’d be hammered for being hosed so bad for a piece of plastic!
Ryan sucks more than Gianni
Aug 13, 2020 at 5:06 pm
We’ll file this under “duh.”
Thanks for removing my previous comment since it probably hurt your wittle feelings.
All the “articles” on this site are the most basic articles one could write. Where’s the enthusiasm to write something fresh and new? Just boring content that’s stickied under “trending” when it’s literally not.
Dean
Aug 13, 2020 at 6:56 pm
As always Ryan a very informative and well written article. To call this boring content is a narrow minded view of one person. There are plenty of golfers out there who have not tried these customisation’s.
Ryan sucks more than Gianni
Aug 15, 2020 at 12:39 am
It’s boring cause what else can you do to clubs aside from this? “Hey to customize sneakers, try different laces.” It’s boring.