Aug 4, 2010

Lind Golf: Customization Made Easy

Lind Golf Driver Review
If you would of told me a few months ago that I’d be using a driver from an Australian Golf Club Company that deals strictly with online custom clubs, I would of probably said you were crazy. Although I’ve gone through a few drivers over the years trying to find that one club that breeds distance and consistency. I’ve mainly stuck with the OEMs (Taylor Made, Adams, Ping).


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Well it’s funny how circumstances arise and my Taylor Made R9 460 driver is now gone and a Blackhawk Lind Golf Driver is now in the bag. Here’s how the journey started.

I got the chance through a fellow blogger, Mike at Chapeau Noir Golf to review at driver from Lind Golf. If you’ve never heard of Lind Golf before neither had I but this Australian Company is making inroads as far as golf club customization goes.

I got to chose one of Lind's drivers for customization. So I chose the Blackhawk 460 driver in black. Its compares in features and performance to the Taylor Made® R7 Driver. Here are some of its features:

* Oversized 460cc ultra strong beta titanium club head.
* Movable weights that create customizable launch angles and ball flight options.
* 3 different weight configurations - configure the club for a neutral shot, a draw or a fade.
* Includes two 2 gram weights and one 4 gram weight, a total of 8 grams of movable weights, as well as a weight adjustment wrench.

Once you’ve decided on a club you go through the following steps:

Step 1
Go through the online MiFit Custom Fitting Wizard. Which will give you some answers for some of the upcoming steps. Consists of:
Gender
Club from 135 metres
Swing Speed
Driver Distance
Height
Floor to Wrist Height



Step 2
Custom Build Your Club!
Consists of:
Gender
Dexterity
Loft Choice + Tool
Accessories: Lind Golf head cover

Step 3
Choose the head colour : Black

Step 4
Choose your shaft
Went with the Lind UST ProForce Double Black in stiff.
Shaft Length: + 1 1/2

Step 5
Choose your grip: Lind double black standard

Step 6
Choose your ferrule: Double black

Step 7
Laser mark your club face
Went with Ottawa Golf Blog


As you’re going through each step at the top of the page your club is assembled in front of your eyes so you can see what a vibrant red Lind UST ProForce shaft will look like or a grass green ferrule might look like on your driver. Thinking about a Lind Flames grip, see what it looks like before buying all with Lind Golf’s club preview.

After placing the order it took about two weeks to get my Blackhawk driver, pretty good considering it was coming from Australia. I got it days before I left on a family vacation to PEI. So my first few times using the driver were on courses in PEI. No range time for this driver, straight to the course.

Look and Feel
The Lind Blackhawk is a oversized 460cc driver made with ultra strong beta titanium. The titanium face looks longer than most drivers from toe to heel and the face depth would be considered more shallow.

The Blackhawk also features Movable weights that create customizable launch angles and ball flight options. 3 different weight configurations - configure the club for a neutral shot, a draw or a fade. Includes two 2 gram weights and one 4 gram weight, a total of 8 grams of movable weights, as well as a weight adjustment wrench.




The Blackhawk driver has a nice classic pear shape and profile that sets up really nicely at address, with the all black setup this driver looks awesome. The shaft I chose was 1 1/2 longer than standard and that was due to the numbers that the online MiFit gave to me when I answered a few questions regarding swing speed, wrist to floor length and height.


Performance
I’ve now played the Blackhawk driver about 5 rounds and it is both accurate and has great distance. The longer shaft feels great and stable and took little time to get use to. The weight of the Blackhack head makes the driver feel very stable and easy to hit. I’ve now gone to hitting more fairways. My misses are usually hooks but they are pretty much non-existent with the Blackhawk now.

The movable weight technology is so simple to use, just loosen the screws with the provided torque wrench and you can change from a draw, fade, or straight/neutral bias. Three positions may seem too simple, but I actually kind of liked having only three options. Most of the time my Blackhawk was in the neutral setting.

The flight trajectory on most of my drives was medium to high but I could alter my ball flight with my ball position and tee height.


Conclusion
Love the fact I could customize this driver to my exact specs. Longer shaft seems to work for me and gives me the confidence to aim to where I want the ball to land. Being able to laser mark a driver with your personalized text and not having it effect performance is great and unique. At under $150 USD this driver is a steal with all the customization Lind Golf offers. My Taylor Made R9 460 has been replaced by the Lind Blackhawk driver. Enough said!

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