Finally pulled the trigger on a set of Maltby TS1’s.  4-PW, DG105(S), GP Tour Velvet Align grips, D-2 sw.  I ordered them through the Custom Shop, as I really wanted he Align grips, and a D-2 swingweight throughout.  The clubs are very attractive, much nicer looking in-person than on the website (as many have stated).  Unfortunately, though, I am disappointed with their performance characteristics.  They are difficult to hit. Given their playability factor, I believed they would be fairly friendly, forgiving clubs…but they are not…and I am a low-handicaper (GHIN 1.8).  Granted, I’m getting old..I’m 55 now…but I still play competitively in Local, State, and USGA Senior events.  They are also fairly harsh feeling on all but center strikes.  The center strikes are very rich feeling…as good as any iron ever…but it is very difficult to get center-strike feedback on these clubs.  Distance-wise, I was also disappointed.  I thought these were basically in the “player’s distance” category of iron, but when caught flush, they are still one full club shorter than my Mizuno JPX 900 Forged irons, even though the lofts are the same.  Distance lost on mishits is fairly significant, but accuracy on mishits does not seem to suffer so much.  One other thing about the clubs that was disappointing was I found them difficult to align with a square clubface.  Maybe the Align grips were not installed properly, or something, but several of the clubs look closed at address, and I have to manipulate them to get them to look square…not intuitive, at all…the proverbial “point and shoot” does not apply to these clubs.

So, I’m bummed.  I obsessed over these clubs for months and months before pulling the trigger, and they came nowhere close to my expectations…they will not make it into my gamer bag.  Anyone out there want to try these things at a huge discount?  Let me know, because they are for sale…

charlesgetsinger@aol.com Answered question August 14, 2020