So I played the second round today with the Grandista RS-D shafted with a Crime of Angel 5 shaft which is a low mid kick shaft. I had the 8 gram weight at the back for Thursday’s round and given the launch, I moved that to the left today and the 2 gram weight to the back.
As you guessed, this head in 10* with this COA model has no launch issues for me. I’m guessing my swing is very different to Nob’s whose review iirc mentioned he finds it relatively lower launching. For me, this head launches higher than the RS-001 and I had the same model shaft u=I that head as well. I would call this a mid high launch combo but one with a penetrating trajectory which holds well into wind ie no ballooning. So this launch view begs the question of spin… and hence roll.
I think this is a low spin head. Not much side spin which is good as well. There is roll for this combo and on this course, to get roll is good. I would not say this is a road runner but that could change if I put in my COA California mid launch shaft which will lower the trajectory and apex and hence should give more roll. I’ll be playing this at my other course next week where the fairways are much faster. Will wait till then to decide if I want to switch shafts.
So distance… this is a damn driver after all…make no mistake, this combo is long. In fact and this is on 2 different days in a row, on the same hole, I’ve hit my longest ever drives on that hole. Yes, wind assisted but I’ve never hit this distance ever wind assisted even with my other drivers. I’m very impressed.. Average distance again, this appears to be very long. I would say its up there with my Ito Xanadu combo for distance.
Dispersion.. ok.. this is where its different for me. I rarely miss left.. Misses are push fades (not power fades ie slices). My misses with this are left. Pull hooks. That is not me. When I played the RS-001 with this same model shaft, I did not miss left or very rarely. Now this could be that the weighting is set up as a draw biased head. Weight screws at the heel and back, not on the toe. Even when I had the 8gram weight at the back, my miss was left. Please don’t; read this as a hook draw machine. On the 12 driving holes on this course, I missed 3 fairways on Thursday and 3 today. All left so fairway percentage is not all too shabby. Maybe I just need to get used to the setup. Did not take it to the range before the rounds.
Looks. Unlike the RS-001 which really has an obscure sole plate, the RS-d is very classic and classy looking. At address, it looks very compact. For me, this is a mid deep face height.
Feel and sound are very good as you would expect an SP700 face to be. That said, its not as soft feeling as the SP700 face on the Astro Tour VIII. With the 8 gram weight at the back, it has a lowER twack than when the 8gram wiehht is at the heel. I posted a video of the sound at impact earlier in this thread. That is very representative.
So, the RS-D head is for sure a keeper for me. I may try the mid kicking COA Cali shaft but as is, if I can sort out the address position to help me manage the left misses, it’s a great enough combo. Again, 75% FW hit rate for me is not shabby at all. Well done… again.. Grandista!