Bridgestone Golf announces new J40 hybrids

Written by: Tony Korologos | Friday, September 9th, 2011
Categories: Golf Clubs • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear
Tags: Bridgestone Golf

Bridgestone Golf is in the midst of a string of major new golf equipment announcements. I’m barely getting into test mode on the new J40 woods and some J40 Dual Pocket Cavity irons, and now they’ve announced new J40 Hybrids! Here’s a shot of one below.

The New Bridgestone Golf J40 Hybrid - Cick to zoom

If the hybrids are as good as the fairway woods, look out.

For more info, check out the full press release from Bridgestone on the HOG sister site hogwire.biz.

Support the Golf 9/12 initiative

Written by: Tony Korologos | Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Categories: Miscellaneous

I’ve been wearing a new wrist band lately. This one isn’t guaranteed to keep me from losing my balance and doesn’t necessarily translate positive ions to negate the bad negative ions, or increase my brain activity (though I could really use some increased brain activity). It simply serves as a symbol of my support of the Golf 9/12 project, an initiative which is raising money for educational programs at the Pentagon Memorial, the 9/11 Memorial and the Flight 93 Memorial through a country wide golf tournament.

Golf 9/12 is a simultaneously played multi-course golf tournament aimed at uniting our nation through the opportunity to reflect on the shared spirit of unity felt on September 12, 2001.

With the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 coming up in a couple of days, the 9/12 initiative is a great way of mixing golf with a great charitable cause.

For more info head to www.golf912.org.

First impressions of the new Bridgestone Golf J40 driver and fairway wood

Written by: Tony Korologos | Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Categories: Golf Clubs • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear
Tags: Bridgestone Golf

Today was my regular Thursday money game. It is a grudge match which has been going on for years. Some days I’m on the winning end, some days not. Today’s conditions were extremely windy. I’d hoped to get to the course about 30-45 minutes early to test out the new clubs from Bridgestone Golf which I mentioned last night. I had a J40 445 driver, J40 3+ fairway wood and some J40 Dual Pocket Cavity Irons. Unfortunately some heavy traffic ate up my range time and I had to head straight to the first tee with no warmup and a stiff back.

I decided not to put the clubs directly in my bag. If they didn’t fit my swing or I wasn’t used to them, it could be a costly mistake.

First Impressions of the new J40 driver and J40 3+ Fairway Wood

Bridgestone J40 445 driver - Click for more images

J40 445 Driver

I hit a few practice drivers after my regular drives (time permitting). On the first drive I hit the right rough which killed a little of distance before ending up in the fairway with a little draw. So that drive was about 10 yards behind my regular driver, which hit the fairway on the fly. The next drive though, was on the par-5 5th. I absolutely crushed the J40, knocking it about 25 yards longer than my regular driver. But I must mention that the regular driver caught the left rough.

I let my two buddies hit the driver today as well. They both commented on how nice it looks from the top line and how nice it feels when you hit it.

Bridgestone Golf J40 Fairway Wood - Click to zoom

J40 3+ Fairway Wood
INSTANT GAMER

Now onto the 3-wood. I always tee off with a 3-wood on the 7th hole at the course we played today. The tree lined hole is tight and calls for a draw, but there’s OB left. I hit my regular 3-wood perfectly down the middle with a little draw, just like I described. So I pulled the J40 3-wood for a comparison shot. I used the same B330-RX ball, though the first was yellow and the 2nd was white. The ball seemed to come off the club at a much faster speed. I hit this one perfect, also with a little draw. The tee mark was dead center on the club bottom, going straight back. When I got up to the two shots in the middle of the fairway I walked the distance between the two. The J40 3+ was 16 yards longer than my regular 3-wood.

Later on the par-5 17th hole I pushed my drive into the right rough. The ball was not sitting terribly high and normally I wouldn’t try to hit a 3-wood. But since the hole was likely a three shot proposition and I could afford a miss-hit, I gave the J40 3+ a shot. I crushed it, with a draw. I looked at my opponent, and he looked at me with a look of bewilderment and awe. I was nearly to the green. I’d made amazingly good contact from the rough.

At that point I knew my old 3-wood would be celebrating an early retirement and spending some relaxing days in the garage from this point on. The J40 3+ fairway is going straight into my starting lineup. My quest for the holy grail of 3-woods may be over.

J40 Dual Pocket Irons

I only hurriedly hit one J40 Dual Pocket Iron test shot, and not well. The group behind us was close and I didn’t want to hold up play. First impressions though, are that the clubs are very solid. My other opponent hit a few test shots today and loved them.

Gear head alert! First in hands look at the new Bridgestone Golf J40 445 driver

Written by: Tony Korologos | Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Categories: Golf Clubs • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear
Tags: Bridgestone Golf

Ohhhhh. Gear head alert. I’ve got my hands on a Bridgestone J40 445 driver, which will be in play at 9:16am tomorrow. A report will follow naturally. This driver has a deep face and looks nice standing over it.

Looks great. Hope hit plays great at 9:16 am tomorrow. Bridgestone J40 45 Driver. Click for more images.

Stay tuned for my first impressions tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.

Social links on individual HOG blog posts added

Written by: Tony Korologos | Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Categories: Miscellaneous • Site News

I’ve added more social links to the individual golf blog posts here at Hooked On Golf Blog. Above each post you will now see a Facebook Like button, Twitter tweet button and a Google+ button.