Updated for CTL 3W. See the following post in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46629&p=330608#p330608


This is a test of distance only. We tested the top 3w clubs in the game and threw in a couple of others for comparison. Obviously there are factors other than distance to consider, such as accuracy, # of slots, ball flight, repair cost, and initial cost. Conclusions in a nutshell are:

The distance club for players with no budget limit, is either the Hybrid or the Tornado.
The distance club for players on the cheap is the Tempest.

Here are the result for hitting full 3 o'clock spin at precisely 100%:



The last column should show negative percentages. It is the percentage less that the club hit relative to the longest club. For example, the Aeolos line shows that it hit .9% less than the Hybrid/Tornado.

The top 2 are equal in distance: Hybrid and Tornado. The next 2 are equal in distance: Hurricane and Tempest. No surprise here. Based on driver, 5w, and iron tests I have posted, we could have predicted these results.

What might be a bit surprising to a lower or mid level player, is that there is only 8 yards difference between the clubs. But, the cost varies from less than 2 million to buy, to over 100 million for a clean Hybrid R.

For a player on a budget, there is no beating the Tempest. While it is not as accurate side to side when missing 0% as some other clubs, if you hit close to 0%, it is just about as long as anything and costs very little.

I want to make it clear that the results would not change if you were only a level 40 (or whatever). The clubs would almost certainly rank in the same order.

2009 Clubs
We always throw in a 2009 club -- the colored ones. Again we see that there is no difference.

Distance Test Methodology
We counted only those hits that were perfectly 100% (verified by screen magnifier) and at 0%, or within 1 pixel of 0%. We then averaged the 3 values for -1 pixel after 0%, 0%, and +1 pixel before 0%. To get the final distance, we averaged these 3 distances. We required at least 2 perfect hits of 100% and 0%.

The stats used were: Power 36, Impact 49, Stamina 8, and Skill 170.

If a club came with default settings, we did not adjust our stats. For example, the Antique and Aeolos come with extra Power stats. We did not adjust our stats, so these default Power stats were in play.

A few reminders...
I would like to reinforce a few points about testing. When hitting in the range, most of the conditions are under a person's control. One can set exact spin using Shift<Arrow>, set the temperature to 25, and check that hits are identical to the pixel using a screen magnifier. However, what one can not control is the 98%-100% lie condition of tee shots. There is randomness here. The exact same (to the pixel) shot for a driver could vary up to 4 yards or so. The standard method to smooth such randomness, is to have a high sample count -- to make more perfect hits and average the results. When someone says: "But I hit it in the range and it went 7 yards farther than you said.", I invariably find out that the conditions were not controlled (i.e., it was 28 degrees and the hit was not 100% to the pixel).

Low and mid-levels: The results of a club comparison are applicable at any level. Do not disregard a test because some high stats were used. Regardless of your level, the clubs will compare the same relative to each other. A second bit of advice would be to think hard about needing to pay the premium for a high priced club. As an example, we know that Tornado irons and Hurricane irons are equal in both (a) length and (b) accuracy, yet Hurricanes cost so much more! One must decide if it is worth it to pay the extra 50 million (or whatever) for shank insurance? If you go with the averages, that you will not normally hit past 105% and you will normally hit more or less around 0%, then there is no benefit to buying the Hurricanes. This same argument can be made for fairway woods (3w/5w) -- the Tempest are just about as good as any and cost a fraction of the others. Again, this assumes you do not hit past 105% and you can usually hit around 0%.


Cheers, A[/size]

!! Great Job again ainns !!

I thought I'd mention the little method I use to attain the True MAX Distance whenever I test my clubs, like you I use the Driving Range but the problem with it is that no 2 'Nice-Shots' are ever the same distance so, to hit 1 Nice-Shot and write down the distance is not giving an accurate reading of the clubs True MAX Distance (As you know) but in the same respect I found that hitting 3 Nice-Shots was not giving a wide enough range to cover the variables for me to be able to get the True MAX Distance that I'm after.....

So, after a few trial & error tests to find the range of variable distances that I need to cover and take into account, now I always hit 5 Nice-Shots then work out the average of them all as I found that this gave me a more Accurate & True reading of the MAX Distance hit !!



!! Once Again, Great Job Mate.........Cya on the Field !!

The difference between nice shots comes from the fact that there is between a 98-100 (97-100 for low stam, and 99-100 high stam) percentage for contact on the ball thus resulting in highs and lows. If you want a real idea take your highest and lowest hits out of 10, and that is your 'max' range, don't bother averaging that tells you relatively nothing.

Looks like you need a update here, because CTL 3wR kicks lolipop of all other woods. Its even clean a killer, but with +5power/+4 skill I can even drive almost same like with my Hybrid+7power...with great backwind I drive with CTL 3wR longer then with Hybrid 1wR+7power...
..my stats: 32power/36impact/119 skill:)

cheers*house

It may be longer, but not all the time. The height of the 3W is very very low.. Making it worthless on a lot of holes you used to use your 3W for, like hole 2 of PGI.

I use CTL woods and, as Munk says, while they are long, they are low. This takes the 3W out of play for some holes on PGI and Gleiger. Of course, the 5W is as long as my old 3W, so, perhaps it could be used instead.

Anyway-- an update is in order and I will do it.

The difference in height between the CTL 5w and Hurri 5w is practically nonexistant, I found. Full 9 spin with a clean CTL 5w clears the trees on Sosori 2 barely, as does the Hurri with +8skill for me. Maybe the 3w and irons lose height, but I haven't seen it with the 5w.

Edit: Also has little problem clearing hole 11 Cad with 9 spin, but that's harder to test due to the high winds you often get on that hole. ^_^

I ran the same test for the CTL Legacy 3W. See the top post for info about the methodology and so forth. Here is the result, with the previous posted results grayed-out a bit:



As you can see, we get an average distance of about 7 yards longer than the Hybrid/Tornado.

Two Pedora were used in this test. Since last we posted, the following people donated Haoma or Pedora: reecechappo, donkeydoo_01. Donkey's donation in particular was very generous.

Cheers, A

ainns , i have afew fedora's and haoma's in locker not doing much if u would like them to do more tests. just pm me in game .
Tazlfc

UPDATED:
The image posted for the CTL 3W update had disappeared, so I re-uploaded using imageshack. It seems that images posted to gamescampus are deleted after a certain time. Sigh.. I expect this has affected other testing posts.

Thanks Taz. That would be great. Got some testing lined up, but Pedora prices are scaring me away.