The Power Fade Golf Blog

Updated 6/7/2012

LG’s What’s In The Bag (https://thepowerfade.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/whats-in-the-bag-lg-edition/) inspired me, but, sadly, not enough to do anything about it until now (yes, nearly a year later). Now that I finally have my set the way I want–or as close as it’s going to get at this point–here it is. Without further ado, JK’s WITB:

The first look is of the entire bag. What immediately stands out is the color yellow. To accommodate my Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, I’ve bought yellow golf bags over the years. Slowly, I’ve continued to include yellow colors in various aspects of the bag until virtually everything in the bag now has something yellow associated with it.

The towel here is for Mystery Valley Golf Course in Stone Mountain/Lithonia, Georgia. I grew up playing this course, and this towel goes with me wherever my bag goes. It’s a reminder of where I learned to play the game and, more importantly, how I learned to play the game. Mystery Valley is the subject of a PF review, https://thepowerfade.com/2011/07/25/review-mystery-valley-golf-course-lithonia-ga/.

I recently decided that I wasn’t good enough to play blades anymore. Too much inconsistent contact (due to too much inconsistent practice) means cavities were the way to go. I picked up these Mizuno MP 63 irons near the end of last year. They’re great. Diamond muscle cavities provide a good touch and workability along with a low COG, but the cavities edges create perimeter weighting, helping with forgiveness on off-center hits (THANK YOU!). I would recommend staying away from the KBS Tour iron shafts, though. They felt mushier and less certain, to me, than the X100s that I am now playing in them. I swingweighted them to D4-D5 and put on custom ferrules (which are seen in another pic). Nice to have a set that is truly my own.

Below are my Fourteen MT28V5 wedges, spec’d at 54/10 and 60/08, but with the 54/10 bent to 56/12. These were refinished and rechromed near the end of last year by Jim Kronus at The Iron Factory. The review is at https://thepowerfade.com/2011/12/28/review-iron-factory-jim-kronus/

I purchased this MP 53 3-iron from a member at GolfWRX. I found out later when building it into its current form that the head weight is a little light of standard due to it being designed as a “B” head. Mizuno is the only company (that I am aware of) that has two production lines: one is for standard weight heads for standard length clubs, one is for long club for taller players. When the clubs are built to 1 inch or more over standard, the head weight needs to come down to keep the swingweight relatively the same. Because I play my irons at standard, I have a tip plug and lead tape on the head to get the weight where I like it (playing around D4-D5).

Another view of the bag shows the various towels and headcovers. LG was kind enough to get me some yellow and white towels, and I keep a black one on the bag for when I really get a lot of dirt on the club and don’t want to dirty up my nice white towels. There are four headcovers on my bag, none of which are standard. One says “GT” for Georgia Tech and has some logos on it. Another is Buzz, the GT mascot. These two headcovers protect my fairway woods. A black panther protects my driver. The panther is the mascot of Georgia State University, where I got my graduate degree. I was unable to find any blue or purple panther headcover, though (both colors used by the university at some point, oddly enough), so I went with black. The last is the cover to protect my putter, which is a custom made by Delila. More seen of that in later pictures.

Pure Pro grips are tremendous. I’ve been meaning to do a review on these, but they are sturdier than Tour Velvet while also being tackier to promote traction. I couldn’t be happier with them, and the yellow was a bonus.

Custom yellow ferrules from eBay. Yes, it’s a little gawdy (or maybe a lot), but I’m the only person I’ve seen that has custom yellow ferrules. There’s something to be said about that.

Another look at the various headcovers.

Below is, simply put, the best putter in the world LaMont Mann at Sunset Beach did a tremendous job on this, as he does on many putters. This one has helped me transform my game from a bomb and gouge, can’t get it in the hole player to a “he makes them from everywhere on the green but can’t swing to save his life” kind of player. Trying to get those two married together, in a good way. A full review of SSB is at https://thepowerfade.com/2011/05/02/review-sunset-beach-golf/


Chris Jordan of Sunset Beach was nice enough to get me a yellow putter grip recently. It works great. I had 27 putts in my last 18 hole round.

Below is the headcover by DelilaH. A full review of Delila and her process is at https://thepowerfade.com/2011/12/07/review-club-covers-by-delilah/. The long story short, I wanted a custom cover to match my bag and to remember my kids when I’m on the course. This was the best I could’ve ever dreamed of.

Another look at the Panther. Growl.

LG and I simultaneously (or close thereto) have shifted between various drivers over the last few years. First, we had SMT drivers (review at https://thepowerfade.com/2011/01/24/review-smt-golf/). We experienced some problems with our SMT drivers that we did not anticipate, so LG first switched. He was looking at the Titleist 910 drivers and decided to save his money and buy a 909D2, which is basically the same thing but without an adjustable hosel. I followed suit shortly after, buying a 909D3. I put in a V2 Tour Flight shaft, but it was too low, and I did not like my dispersion. So, I found a decent price on a Japan-issued prototype Diamana Whiteboard 73x5ct. I had previously played 80g shafts and 60g shafts, but they never felt right. The Whiteboard, at around 70g, was right on. I put in a Harrison Shotmaker in E flex, and my drives have been long, straight, and accurate ever since. Nothing is a panacea, and I still have occasional bad shots, but this setup is working very well for me.



Below is the oldest club in my bag and its cousin. The 904f 17 degree fairway wood was a club I bought while I was in college. I had played a 2-iron for a long time, but I decided it was getting too difficult to hit. Plus, I wanted to add an extra wedge, and carrying a 3-wood and a 2-iron could be eliminated if I played a 4-wood. So, I traded in my old 3-wood and got the 904f. It has seen a lot of bag changes (from 962s to MP14s to MP67s to MP32s to KZG ZOs and now MP63s, and that’s just the irons!). It got so scratched and dirtied that I decided to repaint it. It’s still the same tremendous golf club it was for me many years ago. The 13 degree I bought within the last two years. LG was in Atlanta more than a year ago and hit my 904f 17 degree. He liked it so much that he started looking for his own 904f. We found someone willing to sell a 15 degree, 13 degree, and 19 degree, so I bought all of them, kept the 13 for myself, and sent the 15 and 19 to LG. The 13 will be coming out of the bag soon in favor of an Adams XTD Super Fairway (pics to come later), but my bag is still accurate as of now.

Oh, and an instructional for repainting the 17 degree fairway wood is at https://thepowerfade.com/2010/12/06/repainting-a-club-redux/9/, which includes a link to the original repainting thread.


The Bushnell Tour V2 laser, approved for tournament play. What a great device.

The scorecard holder below was a gift from LG (very kind, and thank you). It goes with me everywhere and is very helpful, especially on summer days in Georgia when I have a tendency to sweat through my scorecards. A review of these will be forthcoming, but know that this is a great product and is just the signature touch I needed to complete my bag.


In a nod to Georgia Tech, I mark my golf ball with a gold dot and gold line (considering the colors are old gold and white). I do it while I can, until I run out of the markers I have, then I’ll have to find something else to do.


These markers are out of production now. They still make the silver metallic ones, but Sharpie does not make gold anymore. I’m told they once made copper too, but those are the rarest by far. These still come up on eBay from time to time, but they aren’t cheap typically. I lucked out and bought 6 about two years ago for under $20. I still have 3 remaining, so hopefully they’ll last until I can find more. Sharpie does make paint markers, but that’s not the same as a true Sharpie. The color is great, and the markings wear off slowly over the course of a round. While this seems bothersome, it’s actually good because you can remark at the end of the round and, as long as you haven’t significantly dinged your golf ball, it feels like a new ball! I’ve been very happy with these.

Finally, a bag tag from Glen Abbey. For those that don’t know Glen Abbey, it’s a championship course that was the home of the Bell Canadian Open for many years. Now, the Canadian Open shifts from one site to another, but the course is still in championship shape. Glen Abbey was one of the first (if not the first) championship courses I ever played. It’s loaded with history of great players doing spectacular things there. Some memorable moments are seen in the video clip below, most notably, Tiger Woods’s 6-iron shot out of the bunker on 18. Yet another moment (I believe from the same tournament) but lesser-known was Tiger’s charge to make the cut. After shooting a 39 on the back 9 of round 1 on Thursday, (scorecards here: http://www.pgatour.com/r/tiger.victoryroom.win24/index.html), Tiger was in jeopardy of missing the cut. Tiger finished the back 9 on Friday (round 2) with birdie, eagle, birdie, eagle–going 6-under for the last four holes to shoot 32 on the par 37 back 9 to make the cut and, eventually, to win. The Glen Abbey bag tag is a reminder to me never to give up and, when all else fails, to be aggresive and to trust my instincts.

canadian open

So that’s it. There are some other nuances, but I could waste all day blathering on about mindless stuff that has some meaning to me but, invariably, doesn’t have meaning to someone else. Leave a comment if you feel, and thanks for looking.

Also, the pictures below were taken near the end of last year to try to do a WITB then, but…clearly…I didn’t. As you can see, not a lot has changed, but there are some differences. Many of these are now backups to my current set. Enjoy.