Reviewer: Guy Owen
Reviewer's Handicap: 28
Club acquired from: Golfworks.com
Cost: $35 kit (on sale)
Positives of this Club
Works as advertised. Not a gimmick. Kit was easy to assemble. Instructions were easy to understand. Club is a "natural," after you spend a few hours with it. Worth more to me than any $400 Driver that I've ever bought.
Negatives of this Club
16-degree works better from hardpan or pine needles or sandy lies - less so from anything with much grass heighth above, say, six inches. I'm building a 24-degree (version next). This club takes a little getting used to, but continues to impress me with its usefulness. The headcover is poorly designed, however, and will not stay on. This is probably not a club for a low-handicapper unless he/she has an open mind on these things. But their ball never seems to land in the flower bed! The 16-degree can be defeated by a root that is only two inches high, however.
Review:
If nothing else, the name is wonderful! "Slippery Frog." It's a 3-wood head on a putter shaft with an iron grip (especially important since a putter grip can only be used legally on, well, a putter!). It garners a lot of attention when other players first see it - and all of the rolling eyes and knowing glances stop as soon as you start placing punch shots from those hazardous lies within two feet of the cup!
I've used this club on just about any vindictive, abusive lie you can imagine. Pine needles at Pinehurst? No sweat. Those insane wood chips at Myrtle Beach? I laugh at thee! Stone-filled sandy hardpan in Florida? It's a cinch. Semi-buried in short rough near that hateful sandtrap? Unbelievable results. Low-lying branches make advancing the ball up the fairway nearly impossible? Watch me! Ten feet off the green, or 90 - I've used it for all kinds of shots and smile to myself as I see the look on the faces of my partners.
One item becomes readily apparent - you need to develop a little "touch" with this thing. It requires a putter-style stroke, not a wedge. You can't give up on it after only three rounds. Play six with it or - shudder at the thought! - practice just a little, and I'll guarantee one thing: It will displace at least one club in your bag, if not two. Get rid of the 3-Iron and the 4-Iron, and put one of these babies in your bag, instead. It will get you out of those tight situations that the low irons get you into!
How enjoyable is it? I almost shoot toward the trouble spots just for an excuse to use it. It shoots straight as an arrow, time after time. And I've never had a shot where the clubhead cut under the ball and popped it only two feet ahead of your starting point - mid-to-high-Handicappers, say that about your pitching wedge (much less your sand wedge).
I'm building a 24-degree to gain a little more pop-and-stop action. You can use the 16-degree from as far out as 125 yards, but getting it to stop from that distance is another matter. The concept is not new - lots of people watch the pros use their driver or 3-wood to do a punch shot near the green, butting up against the fringe, or out of a hardpan lie. But if you've ever tried doing it, you'll soon realize that choking down on a 44-inch or 43-inch shaft and then trying to control them while taking an awkward putting stroke is, well, distracting. The trick here is the specially designed double-curve putter shaft that keeps your hands ahead of the clubhead and your arms comfortably extended with no shaft or grip butt banging you in the chest or arms. It makes all the difference in the World.
A low handicapper may never end up in those flowerbeds. But as a perpetual mid-to-high-handicapper, the "Slippery Frog" now lets me enjoy the view!