Tall guys

[JCRuzanski]

Hey, anyone know of a golf forum specifically geared to tall golfers? Google pretty much turns up nothing. I've been having an internal debate about waiting to find an older set of irons off ebay or the like, or just getting a giga/hierko set. I see the points of that argument from both sides... the only problem for me is fitting. Understandably putting my height specs into a generator isn't pure fitting, it churns out standard numbers, only in tall sizes... If I didn't need big boy clubs I'd buy off ebay tomorrow. But I do need a certain fit. At least 1" longer, and 2* up... that's what is considered "standard" for my stature... Just having a hard time making a decision as I don't want to hit the range/course using my old standard Adams set... counter productive, and I want to play now, lol. Any advice?

[JCRuzanski]

$300 is my budget.... at least with giga/hierkoi can upgrade the shafts and grips plus add a decent hybrid into the mix, and still hit my budget. Oem off ebay gets me just a used iron set. From my reading here, oem shafts aren't much good... I'll need stiff shafts from the increased length...

[JCRuzanski]

Giga recomends 1" long 3* upright. Ping recomends 1" long maroon dot. Pretty much every online "fitting" tool is within that window... at least 1" longer 2* upright.

[spam]

most reputable golf shops or pro shops can fit you properly. i know i have one in my area that has fitted me and it was free with the purchase of any set new or used as long as the equipment did not need drastic changes such as shafts or grips then it was material and labor but fitting was free

[JCRuzanski]

Hence the explaining my thought process... any factory standard club will need new shafts, and club head lieadjustment just to make it "standard" for me... of course fine tuning like those who play standard clubs do already... free fitting with purchase requires extra money for labor... my golfing is on a very tight budget.

[JCRuzanski]

I'm 6'5", 40" wrist to floor. My golf posture is typical 1970's instruction booklet style...

[JCRuzanski]

I suppose I could get the free fitting from Golfsmith, just to confirm my suspicions on club adjustment... then go from there.

[spam]

Originally Posted by JCRuzanski

I suppose I could get the free fitting from Golfsmith, just to confirm my suspicions on club adjustment... then go from there.

thats what i was saying. Some will do it even without purchase for free, the last fitting i did was free and i did not buy a club one from them i bought mine from ebay

[spam]

and you may be able to get them extended without buying new shafts. in turn is probably way cheaper then new shafts

[JCRuzanski]

Yeah, I'll go to golfsmith tomorrow, see what they suggest..

[JCRuzanski]

So I went to Golfsmith today, just happen to live 5 minutes away from one, went in at opening.  Was paired with a younger guy, who was very nice.  I asked for the free fitting they offer, which was basically just a 7 iron.  We started with +1" in length, and 3 degrees upright... using a lie board I was hitting dead center on the  bottom of the club, but a little toward the heel.  He suggested upping the length to +1.25"...   I've never felt that 'smooth' hitting clubs before... my slice turned into a slight pull to the right, to which another Golfsmith guy suggested a "wipe the table" motion in my swing.  That produced some good results.  7 Iron down the pipe, 170 yds... according to their machine, which probably isn't too accurate.

I was thinking that I'd have to pay extra for the lengthening and lie bending, but this guy tells me it's in the price of the irons already... big bonus for that.  The iron I hit was a Taylor Made Rocketblades.  He didn't have any other club heads in a 3 degree upright for me to compare to, although these felt really nice.

I then proceeded to hit some drivers, 3 woods, some hybrids... all in all I spent almost 2 hours on their machine hitting golf balls.  They weren't very busy, and I frequently asked them if it was ok that I was using so much time... I prefaced my fitting by explaining that I wasn't ready to buy today, and just wanted to make sure that all the other "internet fitting" sites were going to be the same as their's... all in all it was a great time, and they genuinely didn't seem to mind me using their machine.

[spam]

Sweet deal. i almost bought the rocket blades but then life happened lol. I'm happy you got your fitting done. the only thing i would not look at from it are the distances on there machine. i have went to a couple of places that use the machine for fitting and i know that i can not hit my driver 320 carry lol. so i don't know how they do it but they can juice the machine to give you false distances. Lets be honest they are trying to sell clubs and if they make it look like you gained a ton of yardage with a club they use it to convince you to buy that set. so what did you come up with for you fitting were the web sites right? also i had a set of caimen irons that i loved but moved on to a new set this year after i sold them to my buddy. the caimens are mad by hireco and are really pretty good some will knock them cause they are a knock off set. but in my opinion they are a little better then your run of the mill knock off. i got my whole set custom to what i wanted shaft,grips loft lie and and a couple of wedges for about 350 out the door. that was a 4 hybrid and a 4-p with a 56* and a 60*. yes i know i have the 4 hybrid and a 4 iron but that's what worked for my 3 iron filled the yardage gap perfect. some people just straight pick the exact number hybrid for the club they want to replace instead if the loft they are replacing. sorry got off the subject.

[JCRuzanski]

Off subject is good!!

yeah the fitting was pretty much on target with the online fittings... 1.25" extra in length, 3 degrees upright... although I think the guy at Golfsmith said another .25 degrees up... so 3.25 degrees upright... I'm  checking out GigaGolf right now... Hireko only bends to 2 degrees up... so they are out... too bad because they have their XK irons on clearance...

I totally get the loft substitution... that's what it's all about as far as hybrids for irons go...

When I was hitting the drivers and woods I was using standard lengths... seemed ok to me, so I think I'll just keep my Calloway Hawkeye driver, and my original Tight Lies 16 degree hybrid... 5-pw set, and grab a SW and LW.  Maybe throw in a 15 degree fairway wood...

So at least I don't have to replace the driver and hybrid...

I'll have to go back on Saturday (next time he works... apparently it's commission and hourly) and ask a few more questions.  I'm still a bit confused on their costs... I asked him about a further in depth fitting which costs 49.99 - 100+.  At first it didn't seem cost prohibitive to purchase OEM off the rack, due to my fitting changes... but if I understood him correctly those changes wouldn't increase the cost... so maybe a Taylore Made Burner set for $299 if the changes to length/lie are free.

Here's a question for ya... I know optimally lie changes would occur for each iron individually, but if I get a set of Giga and just plug in the 3 degree upright bend... should I also apply that to the wedges?  I think I read that wedges shouldn't need that drastic a change... gradually decreases as club length decreases... so maybe a 2 degree bend on wedges?  Or maybe start on the PW?  I dunno...

[JCRuzanski]

R1 driver felt nice too :-D

[JCRuzanski]

Just talked to the Golfsmith customer service... all fitting adjustments are done at the factory with no extra cost to the purchaser... now that's welcome news... might be getting the Burner 2.0 irons 4-pw,aw... 299. That keeps me where I want to be cost wise... standard shafts felt good... grips were fine... those cost extra...

[JCRuzanski]

Now the debate is back to GigaGolf vs OEM.... I could either save a chunk of money, or get more clubs and stay at my $250 goal... I just wish I could convince myself that Giga's clubs are decently enough made to start my golf game again....

[spam]

I'm not sure on the wedges i never had my wedges bent played those standard. but I'm only 1.5 up on my lie. you can kinda set your lie a bit with your stance with the wedges but i have known people that have played thee wedges standard with there irons bent. try standard lie on your wedges when your at the store next time. as far as your pw that would probably be bent with the rest. when i did my fitting we hit every club i bought and adjusted from there so that every club was bent to my swing of that club. so I'm sure you could just run straight thru all the irons and wedges and have them all bent individually regardless of club. at least that's what my fitter did. i sprayed the R1 all over the place when i tried it out on the course did the same with the R11 i stick with my callaway razer hawk. or the adams speed line i bought. I play my callaway and i put the speed line in my brothers bag due to confidence with the callaway. speed line was longer but i hit more fairways with my cally. but i guess to answer the question if you buy the clubs and have them fitted the fitter should set each club to spec including wedges. due to shaft length. i know my fittying did and some were a little diferent then others when bent he did a bunch of fine tuning to make sure contact was dead on as he could get it. but again not sure how every fitter works

[spam]

that debate is like the gun debates at times. you will find a lot of gear snobs just like gun snobs. you talk to one guy and he will say i wont shoot anything but a glock and the other guy will say that a glock is a plastic piece of junk and he will only shoot smith&wesson.; same happens in golf taylormades are the best no callaway no titleist and on and on and on. the best advice i can give is the score card does not see what is in your bag. go with what your budget allows and i have nothing bad about some of the bigger no name brands like hireko and giga