Unbelievable discovery this weekend at fitting!

Let me say that I don't know if I should be irate or excited.  Let me explain....

I went for an iron fitting this weekend and got the surprise of the year.  I have been playing Callaway x-22 Tour irons for about a 18 months, but am interested in moving to a forged club.  So, I decided to go for an iron fitting with a few forged clubs in mind, but went in thinking that if my current x-22 tours were close in performance and feel to the forged, I would just stay with my current clubs.

We started with my 6-iron, as the "control club".  My first several swings appeared not to register correctly.  Launch monitor picked up the ball with most stats correct.  But, the backspin was around 2000, about 3000rpm below typical 6 iron spin.  After 30 minutes of trying to fix the LM, I suggested we try another club.  I picked up the Miz mp-63 and - holy crap - 5200 rpm.  It was my Callaway, not the LM.  My fitter tested the shaft, a  Project X 5.5, and told me the club was 1/2" short stiffer than stiff - effectively a 7.0 PX.  The reference chart said that for the oscillation of this 6-iron, I would need a club head speed of over 100 MPH, for a 6 iron!  He checked several other clubs in my bag and said they were all the same, all beyond XXXXX Stiff.

My fitter said he has never seen anything like this with any clubs.

The irons were ordered directly from Callaway by my local golf shop.

So, I am irate that I have spent 18 months with clubs that I can't possibly hit consistently.  Thousands of range balls and hundreds and hundreds of dollars on lessons.

But, I am excited because now that I can get the right clubs in my hands, I looking forward to seeing what my swing is like.

Now, I need to figure out how to deal with Callaway on these rejects.  My local golf shop will work with me on this one.

Piece of advice, regardless of where you got your clubs - take an iron to a fitter and let them tell you what the shaft tests out at.

A scary story. I got some X20 Tours in PX 5.0 shafts at a good price for Christmas (Callaway Pre has lots PX 6.0 versions of the club they can't move; 5.0 hard to locate).

When I switched out clubs two years ago, I had tried the the X20 Tours in PX 5.0, but ended up getting the standard X20s in Uniflex (still have them). My pro said PX 5.0 might work better if softstepped.

I have discussed shafts in PMs with other posters. One suggested that PX shafts don't work well for players without a really quick swing. Another suggested KBS or KBS 90 if I have a smooth swing.

Looks like launch monitor tests are in order. I want to decide which way to go before March is over.

Where were you fit? And how did he come to the 7.0 figure. 1/2" isn't going to make much of a difference either way.

got fitted at Golftec.  I didn't mean to make it sound like he was attributing the super stiff shaft to the 1/2".  The point I was trying to make is that in addition to a super stiff shaft, they were shipped 1/2" short.  All in all, a major screw up by someone.

How long did your "Fitting" take out of curiosity?

If I read the OP correctly, all the irons are 1/2" short?  Is it possible that the original Callaway assembler mixed up the shafts, putting a 5 iron shaft in the 4 iron, and 6 iron shaft in the 5 iron, and so on?  That could be one reason all the shafts are so stiff - they would have been effectively tipped 1/2".  I don't know exactly how much difference  it would make in the stiffness, but it seems like a possibility.

I doubt it. The 1/2" is suspect, but I, at this point, don't trust his fitter 1 lick. I doubt very seriously that they mixed up the shafts like that.They may measure the club different. Ronbo, why don't you call Callaway customer service and talk to them and tell your situation? There customer service is some of the best in the business.

Well, the fitting should have taken less than 1 hour.  But it took us 45 minutes to figure out that my x-22's shafts are crap.

The process was -

* took measurements for height, hand size, distance from ground to hands

* took 3 swings with the Mizuno swing optimizer

* entered info into the computer s/w, which spit out a couple of shaft recommendations

* fitter put together the heads / shaft combo

* hit 3 balls with my control club (x-22 tour) and with each of the 3 irons

software made a recommendation based on spin, dispersion, distance, spin, accuracy, shot efficiency, etc.

I have a nice printout of the evaluation and recommendation.

And, BTW, for those that are interested, I am ordering the Miz MP-63.

Had a rather similar experience myself with a driver that I tended to hit low and lose right. Assumed my AoA was the main issue, so got on a couple of launch monitors only to find it was about where I wanted it at -1.1 degrees. Then took the club to a fitter, who put it on a frequency analyzer and found that the stock "stiff" shaft measured well into what most manufacturers would designate xx-flex. This is, politely stated, suboptimal for a 100mph swinger. :-P

Quote:

Yes, I know. It is, however, pretty unusual for a shaft to test out that much stiffer than "average", and I'd put it down to a manufacturing/QC issue rather than a design characteristic in this case.

If Callaway erred, I've heard many stories of them reshafting the clubs for free.

If they messed up that bad, I wouldn't even bother sending them back, obviously there are some problems in that warehouse.

That is MESSED UP. I have never heard of something like that, hopefully you'll see a huge improvement with irons that are fit for a human! I personally love the PX, I got them in my 910 CB's at a 6.0, which I originally thought I would go 6.5 maybe 7.0 but those babies are STIFF. Love them though, although if you catch one thin you really feel it, most responsive and fluid shafts I've ever hit in irons, and I have hit a majority of them in different fitting stations. Hope you like em!

I am planning on them re-shafting for free, at a minimum.  Quite honestly, for all the time and money spent hitting these boards (range balls / lessons), I think they should replace them with a new set of irons.  we shall see.

Just wondering, how did you play clubs with shafts several flexes too stiff for 18 months and not notice anything wrong?

I think I've heard of them doing that in the post -- my counsel, if you don't mind me sharing, is to be diplomatic, explain the entire situation, and listen to their proposed solution. If you're not receptive to their solution, let them know you appreciate it, but you think a wiser solution would be ....

That is a very good question.  I had just come out of some very old clubs and I guess I just didn't know any different.

Cally is great to deal with, the re-shafted clubs for once for free just because I ordered a shaft to weak for me (fitted by one of their guys) and called them up to see if they could help me out.