Club fitting

When and where:

 

I am a high handicapper, double bogey golfer, who just started playing 8/2010.  My score has dropped from 120s to 100s.

 

I have old 1997 irons Cobra II oversized irons with graphite shafts regular flex 3-pw

 

random woods: Nike sumo 10.5 degree driver reg flex graphite , callaway steelwood #2 reg flex steel shaft, adams original tight lies #4 stiff graphite shaft.

 

cleveland wedges 56 and 60 RTG's 

 

Nickent hybrid #3 reg flex graphite shaft

 

Ping anser 2i isopur putter cut to 33"

 

I have not taken an official lesson, though some friends with HS golf and having played all their lives have given me tips.

 

currently feel that the Cobras are way too light, swing weight between them and my wedges is huge and awkward.  

 

am able to get relatively consistent ball contact ie >60% of the time gets in the air and goes straight.

 

want to ask a few things,

 

1) should i be looking at getting club fitting?

 

if so, my 2 choices are 

 

Golftec

 

and 

 

Massengale Golf Academy which won the ping clubfitter of the year a few years back.

 

2) should i get formal lessons first?  i feel my swing is actually fair have seen it on video and watched tons of golf channel

 

3) other option would be to possibly reshaft my king cobras

 

thx for input,

 

ard1

Edited by arduous1 - 3/28/11 at 4:53pm

golfer nc, thx for the reply.  i emailed don massengale, and asked him basically the same question, he responded similarly to what you posted.  so i will likely be heading up to the woodlands within the next few weeks to get a lesson/fitting from them.  

 

regards,

 

ard1

 

p.s.  i'll keep the forum updated on how this goes if anyone is interested.  

Being in Houston luckily I have a lot of options, one I hadn't thought of till I trolled the forums a bit is a custom fit set of clubs by bwgolf with Wishon components. Any thoughts on this option?

Thx again,

Ard1

Since I am a high handicapper and i imagine will eventually move away from game improvement irons to something i can perhaps work the ball more with, i've elected to get a dynamic fitting with Donnie Massengale at his Nflight Ping fitting center in Spring, TX. By all accounts, this should be a good experience.  Additionally should i ever sell these irons, i'm sure they'll be worth more as a known brand rather than something custom made such as Henry Griffitts or Tom Wishon.  

 

I scheduled a fitting appointment for this coming Wednesday.  Will let you guys know about the process and what i think about it, then eventually, what clubs i wind up getting (how different they would be from say a ping G15 black set of standard like and length clubs, and then perhaps most importantly how if it all they wind up improving and changing my game.  

 

Update shot a 108 at a par 71 course this past saturday, so the last 3 outtings have been just under 110.

 

cheers,

 

ard1

 

 

Huffy,

 

thx for the input, as you can see by my post above, i think i'm gonna go with pings for now.  in all likelihood, i'm guessing G15's all around.  perhaps when my handicap index is as low as yours, i'll try Wishon irons.  

 

thx again,

 

ard1

 

 

Hello all,

 

My stats btw ~174 cm height or 5'8.5" and 162 lbs.  male right hander.  age 37.

 

A brief summary of how my fitting went.  

 

Pulled up to Augusta Pines.  (yes i know, kinda cheesy name for a course, obviously playing on Augusta National and Torrey Pines)

 

Very nice clubhouse and building.  Quite impressive for a scrub like me.  nice amenities inside with a fancy restaurant/proshop, and like riverwalk/indoor water feature.

 

walked in mentioned i had an appointment with donnie massengale at 1.

 

was directed to the Ping nFlight center just off the side of the driving range.  which btw was very nice.

 

2 indoor centers with rolling garage type doors to fire away down range.  in use they had the doppler (not trackman, other brand forget name at the moment)

 

he also had 2 cameras and flood lights, probably either for night hitting and or swing analysis.  neither was in use for my session.

 

donnie got me back there, we talked about my game, or lack thereof, and then he asked what i thought i hit a 7 iron.  i proceeded to tell him 140ish and drives 220-230ish with roll. 

 

he took static measurements, which i knew and told him i was a Red.  and sure enough i was correct.

 

then he asked me if there was a reason i was hitting graphite shafts, to which i basically replied no.  in fact i mentioned that i didn't like the swing weight difference between my current irons and wedges.  they were quite far apart and made hitting the wedges sometimes a bit of an awkward transition.

 

he started me hitting a 52 degree wedge rustique tour-s.  

 

hits similar to my clevelands so went fairly well, went about 89 yards.

 

then moved to 7 iron G15 in black (standard lie and length) with regular and then stiff shaft, then back to regular, then switched to i15.  hit 7 iron both shafts.  

 

discussed which i liked, i mentioned hit similar, but aesthetically the i15 was more pleasing, and hopefully i could grow into them.  i'm not sure, but i think i may have hit the G15 iron a little further.  i'm asking for all the detailed data, which i'm sure he'll provide.  including launch angle, ball speed, spin rate etc.

 

then moved on to hybrids.  hit k15 and g15 hybrids i believe 23 degree.  for the life of me, the g15 was easier to hit for some reason.

 

then onto driver.  i started with G15s and kept pushing it right.  either straight right or slice.  he brought out the k15 and sure enough, they went straighter.  same went for fairway woods.

 

then we kinda discussed club makeup, how many hybrids if any, how many woods etc. 

 

discussed wedge gaps etc.  

 

hit the G15 driver at first 12 degree, kept pushing the damn thing to the right.  club head speed he told me was around 90.  this is where i learned something.  i tried cranking it up and oddly my headspeed was actually slightly slower like 87.  and the results were way worse with poorer distance.  suprisingly an easy in tempo swing was 90ish mph and tended to go straighter and farther in general.  tried k15 in 12 with better results and for giggles tried driver in 10.5, which resulted in shorter drives.

 

trust me, given my double bogey handicap, i hit plenty of mishits and shanks (ground balls etc)  particularly with the longer clubs.  no suprise there.

 

so after everything was said and done.  i was recommended the following:

 

general rules, steel shaft for irons/wedges, graphite for hybrids and woods.  Regular flex all round.

 

standard black and the white grip

 

K15: driver 12 degree, 3 wood 16 degree, 7 wood 22 degree, G15: 4 hybrid 23 degree, I15: 5-gap wedge, and i was gonna keep my 56 and 60 clevelands though the computer actually recommended 52 and 56 wedges.

 

Overall impression, was a positive one.  i asked donnie from the get go, let me know if it is too premature for a fitting and if he thought my swing would change drastically enough with lessons etc to change my fitting.  he took that into acct, and not far into the session told me my swing was fine, and that the only real change he would expect is shaft changes to stiff if my swing speed increased.  pretty common sense.  the other thing, he mentioned may change was the driver, loft and shaft, for the same reasons, but he felt the irons would keep and maybe if i got more consistent i could swap the hybrids for regular irons, but he mentioned that may never happen as many people love hybrids and use them at all levels.

 

hope this is helpful, be happy to answer any questions, and may just update with more details later anyways, b/c i'm like that.

 

oddly absent, i saw a lie board on the wall, but i did not hit off of it.  Having said that, he knew when i was hitting it fat or thin etc, guess he has a pretty good eye.

 

hit em good,

 

ard1

 

p.s. Donnie apparently played on the tour for several years 6-7 i believe.  We BS'd around about the Shell Houston Open, Bubba Watson, Anthony Kim, and Yani Tseng.

 

Edited by arduous1 - 3/30/11 at 7:32pm

WUTiger,

 

appreciate the advice.  just as a caveat, i maybe play max 2 rounds of golf/month and hit the range maybe 1x/month.  having said that, i do swing the club a lot at home.  intend to get a net to hit actual balls into, but that hasn't happened yet.  

 

so given that, i don't think i have put in the time to get that "good" yet, as in to break 100.  but i have managed to drop 20 or so strokes off my game in the last 6 months with minimal actual play.  which i hope is at least reasonable.

 

with all that said, by ur handicap, u seem to be about 10-15 strokes better than i am.  how long did it take u to get there, how many lessons did u take, and where did u start?  i'm just curious, b/c i wanna gauge my progress against some sort of measuring stick.  

 

i've asked various people about the fitting/lessons thing, and i think you are correct.  universally, people tell me to get lessons asap, before i develop and groove in "bad" habits, b/c once that happens it is often difficult or at least more difficult to correct.  

 

on the other hand, people have told me that club fitting early is nice as well, as then you can at least eliminate that factor from hindering your game and move forward from there.

 

in fact, Tom Wishon has several videos stating that it is more beneficial to a high handicapper than a low handicapper.  b/c as you can imagine, small gains can equal big changes in score for a neophyte like myself.

 

anyhow, given my equipment is by all accounts rather old, and the fact that i'm not that happy with it anyhow, i figured, some more modern and properly fitted equipment would be a good idea.

 

thanks again, and always interested in hearing folks opinions and advice.

 

ard1

 

p.s.  anyone with comments about my recommended club combination? or with questions or comments about my reported process?

Edited by arduous1 - 3/31/11 at 12:06am

 

newtogolf:  in terms of where to go, i would say it is primarily restricted by your geographic location, and how far you are willing to travel for this sorta thing.  

 

i was suprised as well by the i15 suggestion, i thought for sure it was g15, though at the store i secretly wanted something more player like.  to my shock, he offered it as an option, to which i jumped on it.  not sure if this was driven by a financial gain perhaps?  honestly, he said i was basically hitting them the same and it was personal preference as to which i would wanna get; i'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say no.

 

itching4scratch:  to answer your question, while the lofts are similar, the lengths are quite different between wood and hybrid, so the distance gap was actually one of the largest in the set, 15-25 yards.  the longer wood even with same loft as hybrid would go farther.

 

WUTiger:  great reply.  i enjoyed the read. 

 

ard1

 

 

Turns out the G15s have a 1 degree lower/stronger loft in equal clubs. So that pretty much explains the extra distance.

Newtogolf if you goto the ping site you can find their list of fitters. I recommend staying away from retail centers if possible, seems the PGA pros would be a better bet.

Ard1