Major Decision with HotStix Golf

Greetings all - I just returned from Arizona, having spent an afternoon at HotStix golf for a complete fitting. They are very professional, friendly, and knowledgeable.

I want to dump my heavy steel Tour Edge irons for some lighter graphites. The HotStix analysis concluded:

1. Cleveland HiBore XL driver, fairway woods. I hit this the best and the spin, launch angle, etc were the best of all I tried.
2. Mizuno MX-900 irons. This was a tough decision betw MX-23, Callaway Fusion Wide Sole and Callaway X-20. Any thoughts?

HotStix gave me all the clubs I wanted to demo over the weekend and I returned them yesterday.

My dilemma is that they suggest I go for Aerotech shafts (graphite/steel fusion) in which they would frequency match and pure each shaft. Same thing with the woods except those would be Fujikura shafts.

The cost of the frequency matching and puring will be about $1500 extra on top of the costs of the clubs. I love the idea of this but for someone like me (52.5 years old, good shape, 27 handicap, drives about 230-254 yds total carry @ 91-95 mph, hit 7 iron about 140 yards @ 65-75 mph) IS IT REALLY WORTH IT? WILL I SEE A DIFFERENCE? I HAVE READ THAT PURING INCREASES THE LIKELIHOOD OF HITTING THE SWWET SPOT BY 35%.

Thanks in advance for the opinions

I don't have any insight into your shaft question, but I wanted to ask you did the HotStix fitting live up to their reputation? I've had bad luck with fitting locally and I've been researching and thinking about saving my money to go. Was it worth it? Did they fit you for ball, putter, wedges as well?

It cost me $475 and even though thats a lot for a fitting, I felt satisfied. Very professional, very thorough. They will answer ALL of your questions no matter what. Got fitted for driver, irons, putter and balls. My only gripe was that their ball data base was incomplete (no Top Flite, no DT Solo, no Pinnacle, no Wilson). My comment was how can you properly fit me for a ball when you dont even have the total listing. I was able to take whatever clubs I wanted for 2 days, and went back Monday with more questions which they courteously answered.

My only question now is whether to spend $3000 for a complete set of pured, freq matched clubs?

Here is a Sand Trap article from about a year ago that could help you make a decision: http://thesandtrap.com/bag_drop/shaf...ultimate_tweak

Great article---thanks

In my opinion, for the $1500 you would spend to get clubs that you can hit the sweet spot 35% more often, you could get a lot of good lessons for that same amount of money and improve your game more than any clubs or shafts will. You said you are a 27 handicap, I think i would just take the custom fit clubs with the proper lie, grips, shaft (not pured) and shaft length and go get some good lessons with the saved money. Clubs can only do so much to improve your game. But even if you are hitting the sweet spot more often and the club face is open, your not improving anything.

I'm a 4 handicap and I asked a buddy of mine who is a PGA Class A and he said that he doubts I would know the difference between a shaft that is pured and one that isn't.

I agree with the post earlier that said to save the money on frequency matched and puring and get lessons for the money. Figure out your lie and length, get a decent shaft (Rifle, Dynamic Gold) and then get lessons.

Don't know your long terms goals, but I doubt they are heavily leaning towards playing on tour. You don't need that extreme of precision for a 27 handicap. Hell, even a 10 handicap wouldn't need that. You spent a bunch on fitting that you could have done for relatively cheap at a PGA Superstore and then had the lessons that probably would take off 10-15 strokes with proper practice. Having a shaft that is pured doesn't just shave the strokes off if the swing won't cooperate.

Gentlemen,

This is SUCH a hot topic, and the truth is incredibly hard to distinguish from marketing. Whoever posted the number that sweet spot hits will increase by 95% - that is marketing if not an outright fallacy. So let's try and separate fact from fiction in regards to this. First of all, all golf shafts have spines, it doesn't matter whether they are steel or graphite. The spine of the golf shaft is the plane of the shaft where it is the stiffest compared to any others. Now there are ways to manufacture shafts in which the spine is minimized (accra and Fujikura are by far the best at this), however you can never lose it. Taking the fact that each shaft has a certain area where it is stiffer (more resistant to bending), this has certain effects on how the shaft droops towards the ball at the bottom of your swing. If you are able to locate this stiff area and place it in the exact same orientation throughout your set, your shafts will react the same way and droop the same amount making each club more consistent. Also, certain advanced players who are fighting a hook or fade, can also use this to their advantage to eliminate the right or left shot that is their big miss. Now for the million dollar question - will this make a difference. Yes and no. I can't answer this question for you. Machine testing has proved that there is a difference between spined (pured, flo'ed, peak'ed) shafts and those that are not. In all honesty though, where I've found it makes the biggest difference is in between your ears, and that's where it counts. If it gives you more confidence and you think it will make a difference it likely will. I've had customers who have had Pured shafts that came back and said they've never driven the ball so accurately. Will it make you find every fairway? No. Will it make up for a bad swing flaw? Definitely not. But it does eliminate one less variable and if you can afford it, your set will definitely feel much more consistent from wedge through driver.

A couple things....

Price does not necessesarily guarantee the spine prominence...I agree Accra and Fuji have been consistent in minimizing spine detection...but now many LOW END shafts are as good if not better in minimizing spine visability.

Specifically those that are fiberwound, done by computer maintain excellent consitency...in many cases maintain closer tolerances than the higher priced sheet rolled shafts.

Next thing, orientating a spine in orer to attain specific flight tendency is against the rules.

Finally, and pretty much what the thread is about is with HotStixx you're paying a fee to get your spines pured, part of which they have to give a percentage to Hot Stix Corp in return for the equipment.

For a clubfitter to CHARGE for Flo/Spine align a club is obscene. We do it with every club that goes out and wouldn't DREAM of charging someone for that (assuming of course they BOUGHT the equipment from us).

(Bold We/us in above quote added by QQQ)

Who are "we"/"us"???

FYI, I had a set of wedges built last year and was charged $5 per club for spine orientation.

good post on whether it eliminates another variable or not.

for actual shot making, most handicap golfers have swing flaws that aren't consistent for this to make the difference. If I come in flat one time and a little more upright the next, then the puring may not help and be off on one of the swings. It really only works if you have a consistent swing, which most 27 handicaps don't have.

I applaud the clubmaker that does this automatically...PGA store charges $25/club and I agree that most of it is hype/marketing. Golfers as a whole will spend stupidly without thinking. I'm one of them...is the new D2 really that much better than the 905R that I need to get a new driver every year? Probably not, but I still do it. It's amazing at the amount that golfers will spend to get an additional edge that probably isn't worth it.

www.indacupgolf.com

As someone said, "no one's swing is consistent"...
Which is true....if it was, all the guys in the PGA would be hitting 100% fairways...

And I will be the first to say that there's NO GUARANTEE that spine align/FLO/Pureing will make your game better...but I CAN guarantee this...

it won't make it worse.

So why not??? Unless of course you get CHARGED for it....

Thanks for the responses, gents.