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Posted
Does anybody have a good way to demo a club or set for a round our two to get the feel on the range and course? I really hate dropping 300-400 on a new club (driver) or way more on a set of irons after just hitting them in a simulator... Is there a demo program out there? Here in Denver I know of Golf Galaxy, and Golfsmith, neither will let you "check out a set" or a club for a weekend...

When I lived in Omaha, i could check clubs at a local shop, that was the best... any ideas or suggestions?

909D2 - 10.5º
909 F2 3 wood15º
AP 2 3-PW PX 5.5
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Posted
Find a local course whose pro shop carries the brands you want. Make sure they have demo sticks. Go to their range and / or course and swing away.
909D Comp 9.5* (house MATRIX OZIK XCON-6)
Burner Superfast 3 & 5 woods (house MATRIX OZIK XCON-4.8)
G15 Hybrid 23* (AWT shaft)
G5 5 iron-PW-46*, UW-50*, SW-54 & LW-58 (AWT shaft)
Studio Select Newport 2 Mid SlantGrips: PING cords & Golf Pride New Decade Multi-Coumpound Bag: C-130...

Posted
... Is there a demo program out there? Here in Denver I know of Golf Galaxy, and Golfsmith, neither will let you "check out a set" or a club for a weekend...

About 2007 or so, several of the big-name club manufacturers had a club test program. For about $60, they would send you a test set of irons or other clubs so that you could play them over a few days. Then, if you bought the set, the rental money applied to the purchase price. The big guys had quit doing this by 2008, when I was looking to replace my irons.

One option: See if any of the upscale courses rent out the type of clubs you want to hit. You could play a round there, rent a set of the clubs, and test them on range and course. But, you have to be lucky to find a course with the model of clubs you want to hit. Second option: Buy a slightly used version of the clubs you want from Golf Galaxy, and try them out for 30 days (?? need to check exact time frame). Then, if you don't like them, you can exchange them. (Sorry, I can't remember if it's a trade-in on another set, a credit voucher or what.)

Focus, connect and follow through!

  • Completed KBS Education Seminar (online, 2015)
  • GolfWorks Clubmaking AcademyFitting, Assembly & Repair School (2012)

Driver:  :touredge: EXS 10.5°, weights neutral   ||  FWs:  :callaway: Rogue 4W + 7W
Hybrid:  :callaway: Big Bertha B16 OS 4H at 22°  ||  Irons:  :callaway: Mavrik MAX 5i-PW
Wedges:  :callaway: MD3: 48°, 54°... MD4: 58° ||  Putter:  image.png.0d90925b4c768ce7c125b16f98313e0d.png Inertial NM SL-583F, 34"  
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Posted
About 2007 or so, several of the big-name club manufacturers had a club test program. For about $60, they would send you a test set of irons or other clubs so that you could play them over a few days. Then, if you bought the set, the rental money applied to the purchase price. The big guys had quit doing this by 2008, when I was looking to replace my irons.

Some of the golf superstores let you do this, as do some (most?) private courses.

In my bag:

Driver: Titleist TSi3 | 15º 3-Wood: Ping G410 | 17º 2-Hybrid: Ping G410 | 19º 3-Iron: TaylorMade GAPR Lo |4-PW Irons: Nike VR Pro Combo | 54º SW, 60º LW: Titleist Vokey SM8 | Putter: Odyssey Toulon Las Vegas H7

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Posted
I'm pretty sure Golfsmith and Golf Galaxy will let you take their used clubs out for a couple days and let u hit with them for no cost at all....

Maybe only I got to do this because my dad is friends with one of the employees there...lol. But honestly, it's worth asking, I don't see why they wouldn't let you take a set of used clubs out for a day or two. They let me =P

Posted
"There is NO substitute for true ball flight."
-OJ

Do NOT buy a club if you are hitting it into a screen, (or net). You must be able to see your shot.

Note: This thread is 5913 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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  • Posts

    • I would think of it in terms of time. The time it takes to get the arm angle into a good position to deliver the club with proper shaft lean. Another component is rotation, but that is also a matter of timing. It relates to how the body stalls to give the golfer time to hit the ball. If you have to get 80+ degrees out of that right elbow in one third of a second versus 50 degrees in the same time then you have to steal time from somewhere. It is usually body rotation. That does not help with shaft lean.  I agree in that amateurs tend to make the swing more complicated than pro golfers. 
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    • Day 580 - 2026-05-04 Played eight holes. Sometimes golf kicks you in the nuts. 😉 
    • I work with a lot of golfers who want more shaft lean at impact, who currently have AoAs that range from +2° to -2°, and who love to see the handle lower and more "in front of their trail thigh" from face-on at P6. And a lot of these golfers try to solve the issue by working on the downswing. They do something to drag the handle forward. Or they just leave their right thigh farther back so the same handle location "looks" farther forward. Or they move the ball back in their stance. Or they push themselves down into the ground to get the handle lower and increase (decrease?) their AoA (to be more negative). The real fix is often to get wider in the backswing. To do LESS in the backswing. To hinge less, fold the trail arm less, abduct the trail arm less. I had a case of this over the weekend. Before, the player had 110° of trail elbow bend, "lifted" his trail humerus only a few degrees, etc. The club traveled quite a bit around him, and he tended to "pick" the ball from the fairways. In the "after" swings below (which are mild exaggerations — this golfer does not need to end up at < 70° of elbow bend. These were slower backswings with "hit it as hard as you normally would" intent downswings), you can see that he bent his elbow about 70° instead of 110° and lifted his right arm an extra ~15° or more. You can't see how much less this moved his hands across his chest (right arm abduction), but it was also decreased. His hands stayed more "in front of" his right shoulder rather than traveling "beside" them so much. The two swings look like this: The change at P6, without talking about the downswing one little bit (outside of him telling me that he tends to pick the ball), is remarkable: Without 110° of elbow bend to get out (which he gets to 80°, a loss of 30°), the golfer actually loses slightly less elbow bend (70 - 50 = 20), but delivers 30° less elbow bend, lowering the handle and letting the elbow get "in front of" the rib cage… because it never got "behind" or "beside" the rib cage. If you look at this video showing the before/afters of P6, you'll note the handle location (both vertically and horizontally) and the shoulders (the ball is in the same place in these frames). This golfer's path was largely unaffected (still pretty straight into the ball, < 3° path and often < 1.5°), but his AoA jumped to -5° ± 2°. I've always said, and in talking with other instructors they agree and feel similarly, that we spend a lot of time working on the backswing. This is another example of why.
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