105 swing speed...Best driving round ever with a senior-flex driver

[Meddle]

I was so blown away that I had to post something on here about this. The other day I played with my dad's Ping G20 "soft regular" flex driver and was crushing it straight and long, between 260-70 with nice high ball flight.

I have been through a bunch of drivers in the past, none of which I have been very happy with. I usually go for a stiff, low spin shaft because that is what I see people with higher swing speeds playing. Most recently, I have played a r7 quad with a Fujikura X-Stiff fit on, and a TL310 with a NV 75 stiff, both 10.5 degrees loft. I hit both setups around 240-50, with a pretty low ball flight.

After doing some research, I found out that the effective loft at the point of contact has to be fairly high to maximize distance, around 13-16 degrees at contact, or even higher depending on swing speed and other variables. To satisfy my curiosity, I went to a local golf store and hit some shots on a ball flight simulator. It said my effective loft at contact was consistently around 11.2 degrees with a 10.5 degree loft driver head. Therefore, in order to get the ball up in the air and hit it farther I need a shaft that spins the ball more, not less. That's why that senior flex driver was so effective. I ended up buying a cheap "made for" shaft for $20, put it in my TL 310 head, and found I hit it around 270 according to the simulator with spin around 2800. Just for fun I hit a new R1, cranked up the loft past 11 degrees and tried it out. Effective loft was slightly higher, but spin was around 2200 with the "better quality" shaft and I hit it 5 yards less.

Those of you hitting the ball low... consider getting your swing on a launch monitor. See if you can find a setup that will work for your swing. It might not cost as much as you think!

Also, a great resource I found for info on this: http://www.tutelman.com/golf/ballflight/launchOptimize.php

[spalding]

The key is high launch low spin. If you swing at 105 mph then you should carry the ball 260 yds. Check your ball position (off left in-step)and try getting more tilt in your shoulders right being lower left is higher

[fRzzy]

I tried hitting up before and it didn't work for me, switched back to hitting down on it, better... My best driving round I hit 11/14 fairways, 210-220 yards average (best one 242 yards, 95mph swingspeed) - with a steel shaft driver (TT Dynalite Gold R300, Nike VR_S 13* head) - one average, I hit maybe 8-9 fairways with this driver, distance seems consistent longer than 200 yards...

I have always struggling with my driver, distance wise, I don't have much problem with hitting it relatively straight but somehow I just can hit it right on the sweetspot on a regular basis. This, I need to address with more practice, but hitting down, launching low, combine with spinning more works for me. The ball take off low, and keep flying, keep on flying, touch the ground with a shallow angle and roll some...

I believe the key to get more roll is shallow landing angle...

I now setup with the ball toward center of my stance, same position as my setup with 7 wood (I hit down with woods, too)