How much did your custom-built driver cost?

[Lihu]

With my R9, the carry distance I got was the same as my total distance, because the spin rate was around 4500 rpm. If the fairways were wet I would actually get backspin on my drives. I lowered that rate by about 2000 rpm with my fitted club, while also gaining significant carry distance. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the distances I get out of this new driver on hard fairways.

I would definitely recommend getting professionally fit - it may not be cheap but it's worth it if you're a golf nut like most of us on this site.

I'm getting a driver fitting tomorrow. I'll bring in my beast club, and hopefully get something longer and more accurate.

My hope is to get the Cobra Biocell shaft replaced with something what will not balloon as much. It's worth getting the fitting anyway, we'll see what happens.

[billchao]

Wow, did you gain 50 yards on average? That seems pretty significant. I think I'll do what @billchao suggested. Get fitted.

Yup, get fitted. Preferably with a good launch monitor and experienced fitter. I found a place near me which fits the bill, but considering the cost of the fitting and the likely cost of the recommended clubs, I have yet to go.

[Lihu]

Yup, get fitted. Preferably with a good launch monitor and experienced fitter. I found a place near me which fits the bill, but considering the cost of the fitting and the likely cost of the recommended clubs, I have yet to go.

According to @hacker101 I'm getting fitted by the ping guy at RD in Santa Ana. Not expensive. At least I'll find out what I need to use.

[hacker101]

According to @hacker101 I'm getting fitted by the ping guy at RD in Santa Ana. Not expensive. At least I'll find out what I need to use.

Hey Lihu have fun tomorrow will see you all at the range later in the evening to hear all about it.

[billchao]

According to @hacker101 I'm getting fitted by the ping guy at RD in Santa Ana. Not expensive. At least I'll find out what I need to use.

Nice! Let us know how it goes.

[Lihu]

Bummer, I only gained ten yards or so. Dispersion was better, and the club feels a lot lighter.

[LBlack14]

LOL! WAAAAAAAY Overkill! [VIDEO]http://youtu.be/3zU1LNg-6aQ[/VIDEO]

[billchao]

Bummer, I only gained ten yards or so.

Dispersion was better, and the club feels a lot lighter.

Interesting. 10 yards and better dispersion is good.

Isn't lighter feeling the opposite of what you've been doing with your clubs? Do you need to look at your irons now, too?

What's the club going to end up costing?

[Lihu]

Interesting. 10 yards and better dispersion is good. Isn't lighter feeling the opposite of what you've been doing with your clubs? Do you need to look at your irons now, too? What's the club going to end up costing?

I use stock ping shafts. The fitting did not cost that much, anyway. We tried over 8 combinations over an hour. I am hitting a little too high for ping clubs, with 4000 rpm with the steel shaft and 17 degree launch. We lowered it to 16 degrees 3000 rpm. Pretty nice fitting, if I'm more serious about getting a new Ping club, I would want 2000 rpm.

[Shindig]

Pretty nice fitting, if I'm more serious about getting a new Ping club, I would want 2000 rpm.

What did the fitting cost? I know they do fittings at the RD in Santa Ana, but I don't know what they charge.

[Lihu]

What did the fitting cost? I know they do fittings at the RD in Santa Ana, but I don't know what they charge.

$29 for half and hour and $49 for an hour. It's on an optical system, so it infers the swing speed based upon the ball speed. They have the attachment for swing speed as well, but the bottom line was more important to me anyway. I also recently had my swing speed measured with a Trakman, so it's a bit irrelevant. They used premium balls for the testing (pro-V1). He pulled a sleeve of brand new "distance" balls (Callaway Xhot2) for me which also reduced the spin. Nice setup in a private room.

BTW, my 3000-4000 rpm still indicates that my AoA is still in the negative territory. I played around with a couple shots really trying to hit up, and did reduce the spin a little. The only good news us that my swing is consistent enough to clearly show changes in my setup. I am happy with my swing progression, but still have a long ways to go. He recommended that I try a more penetrating flight because my spin was so high, and the flight was nicer. He also thought that the roll would be much better, and the carry distance did not decrease with the more penetrating 15 degree flight. Basically, If I couldn't get rid of the spin, then just adjust the flight to use it as best as I can. He picked out a club to maximize the distance based upon this setup. We tried 4 different head and another 4 shaft combinations with the head both of us liked.

In the afternoon, I went to the range with my kids. I changed my setup to try to reduce the spin. So, I teed up almost 3.5", and think that I finally hit up on the ball. I need to place the ball just at the apex of my shoulder, which is about half a foot width past my lead foot. Seems like my swing speed improved too with this setup, because I felt less resistance in movement swinging past the ball. I feel like I'm moving faster through the ball. Once again "feel is not real", so more monitor work is needed. I could not actually see where the balls were landing. The range was setup 30-40 yards past the line so the back fence was only 200 to 210 yards away. Even 220 yard carry goes near the top or over the fence. I plan to go back to the same fitting center once I get more comfortable with this setup position to see if I can get down to 2000 rpm with a decent "swing speed". I will also ask for the GC2 with the SS attachment to see if my swing speed really did improve or not over my Trakman readings done a couple months ago.

In any case, his knowledge and the assortment of shafts they had there made for a really efficient experience. I only had to hit between 40 and 50 balls to get the optimal driver for my "previous" current swing. Worth every penny.