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Posted

I have had a Ping Anser driver for several years.  If you’ve hit it before you know it is not the most forgiving club, and I’m not the most consistent striker but did go through a long stretch where I was hitting it well and didn't need anything new.  A few months ago that all changed and so I decided I would start researching for a new driver, figuring technology is probably a little better so it was worth a look anyway.

 

Being just an OK striker my initial thought was not to get professionally fit…I figured my striking could be really bad or really good that day, and in either situation I could end up with too forgiving a driver that lacks distance or not forgiving enough. (is this poor logic?) Anyway I just decided to try a bunch at a shop and the G LS Tec was by far the best of the bunch (this while I was still struggling with my ball striking).  I bought it.

 

A week later or so I take it to the range, and suddenly I can hit my Anser again too.  And I find out even the best possible shots with the G LS Tec were considerably shorter than slight mishits with the Anser.  I hit over 20 balls with each and this process was repeated over and over and over.  Eventually I decided the G had to go back. 

 

Well I get to the store and there is a scuff on the underside of the club and little did I know (I have only ever ordered via mail or bought used) that I could only get a gift card and not a full refund since the club was deemed used. So now I have like $500 to spend at a golf store and am once again poised with the question of whether or not I should actually get fit for a driver and then buy one with the gift card, or if I should just keep the Anser, save the money on the fitting and spend that gift card on the next 2 years worth of apparel and golf balls?  :P

 

Real question is I would stick with the Anser if it weren't for the outstanding $500 credit at the store, but that is tempting me that maybe technology is better and there is a better driver for me worth the money.  But I don't know if that's true...I'm really shocked the G LS Tec was shorter for me tbh.

 

Any/all thoughts welcome.


  • Moderator
Posted

The G LS Tec is for high swing speed golfers.  If you don't swing above 110ish, it won'd be good for you because it's meant to reduce spin and if that spin is less than 2000, the ball won't go very far.  I would go get fit.  Taylormade/Ping are usually longer and Titleist more forgiving (at least from my experience from the more popular brands).  You want to choose something that creates the ideal rpm and launch angle.  It may turn out you don't need to change, but its good to know what to look for.

Philip Kohnken, PGA
Director of Instruction, Lake Padden GC, Bellingham, WA

Srixon/Cleveland Club Fitter; PGA Modern Coach; Certified in Dr Kwon’s Golf Biomechanics Levels 1 & 2; Certified in SAM Putting; Certified in TPI
 
Team :srixon:!

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Note: This thread is 3387 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

    • Nah, man. People have been testing clubs like this for decades at this point. Even 35 years. @M2R, are you AskGolfNut? If you're not, you seem to have fully bought into the cult or something. So many links to so many videos… Here's an issue, too: - A drop of 0.06 is a drop with a 90 MPH 7I having a ball speed of 117 and dropping it to 111.6, which is going to be nearly 15 yards, which is far more than what a "3% distance loss" indicates (and is even more than a 4.6% distance loss). - You're okay using a percentage with small numbers and saying "they're close" and "1.3 to 1.24 is only 4.6%," but then you excuse the massive 53% difference that going from 3% to 4.6% represents. That's a hell of an error! - That guy in the Elite video is swinging his 7I at 70 MPH. C'mon. My 5' tall daughter swings hers faster than that.
    • Yea but that is sort of my quandary, I sometimes see posts where people causally say this club is more forgiving, a little more forgiving, less forgiving, ad nauseum. But what the heck are they really quantifying? The proclamation of something as fact is not authoritative, even less so as I don't know what the basis for that statement is. For my entire golfing experience, I thought of forgiveness as how much distance front to back is lost hitting the face in non-optimal locations. Anything right or left is on me and delivery issues. But I also have to clarify that my experience is only with irons, I never got to the point of having any confidence or consistency with anything longer. I feel that is rather the point, as much as possible, to quantify the losses by trying to eliminate all the variables except the one you want to investigate. Or, I feel like we agree. Compared to the variables introduced by a golfer's delivery and the variables introduced by lie conditions, the losses from missing the optimal strike location might be so small as to almost be noise over a larger area than a pea.  In which case it seems that your objection is that the 0-3% area is being depicted as too large. Which I will address below. For statements that is absurd and true 100% sweet spot is tiny for all clubs. You will need to provide some objective data to back that up and also define what true 100% sweet spot is. If you mean the area where there are 0 losses, then yes. While true, I do not feel like a not practical or useful definition for what I would like to know. For strikes on irons away from the optimal location "in measurable and quantifiable results how many yards, or feet, does that translate into?"   In my opinion it ok to be dubious but I feel like we need people attempting this sort of data driven investigation. Even if they are wrong in some things at least they are moving the discussion forward. And he has been changing the maps and the way data is interpreted along the way. So, he admits to some of the ideas he started with as being wrong. It is not like we all have not been in that situation 😄 And in any case to proceed forward I feel will require supporting or refuting data. To which as I stated above, I do not have any experience in drivers so I cannot comment on that. But I would like to comment on irons as far as these heat maps. In a video by Elite Performance Golf Studios - The TRUTH About Forgiveness! Game Improvement vs Blade vs Players Distance SLOW SWING SPEED! and going back to ~12:50 will show the reference data for the Pro 241. I can use that to check AskGolfNut's heat map for the Pro 241: a 16mm heel, 5mm low produced a loss of efficiency from 1.3 down to 1.24 or ~4.6%. Looking at AskGolfNut's heatmap it predicts a loss of 3%. Is that good or bad? I do not know but given the possible variations I am going to say it is ok. That location is very close to where the head map goes to 4%, these are very small numbers, and rounding could be playing some part. But for sure I am going to say it is not absurd. Looking at one data point is absurd, but I am not going to spend time on more because IME people who are interested will do their own research and those not interested cannot be persuaded by any amount of data. However, the overall conclusion that I got from that video was that between the three clubs there is a difference in distance forgiveness, but it is not very much. Without some robot testing or something similar the human element in the testing makes it difficult to say is it 1 yard, or 2, or 3?  
    • Wordle 1,668 3/6 🟨🟨🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    • Wordle 1,668 3/6 🟨🟩🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Should have got it in two, but I have music on my brain.
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