Waddaplaya

I did buy the TS3 right on the spot. Sorry I thought I included that. I just meant is there another combination in the sense of a low spin head / shaft combo that people like besides that setup. If that is what I need I really then only hit that one combo of head / shaft with low spin characteristics.

Hey all, I went for my first driver fitting last week and had some interesting results. The driver I brought in to replace was an older G25. I never got along with the driver and never really carried it more than 200 yards. At the time I never really knew my swing speed so I assumed it was pretty slow so I jacked up the loft to 11 and was getting some really high ballooning shots that didn't really go anywhere, however I didn't hit it too offline so I used it. I came into my fitting fully confident I was going to find something that would get me a good bit more distance. Long story short I hit 7 different driver / shaft combinations. I had almost 0 improvement on my existing driver until the last two combinations. I have a left to right movement in my shot and the fitter was explaining that because I was spinning the ball a lot my distance was being killed. I will include the data of the combinations that were hit. As you can see the only clubs that were even trending in the direction of more distance was the TS combinations. He said hang on a second and ran out and grabbed a used TS3 in a 9.5 head with a stiff Hazardous Smoke Shaft. With that last combination I hit 3 of the best shots of the day. It looks like he was able to get my spin down considerably with that combination. However even with the one of the shots with the TS3 spun over 3k and still carried almost 230. So it must be the combination of lowering the loft to 9.5 in combination of the low spin head / shaft that started to help get the ball out there. It is very interesting to me that the TS3 combination is getting 30 + more yards than the other combinations. He said I have a good launch angle but I was creating too much dynamic loft so the 9.5 degree head was working for me. I guess if I were to restart my fitting all over again would I want to start with low spin heads / low spin low launch shafts? Obviously that was the only combination that was getting me anymore distance. It is interesting to see that I was swinging the TS3 combination must faster as well at around 97 mph. At 97 mph I imagine I am still leaving a good bit of distance on the table. I would love any observations, insights, or suggestions about the fitting and the final driver selection. Is there another combination out there worth tinkering with now that I know I am creating a lot of spin and these low spinning combinations help my swing?

Ahh I see. Yea I just didn't realize the acronym. I was like how does Matt's name fit into that. Yes for sure though, he has been a wealth of inspiration for sure. I will check out the other read. Just playing my normal shot shape like Matt suggested has helped my games bounds. One round I literally put every shot I hit all day into a table that had Right, Middle, and Left. I realized I hit 80 percent right to left. Now I have been putting that into play and I am hitting so many more fairways and greens. That sparked my idea for the wedge strategy because I know there has to be something more than just aiming at the green and see what happens.

GSK? LSW?

I've read the normal pro version of the tensei is a low launching shaft, however that is not the shaft that comes with the Ping G410. The tensei that comes with the Ping G410 is supposed to be a higher launch shaft with the Ping G410.

I don't hit the G25 particularly well. I don't necessarily want to dramatically change my ball flight. I like the left to right movement, however I do agree with you on neutralizing it a bit so it doesn't move as much. I was just curious about the 10.5 vs the 9.0 degree. I think a loft of 10.5 which may actually suit my swing speed, but if I decided to close the face a bit I would have to loft it up, which in turn would no longer suit my swing because the loft would be too high. I was thinking it could be smarter to get the 9 degree and loft it up to 10.5 because I would also be closing the face down a bit. So, a more closed face + 10.5 loft would help my left to right movement a bit and also be the correct loft. Maybe?

At a basic level I find it lucky to hit the green with my approach shot. It is interesting to think farther than that and have a strategy. I like the idea of aiming 10 yards short for back pins, 10 long for front and try to hit the exact number on the middle pins. I need to dial in my wedge distances more than they are right now. It is also an interesting idea to try and run it up. I have never honestly though about running a roller into the mouth of the green. I automatically always go for a high lofted wedge. Thanks for the ideas though, they are awesome.

Hey all... I have a question for the forum. I want to refine the strategy I use with my wedges. Usually I just go for the middle of the green and try to choose my distance around pin high. I am always confused as to which distance to hit my wedges. If the pin is 80 yards away, do you try to hit it 80 yards? Do you try to hit it past the pin to 85? Do you try to hit it short at 75? Just curious.

Dollar Driver Club Dollar Driver Club

Hey all, Quick question for you. I discovered this dollar driver club online and am interested in renting a Ping G410 Plus driver. I have demoed it before and really enjoyed it. My current driver is a Ping G25 10.5 set to the neutral position. My natural shot shape is a fade. My question is: should I order a 9 degree G410 Plus and turn it up to 10.5 so that it closes the face a bit and neutralizes my ball flight or should I order the 10.5 and play with it in the draw position?

I need to swap them out. I just have the Cobra Connect sensors in them so it is more of a pain in the ass and more expensive but I get it. Also I think I am putting my ball too far forward with my irons. In the past I moved my ball far forward to prevent hitting it fat by moving my weight forward to get to the ball without the ground first which really does help. I have almost completely stopped hitting fat shots. However now that I am trying to learn to hit a draw I think by the time my club face has gotten to the ball so far forward it is facing left of the target line causing a slice on an outside to inside path instead of in to out required for the draw shape.

I have not placed the club back on the ground but I do think you may be on to something because since I am trying to hit a draw shot with all of my clubs I am attempting to roll my wrists through impact which may be leaving the club too open. Maybe I am rolling the face before impact.

Hello all... I have been tinkering with learning how to hit a draw. I must say it has really helped with my driving. I hit more fairways today with the driver than I have in quite some time. I would say the ball is drawing a ton but it has definitely neutralized the miss to the right and gently drifts back to the left. However, one problem I am having is that I am losing control of my grip through the impact of the ball with my irons. It is causing shots that go way to the right. As soon as I make contact with the ball I lose my grip and the ball slices off to the right like crazy. Would a larger grip help this? I have been fitted for a midsize grip in the past however my new irons are only standard size. Could this make a difference? If not what else could it be. It doesn't happen all of the time but way more than I would like. Thanks , Nick

I am not claiming for certainty that all manufacturers are not extremely consistent. I am providing some data from a specific experience I had to support the original post that clubs bought off of the rack or bought from Ping like my second set were not extremely consistent. Take the information however you like. I am not sour about anything. I just find it interesting and am glad I had the experience. I certainly would like to take specs from a fitting and apply it to other clubs I may want to purchase in the future instead of paying 150+ every time I purchase new clubs.

My experience was with a set of Tommy Armour clubs bought off the rack. The manufacturers are not extremely consistent with mass built clubs, which is the point of the post. No I was not fit for those irons. The swing weights were more then 2 swing weights off between clubs. In terms of shaft flexes I meant there is no standard overall between companies. I understand you can get custom fit for everything under the sun. However if you wanted to buy a shaft from specs you had from a previous fitting then you should be able to figure out where the flexes fall from company to company without purchasing them and testing them for frequency.

100 percent agree. This is a post of mine from a few weeks ago: Hello all... Yesterday I went for my first iron fitting. The fitter used a different way to determine the shaft flex that a person needs. They use a measurement of "shaft loading" vs the popular swing speed method. I was basically hooked up to a machine and hit some shots and we determined what shafts I would need in my irons and my woods. The scale they use basically uses 5.0 in the middle as a Regular flex. So I was a 4.6 in my irons and a 5.2 in my woods. So we determined I need a little softer than R in the irons and a little stiffer than R in the woods. They explained that a person with a slower swing speed could still load the shaft higher than someone with a faster swing speed which was interesting. It is also interesting than I need a slightly different shaft in my irons than in my woods. The thing that was really crazy is that he tested the flex of each of my irons in my bag. I brought two sets of irons. I had an old set of Tommy Armours and a newer set of Ping G20s both of which are R Steel Flexes. He tested all of my iron shafts on a machine where he put the iron in a vise and then he pulled the head down and let it go. It bounced around and he got a reading that told him what flex the iron was. All of the irons were so different. None of them were 5.0 R Flex. They were all over the place on both sets. The pings were actually much softer than R in the A Flex range and the TAs were all over the place. I found this interesting because he explained that there are no standards for flexes in golf so a Stiff from company A may be an extra stiff from company B. That is definitely a disheartening thing to realize. Not only is there no standard but literally all of the shafts from Ping were considerably different flexes and the shafts from TA were all over the place. He tested my wedge set and they were XX Stiff. All of the lofts of the wedges were wrong as well. Another thing he tested was the loft of my G25 driver set to 9.0. He measured the loft and it was actually 12 or 13 degrees and when set to the 9.0 (the standard position is 10.5) this opened the club face 3 degrees. So not only did the lofts not match hosel indication but the lie angle was 3 degrees open when set to the loft of 9, which could explain why I am pushing the driver right. He then tested my hybrid and the loft was off by 1 degree and it was 3 degrees closed. He also weighed all of the clubs and explained that most of the clubs were "shaft heavy" and "head light" which means they were not balanced very well and could make it difficult to be aware of where your club head is during the swing. In conclusion almost every aspect of every club in my bag was all jacked up. What I learned is that: 1. There is no standard for shaft flexes which makes it nearly impossible to buy shafts on your own 2. The shaft flexes on your set of clubs can vary greatly from iron to iron which do not match the actual flex that they say they are 3. The irons are not balanced properly so you could potentially be shaft or head heavy. 4. The lofts are usually wrong on the clubs 5. The lie angles can be open or closed coming as a standard from the company (you didn't request it to be so). 6. When adjusting your adjustable driver you can actually open and close the club face without knowing it causing your shot patterns to change Mama mia.... I definitely learned a lot through the process. They are going to build one of my clubs to my specs and then I am going to test that one club. If I like it I will get the whole bag done the same way. It was really eye opening. Although I did find it to be the case that my irons were all over the place, the fitter did measure them himself like Adam mentioned and then wanted to charge me 70 per club to rebuild a 20 year set of Tommy Armour cast irons. So it would have been 700 bucks to do the remaining bag.

I will definitely do that. I will say I was definitely making more solid contact with the ball. The shots drawing left were definitely not "mis hits" as in fat, thin, toe, or heel shots. They are definitely middle struck. If I can tame the draw down I would be in love for sure. They did feel really nice. The one thing I noticed is that because they are longer, I tried to stand up straighter and when I flushed one it felt beautiful with more power than normal. I will give them a couple more grass range sessions and tinker a bit.

Ok fair enough... now another question to my endless list of questions. I hit the 6 iron that had been rebuilt for me for the first time today. The changes were a shaft rebuild with the TT XL Lite shafts which, a change of grip to a little larger midsize from a standard I was using before, and an addition of .5 inch to the shaft than before. I like the way the club felt. I have to get used to the length and become more conscience of standing up straighter not to hit fat shots. One thing I did notice that when I make good contact all of the balls were tending to go left. I am not talking about a hook but more of a 10 yard slow draw. It is essentially just drawing too much to the left. I called the fitter and asked if it is possible that the lie angle is too upright and he said by his standard at that length they actually flatten out the lie angle of the club. Right now the 6 iron is set to a 60 degree lie. Is it possible that it needs to be flatter? Is it possible the addition of the length and the slightly softer shaft is causing shots to go left? I imagine it could be my swing as well obviously. I called the fitter and asked him if we could flatten it out and he said it was already a little flatter than normal.

Why is that? Why couldn't they be bent farther? The metal used? I've read you can bend clubs farther than that.

Ok I appreciate that information as well. Another question I have is that with my set of Tommy Armour 845 EVO Cavity irons what would I do if I needed to adjust the loft and lie of the irons? I know that some irons are easy to bend and some irons are not. Could you explain that to me?

If you find a shaft that works for you what ways can you use the specs of that shaft to find others you will like from different companies? Would you take a frequency reading of the shaft and then find another shaft with the same frequency? For example, when I went for my fitting the fitter measured the frequency of all of my current shafts and they were all over the place. He explained that they weren't even in the range of what a Regular flex is. So, if you find a flex you like, how do you pick another shaft from a different company with similar qualities? Is the frequency all you need or are there other characteristics of the shaft besides that?

I am not relating our swing to that of a PGA professional. I am saying if the pros literally choose to use shorter drivers because it is easier to keep in play that means it could help the average player as well.

This is the best step by step club altering video I have seen so far. It is extremely detailed and you explained everything perfectly. You don't gloss over any of the steps which is very helpful for people who have never done it before.

I just actually finished the book. It was great . ”Let me put it another way. Tiger Woods has swung a 43.5 inch driver throughout much of his career. If he could hit the ball straight with a 45 inch club—he would. He can’t; so he doesn’t. Tiger knows if he did use a longer driver, he’d have even more trouble keeping it in play. For many years running, the average driver length on the PGA Tour has remained at 44 ½ inches. Now if Tiger and the rest of his pals know they can’t play to the best of their ability using a 46-inch stick, what are the chances that you can?” I’ve also attached his recommendations for driver length from his book.

Until you do it you’ll never know. A lot of the times going through the process and making mistakes on your own will help you arrive at something you like. Worst thing that happens would be you don’t like it and you swap out your shaft. It’s bit that big of a deal. So experiment a bit.