dbwood

Just some food for thought: Not sure how to post you tube links so if this doesn't work it's a Roy Nix clip called "Driver Fitting School - How weight is used in fitting".

Many private, and some public course have that rule. Often the same clubs will have a rule about wearing your hat forwards and keeping your shirt tucked in. Not much bothers me on the golf course, although I'm really disappointed when I have a good round going and out of nowhere I shank a 15 yard chip.

No offense, but you've been playing golf 4 months and you know who is supposed to be playing what equipment?

Cutting it down 3/4" will make it feel somewhat lighter, not a crazy difference but you'll probably feel it. The secret grip with the 17 gram disk in it, (which is the way it is usually supplied) will weigh 107 grams, so that's adding 57 gm to the club over the stock grip weight. The club will then feel heavier, but it will also move the balance point quite a ways up towards the grip. So it will have a considerably different feel than stock. A friend of mine did exactly that (cut 3/4 off + secret grip)with an Adams 9088 UL and hated it, I hit it a few times and it was OK, but I didn't really care for it. I put a 90 gm shaft in a RBZ cut to play at 44.25 with a secret grip on it and absolutely loved it for a few weeks but it felt pretty heavy and got to the point that I found myself swinging too hard with it. So I put a standard weight grip back on it and it feels great. Bottom line? Back weighting feels different to different people. You won't "mess it up" or make it unplayable, if you don't like it, put on a regular one, it's just a grip.

There's an easier way. http://www.tutelman.com/golf/design/swingwt4.php#sw_scale It's quite accurate.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/100165680?langId=-1&storeId;=10051&catalogId;=10053&N;=5yc1v&R;=100165680#.UcecGRaz5FI

Bang, Geek, and SMT all make 6* and lower loft driver heads. All 3 are high quality, they're not cheap, but they're not too high priced either.

I stand at least partially corrected, from Nike Golf: "Different elements of each club come from different parts of the world. The heads are forged in Thailand, China and Japan. The shafts are made in the United States, Japan and China. The grips are made in the U.S., China, and Taiwan. Everything is assembled in plants in the U.S., Japan, and China." Regardless of it's country of origin, it will be built to proper spec and subject to Nike QC. Nike clubs always seemed high quality in fit/finish but overpriced to me, and I never saw them marked down very much. However about the time of Tiger's misadventures I started to see better deals on them. At the first of the year I picked up a VR-S 4 wood new for $50. Alas, Nebraska winters can be frustrating for golfers. I've only had it out for 2 rounds and was dressed heavily, so far it feels like a good fit.

Nike's forged stuff is made in China and Thailand, and it's very good quality.

OK, I was just speculating on a mechanical factor that might explain the smash factor and spin numbers at the same time. But that throws that out. Assuming a positive or neutral AoA and near center contact, then I would try a stiffer tip shaft as others have suggested. I don't know what shafts and heads you have access to, but I think it shouldn't be too hard to find a combination that would give you better numbers than that.

Just a couple of thoughts. Your swing speed / ball speed works out to a smash factor of 1.33, that's not where you want to be and could indicate that you were missing the sweet spot by some. Were you using impact tape? You said you were going after a low tee? Were you coming into the ball steep with a negative angle of attack? If you were going down after it you may have been getting under it and catching the ball high on the club face where the face roll would make the initial launch angle much higher than it would be with a center hit. If that's the case the neg angle of attack with essentially "skying" the ball could give you very high spin and a deceptively good launch angle. Before changing anything else you might try it again with a more comfortable set up and tee height.

I'm not sure why Golf Works says not to tip the Phenom for fairways. Aldila's web site says to tip the RIP Phenom 1" and butt trim to length after that for fairway woods. Before I went gluing anything up I'd give Aldila's customer service a call and double check.

A friend of mine just got the Rockballz Max irons w/graphite. I hit the 8i and it's fine, nothing spectacular one way or another. The fit and finish is very good, pretty clubs. As to what else you should consider, try them all. Everybody makes good irons. There's no reason not to go with TaylorMade if that's what you like. I like my G-15s in graphite, my G-5s w/CS steel, and my Adams A4 forged.

Maybe or maybe not, backspin and launch angle are related. He said a 13* launch angle and 3000 backspin. If he only had 2500 backspin he might need to increase the launch angle to 15*, to get the same distance. The lower your launch angle the more spin you need to keep the ball in the air.

It doesn't matter, that's the short answer. It's the reason aficionados of the single length iron system are adamant that their idea is superior, or at least as good as. For the rest of us, the reason the 5i is longer than the 9i is that the added shaft length helps us generate more club head speed and the lower loft helps us take advantage of that speed to hit the ball further. Dave Tutelman goes into his experiments with a single length iron set at some length on his web site. tutelman.com It's a good read if you're into that kind off technical stuff.