Custom Fit

Having watched Steven W. thrash a junior club out of sight on his video, coupled with my own experience a short while ago with a cut down club for an 8 year old, I have decided that I would benefit from a softer shaft and have booked for a custom fit on Friday at 1200 hrs.

I have been assured that I will not be disappointed, but being the sceptic I am, I am not holding out too much hope.

John,

Where have you booked your custim fit?? If it is the Belfry centre I assure you it won't dissapoint.

Good luck.

John.

Hi John. No, I live near Reading so I have booked at The Leaderboard Golf Centre which is basically a driving range with a shop and about six professionals giving lessons, but I have been assured that they cover everything with the equipment they have, so I will see and report back my findings.

Although I feel that my wood swing is not correct, for different reasons, perhaps a whippier shaft will enable my relatively slow swing speed to work more effectively as at the moment I hit perhaps only two reasonable drives a round, which does make scoring pretty difficult. I am fairly accurate with my irons but then again, a whippier shaft may give me those extra few yards that could possibly make a difference.

I would accept 200 yds with the driver, let alone a six iron. Jon T.

Guys,

When I had mine & went on the launch monitors the chap didn't even have to look up to tell me if I had hit a straight, fade or draw shot as the stats on his screen told him everything from speed, side spin, back spin, launch angle etc.

It made a BIG difference to my game as I now hit the ball out of the sweet spot 80% of the time with my irons, now my woods are a different story & I'm still searching for the holy grail on that front!! 

John. 

Just back from my custom fit, which was very enlightening. Launch angles and spin rates etc, I failed to understand, but I do know when a club is doing something that I like.

I tried about six different drivers and virtually all of them looked bloody awful when at address as they all seem to have a slightly closed face. This puts me off, but I suppose I will have to learn to adapt.

Only one of the six performed how I would like a driver to perform and that, surprisingly enough, was the Ping G10. I am sure Steven will be happy with this. It had the soft regular shaft and, according to the computer, was 32 yards longer in the carry than my Taylor Made 580. I decided to take the plunge and I bought it, only time will tell whether or not it was a sound purchase. I might add that I also succumbed to buying my first rescue/hybrid, whatever they are called - a Taylor made 19 degree. I hit this club rather well and was very pleasantly surprised with its length and flight.

Now to the irons. The ones that I found to be the best were Taylor Made (Not sure of the model, but I was assured it is the latest and has a titanium insert (Means nothing to me I'm afraid), but using a six iron with a 55 gramme regular flex designed for the senior golfer, I was astounded at how easy they were to hit without any effort whatsover and with a ball flight and length to die for. Downside of course is the price at £599, but I really like them and will have to devise a way to get them without putting too much strain on my marriage.

I spoke to David Marshall this morning and he said that I should be brave and go ahead and get them and if she starts playing up,  tell her to shut up and mind her own business, somehow I doubt I could get away with that.

However I have devised a cunning plan. I am going to add money each month to my account at the Range and when there is enough in it, then they will be mine. What do you think - sound good.

Sounds like a plan John. If you keep taking money at your Monday club comp, you'll be there in no time.

I am not sure that I have sorted it out yet, Chris, always different on the course, as you well know, but if the computer is to be believed then this Ping G10 is substantially longer than my old driver, which means that all those pesky ditches on my course are now in danger of being carried for a change.

The irons are Taylor Made Burner XD, not sure about the chrome type finish but I did strike them rather nicely without any effort whatsoever. If I do decide to get them then I will have to have the custom fit extended to encompass all the other characteristics that will help, i.e. loft and lie angle, although this has never been a problem to me before. 

H Danny, I won the comp again on thursday with 37 points, so that will be another cut in handicap. David wants to come down again early July, could you possibly make it?

Great to see you got something positive out of your fitting John.  Unfortunately time cannot be stopped and to enable you to make the most of your undoubted abilities there is a need to adjust your equipment to what your body can do.  It may take you a few rounds to get used to the look of your new equipment at address, but when you are adding 30+ yards to your drive you'll soon learn to put up with it! 

Good luck with the savings plan and being able to get the new irons in your bag, probably sneakily.  I looked at the Taylor Made Burner XD's when I was after new irons, so I know what you mean about the look and finish.  The head looked a bit chunky and shiny to me too, but they didn't feel heavy and I quite liked them.  I just REALLY liked the Srixons I got!

Hope the new clubs bring you many happy rounds.  Be careful on your weekly seniors round up though.  If they do give you that sudden stepped improvement in performance, you may be accused of being a bit of a bandit!!!

Hi Chris, I really do hope I get another thirty yds, as that will then help on quite a few holes on my course, which is inundated with pesky ditches, all in the wrong place for my short hitting.

I can't say that I particularly like the look of the TM XD's as they are chrome, which means they have to be looked after, not one of my strong traits, but when it came to hitting the ball, I was really impressed at how strong off the clubface they were, with no effort whatsoever. The head for me is unimportant, it is the right shaft I need.

I regularly get called a bandit in the seniors roll-up, not because I burn the course up, just that I seem to be able to play to my handicap week in and week out, so tend to win fairly often.

Hi John, I'm probably going to be too busy in July. This new job makes taking time off in the week very hard.

No problems, Danny.

It was funny reading your plan to get the new irons John.   The same thing occurred to me this week when I accidently put two lots of £50 on my membership card.  The penny dropped that if I did this once a month and cut back on post round lunches I would soon have enough for a new set of irons without anything suspicious appearing on my credit card. 

The only problem is what to do with the old ones and remembering to keep my golf bag closed until the shininess has worn off the new ones.

In my case, Jon W, they are willing to take mine in part exchange, in actual fat for the same price that I paid for them, when I got them secondhand, i.e £100.

It really is tragic because the ones I have are an excellent iron, and really all I would need to make them better, is a softer shaft.

I am having second thoughts about spending rather a lot of money on a set of shiny irons which in all probability will do nothing for my game, except in the distance stakes.

John , what are your irons and what shafts are in em.

They are Callaway X14 steelhead (IMO the best club Callaway made) 3 -SW plus 1 iron with Regular Graphite Shafts.

Or for the more discerning player, I have a nice full set of pure blades made by Maruman (Conductor Pro's) with steel shafts and tour wrap grips. These were my clubs before I decided that I would benefit from some form of game improvement enhancements. The striking has to be perfect, but when that is achieved, then these clubs are capable of any shot in the bag.

It was my birthday this week and my birthday present off the wife was a custom fit at the Belfry centre. I'll let you all no how I got on when I go next week. I hope they don't talk me into £600 club, or it could be a more devious plan than yours John.

On reflection, Graham, my plan does not seem to be the way to go, as my present clubs are very good, just that I feel they would be even better with a softer shaft. This would enable me to swing more controlled and reap the benefit of the increased distance, without the effort. Or to put it another way, effortless power as opposed to powerless effort.

I doubt you will be talked into something that will not suit, as The Belfry has a reputation to maintain. My custom fit was not what I expected, but then the outcome is only as good as the person conducting the tests and at the end of the day they only want to selll you new clubs. Good luck anyway, Graham.

Kevin,

thats an intresting point about the XD clubs, i bought a XD sandwedge off of ebay and while its a very nice club and feels great to play with, i noticed that i was getting much more distance than on my older SW. This nice in theory but when you over shoot a few greens it can get a bit anoying. After using it for a while i went back to my older wedge. (and have since bought some vokeys).

As i say they are very nice clubs but this needs to be thought about when buying. 

Cheers.

danny 

Thanks for the warning, Kevin, I had already decided that it was a gamble too far without a lot of benefit. The Driver went much better today, the rescue club was not so good but in the Medal I had a nett 67 which was not good enough when I left anyway, as someone had posted a nett 62.

Unfortunately all the OEM companies have been deceiving golfers for years with disappearing lofts and exaggerated claims.This is why a lot of people can't hit a 4 iron let alone a 3 or 2. This is why in today's market  you can buy 5 iron to SW which includes wait for it a 10 iron , A lot people have had a 3 & 4 irons in their garage unused replaced by rescues/utility woods. The disappearing loft of the PW meant you have to by a gap wedge . The claims that I laugh at most are "our biggest ever sweet spot" and "our longest ever driver" They wont be lying but is it value for money when what you are getting is sweet spot bigger by 0.001% and longer by 6" . Most of us have fallen for it. As for custom built clubs by the the major companies I have yet to see a set properly built with correct lofts,lies,length and swing weights as ordered.You'd be lucky if they put the grips on correctly. Sorry I just needed a rant.......................................

I enjoyed your rant, David, have another one.

Here is how the loft disease has spread through the decades 

Club       1960s-70s    1980s    1990s   current

1 iron        17                17        16        16-17

2 iron        20                20        19        18-20

3 iron        24                23        22        20-21

4 iron        28                26        25        23-24

5 iron        32                30        28        26-27

6 iron        36                34        32        30-31

7 iron        40                38        36        34-35

8 iron        44                42        40        38-40

9 iron        48                46        44        42-44

pw            52                50        48        46-47

sw            56                 56         56       56-57

Driver        11                11          10       8.5-10.5

3 wood      16                15           15       13-15

5 wood       22               21          19       17-18  

7 wood       28               27            23      20-21

 The irons have lost 3-4* and when you consider a lot of tour players have stronger lofts again, its not surprising the TV commentators say, oh he's got 180 yrds to the pin that'll be an 8 iron!!

So my 3 iron is really a 2 iron.  No wonder I can't use the bloody thing!!!

Wayne, why on earth do they have to make clubs with a fault, just to correct a fault. I have always been able to draw a golf ball, but with these closed face clubs I either quick hook or push it trying to keep the clubface from closing. Hopefully this G10, which is not so pronounced, will help me.