Driver fitting at SGGT
- keithfmuir
- Mar 3
- 10 min read
Updated: Mar 27
With all the 2025 driver releases now available for fitting, SGGT kindly invited me to the Edinburgh studio to try them out. Will any of the new offerings unseat my trusty Ping G430 LST? This session was also being filmed for the SGGT YouTube channel, and while I'm certainly no "Iron Byron," I was delighted to head over and be one of their testers.
The recording of the session can be found HERE
What does a driver fitting with SGGT involve?
SGGT are brand agnostic, allowing you to find the optimal head and shaft combination for you and your swing, regardless of manufacturer. To get the most out of a session, you should go with an open mind and allow the fitters to do their thing. For more thoughts about how to get the most out of a fitting, please follow this link.
Your session will start with a chat about your current driver. How you feel it performs, good, bad shots, likes, dislikes and why you want to change. After you've warmed up, you will hit a few balls to provide the base data for the fitting. Then it's over to your SGGT fitter and you should trust them to do their job! They've conducted thousands of fittings and will have a good idea of what will or won't work for you just from watching your initial swings and the earlier chat.
The process usually involves narrowing down your shaft choice first, and then trying the best shafts in different heads. They will pick an alternative driver head to start with and then explore alternative shafts, narrowing the selection down through trial and error until they have a couple of contenders for the best shaft. You will then start trying different heads and go through a second process of elimination. It's amazing how differently the combinations will perform, so again, keep an open mind. By switching heads and shafts in and out, the fitters will try you with several combinations, fine-tuning all the time, until they come to a final recommendation. You will then spend some time hitting that one before comparing the data against your current club and coming to a conclusion.
Thoughts about my current driver
The Ping G430 LST is possibly the best driver I've ever played. Historically, I've been terrible at chopping and changing drivers, but this has stayed in the bag for almost two full seasons and I've had great success with it.
It is a 10.5° head, reduced to 9.5° and set flat. Despite my poor photo skills, the head sits slightly open at address, which I like with drivers and woods. It's fitted with a Kaili White 60s shaft and has a swing weight of D7.7. If you know about swing weights, that's heavy! I've never found the club particularly "easy" to swing, but as the Tangent data below demonstrates, it's been reliable. These charts are relative to a scratch golfer and are based on 140 rounds logged in the app. The most recent rounds have generally been in tougher winter conditions.
Tangent highlights that my directional control is good, but I could benefit from improved distance and fewer mistakes. Distance is due to my swing speed and how well the club is fitted. Mistakes are a combination of poor course management, target selection and a few bad swings (we all make them). Overall though, there's not a lot to complain about and at 55 years old, I think I'm doing ok!
My fitting experience
Normally, the large TV screen in the studio displays all of the club data during your fitting, but today it was only Aaron and Jim that could see this information. In some ways, I found that to be a better experience and it definitely worked for what we were doing today. Sometimes, too much information can be a bad thing, and not seeing it allowed me to focus on looks, feel and ball flight. Indeed, that's what this section will focus on and the technical, data-driven chat is left to Jim and Aaron in the video. They can explain it all much better than me anyway!
Sharp eyes will notice that the Callaway Elyte is not on the list above. I didn't like its appearance, either from below or at the address, so it didn't make the testing. However, it is performing well in fittings (and on tour), so don't let my biases put you off trying it. I prefer the visual appearance of the AI Smoke model from 2024 and you can read about my experience with the previous Max Triple Diamond head here.
You'll notice that we used several "low spin" heads. Historically, this style of head was often less forgiving than standard heads. If you caught them "out of the screws" you would get amazing results, but anything less than a perfect strike would be punished. That's not the case any more, with manufacturers now able to engineer considerable levels of forgiveness and lower spin into their heads. You may have noticed a shift in advertising that has moved away from just distance and more towards forgiveness and consistency. "Fargiveness". "Spincistency".
Thoughts about the shafts
My natural tendency is for a small draw, with my usual bad shot being a hook. If I don't rotate properly, I get a double-cross slice (normally when there's out of bounds over that side!). We were looking for shafts that would complement my natural shape.
I have a smooth swing tempo and transition, rather than being a "hitter". The intangible aspect of how a shaft "feels" is important to me. I have always tended to play shafts that would be described as "smooth". KBS in my wedges, Accra TZi in my irons, Graphite Design Tour AD-DI in my hybrids and fairway wood.
The shafts tried today were all at the standard SGGT length of 45". Many of the brands use shafts that are longer than this - Cobra, Titleist 45.5", Callaway, Taylormade, Srixon, Wilson 45.75", Ping 46". Some might even remember the Cobra "Long Tom" that came in at 48". However, there is a trade-off between speed and strike quality, and while physics dictates that a longer arc should produce a faster head speed, is that worth it if you can't find the middle of the club? You can find a good article about shaft length here.
Ventus Blue
First up was the Ventus Blue in the GT2 head. Ventus is probably one of the most recognisable shaft ranges on the market right now, finding favour with many tour players. It's almost as ubiquitous as the Graphite Design Tour AD-DI shaft that Tiger Woods used during his prime years. The initial results with this were so good that it was almost "one and done". I told you these fitters know what they're doing! However, the more we hit, the more I was prone to turning the ball over and finding the left side of the fairway. Close but not perfect.
Diamana Blueboard
This newly re-launched shaft is a recent addition to the SGGT fitting matrix. I seriously liked how this shaft felt. It was most definitely smooth! I liked how it loaded and found it easy to swing. But again, it was a bit too left-biased and probably more so than the Ventus blue was.
TPT - Power 17 Lo
TPT shafts have become more prominent in recent years and are certainly one of the more recognisable on tour. They are made in Switzerland and, as you would expect, are super high-quality. I also tried their iron shafts last year when I was fitted for my P770's. However, as I found with the iron shafts, they weren't right for me in the driver either. The feel was a touch too firm and I found it hard to swing smoothly.
Oban Isawa Gold
What a looker! Oban shafts always look great, but unfortunately, this was probably the least good option for me today.
Ventus Red
We saved the best for last. But being pedantic, if it hadn't been the best, then it wouldn't have been the last! This shaft found the sweet spot between feel and performance. I started it on a better line and either hit it straight or produced the small, controlled draw we were aiming for. It was swapped in and out of the different heads during testing, but was quickly the benchmark shaft.
Thoughts about the heads
Titleist GT2
This was the first one up. Having tried it before at the launch event (link), I already knew it could perform well for me, and it certainly did again. Like I said above, it was almost "one and done". Maybe it was just the contrast with my Ping, but I'm not the biggest fan of the shape of this head. I find it a touch too long from front to back. It is difficult to argue with the performance, though, and if I kept hitting it the way I did, I'm sure I would quickly get used to the looks
Titleist GT3
The shape of this model is much more to my liking. It's hard to see from the pictures I've used, but it has a distinctly more compact footprint. Having not particularly enjoyed how it felt at the launch day, my experience today was completely different. Perhaps it was due to the shafts we tried this time or from using premium balls rather than range balls, but the feel and sound were much better. The results with this head were excellent, generating impressive ball speeds while still delivering good forgiveness with less-than-perfect strikes. I thought the Titleist heads were the best looking on test. Just classic, clean heads with no fancy designs or gimmicks.
Ping G440 LST
I have to admit to a bit of bias, as this was the club I was most looking forward to hitting. Given I've had such a good experience with my own Ping, I felt that if they had improved the sound and feel, then it would be the immediate winner. Well, it wasn't quite that simple. Yes, the sound and feel are much better than the old model, but the performance couldn't quite keep up with the best of the other heads. Interestingly, Ping has made their standard shaft length 46" this year and I wonder if that is the real reason for their "faster" claims. I struggle with strike quality when using a shaft that long, and I'm sure I won't be the only person.
Cobra DS-Adapt X
While the Cobra produced some excellent results, I didn't like the way it looked. The shape is quite elongated, almost triangular, but it was the matt finish on the crown I disliked most. It made it look dirty or sticky. I wanted to wipe it with a cloth and give it a good polish!
Saying that, if you like the looks, then it did perform well and felt nice. It's a lower spin model rather than an out-and-out low spin model. I've had good results with that style of head from Cobra before (Fly-Z and F8), and this was no exception. While it didn't float my boat, I wouldn't put anyone off trying it.
Srixon ZXi LS
If only I could have hit this like Ryan Fox and Shane Lowry!
There was something very familiar about this driver - the sound. It is one loud driver. Louder than my G430, and possibly even louder than the older G425 head. That's a real shame, as I think it could put people off what is seriously a very good driver. This time, I liked the matte finish, and even though it's also quite long from front to back, it hides it better than some other heads. As with Mizuno, Srixon are better known for irons than woods, but this could be the driver that helps change that reputation. It's seriously quick and could surprise you.
TaylorMade Qi35 LS
This is a very attractive driver and the picture doesn't really do it justice. The shape, feel, and sound were all excellent. I didn't even mind the unusual colour of the crown which reminded me of the older SIM2 model. However, when addressing the ball, I felt it looked like it sat square or slightly closed. Possibly, because I play with a draw, a closed face is something I don't like. It makes me worry that I'm going to hit a hook. That possibly makes me subconsciously change my swing path to try to hold the face open, resulting in me pushing a few of these out to the right. That didn't help build confidence! So, despite a positive first impression and the guys saying it performed well, with good ball speeds and spin, I know I couldn't live with it.
Wilson Dynapwr Carbon
This was the surprise package of the session and could be the driver that finally gets Wilson back onto the "most wanted" lists. If you take a quick look on Google or YouTube you will see that it's getting rave reviews. I won't say anything here to take away from those reviews either. This is a really good club! Looks, sound, feel, and performance all stack up against the other clubs I tried today. The only thing I didn't like about it was the same issue I had with the Qi35. I thought it looked a bit closed at address, and that just won't work for me.
So, was there a winner?
The combination we kept returning to, and became the benchmark for everything else on test, was the Titleist GT3 with the Ventus Red shaft. Its higher swing speed (94.4mph vs 92.2mph) combined with greater efficiency to produce more ball speed (139 vs 135), carry (226 vs 213), and total distance (255 vs 250). I like its classic, simple look and how it sounds and feels. No drivers were massively longer than the others, as I am the real limiting factor in that equation, but the greatest improvements over my Ping were forgiveness on poor strikes and improved consistency. One key to low scoring is minimising the impact of bad shots, and that's where the GT3 excelled.
So there we have it, a new GT3 with Ventus Red shaft is now in the bag alongside the irons SGGT fitted me for last year (review here). Having played a few rounds with and a couple of range sessions, I am pleased to report that it's performing even better in reality than it did in testing. The range sessions below indicate further improvements in swing speed and distance as I become more comfortable with the club (and don't have the fatigue from a fitting), while the results on the course have been excellent too. Is this the year I get my club speed through 100mph? The GT3 ticks all my boxes and I'm a happy, grateful, golfer.
Thanks to the team at SGGT
This was a fantastic experience, and I must thank SGGT again for the invitation. It was the most exhaustive (and exhausting) fitting I've ever done and I came away with complete confidence in their final recommendation. If you are contemplating new clubs, now or in the future, and want an excellent fitting experience, I highly recommend visiting SGGT. You can contact them via their website https://www.sggt.co.uk/
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Great article Keith. Sounds like you’ve got a winner with that set up there. 👍🏼