31 December 2022|Golfing with gratitude
Date of fitting: Dec 19th
Weather: cold and windy!
During my lessons at Ladybank with Sandy, he was of the opinion that my 6i was not spinning enough and that I was also hitting it a bit low. He also wanted me to consider smaller grips. With that in mind, he suggested getting a full assessment of my current bag. While Sandy can offer that at Ladybank I have long used SGGT for this sort of thing so decided to book a 3hr full bag fitting with them. They are also the only place in Scotland where you can try 4, 6, 8 and PW.
My starting bag is as follows:
Driver: Titleist TSi3, 8 degrees, Ventus blue stiff shaft (probably from a TM driver)
3W: Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero with Aldila 2kxv 70 green stiff shaft
5W: Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero with Tensei Blue 70g stiff shaft
3H: Callaway XR16 OS with Tour AD-DI 85s hybrid shaft
4H: Callaway Apex (2017 model) with Tour AD-DI 85s hybrid shaft
5-7 iron: PXG Gen4 T with Aerotech Steelfiber fc115cw stiff shafts
7-PW: PXG Gen4 ST with Aerotech Steelfiber fc115cw stiff shafts
50/54/60 wedges: Vokey SM9's with Modus 115 stiff shafts
James started the fitting by talking over what I was hoping to achieve and what I have been working on with Sandy. He checked over my current clubs and assessed the length, lie and loft of my current 6i. Then we started hitting balls to get a baseline with my current clubs. Sandy’s concerns looked to be justified as Trackman did show that I was hitting a bit low and spinning OK but not optimal. This can be seen on the course where I can often hit greens with these longer irons but struggle to get them to stop.
In order to get some more ball speed and height we moved to a lighter steel shaft in the KBS Tour Lite and the new TaylorMade P770 iron head. We tried this first in regular flex and then quickly moved to stiff - where we stayed. I've played KBS Tour shafts before and have always liked how they feel. Speed, height, spin and carry distance all improved, giving me a much better chance of stopping the ball on the green. We then tried the Callaway Apex Pro and Cobra King MIM head with the latter being ruled out immediately but the former remaining a contender. The Apex Pro and the P770 were difficult to split in the 6i so we went on to try the 8i and found much better performance from the P770. This was confirmed when we tried the pitching wedge. I can't over-emphasise how good it was getting to try the different clubs in the set rather than just hitting a 7 iron. All of the Trackman numbers were an improvement on my current irons. Considering grips, the size on the demo clubs seemed perfect (slightly thinner than what I've got on the PXG's) and James' opinion was that moving smaller would increase the risk of hooking.
Having settled on the 5-PW in the P770's we checked the gap to my 50 wedge and it fitted perfectly. This was another area I was concerned about with my PXG set as I found the PW and 50 wedge to be too close in carry distance. Now resolved. Then we went up the bag and considered my 4 hybrid against a 4 iron, a club I've not had in my bag for many years. The P770 was ok but not really hitting the ball speed and carry targets so we tried the P790 and Stealth UDI with a KBS graphite shaft. The UDI was ruled out quickly but the P790 was a surprise, exactly hitting the numbers required. We then compared this to my 4 hybrid and it was quickly apparent that I was better with the 4i than the hybrid, which I really didn't expect.
Moving up to the 3 hybrid, the current club proved to be perfect, so stays in the bag. We did try a Stealth with a fancy Oban shaft but there was not enough of a difference to justify making a change. The 5W should probably go but could stay as an alternative to the 3H depending on what course I'm playing. My current 3W then perfectly fitted the gap above my 3H, so again no change is required there. It would be nice to have a 3w that I was more confident hitting from the fairway though.
On to the driver. I really wasn't having the best swing day by this time and everything was being struck low and out of the toe. This is something I've been struggling with for a while. Ironically as my iron strike has improved, my driver strike has deteriorated. Something to focus on in my next lesson. We got some baseline numbers with my own driver and then started the search for improvements. Trackman has a club optimiser system and it recons I'm losing over 20 yards of carry by not optimising the club. James felt there were other shafts that better suit my swing so moved me into a VA Vylyn 55 stiff. We Tried the TSr2 and TSr3 in various different lofts and then tried the Callaway Rogue Max LS. If we got the right launch conditions it came with too much spin and if we got the spin down the flight was too low and reduced the carry distance. The 3W was actually performing as well, if not better, than the driver. We are trying to get the driver to carry at least as far as the total distance of the 3W to create better gapping and I just wasn't delivering that no matter what we tried. If anything, my current driver was closer than the alternatives. After much testing and consulting with another fitter, we couldn't get to a solution for the driver so have agreed that I should work on my swing and come back in Feb / March when the new releases will have arrived from the manufacturers.
Conclusion: a very interesting morning with over 140 balls hit during the 3-hour session - not bad for this 53yr old
Driver: work on strike and return in spring
3W / 3H / Wedges - retain as they are
4H - drop from the bag
4i - new P790 with KBS TGI 80 shaft (shaft to be Pured)
5-PW - new P770’s with KBS Tour Lite stiff shafts (shafts to be Pured)
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