TaylorMade Kingdom Experience Diary

[Dr. Teeth]

wow am I reading this right? You went from a 183 carry to 252 carry? That is very impressive! If R11 could do that for me I'd be sold

That is totally right. I was hitting a giant snap hook and the R11 took it out of the equation. It was amazing to behold!

 

[Hole~Out~1983]

Wow that would be so awsome to get on that MATT system. Great videos DD thanks.

 

[Drumdog]

That is totally right. I was hitting a giant snap hook and the R11 took it out of the equation. It was amazing to behold!

I completely agree with the Doc.
Having never been fitted before and not knowing the benefits, what I saw happen that day really opened my eyes.
I had always thought that fitting was just for the pros, but no longer. Buying clubs off the rack without being fitted can be compared to clothes shopping while blindfolded. You grab that pair of pants off the rack and hope that you have the right size and color.
Stoney(my fitter) worked for almost an hour with me to get my R-11 just right, and I couldn't be happier.

 

[dankil13]

I sure am torn at this point. I have been waiting for the new TP irons to come out and planned on going to a demo day this weekend to test them and hopefully get fitted shortly there after. I did demo the R11 when it came out and loved the feeling, but I don't trust the guys at the local GG to fit me properly and would only go away from my G15 if I was certain I could hit the R11 as straight. Now I am thinking I should hold off on the irons and book a trip to the Kingdom to get fitted for both. However, adding in the cost of travel and the additional fitting fee is hard for me to justify to the wife at this point (looked into a day trip using my air miles, but the 2 hour drive from Atlanta pretty much nixes that based on the available flights the next two weeks). Also, I play in quite a few competitive golf events that start mid-April thru May, so waiting to make the trip in late April probably doesn't make sense.

Sorry for the rant - but my question to those who went is how does this compare to other fitting experiences that they had in the past? Aside from the technology and the arsenal of TM products - were these fitters that much more knowledgable than any other fitter you have used? I'm not a fan of the big box stores, but I do have a few recommended local fitters who are well respected and have been in the business for years. There is also a fitter an hour or so away that uses a trackman (novogolf) and has some good right ups on other message boards.

 

[SW]

Bolded part first. Night and day man it's that simple. I was fit for my irons here locally, I was just messing with the irons at the kingdom and the feedback I got from the guy there was way more intense than the fitting I paid for here. I wasn't even on a launch monitor it was just watching me and the ball flight.

It's about an hours drive from ATL to the Kingdom btw and I'm sure Robin and Jay at Reynolds would be most welcome to have you come down.

I sure am torn at this point. I have been waiting for the new TP irons to come out and planned on going to a demo day this weekend to test them and hopefully get fitted shortly there after. I did demo the R11 when it came out and loved the feeling, but I don't trust the guys at the local GG to fit me properly and would only go away from my G15 if I was certain I could hit the R11 as straight. Now I am thinking I should hold off on the irons and book a trip to the Kingdom to get fitted for both. However, adding in the cost of travel and the additional fitting fee is hard for me to justify to the wife at this point (looked into a day trip using my air miles, but the 2 hour drive from Atlanta pretty much nixes that based on the available flights the next two weeks). Also, I play in quite a few competitive golf events that start mid-April thru May, so waiting to make the trip in late April probably doesn't make sense.

Sorry for the rant - but my question to those who went is how does this compare to other fitting experiences that they had in the past? Aside from the technology and the arsenal of TM products - were these fitters that much more knowledgable than any other fitter you have used? I'm not a fan of the big box stores, but I do have a few recommended local fitters who are well respected and have been in the business for years. There is also a fitter an hour or so away that uses a trackman (novogolf) and has some good right ups on other message boards.

 

[DawgDaddy]

I sure am torn at this point. I have been waiting for the new TP irons to come out and planned on going to a demo day this weekend to test them and hopefully get fitted shortly there after. I did demo the R11 when it came out and loved the feeling, but I don't trust the guys at the local GG to fit me properly and would only go away from my G15 if I was certain I could hit the R11 as straight. Now I am thinking I should hold off on the irons and book a trip to the Kingdom to get fitted for both. However, adding in the cost of travel and the additional fitting fee is hard for me to justify to the wife at this point (looked into a day trip using my air miles, but the 2 hour drive from Atlanta pretty much nixes that based on the available flights the next two weeks). Also, I play in quite a few competitive golf events that start mid-April thru May, so waiting to make the trip in late April probably doesn't make sense.

Sorry for the rant - but my question to those who went is how does this compare to other fitting experiences that they had in the past? Aside from the technology and the arsenal of TM products - were these fitters that much more knowledgable than any other fitter you have used? I'm not a fan of the big box stores, but I do have a few recommended local fitters who are well respected and have been in the business for years. There is also a fitter an hour or so away that uses a trackman (novogolf) and has some good right ups on other message boards.

Depends on the quality of the fitter you have access to, I have only been fitted for irons before this weekend but the person who fitted me has won among other awards: Harvey Penick Award, PCS Worldwide Clubmaker of the Year, PCS US Southern Region Clubmaker of the Year, Golfsmith Distinguished Clubmaker Award, and many others. He took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get all of my launch numbers and fit me in my irons. Like the Kingdom experience, I only answered questions and did not try to steer him into any particular club. He developed what he calls Performance-Based Fitting and is meticulous to every detail. He orders your clubs unassembled and then assembles them at his shop and the shafts are all weight and frequency sorted, balanced, trimmed to exact length, and FLO’d during assembly. So it is possible to find a fitter that does comparable work if you look very, very hard, but the cost is actually about the same when everything is added up. It just boils down to you get what you pay for. I plan to visit the Kingdom the next time I am shopping for clubs.

 

[golf4life]

This might be better!

Only 70 yards more carry huh? OK, sarcasm off... that's pretty freakin unbelievable. I'm more psyched than ever to get my R11 delivered... hurry up Ahina... come to papa!

 

[Dr. Teeth]

Only 70 yards more carry huh? OK, sarcasm off... that's pretty freakin unbelievable. I'm more psyched than ever to get my R11 delivered... hurry up Ahina... come to papa!

It is a SWEET shaft in an even SWEETER driver! I went to the driving range for the first time since the Kingdom yesterday and as long as I did what Flick told us "Let the body support the swinging of the instrument" then everything is fantastic. It is when I think I know better and start trying to murder the ball that I run into trouble. I am excited to read what you think of the combo.

 

[Ole Gray]

That is totally right. I was hitting a giant snap hook and the R11 took it out of the equation. It was amazing to behold!

Man that is some lethal action there dude. You mean you can buy stuff that actually kills the "Giant snap Hook"! I need a large economy size can of that :thumb:

 

[dankil13]

Thanks guys!

DDawg - one of the fitters I am considering matches what you described. He buys the components and builds your set to match the specs. Obviously he doesn't have the same technology the folks at Reynolds has, but he is pretty well known and I used him to install my driver shaft. I don't see how the costs are really comparable since it would run me $2k for the irons and driver package, plus travel to and from the Kingdom, where as I would pay a local fitter around $100 an hour. I figured it would cost me an extra $1k to go to the Kingdom, which is hard to justify at the moment. So the decision for me is do I play with my current irons and wait until the summer or fall and go (and lose a good chunk of my competitive golf season), or do I just get fitted for the TP irons next week locally.

SW Fla - mapquest says its 91 miles and an hour and 54 minutes. I know they are usually a little conservative with time, but traffic around Atlanta can be brutal if you hit rush hour.

 

[Nate]

Great stuff guys....thanks for bringing it to the rest of us!

 

[SW]

So I'm sitting here watching a dvr'd episode of school of golf and who do see in the background working with DJ? Brian B. who I had the pleasure of talking with about the xft wedges on Sat. and playing a round with on Sun. morning. Just another cool factor from this weekend, the guy is a walking encyclopedia of club making and fitting, and I wish I had more questions to ask him over the weekend.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[royalwulff]

It sure sounds like all you guys had an absolute Ball at the Kingdom! I have really enjoyed reading all of your experiences.

 

[Ryan555]

WOW!!! That system looks amazing. Thanks for getting that video up. I have been arguing with myself on where to get a fitting done for a while now. Since I have seen what the MATT system can do, I am definitely going to the TP Lab here in town once it's set up.

Dankil - There is a TP lab at The International outside of Boston if that would be closer for you. I have played the course there, but not been through the fitting system.

 

[Ryan555]

So I'm sitting here watching a dvr'd episode of school of golf and who do see in the background working with DJ? Brian B. who I had the pleasure of talking with about the xft wedges on Sat. and playing a round with on Sun. morning. Just another cool factor from this weekend, the guy is a walking encyclopedia of club making and fitting, and I wish I had more questions to ask him over the weekend.

It's funny that yo umention that because I was watching that episode earlier tonight and saw the guy with DJ working on what looked like either wedges or short irons and was wondering if he was one the guys that was involved in either the GA or CA trip.

 

[Spank818]

Those are some great videos guys! Can't wait to see more.

 

[DawgDaddy]

So I'm sitting here watching a dvr'd episode of school of golf and who do see in the background working with DJ? Brian B. who I had the pleasure of talking with about the xft wedges on Sat. and playing a round with on Sun. morning. Just another cool factor from this weekend, the guy is a walking encyclopedia of club making and fitting, and I wish I had more questions to ask him over the weekend.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

I just finished watching it and I saw him too Danny, it did make me smile to see him.

 

[SW]

I'm glad I put DJ on my fantasy team this week after watching this, his wedges and irons should be dialed in perfectly.

I've got the flip videos loaded onto the computer now so soon as I get to a hardline internet connection I'll post them here. Even have a special video for P4B!

It's funny that yo umention that because I was watching that episode earlier tonight and saw the guy with DJ working on what looked like either wedges or short irons and was wondering if he was one the guys that was involved in either the GA or CA trip.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[AHA]

Can't wait to see the videos SW FLA!

 

[Mardin]

Brian B. was mentioned on the TMag twitter feed this morning because he was working with Justin Rose on some new wedges and irons. This guy was just working with us on Saturday and with SWFLA on Sunday and a few days later he's working with the pros on their equipment. Amazing!

So I'm sitting here watching a dvr'd episode of school of golf and who do see in the background working with DJ? Brian B. who I had the pleasure of talking with about the xft wedges on Sat. and playing a round with on Sun. morning. Just another cool factor from this weekend, the guy is a walking encyclopedia of club making and fitting, and I wish I had more questions to ask him over the weekend.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[br61]

Wow has it been a busy day here, I've a got few minutes before heading out the door and trying to upload some video to youtube since we can't do that here at work.

I wanted to talk about my driver fitting for a bit. I had the pleasure of working with Jay who works at the Kingdom at Reynolds, pure genious that guy! I came into the day playing a Dymo2 and Jay wanted to know my typical ball flight, I tried to be as honest as possible and told him I generally play the left side and let it fall back into the fairway. After hitting a few so he could see what I was talking about he stopped me and said "Here's the cold hard truth, we've got to get you on plane." So the fitting process kinda stopped, he did assemble an R11 9* with everything maxed out to create a more leftward ball flight and then brought over an iron fitting shaft. In order to get me on plane he placed the shaft about a foot in rear of the ball and a foot to the right then instructed me to swing under the shaft to eliminate my OTT swing. We started off slow about 10% until I got the mechanics down before ever hitting the ball. The man has patience!

So now that I was thinking swing under the shaft and getting the hang of that Jay gave me a great litle swing tip though, right elbow, right pocket...I honestly remember saying that over and over to myself the whole day. Started hitting a few balls but Jay noticed I was swinging left (toward third base), he said this was due to my OTT and it was my of compensating, by swinging left I could hang the face open and allow the ball to cut back into the fairway. "We're gonna fix that," says Jay and we did. He took the same iron shaft and placed it on my left side this time as a reminder not to swing left. I was so worried I was going to hit the shaft and ruin the club I was timid, Jay quickly reminded me that he knew a guy and could get more clubs if I messed one up. Here come the hooks...hooks mean progress to a guy like me and Jay was loving it. He was wanting me to duck hook a few to get the feel of rolling my wrist through impact. I did not disappoint him.

So now I've gotten on plane, my right elbow is going into my right pocket and I'm swinging out to firstbase. Things were looking good, real good. Jay did some swapping and changed the sole plate to bring the ball up a bit, that worked but he wasn't satisified so he got a 10.5* head....BOOM!

Honestly fellas i've not been playing golf to long since picking it back up and I've never moved the ball how I wanted until Saturday morning around 10:30 AM. Every light bulb in my mind was going off, every thread I've read in the Ask the Pro section was making sense now, the lessons I took last summer were finally making connections...it was magical. Every ball was starting right of my target line and moving back to the left in the beautiful draw. Jay had a great analogy of why I'm not a long hitter, he told me to take a 250 yd string and run it along my ball path, with the cut/fade/slice I've been playing I was wasting energy with the sideways flight, he wanted me to stop wasting energy and get all of my 250 yd down the fairway. Well we did it.

I was fit to the R11 in 10.5* with 11 grams on the heel and 1 gram on the toe, ASP set to neutral with a Matrix Xcon 5 shaft in R. It's a friggin miracle club! The mind-blowing adjustability that is built into this club is so far beyond what I thought. The fact that of 10 golfers this weekend all but one was fit to the R11 shows just how remarkable this club is, that it can be changed so much to fit such a wide-array of golfers goes to show that Tmag put the man hours into making a truly special club that can be tuned and maximized to fit just about anyone on the planet.

I know I'm leaving out a ton of info but Jay if you get a chance to read this, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. In a very short period of time you made me a better golfer, the knowledge you shared with me far surpassed any lesson I've ever recieved, bar none. I look forward to staying in touch with you and especially to that day when I meet my/our goal and start hooking the $#!t out of this wonderful club.

I was hitting left of you, I noticed by the end of the morning that you've improved immensely after Jay worked with you.

 

[br61]

Wow! Wow! Wow! I don't know how many times I said that this weekend. Being the old dude in this three some I am not as tech savy as Danny and Martin so I will begin posting now that I am at home and in my comfort zone. The Ritz is as plush as you would imagine and the staff was A1 for sure. They went out of their way to make sure you were comfortable and attended to. Great staff and amenities, pretty much everything a person could ask, from a spa, Annika ladies golf clothing shop inside, a heated pool down by the lake beside Gaby's restaurant, the previously mentioned fire pit and smores at night. twice daily room clean up, transportation to anywhere on the property. anything you would want of them, they responded.
The first nights supper was absolutely delicious as was the parting nights meal last night, I took pictures of the menu and I hope you can see them when they get posted, I had the creme brulee each night for desert and it was as good as it gets. I am already missing the food.
Pictures and videos are to follow, I got a good video explaining the forging process, an entire video of my club being made from start to finish and a great description of the MATT system, I ran out of battery during the Q&A at the end, but SW FLA saw me put down my camera and realized what was going on and picked up the remaining Q&A minus about 20 seconds. We will get those posted as we get time.
TaylorMade is first class all the way, all of the guys and gal that I talked to were very proud to be a part of such a great company, and yes we did relay hellos from you guys who were at Carlsbad last week, Dave and Charles were actually tickled to hear from you.
I really enjoyed the experience and both of my fellow THPers are great guys to just hang and talk with, every one should be happy to have them representing THP so well.
I am still grinning and as I said pics and video to follow.

Here are the menus from the w nights in order, you know food is very important to us older types.

Indeed the dinner was excellent and it was a stuff-fest. TM sure knows how to take care of their guests. ;-)

 

[Mardin]

I just got an email from Dave at TaylorMade with my Trackman numbers. The R11 is amazing and here are the numbers to prove it!

Doc,

Did Dave just e-mail these to you out of the blue or did you ask for them. Just curious. I would love to view my detailed numbers from the Trackman.

 

[Dr. Teeth]

Doc,

Did Dave just e-mail these to you out of the blue or did you ask for them. Just curious. I would love to view my detailed numbers from the Trackman.

He emailed them to me after you guys finished your experience. He may not have received them from The Kingdom yet.

 

[Mardin]

He emailed them to me after you guys finished your experience. He may not have received them from The Kingdom yet.

No worries, just curious. I looked over your numbers again today and they are astounding. I'm working on my swing so hopefully I can have P.O.D. playing in the background every-time I crush a ball down the fairway. Congrats again man!