tome
New member
I am currently a +2.6, have been as low as a +3.5 and have been as high as a 0.9. My driver swing speed is 120mph at top end. On average, I use driver four to six times per round. When I drive it well I can go low (64 is low this season), and the opposite is also true (80 is high this season). I spend an inordinate amount of time on my driver and tweaking to include looking/buying shafts (length, weight, torque, kick, weight, grips, tipping, etc.), heads, total head weight, weight placement, shot shaping, loft, launch angle, spin, etc., I think the old adage "Drive for show" it BS. If you can't drive it where it needs to be to attack a pin, you can't score.
Anyway, I've played the 910D3, R9 Supertri, Superfast 2.0, R11, R11s (retail and tour) and now the R1 (retail and tour). In case you haven't seen it, Taylormade has put up a page on the tour head - the R1 v2 (http://taylormadegol...r/DW-WZ017.html). The major importance [to me] is that they state the head is 10g lighter than the retail R1 v1 head. Why is this important? To accommodate for heavier shafts while retaining the engineering specification for total weight! Ah hem!!! Uh, hello!
Still you ask "why is this important?" If your swing speed is north of 110mph you might have a tendency to get quick, and when this happens you are going to lose your ball right and/or left. You know one of the cures is to add to the total weight of the driver. You also know that in doing this, you lose distance on average and this eats at you. So you teeter totter on your setup and the volatility of your tee game suffers because of it.
Back to the story... When you look at tour pros, for the most part, they play shafts that are heavier than yours. There aren't many tour pros that will use the stock shaft [weight] that ships in the retail Taylormade [R1v1] - a 55g Aldila. In fact, there aren't many tour pros that would use a 65g shaft, although this is really the weight class where it starts for tour pros - 65g! Simple math: 65g - 55g = 10g. See something here?
Fujikura publishes a report each week on the exact shafts that are in play on tour. At this year's Wells Fargo tour event, there were 64 Fuji shafts in play. 55 of those weighed more than 75 grams. Look at Robert Garrigus as example. He plays the Speeder VC 8.2 in his driver. This shaft isn't listed on Fuji's website. It has to be at least 78 and possibly even 84 grams raw weight (before trimming), yet he's one of the longest on tour. How can he play a shaft that is at least 20 grams heavier than yours and still move it out there? He's playing with a tour head, and it doesn't weight the same as what you bought at retail. What does all this mean? It means that weight is very important!!! 10g is a lot of weight, and using or not using this properly could mean the difference between hitting bombs into the short grass or curving into the trees.
Here's how I work with the head and the weight(s).
The R1v1 head is 205g and the R1v2 head is 195g. I prefer and play the R1v1 (less expensive, and I like the added forgiveness - the R1v2 looks great at address, but 20cc isn't enough to make it really jump out at you). With my R1v1, I gravitate between three shafts. I play the Fujikura Fuel 70x (78g), Fujikura Speeder VC 6.2x (65g) and the Aldila RIP Phenom NL 60x (68g). These shafts are all high kick, low launch, low spin. I set the R1 head to neutral and play 8.75 loft. When I play the Fuel (78g), I remove the 10g MWT and use 1g in both ports. This is an ideal setup for the weight of this shaft. Right now, this is my stock setup. The Fuel has 3.1 torque and due to less torsional twisting, and not having MWT weights in the head my stock shot is a soft draw. With this setup my misses are to the left so on a hole where there is trouble left I'll generally play a cut. When I play the Speeder VC 6.2 (65g), I put the 10g back in and add an additional 4g weight. This is an ideal setup for the weight of this shaft. I'll use this shaft when I want to put the ball up higher and feel more weight in the head. This shaft is really unbelievable. When I use the Phenom NL (68g), I will put the 10g back in and add an additional 1g weight. This is my newest shaft, and I haven't played it in a tournament yet. So I don't know how it will react under pressure.
As you can see, using the 10g (difference between the retail and the tour head) properly is VERY important and when you're trying to drive it like a pro this [petty] detail is of utmost importance. I like to remind myself of what Nick Faldo likes to say... As commentator and swing guru, when a tour pro hits it miles offline he's asked "What do you see in his swing that would cause that miss, Sir Nick?" He likes to say "It's fractions isn't it mate!"
I contend that these fractions make a difference. Given the main difference between what you buy and what the tour pro uses is a 10g weight fluctuation - we'd better get that right...
Anyway, I've played the 910D3, R9 Supertri, Superfast 2.0, R11, R11s (retail and tour) and now the R1 (retail and tour). In case you haven't seen it, Taylormade has put up a page on the tour head - the R1 v2 (http://taylormadegol...r/DW-WZ017.html). The major importance [to me] is that they state the head is 10g lighter than the retail R1 v1 head. Why is this important? To accommodate for heavier shafts while retaining the engineering specification for total weight! Ah hem!!! Uh, hello!
Still you ask "why is this important?" If your swing speed is north of 110mph you might have a tendency to get quick, and when this happens you are going to lose your ball right and/or left. You know one of the cures is to add to the total weight of the driver. You also know that in doing this, you lose distance on average and this eats at you. So you teeter totter on your setup and the volatility of your tee game suffers because of it.
Back to the story... When you look at tour pros, for the most part, they play shafts that are heavier than yours. There aren't many tour pros that will use the stock shaft [weight] that ships in the retail Taylormade [R1v1] - a 55g Aldila. In fact, there aren't many tour pros that would use a 65g shaft, although this is really the weight class where it starts for tour pros - 65g! Simple math: 65g - 55g = 10g. See something here?
Fujikura publishes a report each week on the exact shafts that are in play on tour. At this year's Wells Fargo tour event, there were 64 Fuji shafts in play. 55 of those weighed more than 75 grams. Look at Robert Garrigus as example. He plays the Speeder VC 8.2 in his driver. This shaft isn't listed on Fuji's website. It has to be at least 78 and possibly even 84 grams raw weight (before trimming), yet he's one of the longest on tour. How can he play a shaft that is at least 20 grams heavier than yours and still move it out there? He's playing with a tour head, and it doesn't weight the same as what you bought at retail. What does all this mean? It means that weight is very important!!! 10g is a lot of weight, and using or not using this properly could mean the difference between hitting bombs into the short grass or curving into the trees.
Here's how I work with the head and the weight(s).
The R1v1 head is 205g and the R1v2 head is 195g. I prefer and play the R1v1 (less expensive, and I like the added forgiveness - the R1v2 looks great at address, but 20cc isn't enough to make it really jump out at you). With my R1v1, I gravitate between three shafts. I play the Fujikura Fuel 70x (78g), Fujikura Speeder VC 6.2x (65g) and the Aldila RIP Phenom NL 60x (68g). These shafts are all high kick, low launch, low spin. I set the R1 head to neutral and play 8.75 loft. When I play the Fuel (78g), I remove the 10g MWT and use 1g in both ports. This is an ideal setup for the weight of this shaft. Right now, this is my stock setup. The Fuel has 3.1 torque and due to less torsional twisting, and not having MWT weights in the head my stock shot is a soft draw. With this setup my misses are to the left so on a hole where there is trouble left I'll generally play a cut. When I play the Speeder VC 6.2 (65g), I put the 10g back in and add an additional 4g weight. This is an ideal setup for the weight of this shaft. I'll use this shaft when I want to put the ball up higher and feel more weight in the head. This shaft is really unbelievable. When I use the Phenom NL (68g), I will put the 10g back in and add an additional 1g weight. This is my newest shaft, and I haven't played it in a tournament yet. So I don't know how it will react under pressure.
As you can see, using the 10g (difference between the retail and the tour head) properly is VERY important and when you're trying to drive it like a pro this [petty] detail is of utmost importance. I like to remind myself of what Nick Faldo likes to say... As commentator and swing guru, when a tour pro hits it miles offline he's asked "What do you see in his swing that would cause that miss, Sir Nick?" He likes to say "It's fractions isn't it mate!"
I contend that these fractions make a difference. Given the main difference between what you buy and what the tour pro uses is a 10g weight fluctuation - we'd better get that right...