LuckyIrishman
New member
This is probably going to be an odd first post, so I'll start out with a little about me. I've only started playing (again) in the last year. I played in high school and kept it going for a year or so afterward, but somehow life got in the way and I next thing I know I haven't swung a club for almost 10 years. After some coaxing by a few friends in January of last year, I relented and pulled the old clubs out of the garage, figured out which end to hold, took a few practice swings and thought to myself that this is going to go really bad. Unfortunately, I was right. However; I instantly fell back into wanting to play every day. Seriously! Since then, I have played almost every weekend and find myself taking afternoons or days off from work just to go play. I'm currently playing a mix of old and new Titleist clubs:
913D2 RIP Phenom 70S
913Fd 15 RIP Phenom 70S
913H 17 & 21 RIP Phenom 80S
981 DCI 4-PW Tri-Spec Stiff
SM2 54.08
SM2 60.04
Odyssey WhiteHot #1 35" SuperStroke MidSlim 2.0
Last 10 rounds stats:
Scoring Average - 87.2
GIRs - 22.86%
Putts per Hole - 1.72 (31 per round)
Driving Accuracy - 60.48%
Low Round - 82
High Round - 94
I've decided it was time that I got a little more (or a lot) serious about my game and get properly fit. While I'm sure I could use a lesson or twelve and it's definitely the Indian more than the arrow; I really like new shiny things. It turns out that Club Champion Golf recently opened a storefront in Orlando (I'm in Tampa) and given the positive reviews of the fittings that members of this board have had recently, I decided to book a full bag fitting.
On Monday, I drove from Tampa to Orlando to Club Champion to get fit. Traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and I arrived about 45 minutes early. When I walked in I was greeted by Rob (store manager?) who told me that my fitting would be performed by Ryan today and that I should have a seat in the lobby. Over stuffed leather couches, a flat screen with the Golf Channel on and a putting green with the SAM Putting Lab set-up. Ryan came out immediately and handed me a small info card to fill-out and sat down to ask me some questions about my game and what I was hoping to achieve by the fitting today (i.e. ball flight, normal miss, etc.)
I warmed up with my 9 iron, just to get loose and then Ryan told me to grab my 6 iron so that we could get a baseline for the rest of the iron fitting. When we were discussing ball flight earlier, one of my complaints was that I hit my irons too high. This was later confirmed by trackman (IIRC SS 81MPH, LA 33°, SF 1.21, Spin 6500-7000 RPM). Ryan grabbed the new Callaway X2 Hot head and paired it with a number of different shafts (C-Taper, C-Taper Lite, KBS Tour, Nippon Modus 3, PX, PXi). Immediately the PX 5.5 showed the best numbers by far (SS 84MPH, LA 21°, SF 1.44, Spin 5100 RPM).
Now it was time to try different heads. Now with the baseline of the X2 Hot / PX 5.5 to go off of, we tried most of the game improvement irons on hand (AP1, Apex, SpeedBlade, Adams XTD, 588's & a few others I'm forgetting). We kept coming back to the X2 Hot / PX 5.5 combo, as it had the better number than everything out there. While the Apex felt better to me, the X2's just seemed to work, so that was settled.
It was time to take a breather and get a drink while Ryan set my current putter up with the SAM. My normal miss with the putter is a push and something I struggle with often. I got set-up, aimed and stroked 7 putts to see what was going on. Apparently my aiming was dead on, and my stroke was very consistent, I am leaving the putter 1.5° open at impact and the lie angle was a bit off. Ryan asked if I had any preference to a white headed and I told him they do not seem to fit my eye. I've messed around with them a bit in the big box stores and just never really felt comfortable with them. Ryan ended up grabbing a standard Bettinardi Kuchar Model 1 and bending it 1° upright. Rolled 7 more and all went dead center of the hole and SAM showed I was still aiming perfectly, but now I was able to close the face properly while maintaining the same path. Done and done.
Time to hit some drivers! Again, during our initial talk, I told Ryan that I often find my ball next to or behind its divot in the fairway. Trackman showed my Driver at SS 104MPH, LA 11.5°, SF 1.45, Spin over 5000 often, AoA +3.1°). After trying a ton of different combo's of shafts and heads we finally hit upon the SLDR 10.5° (Upped to 12°) & Fujikura Fuel 60 S). With that, LA came up to just over 14, spin came down to around 2700 and SF was 1.49 on average with the same AoA. While much better, I wanted to try the SLDR in 12° (and maybe cranked up from there), but they did not have one on hand to try. I might still try to track one down in order to give it a go.
Same deal when it came to 3 wood and hybrid(s). The best combination of the 3 wood for me was a regular 913F 15° head with a Fujikura Fuel 70 S. Remarkably, my current 913H's were a great match for me and fit my gaps well. I am very comfortable with them and Ryan saw no reason to change them.
Lastly, I swung a few different wedges and really like the MackDaddy 2 wedges, but I'd like to get my hands on the new Titleist SM5's before I decide to make any changes. Either way, I will definitely be going with a different bounce configuration as I am not happy with the way I swing the 60.04 I currently have.
Ryan then wrote everything up while I got some more water and packed my bag up. We went over all of my options and discussed them a little longer. While the prices can be a little steep (full retail plus), there is no pressure to buy everything right there. They give you a folder with the recommendations, a card and some other leaflets.
All in all, it was a great, eye-opening experience that I would recommend to anyone. I got a real sense of what worked well with my swing and what did not. While my current bag looks like I am sponsored by Titleist and I do think they make a quality club, it was nice to see what works for me. A few things I really thought I would love, didn't work out and I'm OK with that if it can translate to the course.
If you've made it this far; I'm sorry. LOL
913D2 RIP Phenom 70S
913Fd 15 RIP Phenom 70S
913H 17 & 21 RIP Phenom 80S
981 DCI 4-PW Tri-Spec Stiff
SM2 54.08
SM2 60.04
Odyssey WhiteHot #1 35" SuperStroke MidSlim 2.0
Last 10 rounds stats:
Scoring Average - 87.2
GIRs - 22.86%
Putts per Hole - 1.72 (31 per round)
Driving Accuracy - 60.48%
Low Round - 82
High Round - 94
I've decided it was time that I got a little more (or a lot) serious about my game and get properly fit. While I'm sure I could use a lesson or twelve and it's definitely the Indian more than the arrow; I really like new shiny things. It turns out that Club Champion Golf recently opened a storefront in Orlando (I'm in Tampa) and given the positive reviews of the fittings that members of this board have had recently, I decided to book a full bag fitting.
On Monday, I drove from Tampa to Orlando to Club Champion to get fit. Traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and I arrived about 45 minutes early. When I walked in I was greeted by Rob (store manager?) who told me that my fitting would be performed by Ryan today and that I should have a seat in the lobby. Over stuffed leather couches, a flat screen with the Golf Channel on and a putting green with the SAM Putting Lab set-up. Ryan came out immediately and handed me a small info card to fill-out and sat down to ask me some questions about my game and what I was hoping to achieve by the fitting today (i.e. ball flight, normal miss, etc.)
I warmed up with my 9 iron, just to get loose and then Ryan told me to grab my 6 iron so that we could get a baseline for the rest of the iron fitting. When we were discussing ball flight earlier, one of my complaints was that I hit my irons too high. This was later confirmed by trackman (IIRC SS 81MPH, LA 33°, SF 1.21, Spin 6500-7000 RPM). Ryan grabbed the new Callaway X2 Hot head and paired it with a number of different shafts (C-Taper, C-Taper Lite, KBS Tour, Nippon Modus 3, PX, PXi). Immediately the PX 5.5 showed the best numbers by far (SS 84MPH, LA 21°, SF 1.44, Spin 5100 RPM).
Now it was time to try different heads. Now with the baseline of the X2 Hot / PX 5.5 to go off of, we tried most of the game improvement irons on hand (AP1, Apex, SpeedBlade, Adams XTD, 588's & a few others I'm forgetting). We kept coming back to the X2 Hot / PX 5.5 combo, as it had the better number than everything out there. While the Apex felt better to me, the X2's just seemed to work, so that was settled.
It was time to take a breather and get a drink while Ryan set my current putter up with the SAM. My normal miss with the putter is a push and something I struggle with often. I got set-up, aimed and stroked 7 putts to see what was going on. Apparently my aiming was dead on, and my stroke was very consistent, I am leaving the putter 1.5° open at impact and the lie angle was a bit off. Ryan asked if I had any preference to a white headed and I told him they do not seem to fit my eye. I've messed around with them a bit in the big box stores and just never really felt comfortable with them. Ryan ended up grabbing a standard Bettinardi Kuchar Model 1 and bending it 1° upright. Rolled 7 more and all went dead center of the hole and SAM showed I was still aiming perfectly, but now I was able to close the face properly while maintaining the same path. Done and done.
Time to hit some drivers! Again, during our initial talk, I told Ryan that I often find my ball next to or behind its divot in the fairway. Trackman showed my Driver at SS 104MPH, LA 11.5°, SF 1.45, Spin over 5000 often, AoA +3.1°). After trying a ton of different combo's of shafts and heads we finally hit upon the SLDR 10.5° (Upped to 12°) & Fujikura Fuel 60 S). With that, LA came up to just over 14, spin came down to around 2700 and SF was 1.49 on average with the same AoA. While much better, I wanted to try the SLDR in 12° (and maybe cranked up from there), but they did not have one on hand to try. I might still try to track one down in order to give it a go.
Same deal when it came to 3 wood and hybrid(s). The best combination of the 3 wood for me was a regular 913F 15° head with a Fujikura Fuel 70 S. Remarkably, my current 913H's were a great match for me and fit my gaps well. I am very comfortable with them and Ryan saw no reason to change them.
Lastly, I swung a few different wedges and really like the MackDaddy 2 wedges, but I'd like to get my hands on the new Titleist SM5's before I decide to make any changes. Either way, I will definitely be going with a different bounce configuration as I am not happy with the way I swing the 60.04 I currently have.
Ryan then wrote everything up while I got some more water and packed my bag up. We went over all of my options and discussed them a little longer. While the prices can be a little steep (full retail plus), there is no pressure to buy everything right there. They give you a folder with the recommendations, a card and some other leaflets.
All in all, it was a great, eye-opening experience that I would recommend to anyone. I got a real sense of what worked well with my swing and what did not. While my current bag looks like I am sponsored by Titleist and I do think they make a quality club, it was nice to see what works for me. A few things I really thought I would love, didn't work out and I'm OK with that if it can translate to the course.
If you've made it this far; I'm sorry. LOL
