Nebgolfer's club fitting - PXIII performance club fitting

[Nebgolfer]

Having been beyond fortunate enough to be selected for the Morgan Cup, a whole new part of the equipment world was opened up to me: custom clubs. I've owned 3 sets of clubs in my life, the first two were bought off of ebay, and the last one was bought from a store and I got measured for length and lie, and that was it. Having Bridgestone open up their entire custom catalog is a tremendous gesture, but for someone like me who has never played anything beyond stock, it's also a little overwhelming. To help me make sense of this wide world of custom shafts, I've scheduled a fitting at the West 9 at Firethorn, who uses a proprietary PXIII fitting method (http://www.west9golf.com/club-fitting-a-repair/pxiii-performance-club-fitting, http://pxthree.com/)

In an effort to properly prepare for this fitting, I've gathered as many Bridgestone clubs as I could (5 drivers, 5w, 4h, 5i, 6i, 54* and 58* wedges), and the rest is up to the knowledge and expertise of my fitter. One of the neat things about this fitting is that they will actually build a test club (6i I believe) and have the Ping and Mizuno fitting carts to use, so hopefully the shaft selection for the irons will be close to what Bridgestone offers. This will be a bit different than the fittings that some of the other MCers have had recently, as they could go to their OEM and try everything out and walk out knowing their setup was perfect, but I'll be doing a little bit of guessing and trusting, but I'm confident with the fitters at West 9 and the experts doing the B-fit program at Bridgestone, I'll end up with the perfect set to help me be successful in July. I'll update this thread after my fitting tomorrow and share the results and my impression of the overall process; at this point I'm both excited and a little nervous, and either way, it should be educational and a lot of fun.

 

[Nebgolfer]

I had my fitting this morning, and it wasn't quite what I'd expected. I showed up a little after 8:00 and got introduced to Greg (the fitter) and talked with him about the Morgan Cup, and why I was there. Since I had a DPC 6 iron available, we decided that we'd use that as the sample club instead of one that they would build for me. I got warmed up with an 8 iron while Greg was getting everything setup and getting the specs off of my DPC 6 iron. The first several shots were acceptable in my book, but had a bit of a fade that I've always played and gotten used to. Seeing this, Greg checked some measurements (height, distance to floor standing and setup, hand size, grip strength) which went into their model:

Based on those measurements, their proprietary PXIII program said the stock DPC 6 iron was pretty close to ideal, but there were some tweaks to make. He added 1g of lead tape to the head and had my hit the ball a few more times. I felt like I was making much better contact, but still seeing a bit of a fade. Greg said that he thought my fade could be cured by bending the club 1* upright, and then proceeded to do that to my 6 iron. He also mentioned that even bending the club 1* upright could impact the weight profile he was working on since the toe was now closer to the grip, so added just a bit more weight to the head. After that, I was seeing dead straight shots, curving slightly with the wind but not as much as I was initially seeing. After seeing the impressive results, he showed my some more of the output from their program (not as good of a picture):

The premise behind their system is that clubs should be matched based on how much leverage they require, and based on the specs of a 6 iron they can match the rest of the set of irons, and showed me a readout of what the rest of my setup should be from a length, loft, and lie standpoint based off of the 6 iron (says he'll email me so I didn't get a picture). At that point I asked about shafts and ball flight, and this is where I was left a little wanting. He told me that based on grip strength, that I could handle pretty much any 120g shaft, and that the Project X 6.0 shaft seemed to give a pretty good ball flight. He said KBS C-tapers would be lower, and he wouldn't recommend them, but the Tours would be pretty close to the PX, maybe just a touch lower. Didn't really mention any other shafts, or talk spin numbers or anything like that. I don't really know what my expectations were, but with a full custom catalog open, going with stock shafts without really looking at all the options seems like we weren't very thorough. I might be lucky that stock works, and there's a reason they pick the stock shafts: to fit the most people, but it just seems like we didn't do the due diligence to make sure it's optimal.

After the irons were dialed in, we switched over to the driver to see what we were working with. I had taken in all 5 of my J40 445cc drivers in 10.5* (thanks Matt Maynard and Bridgestone test drive program), and started with the PX 6.0 shaft. Took some swings with his launch monitor, and was seeing a launch angle between 11 and 13, and spin was in the 2600-2800 range, which he was pretty happy with. Visually, it looked like a pretty low ball flight and didn't look too long, but the LM said about 245-250 carry. He then got measurements off the driver, and said it was right in line with the profile he was building towards based on my 6 iron. He had me hit the rest of the drivers and got numbers on them, but none really beat the PX 6.0 so that's what he's recommending; the closest one was the Diamana Blue Board, but wasn't quite as good. Here's again where I was a little disappointed with the depth of the fitting. I don't know if the PX 6.0 is the best, or just the best of the 5 options I brought, and whether I lucked out that the stock PX 6.0 was the best or if we just weren't thorough enough to find optimal and settled for OK.

Having fit the driver and the 6 iron, he said he had enough to build out the set I was planning on, and would email me the results. I had taken a 5w and a 4h to the fitting, but he didn't have me hit them, so I'm relying on their system to pick the right shafts for those two clubs, but to say I have complete confidence that it will all be perfect is a bit of an overstatement.

I left the fitting a little underwhelmed, primarily because I didn't think we really exhausted all of our options to find the perfect fit, and I'll probably never get another chance in my life to get perfectly fit clubs for me, so "settling" for the stock option just seems to be a bit of a letdown; that or just shows that Bridgestone did a great job picking a stock option (probably more likely now that I think about it). Compared to the fittings from some other MCers, it just seemed a little less impressive, but that might just be my expectations setting the bar too high.

After the fitting, I played 9 holes of golf with some friends, one of whom used to be a teaching pro, and he waited until we were teeing off on the 9th hole to comment on my swing that I was sliding into the ball instead of rotating through it, and that was causing me to deloft the driver and causing my very low launch angle and costing me distance. After hitting what I thought was a good drive, he told me to swing it again his way and make sure to keep my head behind the ball, and I saw a much higher ball flight, and when we got to the balls, his way was 15 yards further. After the round, we hit up the range and he was helping me work on the change he was suggesting. I don't know where I found the energy after hitting a ton of balls in the fitting and walking 9 holes, but I was seeing higher swing speeds, higher launch angle, and ultimately 15+ yds more carry distance with his way than my way. The confusing/frustrating part is that with his way, the PX 6.0 that I was fit for 2 hours earlier wasn't the best; the Diamana was. I see a ton of merit (and results) for making the changes he's suggesting, but to have it invalidate a fitting I just had kind of makes me question the rest of the fitting.

I plan to talk this over with Josh and a b-fit specialist, but here's the bag I would get right this second:

J40 445cc 10.5* with the Diamana blue board S shaft
J40 4w with blue board shaft
J40 3h & 4h with PX 6.0 shafts (I have this in my 4h and really like it)
J40 DPC 5-PW with PX 6.0 shafts, bent 1* upright and 1/4" long
J40 Black oxide wedges 52* bent to 50* with PX 6.0 shaft, 54* and 58* with DG spinner shafts
True Balance TD-03 with large grip at 35"

Any thoughts, comments, or questions are more than welcome. I feel that I've at least got something to go off of, and I'm sure this setup would be adequate for the MC, but I would say I don't have that feeling of knowing it's absolutely perfect for me, but I also admit that finding perfect in the midst of swing changes and the swing of a 16.5 handicapper might not be possible either. Thanks for reading.

 

[J4U]

Have fun Neb, looking forward to your thoughts.

 

[Smithfaced]

Looking forward to reading your thoughts dude. One thing that has been interesting with all the fittings thus far is pre conceptions as to what clubs an individual will end up with. Do you have anything at the top of your list or are you going in completely open minded?

 

[mikedean441]

Really looking forward to thoughts on your experience

 

[kc720]

Hope you have a great experience and get some good hard numbers! Can't wai to read your recap

 

[6ixOhFore]

Look forward to reading your experience, enjoy

Sent from my SGH-I257M using Tapatalk

 

[TimG3394]

Have fun! Can't wait to hear how it goes

 

[Nebgolfer]

Looking forward to reading your thoughts dude. One thing that has been interesting with all the fittings thus far is pre conceptions as to what clubs an individual will end up with. Do you have anything at the top of your list or are you going in completely open minded?

At this point, I'm going in open minded, more from the fact that I just don't know enough to have deeply rooted opinions on anything. I have a general idea on which heads are going on my clubs: 445cc driver vs 430cc driver (loft still unknown), 4w, 3h, 4h, 5-pw DPC, 50*, 54*, 58*. Shafts are a complete mystery to me. Length and lie are also a mystery, and I'm expecting to be fitted for midsize grips, but even that isn't a sure thing.

Having played stock clubs my entire life, I'm quite curious to see what things I'm fitted into that are different than what I'm currently playing. My current iron shafts are on the lighter side at 105g, so that might be wrong. I've played a standard size grip, and I think that might be wrong, leaving my trying to death grip the club. I've played standard length clubs, who knows if that's right or wrong. Long story short, I wish I would have done this a long time ago to have some of these very basic questions answered.

 

[Mmaynard11]

Can't wait to follow along with your experience. Make sure to ask all and any questions, as there isn't a dumb question.

 

[fupresti]

You got this teammate. You're going to get dialed in!

 

[O'Carroll]

Neb, I know you're already done with this, but can't wIt to see your writeup of how it went.

 

[TripleBogieTim]

Good luck with the fitting....honestly I can say that is the one of the weaknesses of the Bridgestone program is the inability to walk in and get fitted for their equipment.

I had been fit a year before at a Callaway Performance Center and based most of my Bridgestone order on the specs from that fitting.

I look forward to reading your results.

 

[Nebgolfer]

Good luck with the fitting....honestly I can say that is the one of the weaknesses of the Bridgestone program is the inability to walk in and get fitted for their equipment.

I had been fit a year before at a Callaway Performance Center and based most of my Bridgestone order on the specs from that fitting.

I look forward to reading your results.

2nd post edited to include the recap. I would say that not having a Bridgestone dedicated location to get fit at does seem a little less effective than what other people are posting about, but I think I've found something that should work.

 

[#Cookie]

Nebgolfer's club fitting - PXIII performance club fitting

Great thoughts Ryan, and sorry that you left the fitting wanting more and a bit unfulfilled.

FWIW, I played all PX shafts in 2012 and really enjoyed them. I believe them to be a solid stock shaft for the J40 lineup.

I know a catalog is opened but bear in mind that many fitters don't have all those shafts information in their database and available to hit.

If the numbers look good, run with it. Trust me when I say don't get caught up in that sexy aftermarket shaft....it hurt some folks last year.

 

[Nebgolfer]

Great thoughts Ryan, and sorry that you left the fitting wanting more and a bit unfulfilled.

FWIW, I played all PX shafts in 2012 and really enjoyed them. I believe them to be a solid stock shaft for the J40 lineup.

I know a catalog is opened but bear in mind that many fitters don't have all those shafts information in their database and available to hit.

If the numbers look good, run with it. Trust me when I say don't get caught up in that sexy aftermarket shaft....it hurt some folks last year.

Thanks for that, cookie. I'm trying to figure out if I'm a little disappointed because I didn't get fit for a sexy aftermarket shaft, or if we didn't even talk about them to dismiss them. If the PX is the best, I have no problem playing it just because it's stock, I just question whether we determined if it is the best or if it was just an easy fit.

 

[O'Carroll]

Thanks for that, cookie. I'm trying to figure out if I'm a little disappointed because I didn't get fit for a sexy aftermarket shaft, or if we didn't even talk about them to dismiss them. If the PX is the best, I have no problem playing it just because it's stock, I just question whether we determined if it is the best or if it was just an easy fit.

I think your questions are valid buddy. Did you ask the fitter about any other shafts? The only fitting I went through last spring, I realize now that I didn't ask some questions that I should have.

 

[Tadashi70]

Congrats on the fitting. It sounds like you got everything dialed it. I know you said you were underwhelmed but the simple fact is the stock options worked best with your swing. Not the adjusted swing you got from a quick lesson. When you swing is present you will not get the output you want out of the Diamana you like so much after the round.

I suggest you you trust the data you received from the fitter. The catalog is open but if it doesn't fit, it will be useless club in the bag. The PX line will work great for you. I base this on our work together and seeing your swing in Dallas.

 

[#Cookie]

Thanks for that, cookie. I'm trying to figure out if I'm a little disappointed because I didn't get fit for a sexy aftermarket shaft, or if we didn't even talk about them to dismiss them. If the PX is the best, I have no problem playing it just because it's stock, I just question whether we determined if it is the best or if it was just an easy fit.

I hear ya man. The great thing is that if you are getting a solid flight from the PX you can continue to get acclimated with the shaft.

Honestly, I'd feel a bit strange getting fitted into "sexy shaft A" and then being expected to put it into play in a few months on 1 days practice.

PX flighted are solid, tried and true.

 

[Nebgolfer]

Congrats on the fitting. It sounds like you got everything dialed it. I know you said you were underwhelmed but the simple fact is the stock options worked best with your swing. Not the adjusted swing you got from a quick lesson. When you swing is present you will not get the output you want out of the Diamana you like so much after the round.

I suggest you you trust the data you received from the fitter. The catalog is open but if it doesn't fit, it will be useless club in the bag. The PX line will work great for you. I base this on our work together and seeing your swing in Dallas.

Freddie, seeing the results I saw after the round, is there any reason to not work on the "adjusted" swing and make that my normal swing? Here's my thinking, and please correct me if I'm off track; the diamana was #2 during the fitting, and #1 in results after the adjustments, if I continue to work on the "new" swing with my friend, the Diamana will be the best for me; if I revert back to my "old" swing, then the diamana is a close 2nd and should still get it done. Is that too far off base?

 

[Tadashi70]

Freddie, seeing the results I saw after the round, is there any reason to not work on the "adjusted" swing and make that my normal swing? Here's my thinking, and please correct me if I'm off track; the diamana was #2 during the fitting, and #1 in results after the adjustments, if I continue to work on the "new" swing with my friend, the Diamana will be the best for me; if I revert back to my "old" swing, then the diamana is a close 2nd and should still get it done. Is that too far off base?

What were the result with the PX and new swing? Stay away from wanting the big time shaft. Go with what works

 

[Agent Jay]

Freddie is right Neb. That's exactly what I was going to say as well. You know your fitting was correctly done, for you. While working on your swing is great, and there is nothing wrong with that, I just can't help but think that you'll be in a more pressured situation come July. If, at that time you have worked hard on those changes, then go with the switched you were talking about. However, most people will swing the way they now how. Trying to make a swing change with only 2 months to go, isn't something I would recommend at this time, personally. You're good to go, trust the fitting and play well in July, THEN, work on the changes.

 

[Nebgolfer]

What were the result with the PX and new swing? Stay away from wanting the big time shaft. Go with what works

Lower ball flight and about 5-10 yards less carry. I'm not motivated at all by the name brand on the shaft, I just want the one that performs the best, and the biggest question for me is whether the swing I was fit with will be the one I play the next 2 months or whether I work on a few things and my swing is a little different in July. I don't think the difference between the diamana and the PX was big one way or the other, just saw a much higher ball flight with the Diamana on the range after the round. Didn't you suggest I look at blue boards awhile ago, too?

I'll try and get a video of the change my friend is recommending and see what you think of the change. I appreciate you helping me on this, this is really new to me, and it's sometimes easy to get distracted by shiny, and while I'm trying to not make that the case here, I admit it is possible.

 

[Tadashi70]

Lower ball flight and about 5-10 yards less carry. I'm not motivated at all by the name brand on the shaft, I just want the one that performs the best, and the biggest question for me is whether the swing I was fit with will be the one I play the next 2 months or whether I work on a few things and my swing is a little different in July. I don't think the difference between the diamana and the PX was big one way or the other, just saw a much higher ball flight with the Diamana on the range after the round. Didn't you suggest I look at blue boards awhile ago, too?

I'll try and get a video of the change my friend is recommending and see what you think of the change. I appreciate you helping me on this, this is really new to me, and it's sometimes easy to get distracted by shiny, and while I'm trying to not make that the case here, I admit it is possible.

Ultimately the decision is your and I know you'll get what is best for your game. You and I have been working on your swing and it sounds like you picked up a bad habit. I'm not sure you can retool in two months.

Fwiw, long term I think you'll be happier with he PX

 

[WardF]

Thanks for the Write-up Neb! Some good info for those going into fittings and what to ask or look for!