GI irons + higher spinning balls

[DataDude]

Hey again. A month later, and after life and a new car getting in the way of all things golf, I finally got back into sorting this again.

Went for a free fitting at an American Golf, mainly just to be able to try a few brands on a launch monitor with no obligation.

My old clubs were Adams with graphite shafts, and I was launching the 7 iron around 90 to 100 feet peak height. I was getting neck strain looking at the ball flight at the range! So steel shafts were an easy selection.

Swing speed with a 7 iron was around 80mph so he told me I was on the cusp of stiff shafts. Now, I know from research that feel is more important than speed for shafts and there's no correlation really for speed/flex, but I tried both regular and stiff and I found the stiff gave me a bit better feel through the swing for what the club head was doing. Dispersion tightened slightly too. So I went for stiff for the better feel and sense of control. He mainly used a KBS Tour 90, but he did accidentally put a head on a KBS 110 and tbh I didn't notice much difference. 90 has a lower kick point for better launch but I was getting identical peak height of 37-38ft.

Onto club-heads:

Tried SIM2 Max OS and found they were too chunky and heavy. The regular SIM2 felt ok but nothing special.

Callaway Mavrik Max next, and they were fine but again nothing special. Shame as I love the styling on those.

Then tried the Cobra Radspeed. And oh boy were they hot off the face. Swing weight felt great and were very forgiving with every kind of contact (which is good because I'm about as consistent as an Andy Dalton/Bengals performance). My old 7 iron was going 135-140. These were going 160-165. Height was down to around 38ft. I forgot to check descent angle but spin was around 5500. Okay-ish.

Then tried the Rads in One Length and got on really well with both the 5 and 9 iron. I was looking forward to hitting these as my longer irons are extremely inconsistent. These felt much more stable and repeatable, so was very tempted to buy them there and then!

Ultimately I spent loads of time on the Radspeed and One Lengths as they so felt nice, and didn't get time to try any Pings, Callaway Apex/Rogue or Mizunos, so will go and pay for a fitting at a proper golf academy not far from me and make sure I hit those. They have a good rep for fittings so it'll be interesting to see what direction they send me in compared to the retail outlet freebie fitting. To be fair the guy at American Golf seemed to have decent knowledge and he certainly got me into a great feeling iron, so no complaints with the service really for a free fitting. I'd have liked to have dived further into the data on the monitor with regards launch/descent angles and backspin, but they don't really focus on that as a retail outlet.

Looking forward to the proper paid fitting now. I really enjoyed the experience. Even if it was a little daunting having my swing watched by a decent player/fitter for an hour. Every time I fatted it or sliced/hooked it I was pissed with myself even more than normal.

Ultimately nothing that interesting really! Just wanted to get my thoughts down and share the experience.

Really glad you got to try the RADSPEED. They are really nice in the category. Very stable head and a very hot face. The sound/feel is a nice crisp snap with a little feedback on misses too.

 

[Nick20UK]

Really glad you got to try the RADSPEED. They are really nice in the category. Very stable head and a very hot face. The sound/feel is a nice crisp snap with a little feedback on misses too.

Yep awesome feeling clubs, you can tell you've mishit them slightly, but it still goes long and straight.

 

[Buckeyegolfnut]

A few years back a buddy and I were out playing when he found a brand new Titleist ProV-1. Amazing how often that happens! I think it speaks to the success of Titleist's marketing.

Anyway, he decided to play the ball. He was playing quite well that day, but suddenly started coming up a little short of the target. I told him that it's a "spinnier" ball, and it was ballooning on him. Case in point. on the 18th, a shortish par 5 with a downhill tee shot and an uphill approach, he blasted a drive dead in the middle. So he has about 215-220, uphill and into a very gentle breeze. He absolutely dead nuts the shot, and the ball starts cliimbing, and climbing, and climbing! The flight profile would look like the first big hill on of those "mega-coasters"!

And, predictably, the ball came up just short of the green. Then, on the chip shot, he wasn't used to the "grabiness" of the ball, and his chip wound up well short. 2 putts later he had his par, when he thought he might be putting for eagle!