IHWT gets fit @ the Callaway Fitting Center

[InHartWeTrust]

Tomorrow at 10am I will be going through a professional fitting at a Callaway Fitting Center, equipped with a Trackman III. Lucky for me, the only CFC in Ohio is local to me, about a 15 minute drive. My bag is all set with irons with the i20's I picked up last year, so I opted for the woods only fitting -- my focus is to be fit primarily for a driver, but also 3 and 5 wood. The rate for this fitting is $75, which can be partially waved if you order through them (not sure how much is waived, will report back on that tomorrow).

They not only stock Callaway's latest offerings, they also have Taylormade, Titleist, and Ping's offerings on hand as well. I will be going through the ringer on all clubs and shafts available to me, looking to find what gives me the best feedback and provides the best numbers. In the spirit of full disclosure, it is my hope that the Fit Xtreme driver and XHot Pro woods will yield the best numbers...but ultimately, I WILL purchase whatever gives me the best results.

I have never actually been fit for any top end of the bag club. My driver is 7 or 8 years old, as is my 19° hybrid, and my 3 wood is something like 11 years old (??) and still has a steel shaft in it. All of these setups were "mental fits" by yours truly, and I am sure they are nowhere near optimal (although I have had great results with them historically, they were all in the bag when I was scratch). Actually, come to think of it, I don't know if I have ever hit on a launch monitor...let alone a Trackman. For all of these reasons, I am really looking forward to tomorrow morning.

My one fear is that my swing is so rusty that I will lead myself into a false positive fitting. By rusty I mean I didn't take a swing in 2012 later than August 8th, and I have only been to the range 3 times this year -- none of which were stellar outings, especially with the driver. I'll figure out a way to fight through the rust and give it my best. Hell, maybe the Trackman will show me early on why I haven't been able to keep a driver on the map any of the 3 times I've hit buckets this year...

In the spirit of giving as much back to THP as possible, I struck a deal with my girlfriend to have her tag along with a camera to take pictures of my numbers, maybe some video, etc. All of these will be posted tomorrow when I return home, along with my thoughts on the experience, and obviously the results.

Here is the facility:

Here is the link to their webpage: http://www.depotgolfcenter.com/

I will use this thread to discuss my findings, experience, etc. If you have any pre-questions for me, post 'em up. If not, I'll be back tomorrow with some [hopefully] good news.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

Before this thread goes any further, I apologize up front for referring to myself in the 3rd person in the thread title. I don't know what the hell that was all about?

 

[Ole Gray]

WOW buddy this should be a fun outing. Looking forward to your take on this fitting and good luck on finding that perfect fit :thumb:

 

[Robozeo]

Ya let me know how it goes seeing that its only 10 minutes away from me also.

 

[Tbonafide]

Very interested to follow along!

 

[InHartWeTrust]

WOW buddy this should be a fun outing. Looking forward to your take on this fitting and good luck on finding that perfect fit :thumb:

Just tryin' to find that OG accuracy off the tee man!

Ya let me know how it goes seeing that its only 10 minutes away from me also.

Nice! I will def give some thoughts on the facility, I have hit at the range there before and BS'ed with the fitter...seems like a nice guy and has some decent fitting credentials.

 

[TimG3394]

This is awesome IHWT. I think it's great you don't have your heart set on something and will find was is best for you.

What are the top 3 drivers and woods you want to hit first from those offerings?

 

[Tadashi70]

Ihwt have fun with it. I am interested in your numbers and fitting. I know you have a lot of game so it'll be good to hear your thoughts.
If you order from them you beta discount and I think of the fee goes toward the equipment.

 

[checkered]

Sounds awesome IHWT. I'm sure you're going to have a great time and I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on the facilities and the process.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

I've got my Trackman printouts ready to roll. Whatever gets me closest to these numbers for the 120ss and feels good in the hand/passes the eye test wins.


Posted via Tapatalk.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

This is awesome IHWT. I think it's great you don't have your heart set on something and will find was is best for you.

What are the top 3 drivers and woods you want to hit first from those offerings?

I always try to be open minded with equipment...when I was in my teens I was dead set on playing what looked best/cool in the bag, as I got older I learned it's cooler to play what makes the scorecards look the best.

Top 3's:

Driver-
1) Razr Fit Xtreme
2) R1 TP
3) XHot Pro
4) (close to 3) 913

Fairways:
1) XHot Pro
2) RBZ Stage 2
3) 913F

I haven't hit any recent PING woods in years, but in the past, I was never a fan. That said, if they win, they win.

For the driver I am mostly focusing on consistent accuracy, especially when I miss. I have natural distance, I don't have natural control off the tee...I spent a lot of time bailing myself out of the woods, even if I'm 320 off the tee, being in the tress doesn't do me much good.

Ihwt have fun with it. I am interested in your numbers and fitting. I know you have a lot of game so it'll be good to hear your thoughts.
If you order from them you beta discount and I think of the fee goes toward the equipment.

Thanks, Freddie. I am going to have to factor in their cost with the waived $75 versus DiscountDan's, or if the place blows me away with customer service, I'll order through them regardless.

 

[IceyShanks]

I can't wait to see the coverage on this one!


Siri speaks for me!

 

[dleavitt39]

Can't wait to see the results Hart...It'll be great to see what someone with game puts up as the numbers.

Dan

 

[HandyManny]

Totally awesome man let us know how this all turns out. I hope you get the best equipment suited for your game.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

Just finished up. Took about 2 hours with him...he used to work for Trackman and prior to that he was a Fitting Manager for Cally.

My swing speed is really down due to my rust. 110 was my average for the day, distance was way down, but I had a consistent 1.45 and above smash when I didn't totally miss it.

Shopping with my gf now, details to come later.


Posted via Tapatalk.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

Teaser, I ordered this. Just have to wait for a tipping on the driver shaft and a new grip to come in.

SHOCKER OF THE DAY: I went with a stiff flex (tipped .75") instead of an X in the Black Tie. I just liked the feel better, and ball speed was about identical.


Posted via Tapatalk.

 

[Tadashi70]

Nice pickup right there

 

[Buckjob]

nice driver thanks for supporting me! love the "GO BUCK"

 

[Six4three5]

nice driver thanks for supporting me! love the "GO BUCK"

I see what you did there!

 

[Six4three5]

Very nice Brandon! That driver is sweet! Looking forward to seeing it in person in a couple weeks!

 

[InHartWeTrust]

So, as I feared, my swing didn't magically come back to me today after another long lay off. It seems like all of the heavy weight training I have done in the last 5 months has killed my flexibility, and that paired with a rusty swing, my SS is way down and my timing just isn't there. Still, we were able to get some good reads on the few times that I actually put a decent/good swing on the ball.

All day I struggled with consistency. Lots of bad misses skewing the average data, but we got a few good swings to go from. I tried to keep my swing around 75-80% just so I could make decent contact, I never "let loose" on any of the swings. Jason (the fitter) was great. By the sound of the shot he knew where I hit it on the clubface, and he really just knew his stuff all around. Working for Trackman for years in the past made him very valuable in analyzing the data. He was surprised I knew so much about the Trackman readings, so we had some good conversation, I have THP to thank for that.

On the day, I learned a few things about my swing and ball flight:
-I have a good angle of attack on all swings. Irons are down, driver and woods are up. He said Tiger and Rory come in around 5° up with their driver, I come in anywhere from 2.5° to 4.5°.
-I am not getting my weight back to my left foot on my downswing, and it's causing me to get "Tiger stuck" on some swings...which is why I have been blocking drives to the left, and why I launch everything a mile in the air and spin it to all hell and back.
-With most drivers I was launching the ball 17° and up, even when they were tuned to the lowest settings...much of this was caused by my lack of movement back to my left side. At the same time, my spin was astronomical with drivers, except the two Callaway offerings.
-My smash factor is about 1.45 on average, and I can only assume that will get higher once I can actually hit the center of the face

Ultimately I settled on the below (bolded), based on what gave me the best data. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like he emailed me the data for ALL clubs hit, just the ones I ultimately went with...this is posted below.

Overall I tried out:
-Stage 2 driver, 3 wood, 5 wood, hybrid
-R1 driver
-G25 driver
-913 D2 and D3
-XHot Pro driver, 3 woods, 5 wood, and hybrid
-Fit Xtreme driver

I ended up with:
-Xtreme 9.5 driver with Black Tie Stiff (tipped .75" to play between stiff and Xstiff), set all the way open
-XHot Pro 15° and 19° FW's, both with PX 6.5 shafts

Here is the data he sent me:

We started with my i20 8 iron, just to get some swings going inside. I hit them pretty well with some smooth rhythmic swings, just much shorter than usual...the shorter part was consistent throughout the day. I just don't have "it" back yet, not surprising to me. We agreed that these irons are a pretty perfect fit for me with launch and spin, and I have good swingpath, attack angles, and stats on the 8. Average 8 iron for me (based on lasered pins last year) is about 170-180 during normal season, depending on how much I put into it. You'll see below I was stuck around 158 for all 3 swings...at this point, I knew I wasn't going to be bombing my driver. With the 8 iron in hand, one was dead on target, the other two were 3.5 and 6 yards right of target.

Here is the carry distance and overall dispersion report for the clubs that ended up in my bag, and my old driver:

Xtreme driver, 8.5° head, Black Tie Stiff shaft:

I didn't "catch" a single one of these, except maybe #2, it felt decent but just a little off. The others all just felt like misses to me, but for the life of me, I couldn't get one of the screws. The one that I did...the damn Trackman didn't get a reading, lol. Figures, right? Compared to the other drivers I hit, this gave me the best combination of launch and spin...and other than the XHP, it was the only one that was really playable for me (launch and spin). Once I fix my issue of hanging back on my right side, the launch should come down a bit, as will the spin. This is when I think the combination will shine, especially once I regain some of my SS back.

Xhot Pro 3 wood with PX 6.5:

All of these were off the deck. The first one I flat out hit behind it, and popped it up like a hack. After that, I put some decent swings on it and got some decent results. It felt great, I liked the looks, and I felt the numbers were solid. I hit a couple off the tee outside after we were all done, and I smoked them. Really liked this club, especially the one that went 275 off the deck and only 9 yards left of target.

XHot Pro 5 wood:

Again, all shots off the deck. First swing was decent, second swing was absolutely terrible...chunked again, but I knew I liked the club. I later took it outside and fell in love. I shared the same thoughts on this as I did with the 3 wood, just a solid club all around. I actually hit this again later on the Trackman, but it doesn't look like he sent the data for those swings to me. I would guess that 222 on ball one will turn to around 235+ once I am back up to speed, as I usually hit my 4 iron 220-225 with ease (again, to lasered flags).

Overall report:

After we finished inside, we went outside for me to the selections outside off the grass to give the ballflight the eye test. At this point, I was exhausted as I had made a ton of swings. After seeing the real ballflight of the opened 8.5° driver, we determined the 8.5° cranked all the way open was flying a bit too low (not a shocker as it was playing at about 7° and paired with a Black Tie shaft that's a low ball hitter). We landed on the 9.5° head, and tipped the shaft a little to stiffen it up for me. The head pictured in the post above is mine, just waiting for him to do a little tuning to the shaft and grip. I really think this will get me some good distance and great dispersion once my swing is anywhere close to normal. I loved the shape and feel of the head, and it was one of only two drivers that didn't have me launching moon balls at the lowest settings.

I LOVED the XHP 3 and 5 woods off the deck, I hit them both very well, although I snuck some terrible shots in here and there. I tried the 3 wood off the tee, striped two, and I was sold. The 3 wood was easy to hit off the deck for me, and the 5 wood was very easy to hit. I feel like the 5 wood is going to be a par 5 killer for me, and something I can really trust off the tee to find the fairway when I am playing a tight hole.

I talked with him about my concerns of my swing being so rusty through the fitting and we agreed I can come back once my swing is back and I can test things again on the Trackman to see where my launch and spin is with the driver. If any adjustments are necessary, we can make them. In his words "I don't think the extra 8 or 10mph is going to change the numbers in a negative way, I just think it will allow you to get more out of the set up". My only fear is that once I am back up to 118-120mph, I might overpower the shaft, but I think the Black Tie should hold it's ground just fine and I trust Jason's knowledge on it. It's weird to me not to play an Xstiff, but, they gave similar numbers and I liked the feel of the Stiff better. The tipping should put me in a nice middle ground.

All in all, it was a great experience and I really liked the fitter. I plan to go back to him to spend some time on the Trackman, and get some lessons from him while hitting on it. We looked at a video of my swing, and he really, really liked what he saw. He said the only thing I am missing right now is getting my weight back to the left side...and he said he can see why I can hit the ball the way I do with a driver. In his words "You load the shaft and hold the angle on the way down as well as anyone I have ever seen". To me, I feel I am still very far off, but it was good to hear that he liked what he saw...I just didn't like missing the center of the face so often.

 

[TMAdidas]

I love when I hear posts about people getting fit. That's awesome Hart and I'm glad you found clubs that work with your game!

 

[Dunn6253]

Thanks for the play by play so to speak, glad you are happy with what you ended up with. I think a trackman fitting will be in my future.

 

[IceyShanks]

Amazing summary, thank you so much for sharing!

 

[InHartWeTrust]

No problem, guys. I am glad I got a tip from the guy too, it just makes me wants to get out there and work on my swing even more now. I always hate the "warming up" period of the golf season, but this gives me something to work on as I continue to limber myself out.