We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Interesting Club & Bag Setup Thought - Second Driver

SuperStroke
obedt said:
That's awesome JonD. Did you shorten it at all?

I'm about to go down this path as well; Waiting on my brother to ship out the GBB that's already at his house. I'm thinking of cutting off 1.5" to get it to 44", adding lead tape and setting it up to fade. I'll then probably move the weight on the F7 to the heel side. Use the GBB on tight holes or ones that require a fade, and if it's wide open or need a draw use the F7. Sounds great in theory.
Click to expand...

Not yet as I just got it but I'll probably end up trimming it a little. Need to get some range time with it to figure out how much though.
 
Been toying with the Fly-Z and choking up to ~43" at the range, and I like the forgiveness and the high flight which is reminiscent of the Aero Mini (not quite as high, but 12* vs 16* so no surprise). The only thing I'm unclear on is the gapping. I want to make sure I'm hitting that same 10-15 yards shorter bracket with the shortened Fly-Z that I'm hitting with the Aero Mini, but it's hard to suss out good distances at a hilly range like mine with range rocks. A trip to a shop with a launch monitor is in order.

Assuming that checks out, I'll go for it and have a tip swapped onto my THCE mystery baseline shaft (basically a HZRDUS Yellow) and shaft shortened. I may look for a heavier Fly-Z weight as well to get some swingweight back, it's very light at that 43-43.5" length. I may need lead tape as well to get there.
 
So I took the plunge and cut my JGR down to 44". After some significant lead tape work, I managed to get it to a workable swing weight.

First time out with it was yesterday, where I played 65 holes on the same course. Only one hole really 'called' for it playing from the blues. During the first 54 holes, I was 2 for 3 with it, pulling one to the left my third time up. After 54, we still had 11 to play and I wanted to test the setup out a little more, so I moved up to the whites and played the JGR exclusively on every par 4/5. Welp, the results were pretty substantial with me hitting 7 our of 9 fairways! Not only that, I was noticeably ahead of my tee shots with my XR16 from the blues. This is pure guesstimation, but I'm thinking I'm only losing 10ish yards between the two, 15 max. I probably caught a couple on the screws that were pretty darn close to the same distance though, which is nuts.

Now I really want to tinker. :D I'm even considering cutting down my HZRDUS to play a little shorter in my XR16 (or the Epic I've been perma-pondering) to see if I gain some accuracy. Ideally, I could have a driver that works in both roles, which is where I was at with the XR16 at the end of last year, but nowhere near that consistent... Like many things, compromise will be the answer if I decide I only want one, but for now, I think I'm going to keep gaming both. Even if it just means having a backup driver for when things aren't going so great with my primary.
 
I joined into the 2 driver party today, playing a shortened GBB.

If you haven't already read the post in the other thread:
Spoiler

I got this out for my round today. During the front 9 I put it head to head against the F7. Couldn't do that on the back as the course filled up quickly. Think quite a few people decided to tee off on 10 and it really hurt the pace of play. Ball used was the Srixon Q Star Tour.

Results for the first 9 (7 par 4s or par 5s)

F7: Hit 4/7 FW. Lost one ball (left)
GBB: Hit 3/6 FW. Lost one ball, but in truth I lost it in the sun upon impact. I think it would probably have been playable but it definitely wasn't in the FW.

My misses with the GBB were very much in play, where as I had too ugly hooks with the F7. On the hole with the lost ball, I wound up w/ +2 whereas I would have had a GIR w/ the GBB.

Distance loss between the F7 at 45.25 and 44 was 10-15 yards on solid swings. There were two holes where the distance was spot on between the two, but both had straight ball flights with the GBB vs a fade with the F7. There was also the first hole, where the F7 was 45 yards further than the GBB (with a strong fade).

On the back 9, I used the GBB on 2 holes and went 1/2 FW, with the miss being long. While my iron swing fell apart, I had a very solid back 9 with both drivers.

It could use a bit more weight in the head, but it isn't a must. Kind of pairs well with the V series Heavenwood which is my next club down. One consideration I'll have to make is the weight placement. I have both 10g weights out on the toe, and when I catch it off the heel there is more of a gear effect than before when it only had 1 10g weight. That was what happened on hole 1, resulting in a loss of distance.

Fairly confident that the 2 driver set-up works for me as of now. Want to continue testing to fine tune exactly what the gap is between the 2 drivers and figure out if I should move the weights around a bit.


Going to continue to tinker, but I like the set-up. Also, being vertically challenged, I think the shorter length allows me to be more aggressive during my swing.
 
3 rounds going with the experiment.

1st round my driver swing was good with both drivers and I hit some excellent drives with both. On the drives I was able to compare I'd say the average distance gap was right around 15 yards.

2nd and 3rd rounds I haven't been as solid with the driver, and there was a definite difference in dispersion between the two. The shorter length driver kept me in the fairway despite not great swings. Part of it is lack of practice, but I may end up changing a few settings on the F7 (lofting up to 11.5 and moving the heavy weight to the heel) to eek out more yards.

A problem I'm seeing is that every now and then I step on the 2nd driver a little and am flying it too far. Both of the last 2 rounds I pulled it on holes that I knew the 1st driver would get me in trouble on. I was in trouble all 3 times with the 2nd driver as well. Have to learn to drop down to my HW on those holes, but there may be a more significant loss of distance from the 44" driver to the HW than there is between the longer driver and "#2".

Even though the gapping isn't spot on, there is a LOT more confidence with the shorter driver than I have had with 3 wood off the tee. I can't see myself pulling that from the bag at this point.
 
This experiment has taken an eye opening turn. The difference in the quality of the misses and the percentage of success has me pondering playing with only the shorter driver. This is coming from someone who needs all the distance he can get.

My last round on Saturday with THPers was a Jekyll & Hyde show. Used the long driver the front 9 and the short driver for the back. Average distance, fw hit and score were all significantly better with the 44" club. Not sure when I'll get extended range time to iron out the kinks but honestly outside of one round the short driver has been the better option thus far. Don't know that range time will be better spent focusing on short game instead...
 
Going on 2 years now and its not changing any time soon.
Love the 2 driver setup and the crazy thing is the shorter driver is the same one I started with.
Although going to be experimenting soon with an Exotics XJ1 in that spot too.
 
JB said:
Going on 2 years now and its not changing any time soon.
Love the 2 driver setup and the crazy thing is the shorter driver is the same one I started with.
Although going to be experimenting soon with an Exotics XJ1 in that spot too.
Click to expand...

So you're still using the XXIO Prime?
 
When Phil did this he went one draw driver and one fade driver, right?

Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top