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Review McLovin's Club Champion Experience - $100 Promotion Full Bag Fitting

Nippon Shafts
McLovin said:
Irons
We started with my gamer 6i, and saw most of what I see on the course. Best strikes were carrying around 170, with a pretty tight grouping. Interestingly spin was lower than I've seen on my personal launch monitor, as was peak height. But attack was also pretty shallow (a theme for the day), which imho is likely due to hitting off mats and protecting golfer's elbow as well as a pre-arthritic wrist. Smash averaged 1.39. The irons spec'd at D2 swingweight with Nippon 950gh stiff, are standard length, 0.5* strong off standard, and 1* flat from standard. Essentially exactly where I expected them to be.

We discussed shaft options, and I told him I really wanted to try graphite. We tried Aerotech Steelfiber Private Reserve, Mitsubishi Chemical OTi, Accra iSeries, LA Golf L series,. and VA Composits Raijin. Everything was in the 80g range, except the Raijin that was in the 70g range. The OTi was an immediate no, as was the Accra. LA Golf was immediate success, very tight dispersion and a big jump in ball speed and smash. Steelfiber Private Reserve was no slouch either, really putting up a great fight. The Raijin was an immediate no.

I asked to hit a heavier shaft, so we put the LA Golf 105 in, and BAM things really started to click. Ball speed jumped 5 miles an hour. Carry almost 10 yards. Launch up 3*. Peak 15' higher, and land angle 4* steeper. The dispersion circle tightened up very impressively as well. All of this with identical swing speed.

For fun I then hit DG 105 and while swing speed stayed unchanged, ball speed dropped.

Then we moved to the Mizuno 223. We tried the stock Steelfiber and Recoil Proto. In fairness I was starting to feel a little gassed, so I don't believe I gave this head my best stuff. We liked the Recoil the best, but I was more inconsistent. When it comes closer to order time, I'll reach back out to my fitter to get his input. I'm pretty well set on Recoil assuming they're available.

This really was quite a shock. I didn't expect LA Golf to be so impressive. While the Steelfiber Private Reserve did surprise me, the performance of LA Golf was amazing for me.

Next up was hybrid...
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Great write up. I know the feeling of tiring out at the end.
Recoils have been awesome for me!
 
McLovin said:
Similar to my beef with the hybrid options, the only options they had were 3-woods. I DO NOT LIKE 3-WOODS. It bothers me to see such little loft at address, and my dynamics don't make any sense for a 3w. They did have a Mizuno 5w to try, but everything else was 3w.
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So glad to hear you had a great experience, I honestly think CC just has some staffing/training issues, perhaps at locations with higher turnover/retention problems.

Interesting how it seems different CC locations have different offerings available. When I went in for my full bag fitting, and we got to fairways, my fitter says he wanted to try something a bit different for me, and go with HL, aka higher lofted "3-woods". I told him that suited me just fine, as my current "3-wood" is a 16.5*, formally known as a 4-wood, and they had several 16* - 16.5* heads available.

On the other hand, when we were doing drivers, I asked to try a few that I know CC carries, Tour Edge Exotics and Hogan to name a couple, and he said they didn't have any. 🤷‍♂️
 
McLovin said:
yes, all off 6-irons, which is the wrong way to do it imho. i think the fitting should be done off the 7i. it's a little easier to hit, and some people don't even game a 6i anymore.

my fitting with true spec golf last year had multiple heads and shafts of different lengths to try for fairways and hybrids.
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True Spec in Orlando? Curious now that you have experienced both true spec and CC which one would you choose?
 
Good stuff man! I like seeing others fitting recaps and how they went.
 
shanewu said:
Interesting and weird that the graphite options you tried initially were all so light. Did you try any others in the 100-110g range? I love seeing heavier = better (oversimplification but I keep trying to tell my dad he needs heavier shafts haha... and I hit my Apex 21 Pros with Elevate Tours, which are around 115g, as far as my standard Apex 19s with Catalyst 80s).
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i think it was a speed thing at first. me not having much, and him trying to eek out some yards to encourage a purchase
 
Dawg 1 said:
True Spec in Orlando? Curious now that you have experienced both true spec and CC which one would you choose?
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yessir. that’s a REALLY tough call.

pro for true spec - it’s outdoors. kinda of a huge pro imho.

con for true spec - it’s outside haha. when i was there i got relegated to a very suspect patch of grass. downhill lie with slope. i still contest to this day that this massively affected the results.

pro for true spec - clay was a blast to work with. just an awesome guy and incredibly gracious.

con for true spec - they lagged behind a bit in gear. some gear had been released that they did not have for testing.

pro for true spec - very good wedge area. chipping, pitching and bunker testing. yes please.

pro for true spec - their version of club connex is on the wedges, so can taste shaft combos.

pro for true spec - grip blowing. they could blow on any grip you wanted to try. huge pro.

con for true spec - when i was there, i got the impression there was a bit of turmoil in upper management / ownership.

hope that helps
 
I'm surprised by the lower weight shafts (70,80) that you tried. Is that what you've got in your current irons?

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Nice job ... thanks for sharing! 👊
 
Great read @McLovin . Sounds like a solid experience. Other than the fact you chose not to utilize triple track with it right in front of you. That's a puzzler.. lol

And I remember that True Spec fitting off the downhill lie! That was no bueno.
 
I always like me some @McLovin fitting threads/discussions.
 
Good stuff. Glad you were able to go over what you wanted to. Bummer they only had 3w and 3h, seems like with as much as they supposedly have, they wouldn't have a couple options of woods/hybrids not just 3w/3h. Very cool you decided to look at putter and found some needed adjusted. Hopefully that ends up being helpful!!! Thanks for the write up!!
 
Great write up, you definitely sound surprised by some of your results. Hope the victory cup clubs get those good results too!
 
dhartmann34 said:
I'm surprised by the lower weight shafts (70,80) that you tried. Is that what you've got in your current irons?

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95g in the current gamers. different irons than i had when you and i played. cuz i’m a moron
 
Great recap! Glad you have a positive experience aside from a lack of options in some spots
 
OldandStiff said:
Great read @McLovin . Sounds like a solid experience. Other than the fact you chose not to utilize triple track with it right in front of you. That's a puzzler.. lol

And I remember that True Spec fitting off the downhill lie! That was no bueno.
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honestly i just didn’t want to take up too much of his time. we were already pushing 3 hours by that point.
 
quick edit. the la golf shafts i liked so much were the a series low (not the l series).
 
Great writeup Chris!
Did they have any KBS Graphite options? I am really liking the KBS PGI's and that was moving from recoils which were great.
The PGIs seem to launch lower for me.
 
Nice follow Chris, love the details. Going to be fun going into Mizuno experience pretty dialed in.
 
Thanks for sharing this. Looks like you learned quite a bit from your encounter.
 
Hope my experience next week is a positive one like yours. Certain parts of bag are set and no need to spend time on. Wedges and putter will not change. The CC I’m using is not high pressure sales so I expect to have a positive experience. Goals for my fitting are listed here and have been discussed with fitter.
1 Dial in driver shaft
2 See if he can help with fairway wood or hybrids.
3 Find optimum iron shaft for incoming Edel SMS irons.
4 Comparative numbers between steelfiber i95 shaft and Rapid Taper shafts. Will be taking in a 7 iron demo club with the Rapid taper.
 
PatsFan said:
Great writeup Chris!
Did they have any KBS Graphite options? I am really liking the KBS PGI's and that was moving from recoils which were great.
The PGIs seem to launch lower for me.
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i’m pretty sure i saw kbs graphite on the wall
 
bbutler said:
Hope my experience next week is a positive one like yours. Certain parts of bag are set and no need to spend time on. Wedges and putter will not change. The CC I’m using is not high pressure sales so I expect to have a positive experience. Goals for my fitting are listed here and have been discussed with fitter.
1 Dial in driver shaft
2 See if he can help with fairway wood or hybrids.
3 Find optimum iron shaft for incoming Edel SMS irons.
4 Comparative numbers between steelfiber i95 shaft and Rapid Taper shafts. Will be taking in a 7 iron demo club with the Rapid taper.
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love this. enjoy it!
 
McLovin said:
95g in the current gamers. different irons than i had when you and i played. cuz i’m a moron
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:ROFLMAO: yeah, why keep irons that give you hole in ones? ;)

I've got 120g DG Tour shafts. But I've been seeing most folks are in the 90 range lately.
 
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