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New Irons Choice - Help Please

SuperStroke
Update:
I'm going for my new irons fitting tomorrow, most likely going for a set of Mizuno's. Most likely the MP58's, as my coach rekons there's no point going for anything too "bladey" but also that I've progressed past the MX series.

I'll report on how it goes
 
Good luck. Hope all works out well. Anxious to hear your results. Heard they are good irons. Never demode them before.
 
Good luck! Keep us informed.
 
Right, appologies it took me a few days to catch up on this. Been a bit busy, anyway here's how the fitting went. Overall, it was very professional and I was very pleased with the service.

The venue for my fitting session was this one: http://www.3hammers.co.uk/ A very impressive facility whose golf shop looked more like boutique than an average pro shop.

I was introduced to the guy who would be carrying out my fitting, we had a little chat about what I was after and what sort of standard golfer I was. I said I was interested mainly in the Mizuno's, however, if he thought there were any different clubs I should try then feel free. I described myself as a 15 official handicapper that should probably be off 10/11ish (he looked skeptical at this point) that had only been playing 3 months and was looking for some irons that I could grow with as I lower my handicap and improve.

He suggested I try the MX300's and MP58's, I was fine with this as I hit them both well at the range previously.

We then went to the fitting bay, I was pleased to see it was just an extension of the range as opposed to some room with a simulator so I could see the ball flight/shape/distance in "real life". He put the MX300 in my hand to allow me to warm up, I then proceeded to duff my first shot 50 yards along the floor, and followed this up by hitting 50% of my early shots horribly. After 10-20 balls or so I began to relax and was swinging well so we started with the fitting.

We started with the Swing DNA shaft optimiser. As I'm sure you're all aware this consists of taking 3 swings with a generic iron containing various accelerometers which measure how the shaft reacts throughout your swing. My results were as follows:

Shot: 1 2 3 AVG.
Headspeed (mph): 84 86 87 86
Tempo: 3 3 3 3
Toe down: 3 4 3 3
Kick Angle: 2 3 2 2
Release factor: 5 6 5 5

From this the computer suggested I try a lighweight steel shaft (due to my slowish tempo). Either the "project x 5.0 (115g)" or the "Dynalite Gold XP S-300 (117g)"

cont. below
 
...cont.

The fitter mentioned at this point that he didn't like the Dynalite Gold (DG) shaft as he felt it made the ball "balloon" a bit. Especially as I'd already mentioned that I wanted a penetrating ball flight that could combat the windy conditions we have over here (particularly my home course).

So we put the DG shaft in the MX300 and I began to hit some balls. It was nice, good flight that rose fairly evenly before the ball fell softly. At this point I feel it's good to mention there was bunker at 155-160 yards on the range which was a good indication of how I was hitting it, great shots carried it and good shots landed flush in it and obviously mis-hits didn't go well. I was striking this combo of MX300 with DG shaft well though, next up we put the Project X (PX) shaft in the club. The swing weight between the two was basically the same (it should be, there's only 2g seperating the shafts), but the flight was very different. The PX made the ball start off a little low, then mid-way through the flight the ball would rise sharply before dropping softly. Distance was a little more on my great shots, but the consistancy with my good shots was not so good, I'd estimate I was hitting the 6 iron anywhere between 145-165 with this set up. In conclusion the MX300 was definitely better with the DG shaft.

Now, onto the MP58's. Again, I tried it out with the DG shaft first. My initial impression was "wow, such a beautiful club", lol. But I was there to focus on performance not looks, the difference was immediate. The MP58 sent the ball much higher which wasn't quite so pleasing, also the consistancy in distance wasn't as good as the MX300/DG combo either, at this point the fitter explained that the higher flight was because of the Ti insert behind the ball in the MP58's as opposed to the cavity in the MX300's. According to him Ti was heavier than steel (LOL), I argued this with him before realising he was trying to say that there was more mass behind the ball in the 58's than MX300's (some metal is heavier than no metal/air in a cavity after all), so I let him off. We then stuck on the PX shaft to the MP58, after a few hits I was in love. The ball flight was beautiful, a nice even rise with lots of penetration and landing softly. It was clear that the PX shafts were designed to be used with better irons. Admitadly the direction was a bit off perfect (was the same with the MX's though), this was more to do with the fact that I had a lesson the say before which tinkered with my swing a bit than the clubs.

At this point it was a choice between the MX300's with the DG shaft and the MP58's with the PX shaft. I was struggling to decide, there wasn't much to choose, fortunately I had a mate with my tagging along. He commented that he thought I was striking the ball much nicer with the MP58. Decision made!! I'll be getting a set of MP58's with Project X 5.0 shafts

Then was just the formality (or so I thought) of sorting out my lie angle, club length etc... I've hit off a lie board before so that wasn't as weird as it was the first time, in fact I actually managed to hit 4 of my best shots of the day off it, lol. I was very consistant marking the tape, turns out I need 1* upright clubs. Then the club length was a lot trickier, when I hit some shots with the face tape it turned out I was hitting the ball a bit towards the heel of the club (100% consistant though :cool:), so the fitter thought I should try a shorter club. He changed it over for a shaft 0.5" shorter, this felt WEIRD!! I felt all hunched up over the ball. But I hit some more with it anyway, turned out it did indeed move my contact point closer to the middle, but still a little heely. So it was clearly my new in to out swing that was causing this as opposed to the club. So we went for regular length.

Finally, grip size. Nothing exciting here, I'm regular, lol.

So in conclusion I was very happy I went for this service and really can't wait to get my hands on my new clubs properly. A set 4-PW of Mizuno MP58's, 1* upright, regular length and regular grip.
 
Congrats on the new sticks! Sounds like your fitting was a fun experience.
 
Congrats on the new sticks and good on ya for typing in the Queen's. I love hearing the English version of English.
 
Great stuff Daz. Glad you got the most out of your fitting session. Your fitting needs are almost exactly the same as mine, but the stats are quite a bit different. Just goes to show how valuable a real fitting session can be! :D
 
Cheers guys, it was indeed a fun experience. It really opened my eyes as to how much a good fitting can help everyone. I'll certainly never be buying "off the rack" again!

@Setho, that made me laugh. I guess I don't notice if I sound "English" or not as it's just what I'm used to :)
 
Nice write up and wow...what a great set of irons to own after such a short time in the game. Look after them and they'll look after you, awesome sticks.
 
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