Dear THPers
Have been reading a lot on the THP community but 1st time posting. Hoping I can get some help here in deciding between these 2 clubs.
First, a little introduction for my game. I am a 20 handicapper, 52 year old. Have been playing the game for a while, now that I have a bit more free time, want to get the right club for hopefully my next step in improvement. I am 5"7, 130 lbs, 6 iron swing speed is about 70-75 mph. I am currently playing a Mizuno JPX800HD, and it was not fitted when I bought this set. A major reason for a new set was that I am hoping to get more distance out of my irons.
Taking the advice from the community here, I had been fitted by two different people. One in Club Champion (indoor) and the other at a Titleist fitting day (outdoor on grass).
So at CC, I was fitted for an AP1 with SteelFiber i80, -0.5 inch and -1 or -2 degrees on loft depending on the iron. Following the CC fitting methodology, I was first fitted with the i80, it was the shaft that worked best for me across different shaft weights. Then with the i80, I hit a number of different heads, including AP3 and AP1. AP1 came out to be better, mostly because of a higher smash factor and longer distance. The CC fitter suggested me to weaken the lofts because my don't have enough height on my shots. After all set and done, I am solidly 1 club longer than my JPX.
This all makes sense, until I went to the Titleist event, thinking that I want to hit the AP1 outdoor before I put in the order.
At the Titleist event, I told the fitter about my story, but he doesn't have the i80 in his truck. Since I was already there, he gave me another fitting based on what he had available. We started with AP1 and tried out different shafts, and we landed on the Kuro Kage TiNi 85 shaft (-0.5 inch also). This makes sense to me because the TiNi and i80 is in the same weight category. Then he made a comment about me being more of a sweeper and don't take enough divot. He then handed me the AP3, according to him, has less bounce and allows me to take more divot and hence compress the ball better. In the next 2 balls, I was hitting the ball higher with a few more yards in carry. Unfortunately, the fitter didn't share the Trackman data and I couldn't really quantify the difference in a statistically meaningful way. As for lofts, he said that weakening the lofts will add bounce, and suggest me to stick with the factory lofts. So the spec that he recommended me was: AP3 with Kuro Kage 85, standard loft. I did not get the final data from AP3, but from the conversations, it sounded like I am about 3/4 to 1 club longer than my gamer.
So here comes the challenge, I think both fitters had logical arguments on their recommendations, but for obvious reasons I can only go with one. I like the looks of the AP3, but am concerned that I don't get max distance improvement on my average golf days. I feel a bit more confidence with the AP1 because of its forgiveness, but if the Titleist guys is saying I am better with AP3...
What would you do? Thanks for helping.
Have been reading a lot on the THP community but 1st time posting. Hoping I can get some help here in deciding between these 2 clubs.
First, a little introduction for my game. I am a 20 handicapper, 52 year old. Have been playing the game for a while, now that I have a bit more free time, want to get the right club for hopefully my next step in improvement. I am 5"7, 130 lbs, 6 iron swing speed is about 70-75 mph. I am currently playing a Mizuno JPX800HD, and it was not fitted when I bought this set. A major reason for a new set was that I am hoping to get more distance out of my irons.
Taking the advice from the community here, I had been fitted by two different people. One in Club Champion (indoor) and the other at a Titleist fitting day (outdoor on grass).
So at CC, I was fitted for an AP1 with SteelFiber i80, -0.5 inch and -1 or -2 degrees on loft depending on the iron. Following the CC fitting methodology, I was first fitted with the i80, it was the shaft that worked best for me across different shaft weights. Then with the i80, I hit a number of different heads, including AP3 and AP1. AP1 came out to be better, mostly because of a higher smash factor and longer distance. The CC fitter suggested me to weaken the lofts because my don't have enough height on my shots. After all set and done, I am solidly 1 club longer than my JPX.
This all makes sense, until I went to the Titleist event, thinking that I want to hit the AP1 outdoor before I put in the order.
At the Titleist event, I told the fitter about my story, but he doesn't have the i80 in his truck. Since I was already there, he gave me another fitting based on what he had available. We started with AP1 and tried out different shafts, and we landed on the Kuro Kage TiNi 85 shaft (-0.5 inch also). This makes sense to me because the TiNi and i80 is in the same weight category. Then he made a comment about me being more of a sweeper and don't take enough divot. He then handed me the AP3, according to him, has less bounce and allows me to take more divot and hence compress the ball better. In the next 2 balls, I was hitting the ball higher with a few more yards in carry. Unfortunately, the fitter didn't share the Trackman data and I couldn't really quantify the difference in a statistically meaningful way. As for lofts, he said that weakening the lofts will add bounce, and suggest me to stick with the factory lofts. So the spec that he recommended me was: AP3 with Kuro Kage 85, standard loft. I did not get the final data from AP3, but from the conversations, it sounded like I am about 3/4 to 1 club longer than my gamer.
So here comes the challenge, I think both fitters had logical arguments on their recommendations, but for obvious reasons I can only go with one. I like the looks of the AP3, but am concerned that I don't get max distance improvement on my average golf days. I feel a bit more confidence with the AP1 because of its forgiveness, but if the Titleist guys is saying I am better with AP3...
What would you do? Thanks for helping.
