cg13
Addict
As most of you already know I was selected to play in the Morgan Cup this August for Team Hackers and sponsored by TaylorMade. I was very excited to be chosen to compete in this event, and even happier to be picked for TaylorMade's team. Their options at driver, irons, wedges, through the whole bag are world class and it is truly an honor to be able to represent such a respectable company.
A few weeks after learning my sponsor, i began a search for fitting options. I am horrible at deciding what I should play myself. I went through a fitting at a local shop early last year - and was fit into a set of Nike Machspeeds. I later learned that the lengths and lie angles were not adjusted at all and I was about 95% sure I was not in the right clubs for my swing or size.
I decided then that I would find the best TaylorMade fitter I could, and spend the money on a premium fitting out of pocket. I would have their experts tell me what I should be playing, what length I should be at, and what my optimal lie angles were. There are so many shaft options available to us just at the Driver slot alone, it was intimidating to try and narrow it down to just ONE option without atleast hitting a few of them. I then decided I would make the trek to the nearest TaylorMade Performance Labs and go through their extensive fitting process via the MAT-T system.
The closest location to me was Chicago. Olympia Fields Country Club just south of Chicago to be exact. About a 4-5 hour drive. I first sent an email over to the TMPL guys and asked specifics -what it involved, how much time was needed and available. The head manager of TMPL, Brad Syslo, sent me a reply the next day answering all of my questions and then some. He said he could get me a reservation at the hotel inside Olympia and gave me a few dinner options. I set an appointment for 8am Tuesday morning the 7th of June.
I read as much information as I could on the site before I left. (http://www.tmplabs.com/) Packed an overnight bag - grabbed some shoes and hit the road.
I arrived around 8 pm Monday - got checked in to my room in the hotel there. It was unbelievable! The country club had been built in 1915. The porter showed me the grand banquet and ballrooms with original hardwood floors from 1915. It was huge and awe-inspiring.
The first look at the Country Club and I knew I was in for a special trip.
Olympia Fields Country Club
Grand Banquet Room
Foyer/Meeting Room
I went out for the best Pizza I've ever had - and headed to bed early for what proved to be a once in a lifetime experience on Tuesday.
I headed down to the Lab about 7:30 - to get acquainted with my fitter and warmup. Greg Slack -Master Club Fitting Professional met me at the entrance: a Vault of sorts leading into the holy shrine of the Lab itself.
The Vault Door - that protects everything that is TaylorMade
Here's the station the Fitter is sitting at while I was hitting balls.
A club-building station - R11 !!!
Some Displays with the new Matrix Ozik HD Program Graphite Iron Shafts
Some putters next to the putting green.
So Gregg starts by explaining what we are going to be doing, He hooks me up to atleast a dozen sensors. Afixing some to my feet, legs, hips, arms, wrists, and head. Then we use special clubs with sensors on them too. A 6 iron, a wedge, a driver, and a putter. As we take swings –the cameras catch our movement and digitize them into a computer animation. That the fitter then looks at and points out areas I could work on.
I have a sway back on my takeaway – that I was taught through my swing coach at Golftec. He wanted me to get my weight transfer back and through. But when I saw it on the animation – I never knew it was that dramatic. Gregg was very patient and spent some time working on a few drills with me to eliminate that – and to get me striking down on the ball.
The other problem area is my posture. I crouch over – and stand pretty far away from the ball. Mainly because the Nike irons ive been gaming are too long – so it’s the only way for me to address. We make some changes – and Im standing much closer to the ball than I ever have before – and lo and behold I smoke some 6 irons. Dead center of the clubface.
He asks what kind of problem areas I have – and what I normally shoot. I mentioned I haven’t hit a good hybrid in months, I’m not confident in my long irons, and I’ve developed this Hook off the tee. He looks at some more video and explains some of the problems I’ve described and some drills to fix it. Mostly its that big sway I have – it leads to poor contact.
I have never been a “digger” more a “sweeper” and I have never taken large divots at all. So with a hybrid, I sweep – and never really compress down. This is my big duck hook left that never gets off the ground with the hybrids. After viewing the animations – the MAT-T system computer spits out a “Custom Fit” Recommendation page.
Here's the video of the computer animations:
It contains a complete bag makeup – with certain lofts, lie angles, even length. It is the job of the fitter to verify these suggestions –a nd assemble a bag. Gregg starts shoving all kinds of R11 heads, Fairway wood heads, shafts, irons and wedges into this Sweet looking R11 Bag. He’s assembling irons for me demo, drivers, just about everything the computer suggested. Once he’s done packing it up – we head out to the range to hit some more shots and see what ball-flight we have.
Once at the range we start with the 6-irons. He has me hit the Burner 2.0 a few times, which I have hit several times before. But the burner comes standard pretty long, at 37.625”. Gregg wants me a ½” shorter on these – so he sets one up, and I hit the best 6 iron I’ve ever hit with the Burner 2.0. We had the Lie angle at 1* upright. Which was a surprise to me because my Nike’s always sit toe up at address. Leading me to believe I need Flatter lie angles. Well that was because of my posture and the long nike iron. With the shorter club – at impact – the computer measured me at 1.3* toe down. So the perfect setup for me was ½” shorter and 1* upright. It felt so smooth hitting this shots.
Gregg had me first hit the lighter weight Nippon NS PRO 950 steel shaft in the reg flex. The lighter weight, 94.5 grams, was a far cry lighter than my old S300’s weighing in at 130grams. The Dynamic Golds also were a low launching shaft, while I prefer a higher ballflight. With my slower swing speed – the lighter Nippon’s were a nice fit for the Irons.
Next he put the Tour Preferred Cavity Back head on the Nippons and I began hitting them next to the Burner 2.0. I’m not really sure which one I would choose at this point and it’s good I don’t have to make that decision. I felt the Burner 2.0 definitely had more distance, but I couldn’t really feel the ball leave the face. It launched higher and farther than the CB but the lack of feel left me wondering.
The cavity back head on the other hand – had a great feel to it. I got decent height on it – higher than my nike’s ever did. And was hitting the CB 6 iron consistently to 175 yards. Mishits out on the Toe, I could definitely feel in my hands – and knew it wasn’t a pure shot. Whereas the Burner 2.0 does a good job of hiding this, I think I got more distance with the Burner 2.0 on these Mishits.
We also tried a little lighter steel shaft – the KBS 90 – weighing in at 90 grams for the Burner 2.0. I think between the two steel shafts – I would go with the Nippons. Better launch and more spin, and more height – which is what im after with my irons.
I wanted to try a graphite shaft for the irons too. We tried the stock Fujikura TP 90 shafts in the CB head. I hit several shots –and I really liked the feel of it. It had good kick – launched higher than any of the steel shafts, and weighed a little less at 84g. I think there is definitely room for consideration on my next set of irons.
Now I was really warmed up and ready to go with the driver. This was the most exciting part of the testing for me as I knew there were so many options to weigh in on. I loved the R11 at the THP outing – but I didn’t test out the different shaft options available through TaylorMade. There are 19 if I counted right.
We started off with the R11 at neutral – and the stock Blur 60 in reg flex. I could feel it kick and I think the ballflight was a little too high. It felt like it might kick too much. Eventually Gregg set my ASP to Open to get me a little more launch.
Gregg swapped out shafts and put in the Aldila Rip Beta 60 shaft. I could feel it hold up to the swing a little better and I was getting decent ballflights out of it. Lower and more penetrating. I liked this shaft but I felt I could use a little better ballflight – and maybe a little more weight.
Next up was the Matrix X-CON 5.0. After 3 hits I probably would have gamed this one in a heartbeat. I loved the feel – the feel at impact was FANTASTIC. I cannot really describe it but it felt like it just released all this energy and the ball flew off the clubface. I got what I thought was perfect ballflight and it flew forever. But Gregg wanted to try a few others – and I stored this into my memory as my favorite so far.
We hit the Matrix Radix HD6 – which I thought felt good – but not as explosive at impact – it launched it a little lower than the previous shafts – so def wasn’t for me.
We hit a Project X – which was just ok to me – I didn’t really care for the feel – it felt kinda stiff.
And then we hit the motherlode. The Mitsubishi Diamana Kai’Li 60. At 54grams – it was lighter than some of the others – and it just felt perfect. I would have stopped at the XCON 5.0 – but i hit this several times and the flight was a more boring penetrating drive. Lower than the XCON 5.0 – and it flew forever. I didn’t want to put it down! I hit the XCON 5.0 again – just to be sure – and sure enough it exploded off the face – but the KAI’LI was it for me. Great distance, great ballflight, and great feel. A fantastic shaft.
We then tested the fairway woods – Gregg already knew I struggled with hybrids – so he brought a 4 and 5 wood we hit. I loved the 3wood – and I have always had lower ballflights with my fairway woods –so Gregg put the Matrix XCON 5.0 in these – and I was hitting high bombs off the deck. It was an eye opening experience. I hadn’t hit a fairway wood off the deck for so long – to see these ballflights – I just feel in love. Id been trying to find a perfect hybrid for me – on those 200-220 yard approaches – when I should have tried a 5wood again. I hadn’t gamed one in 10 years. My sweeping stroke is perfect for a fairway wood and it was nice. I love those XCON 5.0 shafts. Man its going to be hard waiting for these to get in!
To round out the top – we hit a few hybrids – to take care of a 3-4 iron. Rather than bag 2 hybrids – Gregg decided to put a driver, 3w, and 5w in the bag – then just 1 hybrid – and 5-PW in the irons.
We hit the Rescue 11 in a #4 – 21*. I struggle to hit down on these clubs – I sweep like a fairway wood – and don’t get a strong angle of attack – so we worked on that – and Gregg gave me some drills to work on – and I started to hit them “OK”, and after finding a nice high launching shaft – The Matrix ALTUS HB 80 – I was getting some high hybrids for a change. We’ll see if I can carry that over – I just hate that I struggle so much with what some say is the easiest club to hit!
