GB72
Money List Winner
Having been given a voucher as a birthday present, today was the day that I went to The Belfry for a driver custom fitting. To be honest I did not go in there with the full intention to buy but rather to find out whether the driver I had was the best fit for me and also to experience custom fit first hand.
I will be honest and say that the first impression was a bit of a let down. I had come straight from work and was there a bit early and made my presence known at the reception desk. Here I was invited to take a seat and wait half an hour or I could buy buckets of balls at £5.00 a go if I wanted to warm up. Having paid for the custom fit and with the possible intention of spending a couple of hundred pounds I thought that they might at least have offered a complimentary range token or 2. Even Direct Golf are willing to hand these out if you are waiting for assistance.
That aside, the time for my fitting came and the PGA pro took me through to the fitting suit. He took time to assess what I was looking for, what problems I was having with my current driver and was very helpful in explaining what we were looking at. He then let me warm up for a few minutes whilst he put together some possible options.
Next up I hit a few balls with my current driver. The fitter took plenty of time to explain the stats and where we could look for improvement. Basically we were looking for an increased launch angle, more height in my drives, a slight reduction in backspin and hopefully some increase in ball speed. Also agreed to try some stiff shafts as my regular was now a bit soft for my club head speed.
Next was the fun part as various drivers were handed to me, tweeked and adjusted until we had a full page of comparitative stats to look at.
First up was the Taylormade R9. What a disaster that was. However much loft we put on the club I just could not get the launch angle up. Distance was OK but less than my current driver.
Next was the Ping G15. This showed some improvement in all of the areas that we were looking at but not sufficient to warrant any change (the fitters words not mine).
The next option was the Cobra LDZ. I really wanted to love this club and it was the one that I had in mind before I went in. Lovely to look at but another club where the shaft length has been increased to promote distance (again the fitter pointed this out to me and explained why he thought this was generally a bad idea). This produced the longest drive of the day with 212 yards of carry but the dispersion was awful with nearly 35 yards between the 2 furthest balls.
Last came the Callaway FT-9. The fitter left this until last as he felt I may not want to simply upgrade to the newer version of my own driver. It did, however, feel immediately comfortable at address and the stats backed up this feeling. Launch angle increased by a degree, backspin down slightly and carry was consistantly around 208 yards, 20 yards further than with my current driver. The club head speed was a bit down but this was explained by the fact that I had hit dozens of drives at this stage It was, however, the dispersion figures that struck me, only 9 yards between the 2 furthest balls. That was enough to sell it to me (plus it sounds so much better than the FT-5).
The only problem is that they do not have the right set up in stock, 11 degree, draw bias stiff Fujikara shaft. Again, however, the fitter was most helpful, he offered to order it for me on Monday when Callaway were back after Xmas but also suggested I may be able to find it cheaper in a sale and could then use my £50.00 credit against another club later in the year.
Anyway, where do I now stand on the endless custom fitting debate? To me this was a very worthy experience. Just seeing that buying a higher loft club will not necessarily increase the launch angle and also seeing the difference the shaft makes means that I would be unlikely to buy off the peg again as I have now seen that the numbers on the bottom of a club mean very little. Was it worth £50.00? Yes is the answer. I could easily have wasted £250 on the Cobra driver as given enough time at a range at Direct Golf I can convince myself that any club is right for me and it is just not possible to see the disbursement stats from the other end of a crowded range. I also did not feel any of the hard sell that many golf outlets apply. By paying for the custom fit the pro had earned his money for the time spent and thus was not wholly dependent on selling me something (and in fact was happy to point out that my own driver was the second most suited to me).
All I need now is to find somewhere that has the club I want in the right spec so if anyone sees a Callaway FT-9 in an 11 degree draw bias with a stiff Fujikara shaft then please let me know.
I will be honest and say that the first impression was a bit of a let down. I had come straight from work and was there a bit early and made my presence known at the reception desk. Here I was invited to take a seat and wait half an hour or I could buy buckets of balls at £5.00 a go if I wanted to warm up. Having paid for the custom fit and with the possible intention of spending a couple of hundred pounds I thought that they might at least have offered a complimentary range token or 2. Even Direct Golf are willing to hand these out if you are waiting for assistance.
That aside, the time for my fitting came and the PGA pro took me through to the fitting suit. He took time to assess what I was looking for, what problems I was having with my current driver and was very helpful in explaining what we were looking at. He then let me warm up for a few minutes whilst he put together some possible options.
Next up I hit a few balls with my current driver. The fitter took plenty of time to explain the stats and where we could look for improvement. Basically we were looking for an increased launch angle, more height in my drives, a slight reduction in backspin and hopefully some increase in ball speed. Also agreed to try some stiff shafts as my regular was now a bit soft for my club head speed.
Next was the fun part as various drivers were handed to me, tweeked and adjusted until we had a full page of comparitative stats to look at.
First up was the Taylormade R9. What a disaster that was. However much loft we put on the club I just could not get the launch angle up. Distance was OK but less than my current driver.
Next was the Ping G15. This showed some improvement in all of the areas that we were looking at but not sufficient to warrant any change (the fitters words not mine).
The next option was the Cobra LDZ. I really wanted to love this club and it was the one that I had in mind before I went in. Lovely to look at but another club where the shaft length has been increased to promote distance (again the fitter pointed this out to me and explained why he thought this was generally a bad idea). This produced the longest drive of the day with 212 yards of carry but the dispersion was awful with nearly 35 yards between the 2 furthest balls.
Last came the Callaway FT-9. The fitter left this until last as he felt I may not want to simply upgrade to the newer version of my own driver. It did, however, feel immediately comfortable at address and the stats backed up this feeling. Launch angle increased by a degree, backspin down slightly and carry was consistantly around 208 yards, 20 yards further than with my current driver. The club head speed was a bit down but this was explained by the fact that I had hit dozens of drives at this stage It was, however, the dispersion figures that struck me, only 9 yards between the 2 furthest balls. That was enough to sell it to me (plus it sounds so much better than the FT-5).
The only problem is that they do not have the right set up in stock, 11 degree, draw bias stiff Fujikara shaft. Again, however, the fitter was most helpful, he offered to order it for me on Monday when Callaway were back after Xmas but also suggested I may be able to find it cheaper in a sale and could then use my £50.00 credit against another club later in the year.
Anyway, where do I now stand on the endless custom fitting debate? To me this was a very worthy experience. Just seeing that buying a higher loft club will not necessarily increase the launch angle and also seeing the difference the shaft makes means that I would be unlikely to buy off the peg again as I have now seen that the numbers on the bottom of a club mean very little. Was it worth £50.00? Yes is the answer. I could easily have wasted £250 on the Cobra driver as given enough time at a range at Direct Golf I can convince myself that any club is right for me and it is just not possible to see the disbursement stats from the other end of a crowded range. I also did not feel any of the hard sell that many golf outlets apply. By paying for the custom fit the pro had earned his money for the time spent and thus was not wholly dependent on selling me something (and in fact was happy to point out that my own driver was the second most suited to me).
All I need now is to find somewhere that has the club I want in the right spec so if anyone sees a Callaway FT-9 in an 11 degree draw bias with a stiff Fujikara shaft then please let me know.
