Belfry Open Day

[Deleted member 1147]

Went yesterday morning for a couple of hours.

Looks like this could be an expensive winter

First I went into the Cobra bay, hit their "players" cavity backs (as used by Poult's) and they went very well with a good penetrating flight, and felt lovely & smooth.

Next I tried the ZL driver & hit my first one miles, the rest weren't bad either.

Then over the bay to the Callaway fitter.
First up was the F10, not bad but too much spin and a high tragectory. So he gave me a Raz-r (?) which was brilliant. Even a miss hit went 269 carry as per the lauch monitor.
He reckons that with the right fitting he could add 20-30 yds to a slight miss-hit over my F-5.

Then came the irons, and it seems I'm needing a different shaft to my S300.


Then over to Titleist where I was shown the 910, and it's a very fancy peice of kit. You can change to loft from 10* to either 8 or 12. The lie angle can be changed as well as the ball flight. All this by changing the setting at the bottom of the shaft.

I then hit some Cleveland Irons. The tour blade was beautiful to hit. The ball fizzed off the club face with an amazingly penetrating flight.


The general concencus was that my shafts were not good enough for my swing speed which is at the top end of amateur swings, but not enough for the shafts as used by the pro's. So I need top end stiff shafts but not too heavy.

Irons:
As for head shapes & weights, I should look at all the blades or cavities with less sole weight.
At Titlesit the chap suggested mixing sets up, Ala Mcilroy, ie, AP2 4 & 5 irons & MB 6-PW.


On the whole a very interesting morning with some knowledgably people. Although I did keep reminding myself that they are trying to sell their wares as well as advise.

 

[MashieNiblick]

Nice write up.

From what you say I wonder what shafts are best for you. It seems your S300 aren't stiff enought but the pro level, (X100?) are too much. These days there's a lot more choice I know, so if you do get a shaft fitting it would be interesting to know what you end up with.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

When I was a kid I knew all the kit that was on the market, now I'm not as up to date.

Different one's mentioned and tried were: Project X, S300, RIP and others but I forget there names/details etc

 

[john0]

Was there not a Mizuno bay there with the Shaft Optimizer for you to try? This takes the DNA of your swing and gives the top 3 recommendations

 

[Deleted member 1147]

I didn't see any Mizuno stuff, I worked my way along until I had to leave. As I was playing in the early afternoon.

 

[Ethan]

Gil

If you get fitted properly for a new shaft, the fitter should be able to put you into some in-between flexes, if S300 was considered too soft, but X100 might be a tad firm.

In steel, the big names are Dynamic Gold, Rifle and KBS.

Dynamic Gold is still the most common shaft on Tour. If S300 is soft, S400 might work, or X100. DG tends to have a low launch, but more spin, so the ball climbs. Some players find they balloon a bit.

Rifle is available in several flavours, the most common being standard Rifle, in which a 5.5 is roughly equivalent to S300, and 6.5 to X100.

Project X plays slightly firmer than a Rifle of the same flex, so 5.5 and 6.5 are a shade firmer than S300 and x100 respectively. PX has a mid launch, but low spin so the trajectory is flatter than DG.

KBS is similar in flex to Project X and has similar spin and flight, but more feel. KBS stiff is around PX 5.5, and a bit firmer than TT DG S300.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Thanks for the info Ethan.

I do tend to balloon the ball a bit. Partly as I'm fairly tall which apparantly means I'm hitting down into the ball more than some.

One of the fitters was talking about Project X and I did use a rifle shaft at one point yesterday.