daverollo
Assistant Pro
This maybe lengthy as I like to ramble!
Spent 1 1/2 hours this morning with Jamie at Pure Forged at Mearns Castle. First part was me wanting to have a go on the flight scope to check my yardages for each club in the bag and have the loft and lie checked and altered where needed. This would also give Jamie a chance to see my swing (horror show) and assess what sort of shafts are likely to be suitable for me.
That was all done and I now have a nice 6 page PDF for each club in the bag (emailed to me) showing shots hit, dispersion, club speed, smash factor etc.
What Jamie pointed out though was that my clubs are too short and that they are not upright enough and probably a smidgen too much offset on the heads that I am playing. Added to the fact they are regular and too heavy is probably the cause of me hooking the longer irons. This, as well as the swing. He also felt I'd benefit from thicker grips.
He narrowed it down to 3-4 potential shafts and got me to hit several shots with each to see what the response was like before narrowing it down further to just two. He also was asking for feedback from me about how I thought they felt and also paying particular attention to the grips on each of the different ones and wanting to know my thoughts on them. He basically must have close to 100 6 irons, all made up with different heads, shafts and grips. Obviously I didn't need to try all them.
He then saved the best until last. Pulled out a Miura CB57 (alert golfporn http://www.miuragolf.com/series57_cb57.asp ) a club I have been lusting after. It had one of the shaft options in it he'd thought would be suitable, albeit shorter than I need, but also a larger gripmaster golf grip. Thicker than I currently use, but he thought from the way I was swinging it would work for me. He wasn't wrong, no duffers or silly hooks, I could put my 'normal' swing on it and hit the sweet spot consistently. Even when I did hit slightly off centre ones there still seemed to be plenty of forgiveness. What I did notice, that I think helped massively, was the thicker and stickier grip. I wasn't taking the club as far back. On one of my normal swings, that I am trying to correct, I can just catch sight of the club in my left eye, due to me overswinging. The grip and feel of the shaft/club just seemed to help me get the club in a better position at the top and therefore not over swing as much. This without doubt contributed to the better ball striking, but I was doing that without having to think about it.
To prove a point about how important getting the correct shaft for your swing was, he pulled out the Miura Baby Blade, more golfporn, http://www.miuragolf.com/series57_blade.asp with one of the shafts he thought was suitable. Tiny head, but looks gorgeous at address. Anyway, his comments (to provoke a response) was to say 'you'll be lucky if you can hit it'. Suffice to say I nailed it without much effort and he had a wry smile on his face.
He must have seen 1000's of golfers over the years he has been doing this (including tour pro's who know what they are doing) and could figure out pretty quickly what was going to work for me.
Personally, I consider it money well spent, which will be discounted if I make an order with him for the clubs. I'll update further as I have asked him a couple of questions via email.
Spent 1 1/2 hours this morning with Jamie at Pure Forged at Mearns Castle. First part was me wanting to have a go on the flight scope to check my yardages for each club in the bag and have the loft and lie checked and altered where needed. This would also give Jamie a chance to see my swing (horror show) and assess what sort of shafts are likely to be suitable for me.
That was all done and I now have a nice 6 page PDF for each club in the bag (emailed to me) showing shots hit, dispersion, club speed, smash factor etc.
What Jamie pointed out though was that my clubs are too short and that they are not upright enough and probably a smidgen too much offset on the heads that I am playing. Added to the fact they are regular and too heavy is probably the cause of me hooking the longer irons. This, as well as the swing. He also felt I'd benefit from thicker grips.
He narrowed it down to 3-4 potential shafts and got me to hit several shots with each to see what the response was like before narrowing it down further to just two. He also was asking for feedback from me about how I thought they felt and also paying particular attention to the grips on each of the different ones and wanting to know my thoughts on them. He basically must have close to 100 6 irons, all made up with different heads, shafts and grips. Obviously I didn't need to try all them.
He then saved the best until last. Pulled out a Miura CB57 (alert golfporn http://www.miuragolf.com/series57_cb57.asp ) a club I have been lusting after. It had one of the shaft options in it he'd thought would be suitable, albeit shorter than I need, but also a larger gripmaster golf grip. Thicker than I currently use, but he thought from the way I was swinging it would work for me. He wasn't wrong, no duffers or silly hooks, I could put my 'normal' swing on it and hit the sweet spot consistently. Even when I did hit slightly off centre ones there still seemed to be plenty of forgiveness. What I did notice, that I think helped massively, was the thicker and stickier grip. I wasn't taking the club as far back. On one of my normal swings, that I am trying to correct, I can just catch sight of the club in my left eye, due to me overswinging. The grip and feel of the shaft/club just seemed to help me get the club in a better position at the top and therefore not over swing as much. This without doubt contributed to the better ball striking, but I was doing that without having to think about it.
To prove a point about how important getting the correct shaft for your swing was, he pulled out the Miura Baby Blade, more golfporn, http://www.miuragolf.com/series57_blade.asp with one of the shafts he thought was suitable. Tiny head, but looks gorgeous at address. Anyway, his comments (to provoke a response) was to say 'you'll be lucky if you can hit it'. Suffice to say I nailed it without much effort and he had a wry smile on his face.
He must have seen 1000's of golfers over the years he has been doing this (including tour pro's who know what they are doing) and could figure out pretty quickly what was going to work for me.
Personally, I consider it money well spent, which will be discounted if I make an order with him for the clubs. I'll update further as I have asked him a couple of questions via email.
