King of distance sham (imo)

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hovis

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Attended the king of distance event at the belfry yesterday and it was clear from the start is was a big push towards their new driver. I had no problem with this, it was what i expected. After a few different zones i watched a guy being fitted in the fitting xr zone. He was hitting his taylormade m1. He hit two respectable shots before the fitter said "try this" and gave him a new xr driver. He caught his first one out the screws and the fitter said " see! I just gave you 21 yards " the golfer said "let me hit my m1 another couple of times as i want a comparable strike" the fitter said he was out of time and had to move on.

I step up with my sldr and i hit 3 very bad shots with my sldr and was handed a xr. After about 20 balls i finally hit one out the middle. The fitter said "there you go, I've gave you 24 yards". I just smiled, said thank you and moved on. The nail in the coffin was callaway wanted an interview and said "make sure you say how better it was over your sldr" i explained that It wasn't and wasn't prepared to make that statement. The interview was cancelled.

At the grand finally the top hitters had a shootout down the 1st on the brabazon with the aid of trackman. Drives were being hit around 280 maximum and the trackman was giving crazy stats of 310,320.

I don't mind the hard sell but to stand their and be completely mislead has made me a touch angry
 
hovis said:
Attended the king of distance event at the belfry yesterday and it was clear from the start is was a big push towards their new driver. I had no problem with this, it was what i expected. After a few different zones i watched a guy being fitted in the fitting xr zone. He was hitting his taylormade m1. He hit two respectable shots before the fitter said "try this" and gave him a new xr driver. He caught his first one out the screws and the fitter said " see! I just gave you 21 yards " the golfer said "let me hit my m1 another couple of times as i want a comparable strike" the fitter said he was out of time and had to move on.

I step up with my sldr and i hit 3 very bad shots with my sldr and was handed a xr. After about 20 balls i finally hit one out the middle. The fitter said "there you go, I've gave you 24 yards". I just smiled, said thank you and moved on. The nail in the coffin was callaway wanted an interview and said "make sure you say how better it was over your sldr" i explained that It wasn't and wasn't prepared to make that statement. The interview was cancelled.

At the grand finally the top hitters had a shootout down the 1st on the brabazon with the aid of trackman. Drives were being hit around 280 maximum and the trackman was giving crazy stats of 310,320.

I don't mind the hard sell but to stand their and be completely mislead has made me a touch angry
Click to expand...

Trackman was probably set up as normalised. It's still not warm and it's windy so that's no different to normal.

It's a marketing event they aren't asking you to buy the driver - I had the same thing when the fitted me 2yrs ago, said he'd found me 10yds but the driver was 1.5" longer than my driver. However, that's not being misled.
 
hovis said:
Attended the king of distance event at the belfry yesterday and it was clear from the start is was a big push towards their new driver. I had no problem with this, it was what i expected. After a few different zones i watched a guy being fitted in the fitting xr zone. He was hitting his taylormade m1. He hit two respectable shots before the fitter said "try this" and gave him a new xr driver. He caught his first one out the screws and the fitter said " see! I just gave you 21 yards " the golfer said "let me hit my m1 another couple of times as i want a comparable strike" the fitter said he was out of time and had to move on.

I step up with my sldr and i hit 3 very bad shots with my sldr and was handed a xr. After about 20 balls i finally hit one out the middle. The fitter said "there you go, I've gave you 24 yards". I just smiled, said thank you and moved on. The nail in the coffin was callaway wanted an interview and said "make sure you say how better it was over your sldr" i explained that It wasn't and wasn't prepared to make that statement. The interview was cancelled.

At the grand finally the top hitters had a shootout down the 1st on the brabazon with the aid of trackman. Drives were being hit around 280 maximum and the trackman was giving crazy stats of 310,320.

I don't mind the hard sell but to stand their and be completely mislead has made me a touch angry
Click to expand...


Was there too, great day but must admit the driver fitting was funny, told him I'd honestly never hit a callaway, looked at me like I'd confessed to murdering somebody, hit it ok,gained 12 yds ? Hit the last ball with my Nike and nailed it..even the fitter was smiling, think I gained more with my own 😂 Says it all when we missed out on getting a free callaway driver( got done by the last team) and TBH wasn't that bothered, it'd gone on eBay anyway, not for me, but if it's what the masters champ uses it can't be bad
 
Pin-seeker said:
The worrying thing is,people actually fall for this rubbish.
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What was funny is durring the finally one of the golfer was a member of the belfry. robert lee said "that drive was a massive 310 yards" the guy said " well that ent right! That would give me 101 to the green. I happened to know its 135 from the bunker I've failed to reach!!"
 
hovis said:
What was funny is durring the finally one of the golfer was a member of the belfry. robert lee said "that drive was a massive 310 yards" the guy said " well that ent right! That would give me 101 to the green. I happened to know its 135 from the bunker I've failed to reach!!"
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:rofl:

I have a Callaly (V series) driver and it is massively long when compared to my old 910D2.

Thing is real world testing showed me that, not some juiced up numbers on a computer screen.
 
quinn said:
Was there too, great day but must admit the driver fitting was funny, told him I'd honestly never hit a callaway, looked at me like I'd confessed to murdering somebody, hit it ok,gained 12 yds ? Hit the last ball with my Nike and nailed it..even the fitter was smiling, think I gained more with my own 😂 Says it all when we missed out on getting a free callaway driver( got done by the last team) and TBH wasn't that bothered, it'd gone on eBay anyway, not for me, but if it's what the masters champ uses it can't be bad
Click to expand...

Thought it was unfair that they let the guy from the black team hit considering he was British amateur long drive champion. 360 yards on his first hit!!!! My arse. He didn't even get it to the 100 yard marker
 
Hit my best drive of the day with Sandra's driver, think it may have been something to do with my mind being elsewhere.😀
 
hovis said:
Thought it was unfair that they let the guy from the black team hit considering he was British amateur long drive xhampion. 360 yards on his first hit!!!! My arse.
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Coincidence he was last to hit 😳you know that hole more than most and I've played it a few times that wasn't 360,..not many troubled the fairway did they..looking forward to the callaway "King of direction" next year
 
It is what it is. So long as the measurement is the same for everyone during the competitive bit such that the longest drivers win, it doesn't really matter if they call it 1 yard or 900 yards.

Clearly they've got an agenda and they stick to it. The theme is distance because that's what sells clubs. You only have to read a golf monthly issue to see that - there's a huge focus on how far the ball goes.

Weird that the average handicap hasn't come down with all this magic equipment...
 
Canary_Yellow said:
It is what it is. So long as the measurement is the same for everyone during the competitive bit such that the longest drivers win, it doesn't really matter if they call it 1 yard or 900 yards.

Clearly they've got an agenda and they stick to it. The theme is distance because that's what sells clubs. You only have to read a golf monthly issue to see that - there's a huge focus on how far the ball goes.

Weird that the average handicap hasn't come down with all this magic equipment...
Click to expand...

Surely it matters because it would appear to be completely and utterly dishonest, which is somewhat against the grain as far as golf is concerned?
 
Canary_Yellow said:
It is what it is. So long as the measurement is the same for everyone during the competitive bit such that the longest drivers win, it doesn't really matter if they call it 1 yard or 900 yards.
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How can you say that?

If someone is deliberately giving false information on distances in order to try and sell their clubs, that's nothing short of fraud.
 
Three said:
How can you say that?

If someone is deliberately giving false information on distances in order to try and sell their clubs, that's nothing short of fraud.
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In all fairness it was a cracking day. The long drive was just a bit of fun at the end...I don't think the trackman figures were right on any of the drives...but just remember if you are lucky enough to play the brabazon.when you stand on the 10th tee just remember joe Miller hit the green ( 270 yds ) with a 2 ball putter....unbelievable
 
What false information are you talking about exactly?

I can't believe anyone would be stupid enough to buy a driver just based on what the fitters flightscope tells them the distance is. As an absolute minimum, any sensible person would hit their own driver first to give them a baseline. It's abundantly clear that the drives aren't being measured with a tape measure and that it's based on the machine's settings.

I would hardly describe it as fraud.
 
Canary_Yellow said:
What false information are you talking about exactly?

I can't believe anyone would be stupid enough to buy a driver just based on what the fitters flightscope tells them the distance is. As an absolute minimum, any sensible person would hit their own driver first to give them a baseline. It's abundantly clear that the drives aren't being measured with a tape measure and that it's based on the machine's settings.

I would hardly describe it as fraud.
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How many club fittings have you been to where a tape measure is used to measure how far the ball has gone? :D

If professional reps from a famous company are telling potential customers their distances based on knowingly false information, ok let's call it attempted fraud.
If people choose to believe that or not, or buy products without further tests, that's a different subject.

By the way, I'm just commenting on what's written in the thread, not expressing any opinion on what actually happened at any particular event, don't even know what it is.
 
What false information?

Edit: actually, I kinda see what you mean.

So they'll print some stat about average yards gained based on Sunday best on the callaway driver, and something less than average on your own driver.

But that's not going to fool the person hitting the ball.

It might make more people try the driver out that otherwise would, but what's the problem?

The day is a bit of fun. No one is really being hoodwinked. It's not like the machine is being altered to give a different result with the callaway driver.
 
Last edited:
Three said:
How can you say that?

If someone is deliberately giving false information on distances in order to try and sell their clubs, that's nothing short of fraud.
Click to expand...

I think they got the Skye'd shot that went 128yds pretty much spot on...just proves it's what's on the other end that's the most important...I did hit it 12 yds longer but it wouldn't make me buy it...a lad in our team had a fitted M1 and he gained + 33 yds with the callaway, watched him hit both clubs I'd be very surprised if he doesn't have a callaway in his bag by now..personally I'd be going back to get the M1 refitted
 
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