Rooter
Money List Winner
Hi All, had a mental weekend with poorly kids, weddings etc so just got round to doing this.
Well Friday finally came, after what felt like an eternity, it wasn't the nicest of starts as the last thing i saw was this:
No one likes a 5.30 alarm!! But anyway, for some reason i didn't do my normal "hit snooze" a couple of times, i was up and very excited! looked a bit damp and horrible out, so i decided white trousers should stay at home...
Picked up Colin (DarthVega) from his hotel, and the anticipation in the car was at bubbling point, we finally arrived in site to be greeted by this mother!!
Well that was an impressive beast from the outside alone!!
We went into the TM lab, got given some range balls and we proceeded to have a few swings.. We found Jim and Steve, then Tappers and POH arrived.
We then went on to the truck! we met with Daryl and Jess from TM and the two guys who work on the truck (sorry forgot their names!)
Daryl told us all about life on the european tour etc and who is a pre-madonna etc! apparantly Reteif is the only pro allowed past the barrier and he checks his own lofts etc!
Anyway, the goodies started coming! POH had asked shoe sizes in advance, tried on my adizero's and ended up going up 1/2 a size to 9.5. The weight of these things is unbelievable, it really does feel like you are wearing slippers, they are so comfy!!!
Out came a dozen Lethal balls each and a new hat!
On to the fitting bay, Jim and Colin went first, Gibbo and I mooched about, chatted with the TM guys and watched the lads in their fitting.
Probably around 10:30 it was my turn. to be fair i had been hitting the ball really well when i turned up and warmed up! didn't warm up again enough to be honest and proceeded to hit some horrible shots! But anyway, i started off with my TM Burner 2.0 7 iron. I had a different fitter to Colin and Jim, Luke had a private lesson to go to, so i had Tom. We had chatted before going in about my game. In short, while being an 18 handicap, i have the ability to play much better and much worse, consistency due to game time is my problem.
Anyway, my Burner 2.0 was behaving well and threw up some good stats, one thing Tom mentioned is the shaft i was using was too weak (Regular steel) and i seemed to lose where the club head was in my backswing due to this. so he gave me the Rocketbladze iron. First impressions were good, but quite a thick top line, and while i am no tour pro, i prefer the look of a thinner club.
Proceeded to hit some balls, some good, some shockers, i found the camera man really off putting and when he was in front of me, he was all i could think of! "don't slice it, you will kill him" he quickly picked up he was putting me off so moved for his own safety more than anything!!
So back to the irons, i tried loads of shafts, had a hit off the lie board and was recommended to go +1 degree upright. We finally settled on a KBS tour shaft, cant remember what spec and there are no stickers on it! so i am just going to trust it! I did mention the thick top line, so i tried the tour irons, they looked so much more compact but i quite simply did not hit them as well as the standard ones. I wanted to hit them better, but I am simply not good enough to warrant the better player club and it would be to the detriment of my game. Think the spec i went with was leaving the stats at about 10yrds further than my burners and not bad dispersion, and i finally could sense where the the head was on my backswing!! I decided on 4-PW.
Onto Driver. I use an R11 with a 55g TP stiff shaft. I hit some with this and then was handed an R1. immediately i was put in the stiff to x-stiff bracket. tried loads of shafts and after setting the club to 10 degree as i was launching really low, weights in the heel and closed the face. This was a very similar set up to my R11. Eventually i found a shaft that was perfect for me, it was an Aldila RIP 55g X-Stiff. it stopped my push right or heavy fade and was giving really god distance, dispersion and ball flight. on the trackman was showing about 270 carry ish. if i am honest, i wasn't paying much attention to the numbers, more on the actual ball flight, the pro was there to translate the numbers!!
Fairways/Hybrid
My existing bag was in transition, i went from driver to 4H. i needed something to bridge the gap. i tried the High launch RBZ2 3 wood, but to be honest, my swing is not conducive to a decent fairway wood swing, its still too steep!! (need to work on that) so i said, i think i would prefer two hybrids rather than a FW and hybrid. So out came the RBZ2, settled on a 3 and a 4 with Rocketfuel 65g stiff shafts. gave really nice high launch, very good distance and i was a happy boy!
On to the truck to watch my clubs get made now! i wish i had taken more pic's of the truck its self, the amount of kit the have on there is amazing, pretty much every club head and shaft available. here is a pic of my clubs pre-build
All done in about half an hour, i put them straight in the bag and here is what it looks like now!
We then went into the club house for some lunch courtesy of Jess and TM. most of us had to hide our trainers under tables and Daryl from TM actually had to go and change his shoes, but hey ho, that's a discussion for Mike dress code thread! Quick bite of a Wentworth burger and it was all rush rush rush to get some pics and on to the course!
POH made a very good brolly holder while we had pics taken in front of the truck pre round
We were given one of the below tags each. i checked later, at £190 winter rates (£360 summer) this will be the one and only time this tag is on my bag!
So with everyone ready, we walk to the first tee.. to be fair if i said i wasn't nervous i would be lying!! After having to take my trolley back to the car (trolley ban) and only having a cart bag (full of everything!) i lugged my bag down to the first tee..
No pressure here what so ever, apart from my playing partners whom i had never played with, we had the wentworth starter who was proper old school watching, tappers, POH and the camera guy, Jess and Daryl from TM (Jess plays off 5 and Daryl is a PGA pro) and then just the general people milling around outside the club house. I was bricking it. "dont duff it, dont duff it, dont duff it" was going round my head...
We teed off in H'cap order and Jim and Colin stuck solid enough drives out there, me next.... I actually proceeded to hit a really solid drive and found the fairway! happy boy, the relief was unbelievable!
The ball is on that pic above somewhere! honest!! Anyway, i proceeded to play like a muppet for the rest of the hole and think i ended up with a 6 or 7...
We played a couple more with Tappers, POH and the snapper, stopped after 4 i think and all had to do our piece to camera,
I think for the front nine, my driving was by far the most solid part of my game, I think i only missed one fairway out of 7 on the front! that stat has never been in my game before, so i know now, my longer irons and hybrids is where i need to work most, as my wedge play was pretty good for me, got out of some nasty bunkers well and putted about average.. I really started to suffer with fatigue, early start, followed by tons of activity, hit a ton of balls pre lunch then had to lug my full cart bag round i was knackered and it started to show... Colin kindly offered me a mulligan when i duffed off the tee on the 10th!
The Lethal Ball i loved, i had played the Penta and the TP5 in the past. i found the TP5 too wild off the driver, this lethal ball really behaved both with the big stick and stopped nicely with the wedges, so very happy with these!! Shoes got filthy as you would imagine, but coming from my really heavy old cheapo footjoys, it was bliss! you really don't feel like you are wearing them and i honestly think they will help my game towards the end of a round when fatigue can hit me. (i am starting to think i suffer with lack of sugars etc!)
Move to post 2! i have exceeded the 10,000 characters!! LOL
Well Friday finally came, after what felt like an eternity, it wasn't the nicest of starts as the last thing i saw was this:
No one likes a 5.30 alarm!! But anyway, for some reason i didn't do my normal "hit snooze" a couple of times, i was up and very excited! looked a bit damp and horrible out, so i decided white trousers should stay at home...
Picked up Colin (DarthVega) from his hotel, and the anticipation in the car was at bubbling point, we finally arrived in site to be greeted by this mother!!
Well that was an impressive beast from the outside alone!!
We went into the TM lab, got given some range balls and we proceeded to have a few swings.. We found Jim and Steve, then Tappers and POH arrived.
We then went on to the truck! we met with Daryl and Jess from TM and the two guys who work on the truck (sorry forgot their names!)
Daryl told us all about life on the european tour etc and who is a pre-madonna etc! apparantly Reteif is the only pro allowed past the barrier and he checks his own lofts etc!
Anyway, the goodies started coming! POH had asked shoe sizes in advance, tried on my adizero's and ended up going up 1/2 a size to 9.5. The weight of these things is unbelievable, it really does feel like you are wearing slippers, they are so comfy!!!
Out came a dozen Lethal balls each and a new hat!
On to the fitting bay, Jim and Colin went first, Gibbo and I mooched about, chatted with the TM guys and watched the lads in their fitting.
Probably around 10:30 it was my turn. to be fair i had been hitting the ball really well when i turned up and warmed up! didn't warm up again enough to be honest and proceeded to hit some horrible shots! But anyway, i started off with my TM Burner 2.0 7 iron. I had a different fitter to Colin and Jim, Luke had a private lesson to go to, so i had Tom. We had chatted before going in about my game. In short, while being an 18 handicap, i have the ability to play much better and much worse, consistency due to game time is my problem.
Anyway, my Burner 2.0 was behaving well and threw up some good stats, one thing Tom mentioned is the shaft i was using was too weak (Regular steel) and i seemed to lose where the club head was in my backswing due to this. so he gave me the Rocketbladze iron. First impressions were good, but quite a thick top line, and while i am no tour pro, i prefer the look of a thinner club.
Proceeded to hit some balls, some good, some shockers, i found the camera man really off putting and when he was in front of me, he was all i could think of! "don't slice it, you will kill him" he quickly picked up he was putting me off so moved for his own safety more than anything!!
So back to the irons, i tried loads of shafts, had a hit off the lie board and was recommended to go +1 degree upright. We finally settled on a KBS tour shaft, cant remember what spec and there are no stickers on it! so i am just going to trust it! I did mention the thick top line, so i tried the tour irons, they looked so much more compact but i quite simply did not hit them as well as the standard ones. I wanted to hit them better, but I am simply not good enough to warrant the better player club and it would be to the detriment of my game. Think the spec i went with was leaving the stats at about 10yrds further than my burners and not bad dispersion, and i finally could sense where the the head was on my backswing!! I decided on 4-PW.
Onto Driver. I use an R11 with a 55g TP stiff shaft. I hit some with this and then was handed an R1. immediately i was put in the stiff to x-stiff bracket. tried loads of shafts and after setting the club to 10 degree as i was launching really low, weights in the heel and closed the face. This was a very similar set up to my R11. Eventually i found a shaft that was perfect for me, it was an Aldila RIP 55g X-Stiff. it stopped my push right or heavy fade and was giving really god distance, dispersion and ball flight. on the trackman was showing about 270 carry ish. if i am honest, i wasn't paying much attention to the numbers, more on the actual ball flight, the pro was there to translate the numbers!!
Fairways/Hybrid
My existing bag was in transition, i went from driver to 4H. i needed something to bridge the gap. i tried the High launch RBZ2 3 wood, but to be honest, my swing is not conducive to a decent fairway wood swing, its still too steep!! (need to work on that) so i said, i think i would prefer two hybrids rather than a FW and hybrid. So out came the RBZ2, settled on a 3 and a 4 with Rocketfuel 65g stiff shafts. gave really nice high launch, very good distance and i was a happy boy!
On to the truck to watch my clubs get made now! i wish i had taken more pic's of the truck its self, the amount of kit the have on there is amazing, pretty much every club head and shaft available. here is a pic of my clubs pre-build
All done in about half an hour, i put them straight in the bag and here is what it looks like now!
We then went into the club house for some lunch courtesy of Jess and TM. most of us had to hide our trainers under tables and Daryl from TM actually had to go and change his shoes, but hey ho, that's a discussion for Mike dress code thread! Quick bite of a Wentworth burger and it was all rush rush rush to get some pics and on to the course!
POH made a very good brolly holder while we had pics taken in front of the truck pre round
We were given one of the below tags each. i checked later, at £190 winter rates (£360 summer) this will be the one and only time this tag is on my bag!
So with everyone ready, we walk to the first tee.. to be fair if i said i wasn't nervous i would be lying!! After having to take my trolley back to the car (trolley ban) and only having a cart bag (full of everything!) i lugged my bag down to the first tee..
No pressure here what so ever, apart from my playing partners whom i had never played with, we had the wentworth starter who was proper old school watching, tappers, POH and the camera guy, Jess and Daryl from TM (Jess plays off 5 and Daryl is a PGA pro) and then just the general people milling around outside the club house. I was bricking it. "dont duff it, dont duff it, dont duff it" was going round my head...
We teed off in H'cap order and Jim and Colin stuck solid enough drives out there, me next.... I actually proceeded to hit a really solid drive and found the fairway! happy boy, the relief was unbelievable!
The ball is on that pic above somewhere! honest!! Anyway, i proceeded to play like a muppet for the rest of the hole and think i ended up with a 6 or 7...
We played a couple more with Tappers, POH and the snapper, stopped after 4 i think and all had to do our piece to camera,
I think for the front nine, my driving was by far the most solid part of my game, I think i only missed one fairway out of 7 on the front! that stat has never been in my game before, so i know now, my longer irons and hybrids is where i need to work most, as my wedge play was pretty good for me, got out of some nasty bunkers well and putted about average.. I really started to suffer with fatigue, early start, followed by tons of activity, hit a ton of balls pre lunch then had to lug my full cart bag round i was knackered and it started to show... Colin kindly offered me a mulligan when i duffed off the tee on the 10th!
The Lethal Ball i loved, i had played the Penta and the TP5 in the past. i found the TP5 too wild off the driver, this lethal ball really behaved both with the big stick and stopped nicely with the wedges, so very happy with these!! Shoes got filthy as you would imagine, but coming from my really heavy old cheapo footjoys, it was bliss! you really don't feel like you are wearing them and i honestly think they will help my game towards the end of a round when fatigue can hit me. (i am starting to think i suffer with lack of sugars etc!)
Move to post 2! i have exceeded the 10,000 characters!! LOL
