fundy
Ryder Cup Winner
***Warning: long post incoming***
As the weather seems to have put a block on getting outside and playing golf I decided now was as good a time as any to finally have a new irons fitting. Having spoke to a few guys on here as to what route to go I chose to go for a fitting with Orka (many thanks to GB72 who was able to put me in touch with a friend of his who is one of the top guys at Orka).
So last night I met Alex from Orka at one of their indoor fitting centres which is conveniently local to me in Milton Keynes with a view to an irons and a wedge fitting. the facility there has a GC2 monitor which seemed to measure every possible number/stat you could want on the golf swing.
Little background on Alex, whilst he is now a sales director he is also a qualified PGA pro and the initial warm up gave him a chance to get a look at my swing and also understand a bit about my golf. Alex is clearly passionate about golf, golf clubs and helping people play better golf (through better fitted clubs but also some swing advice).
After the warm up I hit some balls with my existing 6 iron to get a baseline to compare everything else to. The basic numbers were clubhead speed was 83mph, ball speed was 120mph and carry was 170 yards.
From there on, the fun began and it was time to try some new shinies
Alex had built up many different 6 irons for me to try. In the Orka range of heads I was choosing between the RS1 (blade) RS3 (small cavity) and RS5 (cavity) all of which were forged iron heads.
http://www.orkagolf.com/products/irons/
The first thing to note was because of the chamfered (sp?) top edge their irons have it was almost impossible to tell the difference between the 3 options, and all were very appealing to the eye. A very classical looking iron, quite a short clubhead but they all looked very reassuring that they would be easy to hit.
After hitting balls with each club head it became apparent that for me there was little difference in performance level between the 3, personal preference ruled out the RS5 which left me with the bladed RS1 and the RS3. All 3 clubheads were as easy to hit as they looked (evens the blades!) I was adamant that whilst vanity would love a bladed set I should take the head over heart option of cavity backs for that bit of assistance. They all had that lovely soft feel of a decent forged iron but the blade just felt that little bit better. In the end I chose the compromise route of a split set. So I settled on 7iron to PW in the RS1s and 4-6iron in the RS3s.
From their we tried a variety of shafts (blind) and quickly ruled out a few, including the PX shaft that I currently have (too light and slightly too stiff) and from the stats we soon came down to 3 shafts that performed well for me. They were the KBS Tour, Orkas own NH9 Pro (made by FST) and the DG X100. After hitting some more balls (without knowing which shaft was which still) I ruled out the X100 which left it as a straight choice between the KBS Tour and the NH9 Pro. Based on the numbers and feel there was nothing to choose between them so based on cost I opted for the NH9 Pros (at this point Alex pointed out to me that both shafts were actually made by the same company FST). When Orka build a set of clubs, all shafts are pured as part of the process.
Next was some measurements to make sure the fit was perfect. The clubs I had been testing with were to my expected set up (1/2 inch longer and 2 degrees upright) and seemed ok but after checking some statics measurements and then hitting off a lie board we settled on 3/4 inch longer and 1 degree upright.
Next was grip and grip size and an area that Ive struggled with a bit of late. Having worried that actually my grip was now too big if anything it was actually on the small size and so I have gone from midsize to midsize plus 1 extra layer. Have decided to stay with the multicompounds as nothing else really appealed (having had corded grips since I was a kid find it hard to move away from at least part corded!).
Stats wise, the final set up when I hit on the GC2 were giving a clubhead speed of 85mph, ball speed of 125mph and a carry of 179 yards (so I had gained 9 yards), but far far more importantly to me was the dispersion has reduced greatly, the little circle with new clubs compared to old was almost half the size! Once I have had the clubs for a little bit Alex has invited me back to do a gap test on the machine and if there are any gaps that are too big or too small then lofts can be slightly adjusted to get the gaps spot on.
Next step was to look at adding some wedges and this was a very simple decision just to fit them with the set as the RS18 wedges are beautiful to look at to my eye and have a decently heavy feeling head. We talked for a while about shafts but Alex recommended keeping the shafts consistent with the irons (i was a little sceptical as last time I did this I didnt get on with the wedges, but if thats the case this time then the shafts can easily be changed to a normal wedge flex if required).
http://www.orkagolf.com/products/wedges/rs18-wedge/
I like to have plenty of options at this end of the bag so like to have 3 additional wedges and with the PW at 47 degrees the right options to me were to go up in 4 degree increments from there so a 52,56,60 set all delofted 1 degree seemed to be the right option, at least as a start point. Alex has agreed to include a wedge session on the machine for me to make sure that the lofts work for me and again to the get my yardages dialled in both for full shots but also for 1/2 and 3/4 shots.
Sadly my time being like a kid in a candy store was coming to an end (at least for now) but I can say what a thoroughly enjoyable and educational process the fitting was, the service level I received from Alex was nothing short of exceptional, its great to deal with someone so passionate and knowledgeable about their subject!
So all that remains is to pull the trigger and tell him to get them built. The sensible part of me had planned to wait until monday to make a decision but having written this Im pretty sure the next step is to contact Alex and tell him to start building!
Apologies for the length of post, hopefully some of you will have found it interesting, I will post again once I have the clubs and do a proper review, needless to say after the service levels I have received so far my expectation levels are very high for my new shinys Anyone has any questions I'll try and answer them albeit my recollection of the numbers may be a bit sketchy
As the weather seems to have put a block on getting outside and playing golf I decided now was as good a time as any to finally have a new irons fitting. Having spoke to a few guys on here as to what route to go I chose to go for a fitting with Orka (many thanks to GB72 who was able to put me in touch with a friend of his who is one of the top guys at Orka).
So last night I met Alex from Orka at one of their indoor fitting centres which is conveniently local to me in Milton Keynes with a view to an irons and a wedge fitting. the facility there has a GC2 monitor which seemed to measure every possible number/stat you could want on the golf swing.
Little background on Alex, whilst he is now a sales director he is also a qualified PGA pro and the initial warm up gave him a chance to get a look at my swing and also understand a bit about my golf. Alex is clearly passionate about golf, golf clubs and helping people play better golf (through better fitted clubs but also some swing advice).
After the warm up I hit some balls with my existing 6 iron to get a baseline to compare everything else to. The basic numbers were clubhead speed was 83mph, ball speed was 120mph and carry was 170 yards.
From there on, the fun began and it was time to try some new shinies
Alex had built up many different 6 irons for me to try. In the Orka range of heads I was choosing between the RS1 (blade) RS3 (small cavity) and RS5 (cavity) all of which were forged iron heads. http://www.orkagolf.com/products/irons/
The first thing to note was because of the chamfered (sp?) top edge their irons have it was almost impossible to tell the difference between the 3 options, and all were very appealing to the eye. A very classical looking iron, quite a short clubhead but they all looked very reassuring that they would be easy to hit.
After hitting balls with each club head it became apparent that for me there was little difference in performance level between the 3, personal preference ruled out the RS5 which left me with the bladed RS1 and the RS3. All 3 clubheads were as easy to hit as they looked (evens the blades!) I was adamant that whilst vanity would love a bladed set I should take the head over heart option of cavity backs for that bit of assistance. They all had that lovely soft feel of a decent forged iron but the blade just felt that little bit better. In the end I chose the compromise route of a split set. So I settled on 7iron to PW in the RS1s and 4-6iron in the RS3s.
From their we tried a variety of shafts (blind) and quickly ruled out a few, including the PX shaft that I currently have (too light and slightly too stiff) and from the stats we soon came down to 3 shafts that performed well for me. They were the KBS Tour, Orkas own NH9 Pro (made by FST) and the DG X100. After hitting some more balls (without knowing which shaft was which still) I ruled out the X100 which left it as a straight choice between the KBS Tour and the NH9 Pro. Based on the numbers and feel there was nothing to choose between them so based on cost I opted for the NH9 Pros (at this point Alex pointed out to me that both shafts were actually made by the same company FST). When Orka build a set of clubs, all shafts are pured as part of the process.
Next was some measurements to make sure the fit was perfect. The clubs I had been testing with were to my expected set up (1/2 inch longer and 2 degrees upright) and seemed ok but after checking some statics measurements and then hitting off a lie board we settled on 3/4 inch longer and 1 degree upright.
Next was grip and grip size and an area that Ive struggled with a bit of late. Having worried that actually my grip was now too big if anything it was actually on the small size and so I have gone from midsize to midsize plus 1 extra layer. Have decided to stay with the multicompounds as nothing else really appealed (having had corded grips since I was a kid find it hard to move away from at least part corded!).
Stats wise, the final set up when I hit on the GC2 were giving a clubhead speed of 85mph, ball speed of 125mph and a carry of 179 yards (so I had gained 9 yards), but far far more importantly to me was the dispersion has reduced greatly, the little circle with new clubs compared to old was almost half the size! Once I have had the clubs for a little bit Alex has invited me back to do a gap test on the machine and if there are any gaps that are too big or too small then lofts can be slightly adjusted to get the gaps spot on.
Next step was to look at adding some wedges and this was a very simple decision just to fit them with the set as the RS18 wedges are beautiful to look at to my eye and have a decently heavy feeling head. We talked for a while about shafts but Alex recommended keeping the shafts consistent with the irons (i was a little sceptical as last time I did this I didnt get on with the wedges, but if thats the case this time then the shafts can easily be changed to a normal wedge flex if required).
http://www.orkagolf.com/products/wedges/rs18-wedge/
I like to have plenty of options at this end of the bag so like to have 3 additional wedges and with the PW at 47 degrees the right options to me were to go up in 4 degree increments from there so a 52,56,60 set all delofted 1 degree seemed to be the right option, at least as a start point. Alex has agreed to include a wedge session on the machine for me to make sure that the lofts work for me and again to the get my yardages dialled in both for full shots but also for 1/2 and 3/4 shots.
Sadly my time being like a kid in a candy store was coming to an end (at least for now) but I can say what a thoroughly enjoyable and educational process the fitting was, the service level I received from Alex was nothing short of exceptional, its great to deal with someone so passionate and knowledgeable about their subject!
So all that remains is to pull the trigger and tell him to get them built. The sensible part of me had planned to wait until monday to make a decision but having written this Im pretty sure the next step is to contact Alex and tell him to start building!
Apologies for the length of post, hopefully some of you will have found it interesting, I will post again once I have the clubs and do a proper review, needless to say after the service levels I have received so far my expectation levels are very high for my new shinys
Anyone has any questions I'll try and answer them albeit my recollection of the numbers may be a bit sketchy
