BrizoH71
Tour Rookie
Well, I've arrived back home and I'd just like to add my own sentiments to those of Snelly and Simon already.
Firstly, a very big thanks to all at Golf Monthly, PING, and the Centurion Club for a cracking day out. Simon has already covered the unfortunate PING Tour truck scenario so I'll skip that.
After flying down to Luton from Edinburgh and staying overnight in Hemel Hempstead, my taxi to the club took less time than anticipated and I met Mike Harris in the car-park just after arriving. A chat and plenty coffee ensued as we waited until everyone had arrived and we got started with the Tour Truck tour, and then it was off to get the clubs sorted.
I'm still using a beginners' set of irons I bought from DG to get me started; I gave my 7-iron to the PING guys for evaluation and it came back with some startling results; firstly, it was half-an-inch shorter than the standard PING length, and the True Temper steel shaft was fairly soft in comparison to the PING regular shaft, more towards their soft-regular. This perhaps explained why I struggled so much to get a consistent strike on the ball and get it airborne.
I had fancied the G25s, but having tried both them and the Karstens at the recent Golf Show, I felt the Karstens were the better fit.
My fitter, Mike, asked me several questions about my iron-play and then got some static measurements.. my wrist-to-floor measurement and height put me in the Green dot (I had got Blue at the Golf Show) but Mike explained that the mats can sometimes throw the static measurement out a little.
He handed me a Green-dot 7-iron, with a standard regular shaft which took a little getting used to. I chunked the first one, cutting a big divot and the second and third were fairly thinned. I got it on the fourth attempt and thereafter I was hitting it well.
After a dozen or so balls, Mike got me to hit my regular 7iron to get comparison. I have a relatively slow swing speed, around 75mph, but the results were staggeringly different.
My regular 7-iron saw me throw the ball off the face at around 89mph, with a carry-distance of around 125yds and 3yards rollout.
With the PING Karsten, the ball was coming off the face at around 95mph with a carry-distance of around 138yds and a similar rollout - so I'd instantly gained 13yards. More importantly, I had very little dispersion off the club, and a nice little group of shots had formed. Not so with my regular, which was much more scattergun.
It was looking good, but Mike reckoned my swing-speed was borderline on the regular and soft-regular, and wanted to try the softer shaft. Similar to my 7-iron, I could almost feel the shaft flexing on my backswing, and I struggled to control it as well as the regular-shaft, and the numbers backed that up.
While slightly better than my regular 7, they were lagging behind the regular shaft, and so that decision was made for me. Then it was onto the woods and hybrids.
Firstly Mike tried me with a 22deg hybrid, and pitching it against my current 20deg hybrid, the former won out well to replace my 4-iron. We tried a 19deg hybrid next, but I struggled to get it airborne so we swapped that for an equivalent 5-wood from the G25 range, which worked well in it's place.
We got our interviews and photoshoots done, then headed for a quick lunch and back out for 18 holes of the Centurion Club. It is a cracking course, but a bit of a long slog if you're carrying, and the greens were a bit on the slow side but ran true. Having parred the first and second to quickly put us 2 up against Simon and his fitter, my wheels came off and I struggled for the remainder of the round, although I only had a half-set of clubs with me, electing not to bring the full bag in anticipation of having to carry them all the way back up to Edinburgh.
A couple of beers afterwards the gentlemen who were Snelly, Simon and Mike, and a brief chat with Rickg and we all went our separate ways.
The trip did go on a bit of a downward angle though when I claimed my golf bag back once I 'd arrived in Edinburgh... Easyjet had managed to not only mangle my travel case, but also my stand bag and my waterproof jacket... I'm just glad the PINGS weren't in there...
Firstly, a very big thanks to all at Golf Monthly, PING, and the Centurion Club for a cracking day out. Simon has already covered the unfortunate PING Tour truck scenario so I'll skip that.
After flying down to Luton from Edinburgh and staying overnight in Hemel Hempstead, my taxi to the club took less time than anticipated and I met Mike Harris in the car-park just after arriving. A chat and plenty coffee ensued as we waited until everyone had arrived and we got started with the Tour Truck tour, and then it was off to get the clubs sorted.
I'm still using a beginners' set of irons I bought from DG to get me started; I gave my 7-iron to the PING guys for evaluation and it came back with some startling results; firstly, it was half-an-inch shorter than the standard PING length, and the True Temper steel shaft was fairly soft in comparison to the PING regular shaft, more towards their soft-regular. This perhaps explained why I struggled so much to get a consistent strike on the ball and get it airborne.
I had fancied the G25s, but having tried both them and the Karstens at the recent Golf Show, I felt the Karstens were the better fit.
My fitter, Mike, asked me several questions about my iron-play and then got some static measurements.. my wrist-to-floor measurement and height put me in the Green dot (I had got Blue at the Golf Show) but Mike explained that the mats can sometimes throw the static measurement out a little.
He handed me a Green-dot 7-iron, with a standard regular shaft which took a little getting used to. I chunked the first one, cutting a big divot and the second and third were fairly thinned. I got it on the fourth attempt and thereafter I was hitting it well.
After a dozen or so balls, Mike got me to hit my regular 7iron to get comparison. I have a relatively slow swing speed, around 75mph, but the results were staggeringly different.
My regular 7-iron saw me throw the ball off the face at around 89mph, with a carry-distance of around 125yds and 3yards rollout.
With the PING Karsten, the ball was coming off the face at around 95mph with a carry-distance of around 138yds and a similar rollout - so I'd instantly gained 13yards. More importantly, I had very little dispersion off the club, and a nice little group of shots had formed. Not so with my regular, which was much more scattergun.
It was looking good, but Mike reckoned my swing-speed was borderline on the regular and soft-regular, and wanted to try the softer shaft. Similar to my 7-iron, I could almost feel the shaft flexing on my backswing, and I struggled to control it as well as the regular-shaft, and the numbers backed that up.
While slightly better than my regular 7, they were lagging behind the regular shaft, and so that decision was made for me. Then it was onto the woods and hybrids.
Firstly Mike tried me with a 22deg hybrid, and pitching it against my current 20deg hybrid, the former won out well to replace my 4-iron. We tried a 19deg hybrid next, but I struggled to get it airborne so we swapped that for an equivalent 5-wood from the G25 range, which worked well in it's place.
We got our interviews and photoshoots done, then headed for a quick lunch and back out for 18 holes of the Centurion Club. It is a cracking course, but a bit of a long slog if you're carrying, and the greens were a bit on the slow side but ran true. Having parred the first and second to quickly put us 2 up against Simon and his fitter, my wheels came off and I struggled for the remainder of the round, although I only had a half-set of clubs with me, electing not to bring the full bag in anticipation of having to carry them all the way back up to Edinburgh.
A couple of beers afterwards the gentlemen who were Snelly, Simon and Mike, and a brief chat with Rickg and we all went our separate ways.
The trip did go on a bit of a downward angle though when I claimed my golf bag back once I 'd arrived in Edinburgh... Easyjet had managed to not only mangle my travel case, but also my stand bag and my waterproof jacket... I'm just glad the PINGS weren't in there...
