Great write up Dave, you've captured the day well.
Looks like it's my turn now. Not sure I'll be quite as eloquent as you Dave but here goes...
I'll just run through my fitting, and PH experience, as Dave's done such a good job on the whole day.
I think the irons were pre selected based on our handicaps. I was being fitted for the new Wilson Di11's which will be out early next year. Phil Bonham (the fitter who travels Europe with the tour truck) was doing the fitting, and ran through the spec on the new Di11's before handing me a 7 iron to try. Now as Dave mentioned earlier, we both had a good warm up and were hitting some good shots with our own clubs, so I was feeling fairly confident. I managed to nobble the first few about a 100 yards, and threw in a shank for good measure. Then I was put on the Flight Scope to hit some balls, luckily I started hitting the ball quite well, a few leaked out to the right but the distance from this new iron was immense. I'm not to sure whether it was adrenaline, strong lofts, new technology or a combination of all, but I was averaging 158 yards with a 7 iron. A look at the strike tape on the sole showed I was toe heavy and was given a club 2 degrees up to try. What a difference this made, my dispersion was a lot tighter, and I even managed to draw a few. The clubs that were recommended after the fitting, were Di11's, uni-flex shaft, standard grips, 2 degrees up.
Now for the Padraig experience. He came over and shook our hands while we introduced ourselves, straight away I was out at ease with his friendly nature. Phil gave him the club specs we had been fitted for and I'm sure he made a comment about Dave being a bandit. Being the gentleman I am, a little nudge in the back let Dave know that I wanted him to go first. Not to sure this was a good idea as it gave me more time to think about what was going to happen, and I started getting a little nervous. Next it was my turn, now I'm not normally worried about people watching, you know standing on the first tee in your Saturday comp, with about a dozen people waiting and watching, no problem. This was slightly different, by this time there were about 70-80 people hanging around, a lot of them club pro's, all the Wilson entourage, Jezz from Golf monthly who was doing the write up on the day, a photographer who was snapping our every move, and a 3 time major winner and number 19 in the world Padraig Harrington and just for good measure BBC south east had gatecrashed our day.
So I stood there with an unfamiliar club in my hand, and about a million people behind me. I took my address, gave it a waggle and I'm sure you can all guess what happened. I repeated the shot for the second time, just to show PH I'm consistent, and the third shot I managed to get away a bit cleaner but it did fade/slice. Padraig stopped me there, and told me I had a great waggle, but then when I put the club behind the ball I stop and think for to long, he also said my back-swing is to slow. So armed with this new information I tried not to dwell behind the ball and speeded up my back-swing, the result was a lot of slices. Not put off by this, Padraig suggested trying to create a hanging lie, and we found a small up-slope just off the range. With a dozen or so balls off the up-slope I did manage to draw a couple, it's a great drill to help get your hands through, and if you can find someone like PH to tee the balls up for you, even better. As we made our way back to the range I thought that was the end, but Padraig had other ideas, he wanted to see Dave chipping and although our time was already up he gave us another 10 minutes on chipping techniques.
Back to the tour truck for photo's, and some caps to be autographed and that was the end of our fitting. I can't speak highly enough of the man, he gave us his undivided attention, nothing was to much trouble, and his enthusiasm was fantastic. All in all a top fella.
Big thanks to Mike and Jezz from GM for giving us this opportunity, to Wilson, Phil on the tour truck, Callum (PR) and Tom the snapper. Dave (Aurburn Warrior) great company, and finally to Padraig for making a special day magic.
Cheers,
Twire.
Looks like it's my turn now. Not sure I'll be quite as eloquent as you Dave but here goes...
I'll just run through my fitting, and PH experience, as Dave's done such a good job on the whole day.
I think the irons were pre selected based on our handicaps. I was being fitted for the new Wilson Di11's which will be out early next year. Phil Bonham (the fitter who travels Europe with the tour truck) was doing the fitting, and ran through the spec on the new Di11's before handing me a 7 iron to try. Now as Dave mentioned earlier, we both had a good warm up and were hitting some good shots with our own clubs, so I was feeling fairly confident. I managed to nobble the first few about a 100 yards, and threw in a shank for good measure. Then I was put on the Flight Scope to hit some balls, luckily I started hitting the ball quite well, a few leaked out to the right but the distance from this new iron was immense. I'm not to sure whether it was adrenaline, strong lofts, new technology or a combination of all, but I was averaging 158 yards with a 7 iron. A look at the strike tape on the sole showed I was toe heavy and was given a club 2 degrees up to try. What a difference this made, my dispersion was a lot tighter, and I even managed to draw a few. The clubs that were recommended after the fitting, were Di11's, uni-flex shaft, standard grips, 2 degrees up.
Now for the Padraig experience. He came over and shook our hands while we introduced ourselves, straight away I was out at ease with his friendly nature. Phil gave him the club specs we had been fitted for and I'm sure he made a comment about Dave being a bandit. Being the gentleman I am, a little nudge in the back let Dave know that I wanted him to go first. Not to sure this was a good idea as it gave me more time to think about what was going to happen, and I started getting a little nervous. Next it was my turn, now I'm not normally worried about people watching, you know standing on the first tee in your Saturday comp, with about a dozen people waiting and watching, no problem. This was slightly different, by this time there were about 70-80 people hanging around, a lot of them club pro's, all the Wilson entourage, Jezz from Golf monthly who was doing the write up on the day, a photographer who was snapping our every move, and a 3 time major winner and number 19 in the world Padraig Harrington and just for good measure BBC south east had gatecrashed our day.
So I stood there with an unfamiliar club in my hand, and about a million people behind me. I took my address, gave it a waggle and I'm sure you can all guess what happened. I repeated the shot for the second time, just to show PH I'm consistent, and the third shot I managed to get away a bit cleaner but it did fade/slice. Padraig stopped me there, and told me I had a great waggle, but then when I put the club behind the ball I stop and think for to long, he also said my back-swing is to slow. So armed with this new information I tried not to dwell behind the ball and speeded up my back-swing, the result was a lot of slices. Not put off by this, Padraig suggested trying to create a hanging lie, and we found a small up-slope just off the range. With a dozen or so balls off the up-slope I did manage to draw a couple, it's a great drill to help get your hands through, and if you can find someone like PH to tee the balls up for you, even better. As we made our way back to the range I thought that was the end, but Padraig had other ideas, he wanted to see Dave chipping and although our time was already up he gave us another 10 minutes on chipping techniques.
Back to the tour truck for photo's, and some caps to be autographed and that was the end of our fitting. I can't speak highly enough of the man, he gave us his undivided attention, nothing was to much trouble, and his enthusiasm was fantastic. All in all a top fella.
Big thanks to Mike and Jezz from GM for giving us this opportunity, to Wilson, Phil on the tour truck, Callum (PR) and Tom the snapper. Dave (Aurburn Warrior) great company, and finally to Padraig for making a special day magic.
Cheers,
Twire.
