- Jan 8, 2009
- 8,204
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- Australia
Let me start by saying that this thread isn't about me being a champion long driver. Not at all. It's about the guff we keep getting fed about equipment to the effect that each year's ball is longer than the previous years & each years driver is longer than the previous years.
I played in a tourney over 3 days last week. I'm a mid-capper. On the last day, I hit 3 x 290 metre (or "meter" to Americans) drives. Long, slight draw, middle of the fairway, distance verified. Guess what? I was using a 2007 Bridgestone 330s golf ball and a 2009 Nike VR Tour driver. If you believed all of the marketing babble, you'd have to say impossible. Or perhaps you'd say, "yes, but if you were playing a 2012 ball and a 2012 driver, you would have hit it 350 metres", which of course is nonsense.
What is the secret perhaps? Recently I went to a club fitter & had all of my shafts replaced & CPM matched. I'm now playing a House of Forged "Patriot" shaft in my driver at 44 inches & hitting more drives out of the middle & much longer distances. In essence, I have a shaft that's performing well & the ball is being hit out of the middle of the face way more.
Going through the shaft fitting process was an incredible eye opener. All of my irons had True Temper R300 but were actually playing to senior flex specs!! They were replaced with KBS Tour stiff. My hybrid & wood shafts were all replaced with House of Forged "Patriot" shafts (which is a stiff flex). I can't recommend the experience/process highly enough.
Basically, my club fitter does not trust the labels on factory fitted shafts. He only trusts his CPM machine. He said that in his experience Titleist and Mizuno irons' shafts were the closest to true flex.
I just shake my head now at people who go and buy off the rack at the local retailer. There's a fair chance the shaft will be absolute garbage & unsuited.
Well, those are my thoughts. Anybody else have some comments about their experiences?
I played in a tourney over 3 days last week. I'm a mid-capper. On the last day, I hit 3 x 290 metre (or "meter" to Americans) drives. Long, slight draw, middle of the fairway, distance verified. Guess what? I was using a 2007 Bridgestone 330s golf ball and a 2009 Nike VR Tour driver. If you believed all of the marketing babble, you'd have to say impossible. Or perhaps you'd say, "yes, but if you were playing a 2012 ball and a 2012 driver, you would have hit it 350 metres", which of course is nonsense.
What is the secret perhaps? Recently I went to a club fitter & had all of my shafts replaced & CPM matched. I'm now playing a House of Forged "Patriot" shaft in my driver at 44 inches & hitting more drives out of the middle & much longer distances. In essence, I have a shaft that's performing well & the ball is being hit out of the middle of the face way more.
Going through the shaft fitting process was an incredible eye opener. All of my irons had True Temper R300 but were actually playing to senior flex specs!! They were replaced with KBS Tour stiff. My hybrid & wood shafts were all replaced with House of Forged "Patriot" shafts (which is a stiff flex). I can't recommend the experience/process highly enough.
Basically, my club fitter does not trust the labels on factory fitted shafts. He only trusts his CPM machine. He said that in his experience Titleist and Mizuno irons' shafts were the closest to true flex.
I just shake my head now at people who go and buy off the rack at the local retailer. There's a fair chance the shaft will be absolute garbage & unsuited.
Well, those are my thoughts. Anybody else have some comments about their experiences?