Friday, April 17, 2009

My date with the fitter

Spent some time with Dave The Club Guru at my range today (DA's Spring Creek Golf, http://www.dasspringcreekgolf.com/scg/scgv2/home.html). He took some measurements, put me in front of a sensor, and had me start hitting shots with various clubs. I'm in the market for a new driver, and I've been test-hitting some of the big sellers here over the past couple of weeks. He first determined that my swing speed is about 105 MPH with a 6-iron, which would put me in the "stiff" shaft range. My favorite driver of the ones I've tried was the Ping G10, and I've also heard very good things about it both on line and in talking to the guys at the shop. Having played Ping Eye II irons for over 25 years this is obviously a company I have a lot of faith in. I started out with a 9 degree club with the standard stiff shaft, and I hit a couple of decent shots, but Dave didn't like the ball flight I was getting with it. He switched me to the 10.5 degree, and stuck a stiff Grafalloy Prolaunch Red shaft on it. Allegedly this shaft has less whip in the bottom of it, which would give me more consistent hits. This combination felt and looked great, and the computer agreed. It put me at a launch angle of 14 degrees, and a spin rate of about 2,700, which I guess is the look you're going for. Dave then found me a grip that's appropriate for my hands (which isn't easy), and it turns out the orange Ping grip (+ 1/16") is what I need. He said that having a correct grip will also help me be a little less wristy. He said the Ping drivers already come with a pretty long shaft, but he was going to have it taken up to 46 inches to allow for my height. All in all Dave did a great job for me. I ordered the club right there, and all the customizations he specified were part of the standard price, and the fitting was free. His analysis was part art and part science, in part based on him just watching me hit and watching the ball flight, and in part relying on the instruments. Given that the service was free and the adjustments we came up with were all included I never felt like he was trying to over-engineer my requirements. Now for the tough part ... waiting for my new driver to come in.

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