goaliewales14 Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Hello Spies! As many of you may have read, I was a tester for the True Golf Fit at the end of 2018. With me not seeing the results I would have wanted due to multiple factors I discussed in the article, I started thinking what is the best driver for me. With 2019 being the year of the driver, I figured this would be a great time to see what’s really out there. The Process When I look for any new club, I first start by hitting every club I can from all the manufacturers. I try not let brand influence my decision as to which club will be best for me. During the first round of testing, I will try to test the club in a set up that would be close to what I would purchase. My typical set up for a driver is right around 9* with a 70+ gram extra stiff shaft. What I’m looking for in the first round is looks, feel, and sound. I don’t put a huge amount of stock into numbers just yet because most of the times I’m doing these first rounds, the clubs are not fine tuned in a fitting. After the 1st round, I do an initial cut of ones that just didn’t feel or sound good to me. If I don’t like the looks or cringe every time I hit it, it’s not the club for me. Within this round I start trying to fine tune the setup of each club to look at dispersion and flight. Unfortunately, with Indiana still being in winter, I had limited days to watch the flight. In the 3rd, and final, round, I take my top 3 and get the settings optimize for each club to take head-to-head-to-head in a final fitting. Drivers Tested Srixon Z785 Ping G400 LST Ping G410 Plus Titleist TS2 Titleist TS3 Taylormade M5 Taylormade M6 Callaway Epic Flash Subzero PXG 0811X Gen 2 Cobra F9 Speedback The Results Driver Rank Round Eliminated Comments PXG 0811X Gen 2 1 Winner Titleist TS2 2 Final Great performer just saw better numbers with PXG Cobra F9 Speedback 3 2nd Felt more confident with PXG and TS2 Ping G400 LST 3 2nd Was consistantly shorter than PXG and TS2 Ping G410 Plus 5 2nd Spinning too much. Need LST version Taylormade M6 6 2nd Lacked forgiveness of the others Callaway Epic Flash Subzero 7 1st Saw great numbers, but looks and sounds awful Titleist TS3 8 1st Tested at a Titleist Thursday and TS2 fit me better Taylormade M5 9 1st Tested side by side with M6 and like the look and feel of M6 better Srixon Z785 10 1st Tested during TGF PXG 0811X Gen 2, for me, is the winner! In the final I only took my top 2, TS2 and 0811X. I would typically take three, but I just felt that those two drivers just separated themselves. The set up for each driver was the following. PXG 0811X Shaft: HZRDUS Yellow 75g 6.0 Loft: 9* Length: 44.5 in Custom: Extra titanium weight TS2 Shaft: Even Flow White 75g X-Stiff Loft: 8.75* Length: 44.5 in Custom: +2 gram weight After playing around with all of the drivers, I found that I was most accurate when we added just a bit of weight to each of the drivers and shortened them. The extra weight just allowed me to feel the head throughout the swing. I felt that I was starting to lose them at times during my swing causing me to speed up my swing. When I took the TS2 and PXG head-to-head, PXG beat the TS2 in accuracy, distance, ball speed, and spin rates. Please note the final test was done out of a bay with Trackman, range balls, and 30* weather. The extra weight in the TS2 was causing it to spin a towards the 3000 rpm mark at some points. I think the reason it didn’t do that with the PXG is because we moved the extra weight into the draw position rather than moving it towards the back like the TS2. On all of my hits with the PXG, I was averaging between 2200 – 2500 rpm even on mishits. My hat’s off to the PXG fitter because he saw the potential in the TS2 and we tried multiple things to get it to work. PXG kept putting shot after shot consistently down the middle no matter where on the face I hit that ball. The last shot of day with PXG recorded a 110 mph swing speed with 166+ mph ball speed and a total distance of 300 yards. In 30* weather, to get close to 300 yards is an amazing accomplishment! I’m excited to get this out on the course in warm weather! Driver: Callaway Rogue ST Max 3 Wood: Taylormade SIM 3 Utility Iron: Srixon U85 4i – 5i: Taylormade P790 6i – AW: Taylormade P770 SW: Taylormade MG3 TW Grind LW: Taylormade Hi-Toe 3 Low Bounce Putter: PXG Battle Ready One & Done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattF Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Thanks for the report goalie. This little write up makes me more excited to try the PXG next Monday. But, whichever driver wins for me, I'll be playing it the same afternoon. In the bag: Driver: Darkspeed X 9° UST Mamiya LIN-Q M40X Blue 7F4 Fairway: Apex UW 19° & 21° Project X HZRDUS Smoke RDX Black 5.5 Irons: JPX 923 HMP 5-PW UST Mamiya Recoil 95 F4 Wedges: T-22 Denim Copper 48°, 52° & 56° UST Mamiya Recoil 95 F4 Putter Sycamore 005 Wide Blade Bag: Fairway 14 stand bag Balls: Chrome Tour Cart: CaddyLite ONE Ver. 8 God Bless America, God save the King, God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goaliewales14 Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 4 minutes ago, MattF said: Thanks for the report goalie. This little write up makes me more excited to try the PXG next Monday. But, whichever driver wins for me, I'll be playing it the same afternoon. PXG is definitely the real deal this year. I didn't like their Gen 1 stuff, and I wasn't going to pay $800 for a driver either. With them lower the price to be really close in line with everyone else, that's what made me try them in the first place this year. Good luck at your fitting and let us know how it goes!! Driver: Callaway Rogue ST Max 3 Wood: Taylormade SIM 3 Utility Iron: Srixon U85 4i – 5i: Taylormade P790 6i – AW: Taylormade P770 SW: Taylormade MG3 TW Grind LW: Taylormade Hi-Toe 3 Low Bounce Putter: PXG Battle Ready One & Done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattF Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Thanks mate...I plan on a thread revealing the "lucky winner" and the results after the round. In the bag: Driver: Darkspeed X 9° UST Mamiya LIN-Q M40X Blue 7F4 Fairway: Apex UW 19° & 21° Project X HZRDUS Smoke RDX Black 5.5 Irons: JPX 923 HMP 5-PW UST Mamiya Recoil 95 F4 Wedges: T-22 Denim Copper 48°, 52° & 56° UST Mamiya Recoil 95 F4 Putter Sycamore 005 Wide Blade Bag: Fairway 14 stand bag Balls: Chrome Tour Cart: CaddyLite ONE Ver. 8 God Bless America, God save the King, God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Parsons Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Great write-up on all the drivers @goaliewales14 . I didn't see it, but how long did this test take you to complete? @MattF looking forward to hearing how your fitting goes. In my BR-D4 6-way King F9 set to 9*, Tour length Hzrdus Smoke Black 6.0 S-flex, with GolfPride MCC +4 mid-size 3W - 13*, UST Mamiya 65 Gold S-flex, with GolfPride Tour Wrap 2G SIM UDI 2-iron - 18*, Mitsubishi Diamana Thump 100 X-flex, with GolfPride MCC Align ZX5 4-5 & ZX7 6-PW, Modus3 120 Tour S-flex, +1/2", with GolfPride Tour Wrap 2G - SM8 Tour Chrome, 50.08F - 54.10S - 58.12D, DG Wedge Flex, with GolfPride Tour Wrap 2G Custom Fit 35" ER6 Red at 68 degree lie angle and 4 degrees of loft MTB-X NX7 Pro Slope Tracked by #WPS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goaliewales14 Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 @M. Parsons thank you! It took around 11-12 hours to complete spread across multiple days. I didn't want any session to extend past 2 hour as an absolute max with swinging drivers. I tried to keep it to about an hour so I wasn't fading and putting bad swings on the clubs. Driver: Callaway Rogue ST Max 3 Wood: Taylormade SIM 3 Utility Iron: Srixon U85 4i – 5i: Taylormade P790 6i – AW: Taylormade P770 SW: Taylormade MG3 TW Grind LW: Taylormade Hi-Toe 3 Low Bounce Putter: PXG Battle Ready One & Done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnSmalls Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 @goaliewales14 thanks for writing up your findings! Great to see a personal MGS test! Gameday Vessel Sunday 2.0/ Ogio Silencer Dynapwr Carbon | Hzrdus Smoke Black Mavrik 3w | Evenflow Riptide FG Tour F5 Hybrid(20,23) | MCA Fubuki Staff Model CB 5-PW | DG 120 Vokey SM7 (50, 54, 58) | DG 120 Studio Stock 15 -ProV1x (left dash) Romans 10:9 Classic Bag Jones Collegiate Clemson Stand Bag Eye 2 Laminate 1973 Staff Dynapower 4-PW Anser DUO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PING Apologist #9 Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Nice write-up and very well done! Enjoy that monster! In my DLX Cart Bag: Driver: G410 SFT, set to 9.5*, Mitsubishi Tensei CK Orange 60, stiff (MGS Official 2019 Tester) 3W: G-Series SF TEC, set to 16*, Aldila Tour Blue ATX, 65g, stiff 5W: G400 SFT, set to 19*, Aldila Tour Blue ATX, 65g, stiff 7W: G410 SFT, set to 22*. Alta CB 65 Red, stiff Irons: GMax, Green Dot, 5-PW, Project X Graphite Blue 6.0, 80-90g , stiff Wedges: Glide 2.0 Stealth, 50* SS, 54* ES & 60*/8 Forged MGS Special from the Wedge Wizard, Green Dot, Alta CB graphite, 84g, stiff Putter: Vault 2.0 B60 Copper, 33", black dot w/GP SNSR grip (PING Sigma 2 Fetch under "see-trials") Ball: MTB BLACK (MGS Official 2018 Tester for the MTB RED) Shoes: Classics Tour w/Black Widow Softspikes Disabled Marine Veteran. Semper Fi! #No apologies, just Play Your Best #Powertotheplayers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yungkory Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 Hitting driver is too fun -- I'm jealous that you got to sample all of those at the same time. Driver: Rogue ST Max LS Tensei AV Blue S 3w/5w: TSi2 Tensei AV Raw Blue S 4h: CLK 22* Hybrid Tensei CK Pro Blue 80HY S Irons 5-PW: 223 Steelfiber PR 95 S Wedges: RTX Zipcore Tour Rack 50, 54, 58 Steelfiber PR 105 Putter: LAB Link.1 Ball: Z-Star Diamond Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnosil Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 1 hour ago, yungkory said: Hitting driver is too fun -- I'm jealous that you got to sample all of those at the same time. I can tell you that it is fun. I am so happy that MGS is located near me so I can be part of the testing. hitting all the clubs in one place is a golf junkies dream. It is especially great when you are looking for a replacement and have the opportunity to do some comparing and contrasting between the various clubs. the only drawback is that it is hard to make a decision. Driver: G400 Max 9* w/ KBS Tour Driven Fairway: TS3 15* w/Project X Hzardous Smoke Hybrids: 915H 21* w/KBS Tour Graphite Hybrid Prototype 915H 24* w/KBS Tour Graphite Hybrid Prototype Irons: TR20V 6-11 w/Vizard TR20-85 Graphite Wedge: 54/12D, 60/8M w/:Accra iWedge 90 Graphite Putter: Sacks Parente MC 3 Stripe Backup Putters: Milled Collection RSX 2, mFGP2, Futura 5W, TM-180 Member: MGS Hitsquad since 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yungkory Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 58 minutes ago, cnosil said: I can tell you that it is fun. I am so happy that MGS is located near me so I can be part of the testing. hitting all the clubs in one place is a golf junkies dream. It is especially great when you are looking for a replacement and have the opportunity to do some comparing and contrasting between the various clubs. the only drawback is that it is hard to make a decision. Yeah, I needa get an industry job when I'm done being a computer nerd. I can be a golf nerd instead Driver: Rogue ST Max LS Tensei AV Blue S 3w/5w: TSi2 Tensei AV Raw Blue S 4h: CLK 22* Hybrid Tensei CK Pro Blue 80HY S Irons 5-PW: 223 Steelfiber PR 95 S Wedges: RTX Zipcore Tour Rack 50, 54, 58 Steelfiber PR 105 Putter: LAB Link.1 Ball: Z-Star Diamond Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goaliewales14 Posted March 12, 2019 Author Share Posted March 12, 2019 17 hours ago, yungkory said: Hitting driver is too fun -- I'm jealous that you got to sample all of those at the same time. I'm really thankful to have great places around me that allow me to do stuff like this! Driver: Callaway Rogue ST Max 3 Wood: Taylormade SIM 3 Utility Iron: Srixon U85 4i – 5i: Taylormade P790 6i – AW: Taylormade P770 SW: Taylormade MG3 TW Grind LW: Taylormade Hi-Toe 3 Low Bounce Putter: PXG Battle Ready One & Done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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