Club Champion: Driver fitting 3/31/19

[Thin2win]

All,

Consider this a partial review of both Club Champion and my notes from the drivers and shafts I hit while there.

 

My appointment was with Brian at the Bellevue, WA location of Club Champion. Brian was very nice to work with, very keen on some specific numbers and overall I would rate my experience with him at a 9 out of 10. 

 

We started off with my current driver, Ping G400 Max with the Tour 65 Stiff shaft and the head set to 11.5 degrees. After a baseline of 10 shots he pulled about 20 shafts from the wall and I went through hitting 5 shots with each of them to get some quick numbers. Man, that is a lot of driver swings. My baseline, was 244 carry, 16* launch angle with 3300rpm of Backspin. This backspin number I found really interesting. I have been on CGquad 3 times in the last year, and each time with my current driver I had <2000rpm of backspin. So while I trust Trackman and the fitting I got, the numbers were decidedly not what I was expecting. 

 

That said, a few shafts felt great, a few felt horrible and performance definitely varied between them all. The 2 best shafts for me were the The Fuji Ventus 6s,  and the Mitsubishi Diamana. Another round of swings with just those two and the Ventus 6s gave me the best overall perfomance. It lowered my launch to 13 my backspin to 2500 and increased my carry out to 255.

 

With those new numbers, we spent the next hour trying to beat the performance of my G400Max with the Ventus combo. 1 hour into 1 sentence; we couldn't. The closest contenders for me were a g410+, the F9 and the 0811x. All three were very good for me.The F9 gave me the best distance numbers, that wasn't a surprise based off its reviews. The F9 with the Fujikura Pro 2.0 TourSpec had some amazing distance numbers for me. The 410+ was basically identical in performance to the G400Max and the 0811X... I am not going to lie, I didn't want to like it as it really was more than I wanted to spend for a driver. But had the ventus been one of the shaft upgrade options for it, it would be my new driver. I absolutely love the look and feel of it, its the best driver I have ever hit in those categories. Its performance matches anything out there. If it comes with a shaft combo that fits you, it is a really valid choice.

 

For me, none of the shafts I could choose with it beat out my G400. But with the Ventus in it... I felt like the Marine marksman that it pays homage to. My first 5 shot test with it had all 5 shots within 17' of each other, none more than 10' from the center of the fairway and landing a nice 252 yards away from me. This shaft and club head combo was unbelievably accurate for me. I took another 5 shots and got the same average carry but I did throw in one wickedly bad open face push to expand my dispersion. Taking that 1 out of the mix, I had 9 shots all inside a 3 point line from the hoop. But, given the $575 head, then another ~ $400 for the Ventus I just couldn't bring myself to go there. I tried to figure out what was the most expensive shaft that I could get for the $575 price, then immediately sell to offset the cost of the ventus. But at the end, I kept my 400Max and ordered a new Ventus shaft. The G400 Max/Ventus combo had a couple more yards of average distance, and twice the area of dispersion, but that area was still incredibly accurate and kept every shot in the fairway.  It just wasn't quite as ridiculous as the 0811X/Ventus combo was. 

So, Brian at Club Champion 9 / 10

the F9  9 / 10

the 410+  9/10

the 0811X 9 / 10 

the Ventus 6S shaft  100 / 10. It is that good. 

 

I will throw out my 1 negative experience with Club Champion. I did order the Ventus while I was there, and for them to make it for me (?), the price for it ballooned up to  almost $500 ( $415 for the shaft+ $30 for an adapter + $30 for shipping + $12 for a grip) and it was a two week wait. Since I hadn't really looked into the Ventus as far as price went, I was okay with that at the time. But then as I got home and found that MSRP was $350, and a number of retailers would add the adapter, shipping and grip for free as well as get it to me in 4 days... I am okay with paying a small premium, but $150 for 99% the same thing caught me as too much so I cancelled my order. Then I found someone selling theirs on Ebay (claimed to have never hit it) with a Ping adapter already on it and I got it for $235.  So, that is a cool $245 savings from my original purchase price. 10 / 10.

 

[CarlH]

I have similar feelings/results with Club Champion.  Awesome fitting session, but you're going to pay full retail plus fees to get them to do the work for you.  Getting fit by them and then finding another source to build it is, by far, the best option from the financial aspect.  The only advantage to having CC do the build is their satisfaction guarantee, but that's still a steep price to pay for that.  Thanks for your review!

[null]

Your spin was actually total spin (side spin + Backspin). No idea why club champion has it capture it that way. 

I had the same exact issue during my fitting and it wasn't until afterwards I found out about that 

[Thin2win]

1 hour ago, jlukes said:

Your spin was actually total spin (side spin + Backspin). No idea why club champion has it capture it that way. 

I had the same exact issue during my fitting and it wasn't until afterwards I found out about that 

That makes a little more sense. I wasn't putting much curve on the ball so that still sounds a little high. But regardless of that number, I trust that it calculates carry very accurately so I still trust it, but it just seemed off. 

[Smellis745]

I’m dm’ing you a buddy of mine who can get you just the head on the PXG if you’re interested.  I’ve been hearing a lot of good on the Ventus and am a hair away from ordering one, but hate buying shafts without swinging them first.

[Thin2win]

1 hour ago, lungbuster said:

I’m dm’ing you a buddy of mine who can get you just the head on the PXG if you’re interested.  I’ve been hearing a lot of good on the Ventus and am a hair away from ordering one, but hate buying shafts without swinging them first.

Thanks! Also, I don't think I'd buy any shaft without trying it. There are so many out there. I was excited to try the tpt shafts and those were not a good fit for me. I think trying before buying is a must. That or a very generous return policy. 

[CarlH]

Definitely need to try shafts before buying!  One of the things that I took away from my CC fitting was how much difference there are between shafts.  Finding the one that works best for you is paramount.

[ballplayer002003]

I too am a fan of the Club Champion process but the high end prices for products are not for the faint of heart.  

[JohnSmalls]

16 hours ago, jlukes said:

No idea why club champion has it capture it that way. 

Have you found that other fitters capture spin differently?

[null]

28 minutes ago, JohnSmalls said:

Have you found that other fitters capture spin differently?

I've never seen side spin and Backspin combined into one metric until my club champion fitting 

[CarlH]

17 minutes ago, jlukes said:

I've never seen side spin and Backspin combined into one metric until my club champion fitting 

Is that a setting set by CC or is it a function of Trackman?

[JohnSmalls]

1 hour ago, jlukes said:

I've never seen side spin and Backspin combined into one metric until my club champion fitting 

So do you find that you prefer other company's metrics or was club champion sufficient?

[PlaidJacket]

18 hours ago, Thin2win said:

I tried to figure out what was the most expensive shaft that I could get

Reminds me once again of my only trip to CC. The salesman pulled a shaft off the display and said this shaft and that head you're holding will cost around $600-$650. As I recall. I asked how much the shaft was and he replied around around $400. Ouch. I then asked would it be possible to find a shaft that's great and perhaps I only spend $200? Of course the salesman replied.

[null]

4 hours ago, CarlH said:

Is that a setting set by CC or is it a function of Trackman?

It's a setting enabled in trackman that cc seems to enable by default for some reason 

[Bosox04]

The prices at CC make me really miss the old days when you found a driver that looked good, and chose between a S300 or R300. I swear my score were not too much higher before all the fitting technology. We played shorter tees back then. Back in the day of wound balls, and wood woods. Not saying it was better then, just that it was a lot of fun before Trackman.

[Thin2win]

Yeah, but every hole being up hill and into the wind sure made it a challenge. 

[Bosox04]

7 hours ago, Thin2win said:

Yeah, but every hole being up hill and into the wind sure made it a challenge. 

Playing so early, it was still dark and foggy.

[Thin2win]

Quick update for you all. Played my first 18 with the new shaft. Thank you to fujikura for making such device and thank you to club champion for connecting us. 

 

First time out I didn't miss a fairway until the 13th hole with it, and that was because I drove it through the fairway...