Demo Day : New vs Old interesting findings

[jjpnyc]

My home course had a demo day this past weekend with Ping, TaylorMade, and Srixon/Cleveland Golf in attendance.   Weather kept turnout pretty minimal so I was able to hit a ton of balls across all three manufactures.    I was trying out driver (current driver is a TaylorMade r7 Quad...14 years old!), 3-wood (current driver is a TaylorMade 200 steel 18ish years old), and irons (current irons are TaylorMade RAC OS ....13 years old).   So it was cool to have "current and old equipment" versus the new state-of-the-art equipment.   Also helpful was that each booth had a trackman running.

Interestingly......my current equipment was pretty much holding up swing for swing versus the new stuff.  Is the new stuff a couple of yards longer?  Sure.   Was it enough of a difference to drop $500 on a new driver?  No way.    Same for the 3-wood and irons.   A couple of the reps there were amazed by the closeness in the numbers.  

So moral of the story, new does not always equal better when it comes to golf equipment.    If thinking about new equipment, bring your old stuff along and do a true club-to-club comparison....the results might save you a few bucks.  

[forerightgolfer]

Interesting. I would have thought 10+ year old technology would be ready for an update. Glad to hear that you were able to save a few bucks.

I think that my 8 year old Orlimar Driver may be in need of replacement, but I will absolutely be bringing it along for any shopping / fitting trips to ensure that I'm seeing an improvement.

Question for the group - I'm trying to find Demo days and can't seem to track any down. Google keeps showing me OLD info on past days but I can't find anything on upcoming days. Help?

[RickyBobby_PR]

Newer stuff will offer better performance for most on the non center face hits. 

[juspoole]

15 minutes ago, forerightgolfer said:

Question for the group - I'm trying to find Demo days and can't seem to track any down. Google keeps showing me OLD info on past days but I can't find anything on upcoming days. Help?

I have this bookmarked and used to find it very helpful  -  I just ran a few tests and it doesn't seem as good as it used to, however I did get the Ping and Taylormade links to give me some upcoming dates.  Its a start.

https://blog.nextgengolf.org/golf-help/finding-a-golf-demo-day

[forerightgolfer]

2 minutes ago, juspoole said:

I have this bookmarked and used to find it very helpful  -  I just ran a few tests and it doesn't seem as good as it used to, however I did get the Ping and Taylormade links to give me some upcoming dates.  Its a start.

https://blog.nextgengolf.org/golf-help/finding-a-golf-demo-day

THANK YOU!

[Shankster]

Speaking of demo day... it’s 37° and raining and the course here decides to have the demo day... what a joke.

[GB13]

12 minutes ago, Shankster said:

Speaking of demo day... it’s 37° and raining and the course here decides to have the demo day... what a joke.

Isn't that the nicest day of the year UP there? 

[Shankster]

Isn't that the nicest day of the year UP there? 

No, we had that mid January when it was 42°.

[Slap]

Interestingly......my current equipment was pretty much holding up swing for swing versus the new stuff. 

I bet this is true for any golfer who plays a consistent game and finds the center of the club head. I bet you are a good golfer with realistic expectations of your game.

Take their recommendations and buy used in two seasons.

[jjpnyc]

4 hours ago, Slap said:

 

I bet this is true for any golfer who plays a consistent game and finds the center of the club head. I bet you are a good golfer with realistic expectations of your game.

Take their recommendations and buy used in two seasons.

 

Exactly!  Or when a club breaks unexpectedly like when my old TaylorMade Rescue hybrid literally snapped in half at the hosel last year on the range and I suddenly found myself in the market for a new hybrid.  

[Golfspy_CG2]

7 hours ago, forerightgolfer said:

Interesting. I would have thought 10+ year old technology would be ready for an update. Glad to hear that you were able to save a few bucks.

I think that my 8 year old Orlimar Driver may be in need of replacement, but I will absolutely be bringing it along for any shopping / fitting trips to ensure that I'm seeing an improvement.

Question for the group - I'm trying to find Demo days and can't seem to track any down. Google keeps showing me OLD info on past days but I can't find anything on upcoming days. Help?

Many of the OEM have upcoming fitting days listed on their websites.  Search under fittings /Find locations of something similar. 

Also check the websites if your local courses and driving range and suscribe to their text alerts or email lists.  

[forerightgolfer]

14 hours ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

Many of the OEM have upcoming fitting days listed on their websites.  Search under fittings /Find locations of something similar. 

Also check the websites if your local courses and driving range and suscribe to their text alerts or email lists.  

Thanks! Will check that all out.

[deejaid]

From 1950-1980 golfers bought clubs either off the rack or with a basic fitting and expected their shot to be as good as the swing they put into it. Persimmon woods and forged irons, pretty simple. They used those same clubs for 10, 15, 20 years before wearing them out or moving to a softer flex.

Then along came Ping with its investment cast perimeter weighted clubs. Again, players had a fitting or purchased off the rack but still used the same clubs through the 80’s, into the 90’s but now, they didn’t wear out.

Then we entered the “cell phone” era of golf clubs. Like your phone your clubs are obsolete after two years so what was once a purchase made every 10, 15, or even 20 years by your grandfather became every other year in modern golf.


I have a modern bag and a vintage bag in my garage ready to go at this very moment. Both have 14 clubs in them covering distances from 0-250 yards, probably 270 with my modern driver. I may use a different number club for the same 150 yard shot, but both bags of clubs will get the job done.





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[ballplayer002003]

The modern day clubs are just more forgiving then the clubs of 10 years ago.  I don't think distance has changed much because it's not allowed to change.  Distance for drivers are regulated.  Clubs can only perform to a set standard, and now a days, every company makes their drivers to do that.  What is not regulated is the way the companies can move weighting, change sweet spot locations, change center of gravity etc.  This is the biggest difference.  

Sadly, this all comes at an alarming cost to the consumer and each big company out there has done a phenomenal job at marketing to make us all think that we should purchase a new driver every year or two, when the fact is, we are not going to see distance gains or if we do they are SLIGHT distance changes due to better shafts or aerodynamics of a head.  The larger manufacturers are pricing themselves out of the game for a lot of us.  I don't want to spend $550 for a new driver every two years but until we, the consumer, stop spending the money the companies will keep creeping the price up.   

[PAgolfer2017]

I'd agree with many here that the forgiveness is something you might see a bigger difference. My current iron set isn't 10 years old (CF16's) but I went for a fitting and hit every current iron set available, and nothing came close to beating out the CF16. Some gave me incremental improvements, but nothing major/worth upgrading. 

[bens197]

11 hours ago, ballplayer002003 said:

The modern day clubs are just more forgiving then the clubs of 10 years ago.  I don't think distance has changed much because it's not allowed to change.  Distance for drivers are regulated.  Clubs can only perform to a set standard, and now a days, every company makes their drivers to do that.  What is not regulated is the way the companies can move weighting, change sweet spot locations, change center of gravity etc.  This is the biggest difference.  

Sadly, this all comes at an alarming cost to the consumer and each big company out there has done a phenomenal job at marketing to make us all think that we should purchase a new driver every year or two, when the fact is, we are not going to see distance gains or if we do they are SLIGHT distance changes due to better shafts or aerodynamics of a head.  The larger manufacturers are pricing themselves out of the game for a lot of us.  I don't want to spend $550 for a new driver every two years but until we, the consumer, stop spending the money the companies will keep creeping the price up.   

Spot on.  When I upgraded my G5 driver to a 913D3, my eyes lit up when I realized that a heel ball would travel much further than I was used to.  I soon realized that this gain in technology was over a 7 year span.  Truth is, you don’t need to spend $500 every two years.  

I’ve said it several times here but my driver purchases are every 3-5 years.  It is within my budget and truth be told, It will show me an appreciable gain in technology over that period of time.