Bens197's Club Champion Unofficial Review

[bens197]

This morning I had a scheduled driver fitting at my local Club Champion in Victor, NY which is about 15 mins east of Rochester.  I've been curious about CC for years and after sometime, that curiosity won...a 15% off Father's Day coupon was purchased and away we went.  I booked it all online which was super easy and from there I went.

I arrived about 10 minutes early to a pretty neat looking shop.  Putting area up front, counter and lounge chairs and a TV set to, you guessed it...the US Open preview on NBC Golf (Channel).

My fitter greeted me and after I'd asked if I could bring my coffee in, I found my clubs were setup in Bay 2 ready to go.  

The expectations were set quickly and established from the outset.  Here is our process, we start with your club, use that as the basis and work to find the proper shaft.  Once the shaft is squared away it becomes a search for the proper head.  Look / feel / performance were the priorities set for the final club build and I agreed with that logic.  

Unfortunately, I couldn't use my G400 LST as we tried other shafts as the hosel was non-conforming to their gear.  We used my SIM2 that I am not hitting quite well and has been the motivation to pursue this venture...I like how they do this and allow us to compare shafts between heads....I see the value in that for the customer.

So far, it all seems simple enough and while expectations are set, we did divert from the exact process a few times to see if a shaft / head combo did work as an outlier.

Based upon my set numbers, the inventory of shafts we tried were:

HZRDUS Hulk

HZRDUS RDX Blue

LAGolf Bryson

LAGolf A series (mid)

Ventus TR

Among all of these I thought they were selected properly.  I loved the feel of the A series the best but the dispersion for me was just a little sloppy.  HXRDUS RDX Blue was a solid feeling performer and was eerily similar to my HZRDUS Yellow.  I wouldn't be surprised if that shaft has a lot of borrowed traits.  Hulk was not the shaft for me...it lives up to it's name and I am not a hulk.  The Bryson felt nice like the A but again, just not a good match.  The TR on the other hand, I like the loading characteristics and the feel throughout the swing.  We stuck with this one for a while as we started to tinker with heads.

G425 LST was first...didn't last long...I truly felt like it was a regression from the G400 LST...

Callaway Rogue Max LS felt super good, played well but I could not get my eyes to jive with the look at address.

At that point I asked to try a TSI3...Looks, feel, performance...like they wanted...this one was the right one...So which shaft?

My fitter asked me since I liked the LAGolf if I would like to try the DJ shaft...

This was where we diverted....the DJ was ideal for me.  I didn't need to hit many to see my ball speed numbers were nearly the same if not better but the overall dispersion was better than anything else, including the TR. 

I was starting to get tired after an hour and that was when we decided to wrap things up.  

Between the two guys working, I didn't feel they were too pushy when trying to sell me a club.  Let's be honest, they are in the business of selling golf clubs to a specific clientele.  I knew that going in and knew my top end boundary price.  They came in below and when presented with my proposed build, I said yeah, that's better than I expected so let's go.

So I'll be going TSI3 in an 8* with an LAGolf DJ 65g 5 flex shaft.

I am happy, relieved and have peace of mind knowing I advocated for myself in getting what I wanted that still adhered to look, feel & performance and I certainly would return.

The image is my final swing with the winning combo.

 

[RickyBobby_PR]

49 minutes ago, bens197 said:

HXRDUS RDX Blue was a solid feeling performer and was eerily similar to my HZRDUS Yellow.

They are basically the same shafts. The original hzrdus yellow became the smoke yellow which has now become Rdx blue.

Similar to hzrdus black becoming the smoke black and now the rdx black.

Not surprised you found the hulk not o won’t. That’s one of the lowest spinning/launch designed shafts on the market. I have a driving range buddy that’s pretty high swing speed and has tried it several times in different heads and hasn’t gotten along with and he was recently surprised how well a ventus red velocore 7x worked for him 

 

Nice write up and sounds like a good experience for you

[cksurfdude]

Wow!

(..so uhh this means no more excuses off the tee, right? )

[bens197]

2 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

Wow!

(..so uhh this means no more excuses off the tee, right? )

Of course!  at least for the time being I suppose...

[bens197]

3 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

They are basically the same shafts. The original hzrdus yellow became the smoke yellow which has now become Rdx blue.

Similar to hzrdus black becoming the smoke black and now the rdx black.

Not surprised you found the hulk not o won’t. That’s one of the lowest spinning/launch designed shafts on the market. I have a driving range buddy that’s pretty high swing speed and has tried it several times in different heads and hasn’t gotten along with and he was recently surprised how well a ventus red velocore 7x worked for him 

 

Nice write up and sounds like a good experience for you

It was brutal...I get why he pulled it as an outlier but holy smokes that thing felt like rebar.

Thanks man, I was anxious about the sales part in fear of it being almost like a car buying experience...it was not and that was a good thing.

[RickyBobby_PR]

36 minutes ago, bens197 said:

It was brutal...I get why he pulled it as an outlier but holy smokes that thing felt like rebar.

Thanks man, I was anxious about the sales part in fear of it being almost like a car buying experience...it was not and that was a good thing.

The non hulk version of the smoke green feels a lot better and despite that it’s supposed to be stiffer than black the ei l profile make it feel better.

The LA shafts have had my curiosity for awhile. Haven’t seen much feedback on them in limited searching 

[Nolan220]

1 hour ago, bens197 said:

This morning I had a scheduled driver fitting at my local Club Champion in Victor, NY which is about 15 mins east of Rochester.  I've been curious about CC for years and after sometime, that curiosity won...a 15% off Father's Day coupon was purchased and away we went.  I booked it all online which was super easy and from there I went.

I arrived about 10 minutes early to a pretty neat looking shop.  Putting area up front, counter and lounge chairs and a TV set to, you guessed it...the US Open preview on NBC Golf (Channel).

My fitter greeted me and after I'd asked if I could bring my coffee in, I found my clubs were setup in Bay 2 ready to go.  

The expectations were set quickly and established from the outset.  Here is our process, we start with your club, use that as the basis and work to find the proper shaft.  Once the shaft is squared away it becomes a search for the proper head.  Look / feel / performance were the priorities set for the final club build and I agreed with that logic.  

Unfortunately, I couldn't use my G400 LST as we tried other shafts as the hosel was non-conforming to their gear.  We used my SIM2 that I am not hitting quite well and has been the motivation to pursue this venture...I like how they do this and allow us to compare shafts between heads....I see the value in that for the customer.

So far, it all seems simple enough and while expectations are set, we did divert from the exact process a few times to see if a shaft / head combo did work as an outlier.

Based upon my set numbers, the inventory of shafts we tried were:

HZRDUS Hulk

HZRDUS RDX Blue

LAGolf Bryson

LAGolf A series (mid)

Ventus TR

Among all of these I thought they were selected properly.  I loved the feel of the A series the best but the dispersion for me was just a little sloppy.  HXRDUS RDX Blue was a solid feeling performer and was eerily similar to my HZRDUS Yellow.  I wouldn't be surprised if that shaft has a lot of borrowed traits.  Hulk was not the shaft for me...it lives up to it's name and I am not a hulk.  The Bryson felt nice like the A but again, just not a good match.  The TR on the other hand, I like the loading characteristics and the feel throughout the swing.  We stuck with this one for a while as we started to tinker with heads.

G425 LST was first...didn't last long...I truly felt like it was a regression from the G400 LST...

Callaway Rogue Max LS felt super good, played well but I could not get my eyes to jive with the look at address.

At that point I asked to try a TSI3...Looks, feel, performance...like they wanted...this one was the right one...So which shaft?

My fitter asked me since I liked the LAGolf if I would like to try the DJ shaft...

This was where we diverted....the DJ was ideal for me.  I didn't need to hit many to see my ball speed numbers were nearly the same if not better but the overall dispersion was better than anything else, including the TR. 

I was starting to get tired after an hour and that was when we decided to wrap things up.  

Between the two guys working, I didn't feel they were too pushy when trying to sell me a club.  Let's be honest, they are in the business of selling golf clubs to a specific clientele.  I knew that going in and knew my top end boundary price.  They came in below and when presented with my proposed build, I said yeah, that's better than I expected so let's go.

So I'll be going TSI3 in an 8* with an LAGolf DJ 65g 5 flex shaft.

I am happy, relieved and have peace of mind knowing I advocated for myself in getting what I wanted that still adhered to look, feel & performance and I certainly would return.

The image is my final swing with the winning combo.

 

great write up, had similar experience, they weren't too pushy to sell anything .. hope the driver works out for ya 

[bens197]

8 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

The non hulk version of the smoke green feels a lot better and despite that it’s supposed to be stiffer than black the ei l profile make it feel better.

The LA shafts have had my curiosity for awhile. Haven’t seen much feedback on them in limited searching 

Up until today I would say the same about LA Golf.  I am digging more into the DJ shaft in particular and the common theme is smooth and sturdy for aggressive swingers.  Tip stiff and mid - low spin.  I'd be interested to do a side by side with a Speeder 661.

The feel really seduced me.  I can't give an accurate comparison because well, feel is exactly that.  It was smoother than the alternatives with better results so it was just a bonus.  

[bens197]

3 minutes ago, Nolan220 said:

great write up, had similar experience, they weren't too pushy to sell anything .. hope the driver works out for ya 

Thanks Nolan.  That really was the main concern and it was easily dispelled.  

[russtopherb]

8*????? What a beast!!! 

[bens197]

6 minutes ago, russtopherb said:

8*????? What a beast!!! 

I'm laughing...Russ...listen, I think you and I both know as long as we've got it we have to roll with it as long as we can

 

[RickyBobby_PR]

13 minutes ago, bens197 said:

Up until today I would say the same about LA Golf.  I am digging more into the DJ shaft in particular and the common theme is smooth and sturdy for aggressive swingers.  Tip stiff and mid - low spin.  I'd be interested to do a side by side with a Speeder 661.

The feel really seduced me.  I can't give an accurate comparison because well, feel is exactly that.  It was smoother than the alternatives with better results so it was just a bonus.  

That would be a nice side by side. I liked the 661 back in the day. 

[chisag]

1 hour ago, bens197 said:

I am digging more into the DJ shaft in particular and the common theme is smooth and sturdy for aggressive swingers.  Tip stiff and mid - low spin.  I'd be interested to do a side by side with a Speeder 661.

The feel really seduced me.  I can't give an accurate comparison because well, feel is exactly that.  It was smoother than the alternatives with better results so it was just a bonus.  

 

... Great write up and thanks for sharing! It is hard to beat smooth for a feel player when it gives you the results you are looking for. But com' on dude a 1.49 smash factor? Perhaps if you dial down that club head speed to something like 109.5 you could hit the center of the face. 

[Berg Ryman]

So excited for you man, and happy my guy John did well by you. Obviously everyone's experience may differ at CC, but it's good to know the Victor crew is a solid bunch of guys.

[bens197]

10 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... Great write up and thanks for sharing! It is hard to beat smooth for a feel player when it gives you the results you are looking for. But com' on dude a 1.49 smash factor? Perhaps if dial down that club head speed to something like 109.5 you could hit the center of the face. 

All I heard in my head was..

”If I don’t hit 1.50, I am going to get a ration of S+*# from Sam”

4 minutes ago, Berg Ryman said:

So excited for you man, and happy my guy John did well by you. Obviously everyone's experience may differ at CC, but it's good to know the Victor crew is a solid bunch of guys.

You steered me well RB. As usual. 

[chisag]

6 minutes ago, bens197 said:

All I heard in my head was..

”If I don’t hit 1.50, I am going to get a ration of S+*# from Sam”

 

... Which is a lot like Clay giving Steph S+*# because he missed an easy 3 from the corner when he scored 43 in game 4.