Fujikura Fitting - How I added 50 yards to my driver

[GolfSpy Tim]

Add 50 yards to your drive? Maybe... Maybe Not

Either way, you NEED to do a fitting to see

 

 

Fujikura Fit-On Studio Fitting:

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If you were following my twitter feed or some random comments I've made recently in the forums, you may have heard - I went to Fuji to get custom fit and walked out with an added 50 yards for my driver.

 

Not only that, but I went from being absolutely lost when trying to swing my 3-wood to blasting my shots down the fairway almost with the ease of a hybrid!

 

 

I've heard some call BS, and I get it, I really do, and you'll need to be patient as I explain myself and give props to Fuji and Titleist for helping follow through with this article and getting product in my hands for real-life use.

 

The last fitting I did with my game set of clubs was about a year back - a lot has changed in my swing since then - originally I was struggling to get high enough spin numbers - roll the calendar forward a little more than 12 months and it turns out I now have the exact opposite problem, my spin numbers were out of control when Fuji put me on their fitting system.

 

Using my Titleist 910 D2 10.5 I was launching the ball way too high, and with huge spin numbers - resulting in a huge lack of distance.

 

I was facing a problem that your average golfer runs into regularly, the driver I was gaming was all wrong for my swing.

 

Marshall (my fitter at Fuji) immediately let me know I needed to drop down to a 9.5 head - so before really even messing with a shaft change, we changed the head to a Titleist 910 D3 9.5 - and then we started playing with different shafts to find a flex and torque combo that would help me gain more distance as well as more control of the ball.

 

 

It didn't take much time for Marshall to get the driver setup with the new head and a Rombax X 6-07 Flex-X shaft - and immediately on my first swing we both knew we were golden - I suddenly had a shaft I could feel loading properly, and the torque was helping me to bring the ball back toward the center line (I struggle moving the ball left - I can hit out of bounds right all day - that'd be a wicked competition)

 

 

The combination of the proper head as well as a SICK new shaft moved me from driving just shy of 200 yards to launching out to nearly 250 yards average. That's right, I added 50 yards to my drive. They said they'd never seen that big of a result before, but I'm here to say, I think there are a TON more guys out there sitting in the same shoes I was, with the wrong head and the wrong shaft....

 

After blowing my mind with the driver fitting, Marshall pulled out my 3-wood - I quickly informed him it was a club that I had given up on and that I had no right using it and should probably replace it with a hybrid, but since we were there and he was offering to custom fit me for a shaft, and seeing the results we had with the driver... well, why not try.

 

I was prepared to watch Marshall fail, and fail miserably - my 3-wood swing has been the laugh of my golfing buddies for all too long.

 

Marshall had me put up some numbers on the system with my current setup - and just like normal, it wasn't pretty. Not skipping a beat, Marshall grabbed a shaft (yeah, they have a LOT you can try) and if memory serves me correctly, nailed it on the FIRST TRY with a Motore Speeder VC 6.1 - it's a BEAUTIFUL thing taking a club that I was literally afraid of and now have put into play and hit comfortably every time! I was absolutely convinced that I was not good enough to play a 3-wood - but now more than ever before, I'm entirely convinced that having the correct shaft is beyond critical.

 

 

So, I've had the shafts installed and in play now for over a month - and I know you're probably all dying to know how everything has played through? Between the driver update and the 3 wood, that pesky par 5 on my home course that I could NEVER reach in 2 is suddenly looking like a possible eagle hole!!! (hasn't happened yet, but the day is getting MUCH closer now)

 

And you'd think that after doing so much for me that the guys at Fujikura would be ready to get me out the door, but before rushing me off, they gave me a great tour of their R&D facilities - and the Vice President came in and BLEW MY MIND with a ton of golf shaft techy talk on flex, torque, droop and how much we can learn about fitting and shafts using their ENSO system! (be on the lookout for something big with this from GolfSpy Matt in the not so distant future!)

 

Some spy pics from the tour:

 

This machine spins the shafts at a high rate of speed and tweaks them just enough during each rotation to test their point of failure.

 

I thought about trying to sneak this stack out on my bag, but I just didn't have enough room to hide them all.

 

The making of a shaft:

 

 

Cold storage:

 

Shaft lover's playground:

 

And I got pooped on while prepping photos for this piece:

[PMookie]

MY "getting fit" and YOUR getting fit are not the same. So a comment about the need to be "fit" and the results you saw are two TOTALLY different undertakings.

[GolfSpy Barbajo]

Mercy -- color me seriously jealous! Nice write up!!

[Flv02]

Wow. It really is amazing how much a good fitting can improve your game. Maybe I should go get a new shaft in my 3-wood. All that club does is scare me!

[EdGolf]

Nice write up.... wish I've such facilities nearby to get fitted.

 

would definatly like to see how they're gonna fit my dreadful slice

[Matt Saternus]

Sounds like an awesome experience, Tim. I can't wait to see the Fuji headquarters for myself some day.

[RookieBlue7]

You must have a really aggressive transition from the top that has some violence to it. Reason I say that is that shaft is fairly stout and in an X flex I'd think you'd be getting more distance for the general swing speed that goes with that flex rating. Did they tip the shaft at all? If no, that could explain it, as Titleist generally recommends 1/2" tipping to get clubs to flex in the 910 adapters and additional tipping if you need to be stiffer than rated flex.

[GolfSpy Tim]

PMookie - point taken, your "getting fit" may not help you at all and my apologies for assuming it might ;-) - thankfully it helped me

 

EdGolf - I've been making some big swing changes to eliminate my slice, and I wanna say that I'm mostly there, but I still miss right more than left, so it was really cool to see how by having a shaft with the same flex but different torque could help me to miss less to my right. - where are you located? Fujikura has locations spread out that do their fittings to differing degrees - http://www.fujikuragolf.com/fitting/

[EdGolf]

EdGolf - I've been making some big swing changes to eliminate my slice, and I wanna say that I'm mostly there, but I still miss right more than left, so it was really cool to see how by having a shaft with the same flex but different torque could help me to miss less to my right. - where are you located? Fujikura has locations spread out that do their fittings to differing degrees - http://www.fujikuragolf.com/fitting/

 

Thanks for the link. I'm base in HK but can't find any nearby where I could get fitted

[Super Tuna]

A: Impressive that there are 53 guests currently reading this

 

B: This is why I want to kick you people in Cali or on the opposite side in Flordia. I'd kill to have options like this. Shaft OEM's can say all they want about their dealers. At least around here, said "dealers" are only because people randomly walk in and ask for them rather then know how to actually fit someone into a brand let alone a specific shaft.