Driver fitting - Do they make that much a difference?

[aguybadatgolf]

I’ve been getting lessons and my instructor is encouraging me to go get fit. I’m swinging it pretty well but still have a miss right. Looking at the videos the shaft is pretty flexed at impact leaving the face open even when my hands are in the right position to close it. I also hit the ball pretty high. That’s a known thing I struggled with before lessons and my swing isn’t dramatically up only 6 degrees or so. We use a trackman to practice with.  

I play with a 10.5 lofted low spin Cobra head that I self fitted. The LS part is on the right track but it sounds like I need a different shaft and lower lofted head.  

I’m not sure if I’ll suddenly hit more fairways and it was the wrong set up the whole time or if this is a swing issue my instructor is hoping a fitting will compensate for. 

Edited April 4 by aguybadatgolf

[RickyBobby_PR]

1 hour ago, aguybadatgolf said:

also hit the ball pretty high. That’s a known thing I struggled with before lessons and my swing isn’t dramatically up only 6 degrees or so. We use a trackman to practice with.  

6 up Is going to lead to the shots you are seeing. Rory is an outlier at 5 up. 2-3 up is all that’s needed. 

the more up the more inside one is the more then chances of the face being open.

looking at shaft flex on video really doest relate to much.

Will a fitting make a difference? Possibly especially if in the wrong fit. How much can’t one determined without trying it and seeing how it changes your swing.

Almost guarantee you are adding loft which is going to ad spin and will hit the ball higher because of the increased loft.

it could be shaft, it could be head, or could be a combo of them. Based on the set fit I’m going to say you are in a less than ideal combo and a fitting will have some benefit. 
 

How much of the shaft/head combo is affecting the swing is hard to say without seeing swing and numbers from an on. But I would lean towards it being a swing issue with 6 up

[aguybadatgolf]

@RickyBobby_PRGood to know I didn’t realize 6 up was that extreme. I’ve got a free fitting booked this weekend so we shall see haha

Edited April 4 by aguybadatgolf

[RickyBobby_PR]

21 minutes ago, aguybadatgolf said:

@RickyBobby_PRGood to know I didn’t realize 6 up was that extreme. I’ve got a free fitting booked this weekend so we shall see haha

Yeah once you get to 415 up you are getting to the extreme ofs aoa. It brings a two way miss in as well because to fight the right ball flight better players start rotating the hands more to close the face and too much closer and the pulls and hooks come in real quick.

Im guessing you went with the ls head to bring down spin. That type of head is only going to help a little for spin reduction and especially at 10.5.

[mbrodeur86]

On 4/4/2024 at 4:21 PM, aguybadatgolf said:

I’ve been getting lessons and my instructor is encouraging me to go get fit. I’m swinging it pretty well but still have a miss right. Looking at the videos the shaft is pretty flexed at impact leaving the face open even when my hands are in the right position to close it. I also hit the ball pretty high. That’s a known thing I struggled with before lessons and my swing isn’t dramatically up only 6 degrees or so. We use a trackman to practice with.  

I play with a 10.5 lofted low spin Cobra head that I self fitted. The LS part is on the right track but it sounds like I need a different shaft and lower lofted head.  

I’m not sure if I’ll suddenly hit more fairways and it was the wrong set up the whole time or if this is a swing issue my instructor is hoping a fitting will compensate for. 

I'm not a fitter but from what you are saying it sounds like you might need a lower loft and a lower torque shaft. Again it depends on your numbers and what kind of flight you are looking for. I would definitely go for a fitting. You will learn so much about your swing and just the experience of it is well worth it, whether you buy the club or not.

[aguybadatgolf]

13 minutes ago, mbrodeur86 said:

I'm not a fitter but from what you are saying it sounds like you might need a lower loft and a lower torque shaft. Again it depends on your numbers and what kind of flight you are looking for. I would definitely go for a fitting. You will learn so much about your swing and just the experience of it is well worth it, whether you buy the club or not.

Good to know! I am going in tomorrow to a local shop very excited to see the result.  

[mbrodeur86]

2 minutes ago, aguybadatgolf said:

Good to know! I am going in tomorrow to a local shop very excited to see the result.  

Remember to ask questions. I walked in and they asked me if I had a preferred club brand. I said no because I was open to hit anything. I thought I was going to pair up well with a Callaway and ended up with a Mizuno ST 190 that I probably would have never considered lol. Pay attention to your numbers too. Those things are important. I took pics of mine as a guide point. Lastly, have fun! 

[aguybadatgolf]

7 hours ago, mbrodeur86 said:

Remember to ask questions. I walked in and they asked me if I had a preferred club brand. I said no because I was open to hit anything. I thought I was going to pair up well with a Callaway and ended up with a Mizuno ST 190 that I probably would have never considered lol. Pay attention to your numbers too. Those things are important. I took pics of mine as a guide point. Lastly, have fun! 

Thanks for the advice! My FIL is a veteran so my wife is able to use the PXG discount for military and family. She was getting fit for some irons tonight and they let me mess around with their black ops challenge. It was eye opening. 

I was fit into a 8 degree head and after messing with shafts was fit into the graphite design tour ad xc-6 in an X flex. With my current game I was either hitting straight blocks to the right or turning it over and hooking it. With the fitted driver I was able to try to turn it over as much as I wanted and as long as I didn’t get to extreme was hitting 300+ yard draws in the middle of the fairway. I’m just hoping I can find a shaft with similar performance that isn’t so expensive lol. 

Edited April 6 by aguybadatgolf

[RickyBobby_PR]

14 hours ago, mbrodeur86 said:

I'm not a fitter but from what you are saying it sounds like you might need a lower loft and a lower torque shaft. Again it depends on your numbers and what kind of flight you are looking for. I would definitely go for a fitting. You will learn so much about your swing and just the experience of it is well worth it, whether you buy the club or not.

There is no standard for how torque is measured and torque is about feel. The torsional stiffness of a shaft has very little influence. The longitudinal stiffness of a shaft has much more influence. When looking at shafts weight, length and longitudinal stiffness or the stiffness profile are the important measurable factors. The stamped flex not so much because like torque there’s no industry standard for how to determine what to label a shaft. Then there’s the feel factor which plays a role in how we swing. The feel can affect negatively or positively or in some case not at all how we swing a club. Shaft changes aren’t the way to go to change loft or spin.

The ops issue is swing related. Can a shaft help, sure, but it’s going to be head loft, cg location and the balance of the head and shaft.

 

 

[RickyBobby_PR]

7 hours ago, aguybadatgolf said:

Thanks for the advice! My FIL is a veteran so my wife is able to use the PXG discount for military and family. She was getting fit for some irons tonight and they let me mess around with their black ops challenge. It was eye opening. 

I was fit into a 8 degree head and after messing with shafts was fit into the graphite design tour ad xc-6 in an X flex. With my current game I was either hitting straight blocks to the right or turning it over and hooking it. With the fitted driver I was able to try to turn it over as much as I wanted and as long as I didn’t get to extreme was hitting 300+ yard draws in the middle of the fairway. I’m just hoping I can find a shaft with similar performance that isn’t so expensive lol. 

The Diamana D+, D+ limited are equivalent and are common in most manufacturers if buying new. Older shafts would be Diamana whiteboard (I love this shaft) and ahina.

so the xc like all graphite design shafts have a typical blue shaft design. Each is tweaked differently in the butt, mid, tip to create different feels but all are based off the Diamana blueboard design which is why the shafts above that are a little stiffer  mid and butt compared to the AD DI and blue profiles like a tensei raw blue.

if you can get to a place and hit the shafts mentioned or a Diamana tb, the tensei raw blue to compare feel and numbers they may be options which again are offered by alot of oems

dod you happen to get any spin, launch, aoa, dynamic loft, apex/peak and descent angle info from your pxg testing?

[mbrodeur86]

22 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

There is no standard for how torque is measured and torque is about feel. The torsional stiffness of a shaft has very little influence. The longitudinal stiffness of a shaft has much more influence. When looking at shafts weight, length and longitudinal stiffness or the stiffness profile are the important measurable factors. The stamped flex not so much because like torque there’s no industry standard for how to determine what to label a shaft. Then there’s the feel factor which plays a role in how we swing. The feel can affect negatively or positively or in some case not at all how we swing a club. Shaft changes aren’t the way to go to change loft or spin.

The ops issue is swing related. Can a shaft help, sure, but it’s going to be head loft, cg location and the balance of the head and shaft.

 

 

Totally agree with you. I was originally fit into an atmos black shaft and a 10.5 head. The atmos has a 3.8 torque on it. With my Stealth 2 it has a 9 degree head and the Kai'li red shaft. That shaft has a stated 4.1 torque. Similar weight but different profiles. I'm hitting the Stealth higher and more consistently than the fitted Mizuno. I fitted myself using the knowledge I picked up from my Mizuno fitting. So far I'd say I did a great job but without question 1 company's numbers can be totally different than anothers.

As for the op I'm so happy for you. Just the experience itself for me it's worth it. In the long run it'll make you a better golfer. You can check different companies for similar shaft numbers but like Ricky Bobby said the numbers for 1 company aren't necessarily the same as others. You could ask the fitter what they recommend that are similar. Sometimes TXG/ Club Champion do ask anything on YouTube. A guy like Ian could probably give you examples 

[aguybadatgolf]

1 hour ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

The Diamana D+, D+ limited are equivalent and are common in most manufacturers if buying new. Older shafts would be Diamana whiteboard (I love this shaft) and ahina.

so the xc like all graphite design shafts have a typical blue shaft design. Each is tweaked differently in the butt, mid, tip to create different feels but all are based off the Diamana blueboard design which is why the shafts above that are a little stiffer  mid and butt compared to the AD DI and blue profiles like a tensei raw blue.

if you can get to a place and hit the shafts mentioned or a Diamana tb, the tensei raw blue to compare feel and numbers they may be options which again are offered by alot of oems

dod you happen to get any spin, launch, aoa, dynamic loft, apex/peak and descent angle info from your pxg testing?

Thank you for the suggestions. I have a fitting today as well with a shop that is brand agnostic. I’ll make sure to ask about those.
 

I was averaging about 5 up. You pointed out that this is a swing issue and my coach has noted it at smothering to work on. Spin was averaging around 2500, apex was about 38 yards. The rest I’m not sure about. I do have a pretty nice match up with my swing path and face angle which the fitter said was helping negate the amount I hit up as I play a draw so I got a lot of roll out. 

[Shankster]

1000% make a difference.  I own a Callaway golf club because of a fitting, there is no way in the green acres that I would ever buy a Callaway golf club at even 95% off.  But… it out worked every other driver I hit by a mile and is far more accurate.  I still don’t like it, but I love it.

[RickyBobby_PR]

1 hour ago, aguybadatgolf said:

Thank you for the suggestions. I have a fitting today as well with a shop that is brand agnostic. I’ll make sure to ask about those.
 

I was averaging about 5 up. You pointed out that this is a swing issue and my coach has noted it at smothering to work on. Spin was averaging around 2500, apex was about 38 yards. The rest I’m not sure about. I do have a pretty nice match up with my swing path and face angle which the fitter said was helping negate the amount I hit up as I play a draw so I got a lot of roll out. 

I wouldn’t ask about any specific shafts, be open to whatever the fitter goes with, just be sure to give feedback about what you are feeling, what you like don’t like. Depending on the head and how the fitter goes about it there may be other shafts that work.

Your spin and apex are similar to mine and I have a similar aoa. 

[cnosil]

1 minute ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

I wouldn’t ask about any specific shafts, be open to whatever the fitter goes with

Unless you have budget constraints and want a shaft under a certain cost.  

[RickyBobby_PR]

Just now, cnosil said:

Unless you have budget constraints and want a shaft under a certain cost.  

Yeah, but in that case you should be letting the fitter know budget constraints upfront anyways

[aguybadatgolf]

Fitter was great and knew his stuff. He steered me into a AI Smoke Max in 9.5 degrees. Project X Denali 6.0 70 gram shaft. Said I can get the head or shaft switched free of charge for 30 days if it’s not working out.