Terra Forza Golf Shafts - 2024 Forum Review

[TJ Hall]

8 hours ago, ChiefMikeOfficer said:

<Putting this up front so it's not misunderstood - this is a fun post about the adventure of today. This is not about the fitting. I still need to put things together for that and will post separately, probably tomorrow at this point>

Travel experience: 2/10. Would not recommend. At least not on a day like today. 

To be clear, on a nice day, it's a nice, fairly easy drive. It was basically a straight-shot down US-18 (often just 1 lane each direction, sometimes 2) -- but of course, sticking on 18 would have added like an hour to the trip vs. veering off at times. I followed some of Google's "faster" shortcuts, which ended up being not faster at all because the "city sounding" roads (like "take 120th St to bypass Postville") were actually loose gravel roads -- Google Maps thought they were 55mph, but I was skidding out a bit at 35-40 (pretty confident I would've had trouble staying on the road at 55, even on the earlier dry one). Pretty sure a couple of these added time, and I avoided them on the way home. 

Then...the weather. Woof. Mild on the way, but then about 5 miles out from the destination:

Luckily Mark's fitting location had a solid indoor setup (and honestly, I prefer indoor because it removes range balls from the equation - technically that wasn't relevant for this fitting, but still nice to see a consistent ball on the sim). Chatted for a bit, warmed up, knocked out the fitting, and then I got out of there because worse stuff was incoming. Worse stuff was also on the way home. Almost felt like storm chasing...only by accident, and I don't know how to do that safely. 

Pulled out my phone when things seemed really rough, and, TORNADO WARNING -- technically the warning was back where we did the fitting (hope everyone stayed safe), and after a refresh, I was only in a Watch: 

Stopped at a gas station to wait it out a bit -- the Wisconsin in me struggled with the fact that it was a Kwik Star rather than Kwik Trip, but I got over it. But...where's my wallet? I took it out during the fitting and put it on top of my bag, forgot to pick it up at the end.

Texted Mark - no wallet in sight. Dug through the bag and car as much as I could (but again, Tornado Watch), not finding it anywhere. Luckily I keep a credit card in the car. Continued on. This storm was moving roughly the same speed as the car, which made it a rough last couple hours (kept speeding up, getting into it, needing to slow down for visibility, getting out, speeding up, getting back in...there was another storm like 20-30 minutes behind it, so waiting it out wasn't much of an option). 

But, positives: got home before kids' bedtime (which was not expected, even with fair weather); emptied the bag and found the wallet down by the grips  (as much as I knocked the Stitch bag in last year's test, they had a feature that would've helped me find it immediately when looking at the gas station - with Vessel I had to pull everything out); got to spend some QT with the new ride, which I just picked up on Friday, and even avoided the hail! (that became a legitimate concern at one point). Oh, and the fitting -- that was also a positive, coming soon. 

 

 

 

 

Sounds like quite an adventure…and glad you found the wallet!

[TJ Hall]

7 hours ago, ChiefMikeOfficer said:

Alright, now on to the real fitting experience. First, a big thanks to @GolfSpy_BNG for coordinating – I wasn’t even going to sign up for this one until I saw that he was getting the equipment and was much closer than the official fitting locations (closest was ~8 hours, or a flight) – even at 5 hours, it made for a long day, but I feel like MGS and the forum have done a lot of good things for me, and traveling for a day for a test is one way to reciprocate (yes yes, I do get the shaft in the end, which is always a great perk, but a good reminder to those that want to test: don’t expect it to be an easy score of an item).

Also thanks to Algona Golf Ranch for allowing us to use the space. Mark described it perfectly when giving me directions: it’s off the beaten path, but an impressive setup. It’s a really cool little space on one of those gravel roads. I only got to explore a small part of it, but it seems super cool (see weather post – would have liked to use the outdoor facilities or stick around to do a few more things, but it was best to hightail it out of there).

My best, short description of the fitting: it was a long way to go for an 8-swing fitting, but I think they may be onto something. If they can make the process more accessible and extend the shaft offerings further, it might even be groundbreaking.

When I heard about this test opportunity, I knew nothing about Terra Forza (I’m a bit of a club/shaft junkie too – have played around with some of the smaller brands, but I guess I’m not deep enough into things to know this group). The fitting process seemed intriguing, but also fishy – ground forces determine what shaft you need, but also it’s one of these 5 shafts? I poked around their site, and made a guess – if I were to buy an “off the rack” shaft from Terra Forza based on specs, I decided I’d likely go with the Red, but I’d consider the Yellow. That just seems the logical choice, just like some of the other shafts on the market – like for my Graphite Design, I can review the specs and make a reasonable decision on which Tour AD model+weight+flex I should choose. The whole point of a fitting is to eliminate those questions and get to the best of the lot, right?

Because of weather, we ended up indoors, in this space:

 

 I actually like indoor fittings because I can use my own balls. Of course, I forgot to stock my bag with the typical gamer and only had me “spring scraps”, which were still new and competitive balls (see my “how long do you use a ball?” responses?) – once we started with the fitting process, I used a TP5x for every shot (warmed up with that plus a Vice Pro Plus). For other fittings, the ball is a factor; for this one, unless they actually use the “after” stats in the final decision, it’s not a factor, but it’s nice to see real numbers and remove potential inconsistencies. I also used the Qi10 LS - my current gamer that I've used for a total of 18 holes (in warmups, my fitted Stealth+ just didn't stand up to it).

Initial steps of the fitting saw a few challenges. The fitting system was having trouble picking up the ball – after some troubleshooting, we found it’s because the overhead lighting on the sim was too bright (or at least that’s what it seemed). Then, once we adjusted for lighting, the first swing got a “whoa, that’s not what I expected” response (not sure if it was the machine that misfired or if I just had a bigtime old-man swing – no offense to the older guys ). I also had some fun struggles with placing the ball correctly (seriously, try establishing your foot position, then walk up and put the tee in the right place – it’s surprisingly hard). But, the rest of it went well, and we got to some potential outcomes.

From the output, it looks like it’s between the Yellow+ (Yellow, but tipped an inch) and the Red – so, I was pretty close, but also didn’t know that Yellow+ was an option. Even if I did, not sure I would’ve landed there on my own – a few years back I grabbed a TS (between S and X) instead of an X, and kinda regretted it (but maybe the shaft itself just didn’t work for me – the TS certainly didn’t). But, Mark is sending the data off to Terra Forza and they are going to make the final call. A couple shots from the analysis (don’t know what any of these numbers mean, but the pictures seem…straightforward? Weight is forward, toe of back foot, heel of front foot?):

 

Then, the fun part – we get to try them. Mark had all of the options (note I did not try the Green – we threw that one out). We started with the Yellow+. First swing impression…it feels lighter than my typical gamer. Or maybe softer. Or maybe some combination. And what do I do with lighter/softer shafts? I pick up a hooker. And that’s exactly what showed on the screen. Because of the feel, I actually went back and adjusted the weights on the driver toward the toe – it helped, but still going left.

Next we went with the Yellow – same shaft, but not tipped. Hooks.

Then Red. First one, Hook? We’ll call it a Draw, just a bit left of target.

But…there was something very notable. For one, Mark mentioned this sim tends to exaggerate the left-spin. But also, there was an odd level of consistency. The dispersion was tight. Now I’m not going to pretend my warmup session had all pure shots (or any session of mine, for that matter), so I made a couple adjustments myself – first the weight toward the toe, then also weakened my grip a bit. Which led to…Bombs. The end of the Red set and the following Yellow+ (decided to try it again after hitting the Red so well) were both spectacular. Spin is comparable to my initial set with my gamer. Distance is also comparable, maybe squeaking a few extra yards out of the Terra Forza (unfortunately didn’t take pics of the before numbers…).

This is gonna be confusing, but Red is TF Yellow+ set 1, Cyan is TF Yellow+ set 2 (after all adjustments), Yellow is TF Yellow, and Blue is TF Red.

 

The Cyan set is ridiculous – “spin is a little high” is the feedback I’d get from my old GolfTEC coach (he wants 2200-2300), but come on… even my current gamer is in the same spin territory.

 

I'm very interested to see what the final shaft choice is, and am excited to bring it onto the course. I'm not sold yet...but it seems like there's something good here, and hopefully it helps my game this year. 

Fitting seemed to be a good experience, at least better than the travel.  Looking forward to seeing what shaft you end up with and how it performs on the course!

[MrBandit]

9 hours ago, ChiefMikeOfficer said:

Alright, now on to the real fitting experience. First, a big thanks to @GolfSpy_BNG for coordinating – I wasn’t even going to sign up for this one until I saw that he was getting the equipment and was much closer than the official fitting locations (closest was ~8 hours, or a flight) – even at 5 hours, it made for a long day, but I feel like MGS and the forum have done a lot of good things for me, and traveling for a day for a test is one way to reciprocate (yes yes, I do get the shaft in the end, which is always a great perk, but a good reminder to those that want to test: don’t expect it to be an easy score of an item).

Also thanks to Algona Golf Ranch for allowing us to use the space. Mark described it perfectly when giving me directions: it’s off the beaten path, but an impressive setup. It’s a really cool little space on one of those gravel roads. I only got to explore a small part of it, but it seems super cool (see weather post – would have liked to use the outdoor facilities or stick around to do a few more things, but it was best to hightail it out of there).

My best, short description of the fitting: it was a long way to go for an 8-swing fitting, but I think they may be onto something. If they can make the process more accessible and extend the shaft offerings further, it might even be groundbreaking.

When I heard about this test opportunity, I knew nothing about Terra Forza (I’m a bit of a club/shaft junkie too – have played around with some of the smaller brands, but I guess I’m not deep enough into things to know this group). The fitting process seemed intriguing, but also fishy – ground forces determine what shaft you need, but also it’s one of these 5 shafts? I poked around their site, and made a guess – if I were to buy an “off the rack” shaft from Terra Forza based on specs, I decided I’d likely go with the Red, but I’d consider the Yellow. That just seems the logical choice, just like some of the other shafts on the market – like for my Graphite Design, I can review the specs and make a reasonable decision on which Tour AD model+weight+flex I should choose. The whole point of a fitting is to eliminate those questions and get to the best of the lot, right?

Because of weather, we ended up indoors, in this space:

 

 I actually like indoor fittings because I can use my own balls. Of course, I forgot to stock my bag with the typical gamer and only had me “spring scraps”, which were still new and competitive balls (see my “how long do you use a ball?” responses?) – once we started with the fitting process, I used a TP5x for every shot (warmed up with that plus a Vice Pro Plus). For other fittings, the ball is a factor; for this one, unless they actually use the “after” stats in the final decision, it’s not a factor, but it’s nice to see real numbers and remove potential inconsistencies. I also used the Qi10 LS - my current gamer that I've used for a total of 18 holes (in warmups, my fitted Stealth+ just didn't stand up to it).

Initial steps of the fitting saw a few challenges. The fitting system was having trouble picking up the ball – after some troubleshooting, we found it’s because the overhead lighting on the sim was too bright (or at least that’s what it seemed). Then, once we adjusted for lighting, the first swing got a “whoa, that’s not what I expected” response (not sure if it was the machine that misfired or if I just had a bigtime old-man swing – no offense to the older guys ). I also had some fun struggles with placing the ball correctly (seriously, try establishing your foot position, then walk up and put the tee in the right place – it’s surprisingly hard). But, the rest of it went well, and we got to some potential outcomes.

From the output, it looks like it’s between the Yellow+ (Yellow, but tipped an inch) and the Red – so, I was pretty close, but also didn’t know that Yellow+ was an option. Even if I did, not sure I would’ve landed there on my own – a few years back I grabbed a TS (between S and X) instead of an X, and kinda regretted it (but maybe the shaft itself just didn’t work for me – the TS certainly didn’t). But, Mark is sending the data off to Terra Forza and they are going to make the final call. A couple shots from the analysis (don’t know what any of these numbers mean, but the pictures seem…straightforward? Weight is forward, toe of back foot, heel of front foot?):

 

Then, the fun part – we get to try them. Mark had all of the options (note I did not try the Green – we threw that one out). We started with the Yellow+. First swing impression…it feels lighter than my typical gamer. Or maybe softer. Or maybe some combination. And what do I do with lighter/softer shafts? I pick up a hooker. And that’s exactly what showed on the screen. Because of the feel, I actually went back and adjusted the weights on the driver toward the toe – it helped, but still going left.

Next we went with the Yellow – same shaft, but not tipped. Hooks.

Then Red. First one, Hook? We’ll call it a Draw, just a bit left of target.

But…there was something very notable. For one, Mark mentioned this sim tends to exaggerate the left-spin. But also, there was an odd level of consistency. The dispersion was tight. Now I’m not going to pretend my warmup session had all pure shots (or any session of mine, for that matter), so I made a couple adjustments myself – first the weight toward the toe, then also weakened my grip a bit. Which led to…Bombs. The end of the Red set and the following Yellow+ (decided to try it again after hitting the Red so well) were both spectacular. Spin is comparable to my initial set with my gamer. Distance is also comparable, maybe squeaking a few extra yards out of the Terra Forza (unfortunately didn’t take pics of the before numbers…).

This is gonna be confusing, but Red is TF Yellow+ set 1, Cyan is TF Yellow+ set 2 (after all adjustments), Yellow is TF Yellow, and Blue is TF Red.

 

The Cyan set is ridiculous – “spin is a little high” is the feedback I’d get from my old GolfTEC coach (he wants 2200-2300), but come on… even my current gamer is in the same spin territory.

 

I'm very interested to see what the final shaft choice is, and am excited to bring it onto the course. I'm not sold yet...but it seems like there's something good here, and hopefully it helps my game this year. 

Looks Like the TF Yellow+ was money.. Ball speed up by 5mphs compare to the other stats. Club Speed, Carry/Total. all look like a step up.
I agree the fact that there was no specs to compare made it skeptical but this is by designed, so you don't automatically assume you belong on a Red (expecting that is like X-Stiff shaft).

I wish I had to those numbers . Yikes.., impressive.

Looking forward to getting mine soon.. hopefully in the next few days. I like to take to the course for a test drive before putting into Tournament play on Sunday.

 

[MrBandit]

TF shaft is out for delivery hope it gets here before the evening I can get out to the Range and give it a test drive before putting in play on Sunday. Saturday is a wash here, down pours expected all day.

 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

I can’t wait for you guys to start getting these shafts. Such a neat concept and even just the ability to see how you use the ground and shift your weight with the plates and app was awesome to see. Tempting to take one of the fitting shafts out for a run tomorrow just to see how it goes lol

[MrBandit]

Shaft has arrived. Unfortunately  range is closed and it's going to rain tomorrow.. so it will have to tested out in play on Sunday.

[tdc1]

27 minutes ago, MrBandit said:

Shaft has arrived. Unfortunately  range is closed and it's going to rain tomorrow.. so it will have to tested out in play on Sunday.

Sweet!  White spec?

[MrBandit]

20 minutes ago, tdc1 said:

Sweet!  White spec?

White Shaft, strong tip, same length as my current shaft, CP2 Standard Grip. TM Sleeve.

Edited April 20 by MrBandit

[tdc1]

Finally got the Trackman data from my fitting session last week.  The number that jumped out the most to me was the angle of attack.  Over all the swings with my stock driver shaft and the two Terra Forza shafts, my AoA averaged just over +1.1° (had a one of -0.3° and two at -0.7°).  In my head, I'm swinging more up than that.  Hmmm. 

The fitter is putting me into the Orange shaft -- the one that had the tightest dispersion for me but not the longest distance.

I also got a cryptic notice from UPS that a package is coming sometime next week.  I'm assuming it is the TF shaft since all our other recent purchases/packages are accounted for.

Looking forward to giving it a go on the indoor sim at my course (Uneekor) and the outdoor monitor (Trackman) at a range down the road before going to the course with it (I'm already behind in skins totals for the year with my buddies and can't afford to fall farther behind).

[MrBandit]

Took the shaft out of the course today. Even though the course was soaked from all the rain yesterday, so there was zero roll it was hit and stop.

I used the SC300i Launch Monitor and the driving range before the round just to get some base numbers from this shaft. I will post the numbers later, when I get In back to the computer and I can download the Data. 

There was a definite increase in ball speed, carry and total yards from my current shaft to the TF White.
4/19 - carry/total yds Avg: 230.1/248.9 -  Ball Speed Avg:142.0 mph - Swing Speed Avg: 95.8
4/20 - carry/total yds Avg: 239.5/258.1 -  Ball Speed Avg: 144.4 mph - Swing Speed Avg: 97.1

Am going to try to hit the range tomorrow and get some more numbers with my current shaft at least 10 swings and 10 with the TF White. With the SC300i Launch Monitor and see if they stay consistent.

This are the numbers from my Fujikura Speeder NX TCS 50 Original Shaft:

This are the numbers from my Terra Forza White Shaft:

Edited April 22 by MrBandit

[MrBandit]

Weather is not looking good this weekend again. Beautiful during the week and then on the weekend Thunderstorms , flooding OH MY!  Really interfering with playing golf. And no I don't play in the rain by choice. I don't own rain gear or cart covers, or anything like that.  That would imply that I approved in playing in horrible weather.  I like golf, I don't love golf that way.  

Will see if I can get out on Thursday and play an afternoon round.  I like to see how the shaft performance on my home course while its fairly dry.
 

[MrBandit]

Today Range session:
Got loose with the Orange whip trainer just to make sure I was getting in good swings.

Capture the Data using the SC300i unit.

Started with my current game shaft Fujikura NX TCS 50.
Carry/Total/Swing Speed/Ball Speed were solid for my swing.And they were was pretty consistent.


After this took a breather, swapped out the shaft to the Terra Forza White.
Carry/Total/Swing Speed/Ball Speed there was a solid improvement on all of the numbers, which is consistent with my initial session after the fitting.


One thing I have notice and I just need to adjust my setup is that because the swing weight is so different from my gamer (D8) to the Terra Forza (D5) There is more of a left straight pull / draw to the ball flight vs my straight / baby cut that am accustomed of playing.

The shaft feels like I can still give it a harder swing and it doesn't feel like am going to lose the drive. 
Next time I get on the course that its not raining, I be interested to see how its coming along as I continue to get more comfortable with the shaft.



 

Edited April 25 by MrBandit

[ChiefMikeOfficer]

Just got word that my Yellow+ shaft should be showing up tomorrow! I'll see if I can get out to the range or a sim this weekend to start the comparisons. 

[tdc1]

1 hour ago, ChiefMikeOfficer said:

Just got word that my Yellow+ shaft should be showing up tomorrow! I'll see if I can get out to the range or a sim this weekend to start the comparisons. 

I'm just sittin' here trying not to be too jealous!

[ChiefMikeOfficer]

Well, the Yellow+ arrived yesterday. For some reason, UPS dropped it short of our covered porch (first time ever ) and the box got rained on pretty heavily - not relevant to the test because the shaft was unaffected, but just feel like complaining about that

First impression: honestly not a whole lot to say. It's a nice looking shaft - has the look of carbon fiber toward the handle, black the rest of the way, not overly flashy (but that's ok - I actually haven't done well with the cooler-looking shafts). Looking forward to putting it into play.

Something I appreciate about them already: I felt like a pain about grip requests, but they accommodated. I offered to take a no-grip shaft and just put one on myself, because I have a stockpile of grips at home - basically said if they sent it with certain grips on it, I'd just replace it right away anyway. And, instead of doing no-grip, they sent it with a Lamkin that was on my shortlist of grips I wanted. Another fun thing: the shaft was sent from Tour Proven Golf, which looks like it's owned by Steven Bowditch - I used to follow him in his Tour days, and if it would have involved face time, kinda wish I could've made it down to Texas for the fitting (no offense @GolfSpy_BNG - you did great). 

 

Now, for the test... Weather is garbage here right now, so can't make it out to the course. But, there's a new place about a mile from our office that has a trackman setup at $39/hr -- we're planning to hit that sometime next week, which will help establish some baselines and start the comparisons. 

Edited April 28 by ChiefMikeOfficer

[tdc1]

My orange shaft Terra Forza arrived late yesterday just in time for 2-3 days of rain.  Imagine a shaft just like the one @ChiefMikeOfficer described only with Terra Forza in orange.  It is identical in length to my Ping Alta CB 55 (44 1/4" butt end of grip to tip of sleeve) and has the same Golf Pride grip.  Hoping to be able to get in a simulator today or tomorrow to start gathering data!

 

[MrBandit]

11 hours ago, ChiefMikeOfficer said:

Well, the Yellow+ arrived yesterday. For some reason, UPS dropped it short of our covered porch (first time ever ) and the box got rained on pretty heavily - not relevant to the test because the shaft was unaffected, but just feel like complaining about that

First impression: honestly not a whole lot to say. It's a nice looking shaft - has the look of carbon fiber toward the handle, black the rest of the way, not overly flashy (but that's ok - I actually haven't done well with the cooler-looking shafts). Looking forward to putting it into play.

Something I appreciate about them already: I felt like a pain about grip requests, but they accommodated. I offered to take a no-grip shaft and just put one on myself, because I have a stockpile of grips at home - basically said if they sent it with certain grips on it, I'd just replace it right away anyway. And, instead of doing no-grip, they sent it with a Lamkin that was on my shortlist of grips I wanted. Another fun thing: the shaft was sent from Tour Proven Golf, which looks like it's owned by Steven Bowditch - I used to follow him in his Tour days, and if it would have involved face time, kinda wish I could've made it down to Texas for the fitting (no offense @GolfSpy_BNG - you did great). 

 

Now, for the test... Weather is garbage here right now, so can't make it out to the course. But, there's a new place about a mile from our office that has a trackman setup at $39/hr -- we're planning to hit that sometime next week, which will help establish some baselines and start the comparisons. 

I met Steven while at the Tour Proven facility. He was getting everything ready since they have only been open for 6months. 

Very nice guy.

Glad you finally got the shaft. I hear you about the weather. Its pouring here for the past few days so its been hard to get out to the course and play it. Hopefully the weather holds up this weekend and i can give it another go at the course.

[MrBandit]

1 hour ago, tdc1 said:

My orange shaft Terra Forza arrived late yesterday just in time for 2-3 days of rain.  Imagine a shaft just like the one @ChiefMikeOfficer described only with Terra Forza in orange.  It is identical in length to my Ping Alta CB 55 (44 1/4" butt end of grip to tip of sleeve) and has the same Golf Pride grip.  Hoping to be able to get in a simulator today or tomorrow to start gathering data!

 

Glad you finally got your shaft. Weather has been ridiculously with all this rain.

Of course its Monday-Friday whit beautiful weather.  Weekend gets here down pour.

[tdc1]

Yesterday I was able to take my Terra Forza Orange shaft to my home course to test it on the simulator.  Below is a chart showing data from my fitting a couple of weeks and yesterday's testing.

I was very unsatisfied with yesterday's session but thought I should share it here anyway.  I think the differences in Club Speed and Spin Rate are attributable to the ways Trackman and Uneekor measure them.  What is concerning is the difference in Carry/Total between the two sessions.  The TF Orange differences, if accurate, are particularly troubling.  I'm hoping the differences are just the result of a "bad" day on my part. 

Tomorrow will be my first day out on the course with the TF Orange.  The course I'll be playing has 13 legitimate driver holes (vs. 6-7 on my home course) but I'm sure the 1.5+" of rain we've had the past two days may cut back a bit on roll.  Also, I'll be using my Shot Scope V5 to gather some data.

Wish me luck!

[MrBandit]

13 hours ago, tdc1 said:

Yesterday I was able to take my Terra Forza Orange shaft to my home course to test it on the simulator.  Below is a chart showing data from my fitting a couple of weeks and yesterday's testing.

I was very unsatisfied with yesterday's session but thought I should share it here anyway.  I think the differences in Club Speed and Spin Rate are attributable to the ways Trackman and Uneekor measure them.  What is concerning is the difference in Carry/Total between the two sessions.  The TF Orange differences, if accurate, are particularly troubling.  I'm hoping the differences are just the result of a "bad" day on my part. 

Tomorrow will be my first day out on the course with the TF Orange.  The course I'll be playing has 13 legitimate driver holes (vs. 6-7 on my home course) but I'm sure the 1.5+" of rain we've had the past two days may cut back a bit on roll.  Also, I'll be using my Shot Scope V5 to gather some data.

Wish me luck!

@tdc1 I would say the big thing on the numbers is the spin rate is higher now then when you did the testing which will lower your carry distance.
I seen a difference session to session using my SC300i good and bad.  I have played with it on the course only twice and both times the course has been soaked. Only thing I know for sure I was keeping to ball on the course and it felt I could give it another go.

I'm going to head to the PGSST this week and do another testing with their Trackman and compare the numbers with my SC300i and see how much of a difference there is. 
Hopefully you can get a few more session in to get some better numbers and see where you are at. Some days the swing is there and some days not so much.
 

[tdc1]

Took the TF Orange out on the course today.  The Weather Channel lied -- it was no where near 64° and 8-10mph "breezes", more like 50° and steady 15-20 winds.

Anyhow, the results were mixed.  The plus side was 9/13 FIR with the driver -- 3 missed left (by 5-8 yards) and 1 missed right (by 2').  The down side was that each swing with the driver felt like a struggle, like my normal tempo wouldn't get the club head back to the ball in time -- maybe because of the lack of counterbalance compared to my Ping Alta?  The needs-more-analysis side are (1) average drive at 196.6 total:  shortest = 174; longest = 234; Front 9 avg. = 175.5; Back 9 avg. = 210.6), and (2) 12/13 driver shots were draws/hooks (definitely not my normal shot).

It will be a week or so before I can get back to this course to make a comparison but I'll keep the TF shaft in play at my home course the next few outings to see how it goes.

[ChiefMikeOfficer]

First impression posted in the Main Test Post! Waited until tonight because I wanted to catch all parts of what I'm considering a "3 Part 1st Impression" (fitting, the shaft itself, and an initial range/sim session). The initial session was...interesting, to say the least. It performed well, but very different from my typical performance -- we're talking total distance like 305 with tight dispersion and pretty close to target...but low, shorter carry, and way more roll than I'm used to (with ultra-low spin). Had some that were more what I expected, but I'm interested to see how it stands up on the course -- e.g. our typical league course this early in the season needs more carry; on our now-kinda-annual Sand Valley trip, thing would be $$$ (the 50yds of roll on the Trackman would probably translate to 70+ there). 

So, what's next? Playing Saturday afternoon with a buddy and the kids (with a 7yo and 5yo joining, fully expecting only 9 holes and some distractions, but should be able to get an on-course impression). Then my first league match is Tuesday evening. I'm also planning to do some more Trackman / similar sessions to get some data comparisons against my current gamer and a couple past gamers (from prior fittings) -- hoping the first one of those will be next week as well. 

[tdc1]

So, yeah, yesterday’s outing with the TF Orange was no good — 1 of 4 fairways hit.  Not a great day all around for me but driver still feels like a struggle.  I don’t  know of any place close to get swing weight checked to compare to my Alta CB.  I'm toying with the idea of temporarily adding some lead tape to the top end of the grip to see if that would make any difference.  I don’t know if Colin Hamilton is following this thread but I’d be interested in his thoughts on the idea.

[ChiefMikeOfficer]

First time on course, and this thing is... Legit. Played 11 holes (as noted before, 7yo and 5yo in the group), hit drivers where I usually don't too, so that meant 9 driver holes (hit two balls off of three of them - for the test, not provisionals). 

First driver on the range was trash - straight duck hook, made me nervous. But it turned around. Mishit off the first tee was in play and still got out there. 2nd hole was mashed - hole is 365 downhill, and is often downwind like it was today, so luck is a factor (specific landing spot can influence rollout), but I was further than I've ever been, by about 15yds. Stock drives were great; mishits were very in play; lost a couple to the right, but one was an attempted cut (and I suck at cutting - can't blame that one on the shaft). A few were deep. Either way, those knuckleballs from the sim session didn't really show up (maybe one) - it performed very well. 

The challenge with testing a shaft -- is it the shaft or the swing?? I'm willing to bet the Tour AD would've worked well today too, but considering the bad ones were very in play and the places some of the good ones ended up, I have to think there's something working here. 

Edited yesterday at 03:53 AM by ChiefMikeOfficer

[tdc1]

The data says one thing, and the "feels" and the eye test say something else.  Quick 9-holes today but only hit the TF Orange 3 times.  Data (using Shot Scope V5) says: 3/3 fairways hit; 211-214-229 yds. for a 218 yd. average.  "Feels" and eye test say: each swing feels like a struggle, and ball flight is loooow with pronounced but fairly predictable right-to-left flight.

Playing a course tomorrow that allows for up to 13 driver shots.  Played this course about a week ago with the TF Orange so it will be interesting to see the difference, if any.

[MrBandit]

Played a tournament today at Squaw Valley - Lakes Course. But of course this is the 3rd round I have played with the new shaft and every time there has been a down pour the night before. So the course is soak yet again. BUT with that been said. I drove the ball the best I have with this shaft. I missed 2 fairways. One was a split fairway that I hit into the split (had a great second shot into the green from the fairway bunker) and then on 16th, it was a push right my only bad swing of the day. I was getting tired by now.


I felt like I still could swing faster and not lose the fairway. I was not worried about total distance as the ball was landing and stopping and inch or 2 away.  The swings felt powerful every swing, confidence was growing hole my hole.

I went to the range yesterday and look at the numbers and they have been still pretty consistent, so I was feeling good coming into to day round.

I'm hoping to play it sometime soon when the course is not soaking wet.