Foreward Golf Remote Fitting Unofficial Review

[Josh Parker]

The day has arrived, and that 50lb case of clubs has shown up to the house. 

Of course, it's on a day that our course is closed along with the range!  Good thing I put up the net for the Mevo+ testing.  

First Impressions:

All of the clubs are well numbered and colored with everything but the grips blacked out.  This prevents you from knowing what weight, flex, etc which is great.  

The negatives upon my initial opening of the box is the lack of instruction.  There isn't ANY!  I had to call them and get the instructions.  I feel this is a huge miss on their part.  I really think they need to put a laminated sheet in the box along with the foot spray.  Maybe in a bag together... 

The clubs weren't clean and I could see the previous persons strikes.  Not a huge deal, but for the price I paid for shipping, I was looking for a little more professionalism. 

Ok, overall, not a great first impression but I don't know what I fully expected either.  The process itself seems really cool and I'm hoping the experience overall is positive. 

I'm about to go run through the fitting outside and will come back and write more on the process and add some photos. 

 

[Josh Parker]

The Process:

Clubs are numbered and color coded.  What does it mean...... no one knows!  Ha  The idea behind this is so that you don't know what is what and it is supposed to keep the bias out of the testing.

I guess some kits come with the following colors:

White

Black

Pink

Blue

Purple

Green

Orange

Red

Again, I am not sure why some kits don't come with all of them, but my lefty kit came with Black thru Orange.  

You will need to plan a little time to input each club into your launch monitor by club color/number.  In my case, I needed to input 18 different clubs.  From this point, it's time to go to the range/net.  The instructions were to hit 3 golf balls for each club.  (if you mishit one, hit another)  Once you have hit the "color" you set them down and take a photo of the 3 clubfaces together to send off along with the data.  You move down the list until you have completed all of the shots.  

This process is relatively simple and makes sense.  They do ask that you notate if something feels better or if something just feels way off.  

My plan with this process is to utilize my net today and then I will be heading to the range in the morning to hit off the mats there to also see the ball flight.  I will probably complete this process 3 times and send off the data.  My mat at the house is newer and still pretty firm with a little give.  The mat options at the range are super fluffy and old turf that feels like hitting off hard pan.  I am really hoping that by notating everything well and giving them all three scenarios that they will be able to give me a solid "prescription" for clubs.  

 

[Josh Parker]

Photo dump on the first round into the net. 

[downlowkey]

Am I correct that Foreward Golf emphasizes the importance of their different sole design options to help promote “tiger strikes”? If so, it seems like fitting on the turf conditions you typically encounter would be pretty crucial. Did they offer recommendation about fitting on turf -vs- mat?

If they’re still promoting the “tiger strike” notion, (1) pink has that look, but (3) red is super tight heel-to-toe. What do you think about the TS theory?

[Josh Parker]

5 minutes ago, downlowkey said:

Am I correct that Foreward Golf emphasizes the importance of their different sole design options to help promote “tiger strikes”? If so, it seems like fitting on the turf conditions you typically encounter would be pretty crucial. Did they offer recommendation about fitting on turf -vs- mat?

If they’re still promoting the “tiger strike” notion, (1) pink has that look, but (3) red is super tight heel-to-toe. What do you think about the TS theory?

So I talked to them about that.  They are fine off turf if it's tightly kept.  My mat at the house is somewhat close to conditions during winter/spring.  The old mat at the range is like summer conditions and like hitting off concrete so I am doing a round of testing off there as well. 

I want consistency over anything no matter what specs they are. That's what I like about the process so far without being able to see any specs.  I do have some wants from my clubs as far as ball flight and colors but other than that it's performance. 

As for the TS theory.... it makes sense.  It's all about the same strike, same outcome time after time.  

[CoxBox23]

Thoroughly enjoyed my process with this fitting. I already had an idea on how to do it because I’d watched a few of their live fittings from instagram. I had to do the test 3 times because I goofed the first two times and finally figured it out by the third time, I will say the nicer quality the launch monitor the better the entire process goes. The clubs coming chalky is really on whoever had the case prior to yourself because you’ll likely be shipping them direct to the next person on the list when it comes time to send them off. They bring the clubs back after a certain number of fittings to clean them up and check the swing weight/lie/other things. I just got my irons from my prescription 2 weeks ago and could not be more happy. Chad is a freaking wizard for creating such an awesome product/process and Dan is so chill to work with throughout the entire process. Hope you get dialed in and enjoy your prescription as much as I am enjoying mine 

[Josh Parker]

6 minutes ago, CoxBox23 said:

Thoroughly enjoyed my process with this fitting. I already had an idea on how to do it because I’d watched a few of their live fittings from instagram. I had to do the test 3 times because I goofed the first two times and finally figured it out by the third time, I will say the nicer quality the launch monitor the better the entire process goes. The clubs coming chalky is really on whoever had the case prior to yourself because you’ll likely be shipping them direct to the next person on the list when it comes time to send them off. They bring the clubs back after a certain number of fittings to clean them up and check the swing weight/lie/other things. I just got my irons from my prescription 2 weeks ago and could not be more happy. Chad is a freaking wizard for creating such an awesome product/process and Dan is so chill to work with throughout the entire process. Hope you get dialed in and enjoy your prescription as much as I am enjoying mine 

Absolutely.  I know some of it is out of their control, but it would be nice to get a set of instructions in the box.  I wrote one up that I may leave in there just on the order.  I'll check with Dan prior of course.  

The process and thought behind the madness is definitely cool and makes so much sense.  The clubs themselves are really nice and the shape and size are great!  

I'm taking them out to the range tomorrow and hitting off the old mats in order to really try to dial in the "Tiger Strike" because it's like hitting off concrete.  

[sirchunksalot]

This seems to be a really cool concept and the mystery of not knowing the specs on these clubs is so cool. This will be fun to follow along with and thanks for sharing your experience with us Josh!

[Josh Parker]

19 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

This seems to be a really cool concept and the mystery of not knowing the specs on these clubs is so cool. This will be fun to follow along with and thanks for sharing your experience with us Josh!

So far it's been pretty cool to dig into numbers. I'll have to post some numbers based on a few of the better strikes. 

[Josh Parker]

This is based off of Pink 1.  I am looking forward to seeing what actual ballflight looks like tomorrow and seeing how these clubs compare between the two scenarios.  

I like the height I got out of the first 2 and the 3rd was the toe hit.  I know on my current clubs that I normally sit around that 85mph on club speed and think some of the speed is hitting into the net.  We will see tomorrow. 

[Rob Person]

Interesting concept! A self fitting with the added unbiased company diagnostic approach. 

Will you be swapping heads and shafts that don't color coordinate for personal interests?

[Josh Parker]

16 minutes ago, Rob Person said:

Interesting concept! A self fitting with the added unbiased company diagnostic approach. 

Will you be swapping heads and shafts that don't color coordinate for personal interests?

Once you send all the photos and data back to Foreward, they send you a "prescription" of what bounce, shaft, loft and lie they suggest.  Then you can have them build the clubs or build them yourself if you so choose. 

[CoxBox23]

1 hour ago, Josh Parker said:

This is based off of Pink 1.  I am looking forward to seeing what actual ballflight looks like tomorrow and seeing how these clubs compare between the two scenarios.  

I like the height I got out of the first 2 and the 3rd was the toe hit.  I know on my current clubs that I normally sit around that 85mph on club speed and think some of the speed is hitting into the net.  We will see tomorrow. 

I hope your monitor also picks up club data semi accurate as well as ball side spin. That was my first two failed attempts was poor club data (face closure/path mainly). I tried on a garmin r10 twice but just wasn’t happy with the club data and too many misread spins (low spin readings and nuked knuckleballs). Rented out a bay on a trackman and knocked it all out my third attempt. I will say my prescription has me hitting ball heights I never in a million years would have guessed I could touch. I told my buddy I could touch the moon with my new irons after my first time on the range lol. 

[Josh Parker]

Just now, CoxBox23 said:

I hope your monitor also picks up club data semi accurate as well as ball side spin. That was my first two failed attempts was poor club data (face closure/path mainly). I tried on a garmin r10 twice but just wasn’t happy with the club data and too many misread spins (low spin readings and nuked knuckleballs). Rented out a bay on a trackman and knocked it all out my third attempt. I will say my prescription has me hitting ball heights I never in a million years would have guessed I could touch. I told my buddy I could touch the moon with my new irons after my first time on the range lol. 

The mevo+ with pro package and face data give all of that info.  I just took a quick snapshot of the info.

[CoxBox23]

5 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

The mevo+ with pro package and face data give all of that info.  I just took a quick snapshot of the info.

Right on. I know Chad and his guys use the mevo+ when they are outdoors, just wanted to reiterate so someone doesn’t make the same mistake as me and have to keep doing the test multiple times over (it’s a pretty hefty test to have to keep repeating lol). I will say the more you hit the Foreward heads the more likely you’ll end up choosing them (they don’t even pressure you to buy their heads either). The best part is they’ll give you options in certain categories to help cut costs too, like if you fit into a graphite they’ll do their best to give you a steel equivalent (if possible) 

[MattWillGolf]

What a really cool concept. This is the first I’ve heard of this way to find one’s clubs. It will merit more research on my part. I will have to follow your journey Josh.

[Josh Parker]

13 minutes ago, CoxBox23 said:

Right on. I know Chad and his guys use the mevo+ when they are outdoors, just wanted to reiterate so someone doesn’t make the same mistake as me and have to keep doing the test multiple times over (it’s a pretty hefty test to have to keep repeating lol). I will say the more you hit the Foreward heads the more likely you’ll end up choosing them (they don’t even pressure you to buy their heads either). The best part is they’ll give you options in certain categories to help cut costs too, like if you fit into a graphite they’ll do their best to give you a steel equivalent (if possible) 

I already like the look and feel off the face with their clubs. They remind me of the Edels but actually have them in left handed. 

The mix of graphite and steel was another thing that I really liked about the system. 

1 minute ago, MattWillGolf said:

What a really cool concept. This is the first I’ve heard of this way to find one’s clubs. It will merit more research on my part. I will have to follow your journey Josh.

They have some videos on YouTube and Instagram. There was a thread a while back that discussed the brand some but no one at the time had done the fitting. 

[Josh Parker]

I was finally able to finish up my Range session for the remote fitting and I was surprised at a few things.  

There are definitely a few of the clubs that stuck out and one in particular was the longer club.  I was getting 60+ feet of height along with pretty accurate distance to my current clubs when using range balls. 

 

 

I am supposed to have a call with them sometime this afternoon on the "prescription" and see what set up they recommend.  

[Shrek74]

5 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

I was finally able to finish up my Range session for the remote fitting and I was surprised at a few things.  

There are definitely a few of the clubs that stuck out and one in particular was the longer club.  I was getting 60+ feet of height along with pretty accurate distance to my current clubs when using range balls. 

 

 

I am supposed to have a call with them sometime this afternoon on the "prescription" and see what set up they recommend.  

I'm assuming it's not an actual Lob Wedge.

I know you're not finished with the whole thing, but have you really noticed the differences between the various clubs provided? Are several really far apart and several really close, or have there been pretty good separation between them?

[Josh Parker]

2 minutes ago, Shrek74 said:

I'm assuming it's not an actual Lob Wedge.

I know you're not finished with the whole thing, but have you really noticed the differences between the various clubs provided? Are several really far apart and several really close, or have there been pretty good separation between them?

Haha!  No, my Mevo+ when I add a new club is set at Lob Wedge for some reason and I was trying to add a ton of these clubs and just kept it at that.  

So, I will say, 100% that there are some clubs that just don't work at all and some that are pretty dang close in feel and performance.  Whatever the blue setup was, it didn't agree with my swing.  Usually there was one club in each color that performed much better and then a couple of the colors where everything was really close.  

I was just going over some numbers and looking at the averages and can't wait to see what they say.  

I just emailed over some data from the Flightscope app and just waiting on it to show up so I can upload it here.

[Rob Person]

From live range testing , do you think there was a significant enough of an improvement due more to shafts, heads, or both? Will you be investing in a new set after this session and the pending results?

[Josh Parker]

14 minutes ago, Rob Person said:

From live range testing , do you think there was a significant enough of an improvement due more to shafts, heads, or both? Will you be investing in a new set after this session and the pending results?

I don't know yet. Once I have the call with them to go over what they suggest I may know. Everything is blacked out and with each color having 3 clubs, I'm sure it will be a combo of different colors based on numbers and results. 

The cool part of this so far is, you just hit 3 "blind" shots with each club and document the data and photos. 

I can say, based on averages for numbers, the following felt the best and produced similar numbers 

Black 3

Purple 2 

Purple 3

Green 1

Orange 1 

 

[Josh Parker]

Awesome call with those guys. Here are the specs they suggested. 

Steelfiber i110 reg

1/2" longer 

58.5 lie angle. 

Flatter than my current set up but said it will fix my pull fade. 

The length will help get the ball higher and the weight is the same I was given in my other fitting. 

Each color represents a Stat. Shaft weight, lie, length, etc and they look at all numbers in that group to determine what direction they head to get maximum results. 

 

[Hacker60521]

2 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

Awesome call with those guys. Here are the specs they suggested. 

Steelfiber i110 reg

1/2" longer 

58.5 lie angle. 

Flatter than my current set up but said it will fix my pull fade. 

The length will help get the ball higher and the weight is the same I was given in my other fitting. 

Each color represents a Stat. Shaft weight, lie, length, etc and they look at all numbers in that group to determine what direction they head to get maximum results. 

 

@Josh Parker so what do you think? What’s the next step?

[Josh Parker]

3 minutes ago, Hacker60521 said:

@Josh Parker so what do you think? What’s the next step?

They are a couple months out on clubheads so I'm going to put a deposit down. If I can get ball flight in that 60ft range with my same distance and a tighter dispersion I'm going to be incredibly happy!  

[Josh Parker]

I'm honestly impressed with the outcome they came up with. Having just done a fitting a year ago and with the current swing changes, alot of the numbers align with the old fitting. 

I like the theory behind the fitting and the fact that they hide all details so the bias is taken out. 

By the 3rd shot I was able to adjust most of the time to the shot. Having only 3 shots is perfect to stop any adjustments. 

Edited July 12 by Josh Parker

[Hacker60521]

21 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

They are a couple months out on clubheads so I'm going to put a deposit down. If I can get ball flight in that 60ft range with my same distance and a tighter dispersion I'm going to be incredibly happy!  

Please keep us posted! 

[Josh Parker]

2 minutes ago, Hacker60521 said:

Please keep us posted! 

Absolutely! I had really been thinking about graphite shafts with some elbow issues so I'm glad to see results.

[Shrek74]

2 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

Awesome call with those guys. Here are the specs they suggested. 

Steelfiber i110 reg

1/2" longer 

58.5 lie angle. 

Flatter than my current set up but said it will fix my pull fade. 

The length will help get the ball higher and the weight is the same I was given in my other fitting. 

Each color represents a Stat. Shaft weight, lie, length, etc and they look at all numbers in that group to determine what direction they head to get maximum results. 

 

So how do all the specs, flight, and distances with the final config match up to your gamers? What are their costs for the set and what is the cost of the fitting?

[CoxBox23]

11 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

Awesome call with those guys. Here are the specs they suggested. 

Steelfiber i110 reg

1/2" longer 

58.5 lie angle. 

Flatter than my current set up but said it will fix my pull fade. 

The length will help get the ball higher and the weight is the same I was given in my other fitting. 

Each color represents a Stat. Shaft weight, lie, length, etc and they look at all numbers in that group to determine what direction they head to get maximum results. 

 

Which bounce did you end up with? And I assume you landed pretty standard on swing weight? And if your anything like me it’ll just about turn any sort of fade into what appears as dead straight shot and whatever distance you lose from the height gained will offset by the distance lost on over fade/draw