Done some more tweaking, this time to the driver. As per the previous pages I got fitted for a Ping G440 LST with an X-Flex Tensei 1k black 65g, which I even stated as something I wasn't expecting to be fitted for.
Sadly, I've been proven right, despite the numbers in the fitting looking solid vs what we tested, out on course it has been a very different story, and my driving stats on Shot Scope have gone very south. I've been getting a high slice or a low left bullet, neither with much distance. Clearly the range balls used in the fitting were flattering me. I had a lesson last week at a different club (I was previously a member there and the team and facility there are superb) to help sort out my inside 100 yard pitching woes (good news, they have been helped!) and when we were talking about driving and how I'm lacking confidence despite being fitted, he asked what I'd been fitted for and was stunned. He meant no disrespect to me or the fitter who did it of course but he couldn't understand it so he invited me to do a driver fitting with him to see if we could a) find out why and b) see what he would fit me into.
That day was today, fortunately I played yesterday and played well (mostly) so my swing felt good and in their studio I got exactly the results I had seen on course. It was clear that despite being a low launch, low spin shaft with a low spin head, I was getting to much launch, and the shaft wasn't kicking to my strikes were almost exclusively off the heel. No, big slice, no distance, bad strike location and awful smash factor. I did say I know some of it could be me and he advised of one tweak I could make to my swing to help, which I did and it just moved strike location a little higher on the G440 LST.
So we got to fitting, and this one felt a lot more comprehensive than the previous, we tried Callaway Elyte, TaylorMade Qi35 and Qi35 Max, Cobra DS Adapt X and Srixon ZXi LS. But whereas the fitter at the previous location seemed intent on fitting me into an X flex black shaft, we covered a lot more ground today. Different shaft weights and profiles, lengths, even putting a mini driver shaft into the Qi35 Max, which felt absolutely awesome but didn't get the launch or spin we were looking for.
One combo that did feel amazing was the TaylorMade Qi35 with the Ventus Blue 5S, even though it felt very lightweight in the hand, it felt great to swing, so I was a little sad that the numbers didn't offer up anything worth pursuing. The shaft proving just too light and too soft to keep the spin down.
But the driver that shone the brightest, and by a long way, was the Cobra DS Adapt X. Funnily enough the one brand the previous shop/fitter didn't have as they aren't a Cobra dealer, and the brand whose drivers I have used the most in my golf career. It just worked, first few shots with the 33 way hosel set in the A1 position were a little right and a little high, so he showed me the new Cobra fitting tool on the 33 way adapter and found the ideal setting for what we saw, and boom, the next set of shots were tight, long and felt great, still a slightly higher flight but with lower spin and more ball speed. Still a low spin low launch shaft, with the Fujikura Pro black 60, but in the stiff flex so it still offers the kick needed to get away from the heel strikes and find the middle far more often. The DS Adapt X also offered really good forgiveness off center, something which I didn't get with the Ping.
So, the order has been placed, a good deal offered with a trade in on the Ping and some money off the Cobra, should be ready to collect in about a week. The other very good thing with this fitting, is although it was indoors on a sim, and he acknowledged that it will fly further outside due to differing conditions, critically we were using proper golf balls (Sirxon Z star) and not range balls, and also hitting them off proper tees, so despite being a fake grass mat, there were no inhibiting factors to the strike and strike feel, so the spin and speed the Trackman was picking up will be much truer than the range balls and static, thick rubber tees used in the previous fitting location, while it was nice to have the full ball flights there, clearly the range balls significantly impacted the results.
