A little background: I am 61, 5-10, played the game since I was 12, more so since I was about 18. joined a club in 2015, handicap got down to a 12 for many years, but have always fought a slice. In 2009, I was laid off during the financial crisis and decided to get lessons and alter my swing to get rid of my slice. So I worked and took lessons from the club pro over the winter. Index that year went to an 18, but was able to gradually over successive seasons get back to ~14. Then 5 years ago, it all went south, slipped to a 20 and bounced occasionally to an 18. My best round in that period was an anomalous 82 that cost me a lot of money in my betting until it re-normalized. Pre-covid I went back to another pro at the club for weekly lessons, but things never really stuck. Last summer, my buddy told me to “go see Paul”. Paul Horton coaches a lot of the top juniors in the city and John had gone to him several times and he had been a huge help. Well, Paul corrected my grip, then rejigger things so I was turning further back and working to come at the ball more from the inside vs my old over the top move that never really went away. Unfortunately, though I did 4 sessions with him, I was unable to groove everything on the range, but I have an idea what to do. Earlier in March we went to Palm Springs and I fired the driver after 9 holes, went to 3 wood. Upon returning, I booked a driver and FW fitting at the local Modern Golf, and a lesson for later in the month with Paul.
I haven’t been able to hit a fairway for 3 years now. Virtually every driver is offline and in the trees, easily 12-14 shots a round. Callaway Epic and then the Mavrix, both 10.5* with a 65 gram Evenflow reg flex. I ordered the shaft assembled from one of the online component sellers. Went with the specially made shaft to encourage a smoother swing. Swapped the Epic Sub-Zero head for the Mavrix 2 years ago to get more forgiveness. When purchased, I didn’t realise the Epic SZ was the low capper version. Turned out the Mavrik wasn’t much more forgiving….
Anyways, I had booked a two hour session for driver and fairway woods. I warmed up and stretched, also had taken 2 Muscle and Joint Advil to make sure I stayed loose. I hit 5 to 7 with my driver. Everything was 240 max and most were right rough. As I was hitting, Kevin was rooting through drawers pulling heads and shafts, like a man on a mission! Tried the Cobra, Wilson, Titleist, Ping 430, Stealth, and Paradyme, etc. First 5 iterations weren’t much better, but the Wilson and the ping had the tightest dispersion. The biggest surprise was my spin rate was ~3500 and he wanted to get that down, so he switched me to a 9* head.
He pulled the Ping again, moved the weight for draw bias and took a few. That was marginally better. He then re-centred the weight to neutral but put in the 28 gram weight at the back. Better again. We then switched to the Ping Tour 65gm Reg flex shaft and I don’t know if I was so tired by then that everything synched , but 5 of thr 7 drives were 260+ (three were 270+) yards total, 240 carry, and the other two misses were~ 230-240 but between the fairway bounds. I went back to my driver to retest and I hit the first one 272 inbounds, but the rest were shite. Ping driver on the way.
By then it was an hour and I had hit 105 shots. My comment was I have hit 105 shots frequently, but usually over 3 1/2 hours, not in an hour! I was gassed. Tried a few with the 3 wood and no life left, so rescheduled for another day. I am positive hitting into the trees 14 times a round is costing me 15 strokes or more, so I am hoping this gets me closer to getting back to mid-80’s from shooting 95-105 all the time.
FW fitting scheduled for Mid-May. Driver arrives about the same time.
The guys in the Calgary shop were great. Kevin isn’t the most vocal conversationalist, but he is always watching, spin rates, smash, etc, but really only sharing what is pertinent and what he is trying to do. I eventually got a couple of chuckles out of him with my corny dad comments, but he was really astute at what might work and what to stay away from. An old friend walked in the door near the end of the session and as we were kibitzing, I spotted Kevin rooting around my bag….so he may have a few more expensive ideas for me I am sure. That being said, a friend went to him a few months ago and when he ran the numbers on his driver, Kevin commented that he didn’t see any reason to change, so he doesn’t just shill clubs. Looking forward to our next session.
I haven’t been able to hit a fairway for 3 years now. Virtually every driver is offline and in the trees, easily 12-14 shots a round. Callaway Epic and then the Mavrix, both 10.5* with a 65 gram Evenflow reg flex. I ordered the shaft assembled from one of the online component sellers. Went with the specially made shaft to encourage a smoother swing. Swapped the Epic Sub-Zero head for the Mavrix 2 years ago to get more forgiveness. When purchased, I didn’t realise the Epic SZ was the low capper version. Turned out the Mavrik wasn’t much more forgiving….
Anyways, I had booked a two hour session for driver and fairway woods. I warmed up and stretched, also had taken 2 Muscle and Joint Advil to make sure I stayed loose. I hit 5 to 7 with my driver. Everything was 240 max and most were right rough. As I was hitting, Kevin was rooting through drawers pulling heads and shafts, like a man on a mission! Tried the Cobra, Wilson, Titleist, Ping 430, Stealth, and Paradyme, etc. First 5 iterations weren’t much better, but the Wilson and the ping had the tightest dispersion. The biggest surprise was my spin rate was ~3500 and he wanted to get that down, so he switched me to a 9* head.
He pulled the Ping again, moved the weight for draw bias and took a few. That was marginally better. He then re-centred the weight to neutral but put in the 28 gram weight at the back. Better again. We then switched to the Ping Tour 65gm Reg flex shaft and I don’t know if I was so tired by then that everything synched , but 5 of thr 7 drives were 260+ (three were 270+) yards total, 240 carry, and the other two misses were~ 230-240 but between the fairway bounds. I went back to my driver to retest and I hit the first one 272 inbounds, but the rest were shite. Ping driver on the way.
By then it was an hour and I had hit 105 shots. My comment was I have hit 105 shots frequently, but usually over 3 1/2 hours, not in an hour! I was gassed. Tried a few with the 3 wood and no life left, so rescheduled for another day. I am positive hitting into the trees 14 times a round is costing me 15 strokes or more, so I am hoping this gets me closer to getting back to mid-80’s from shooting 95-105 all the time.
FW fitting scheduled for Mid-May. Driver arrives about the same time.
The guys in the Calgary shop were great. Kevin isn’t the most vocal conversationalist, but he is always watching, spin rates, smash, etc, but really only sharing what is pertinent and what he is trying to do. I eventually got a couple of chuckles out of him with my corny dad comments, but he was really astute at what might work and what to stay away from. An old friend walked in the door near the end of the session and as we were kibitzing, I spotted Kevin rooting around my bag….so he may have a few more expensive ideas for me I am sure. That being said, a friend went to him a few months ago and when he ran the numbers on his driver, Kevin commented that he didn’t see any reason to change, so he doesn’t just shill clubs. Looking forward to our next session.
. It sounds like you're pretty dedicated to sorting this out, and I'm sure the results will come. It also shows that getting fit for a new club isn't a magic bullet. There's usually still some work to be done after you pick it up.
Comment