Josh’s Tips & Tricks: Driver Fitting

Intro

Hello golfers, welcome to this weeks tips & tricks. I hope you’re all enjoying the Jubilee weekend and have lots of golf planned. This week I would like to quickly talk about driver fitting. It isn’t going to be long and boring, just a few things that you may not have considered that could help you find more fairways.

I had some help from one of our very own members of staff (Ash) and actually fitted him for a new driver. Take a look at the video and I will talk you through some of the findings.

Ash’s Driver Fit

Ash has been gaming the following driver:

• G400
• 10.5* (standard setting)
• Stock 55g stiff shaft

Ash was looking to get tighter dispersion with his driver and any extra distance was a bonus. Ash swings his driver well over 100 mph with every swing so distance is never really an issue. On average he was carrying his driver 234 yards and running out to 257 yards with his G400. The width dispersion was across the width of the fairway and the distance dispersion was quite varied. Straight away my assumption was that the shaft is too soft meaning the head is moving around too much as he is swinging the club.

Other Drivers Tried

The first thing we did was decide which heads he liked the look of. He wanted to try the Ping G425 first because it was the most similar to what he has and was used to. I put in a heavier, more stable shaft with the Max 10.5 head and straight away saw a more stable ball flight. Ash naturally shapes the ball right to left (a draw) and therefore controlling the amount of sidespin is crucial for Ash when it comes to finding fairways.

We then tried the Callaway Rogue ST Max and Cobra LTD X. Both with slightly stiffer shafts than his G400. Every driver went noticeably further but we eliminated the Callaway because the Ping and Cobra both felt better. Ash then decided that he liked the feel of the Cobra best so we continued the fit with that.

The final spec the we got to was:

• Cobra LTD X
• 10.5* (+1* Draw)
• Project X Smoke 6.0
• -1/4″ in length

Overall the shaft was more stable so wasn’t wobbling about as much. The extra loft helped launch the ball with a bit more spin to start it on target. The head produced more ball speed sending the ball further and the slightly shorter shaft helped find the middle of the clubface more frequently.

The results showed that the ball travelled on average an extra 9 yards through the air and 7 yards total. More importantly the dispersion was lots tighter!

Most club golfers benefit from loft with a driver. Having a good amount of loft to help launch the ball in the air can help eliminate unwanted sidespin. Having a well fitted shaft will help control the clubface throughout the swing. The shaft can also help with different launch angles. Finally most drivers now are much longer than they used to be. Lots of players lose control when the shaft is too long so shortening the driver helps most players find the middle of the clubface.

Summary

Overall Ash looked more comfortable and said that he felt like he had more control with a slightly stiffer shaft and more forgiving head. You don’t have to spend lots of money to get a better fitted driver. We have plenty of second hand clubs at the moment which could be just right for you without breaking the bank. We have drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges and putters for sale and we have repositioned some of the prices so there are some bargains kicking about the place!

If you would like to be fitted for anything or would like some help with your current clubs then BOOK HERE.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Cheers,

Josh