all over the place with my driver-me or the club?

First, I don't play much, other than hitting golf balls in my yard, which probably answers my question, but bear with me. I turned 60 (thank God above) last Oct. I have played off and on for a long time, and in 2017 I went to the driving range alot (it was closed in 2018 for renovation of the entire course). I have a Callaway 815 with Fubuki ZT stiff. The last 2 years, thank God again, playing a Volvik Crystal or XT, I have hit some of the best drives of my life. One hole was 413 and I had 123 from the hole with my range finder, one was in Sept on a hole that measured 388 on Golfpad and I was inside the 100 yard marker by a yard or two. Both were pretty much mid-fairway I am thrilled when I hit these kind of shots, but these are the extremes. Distance is usually fairly good, but I can be in any of three fairways, and two of them are the wrong one. I can pull/hook it left, I can push it right, but don't seem to slice very often.

I am tempted to go to CC and spend $100 before 1/31 and get a driver fitting to see what's going on, but if I do, then I spend $100 I could have spent on a new shaft off ebay or maybe go with a different driver, such as the Fusion.

I am just wondering from what I am posting if anyone thinks it could be the club or, more likely, it's me. I have used regular, firm and this stiff shaft on this and other drivers in the past, I would guess I have a fairly fast transition but don't really know. Only time I was "fitted", the guy told me what shaft to use and when I got it from UPS, it was a different, heavier (70gm) shaft because someone he talked to (his boss?) thought I sounded like I needed something different (without seeing me). This wasn't at CC, this was years ago at a place that was supposed to be fairly good.

This may sound crazy (maybe my whole post does), but does it make any sense to think I might need a shaft that is stiffer than the Fubuki? Or should I just spend what I have and get a "real" fitting, or maybe a lesson?

I am open to constructive criticism, so feel free to be blunt.

Thanks

I think for most people, its more effective to spend $100 on a lesson (or two, depending on where you are) from a good instructor than it is to do a fitting for a single club. A question, though, is your driver the only club you spray so wildly? Do you swing it differently, try to get the maximum distance, where you're more controlled with a shorter club? Lots of things to consider, but my first suggestion is to evaluate your swing before you start looking at changes to your clubs.

Videotape your swing and post it in the Instruction section if you’re open to public critique. I’d do that first.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. davep043, I would say I tend to pull my irons somewhat more than push them. I don't swing full-out with any of my clubs, I am too old to take a chance on messing my back up (I have some back problems at times). On my driver, I try to turn to a consistent point in the backswing, but I don't necessarily show any consistency on getting the club face closed the right amount. I just really don't know which way it will go.

I may post some swings when it gets a little warmer 95124hacker, there's snow on the ground here now, so I don't know when that will be. I thought about doing that last year and even trying to get some online instruction from Monte or Shawn, but did not follow through with it. Thought I might be better off going to the local pro and seeing what he can do to help me. But I am not against suggestions from anyone on here if I do get some footage to post.

I would really like to get some decent scores, but it's hard when you are a) trying to punch the ball through a tree line and b) missing greens. I need to get in the fairway alot more often so I have a shot of getting close, if not on, the greens.

Thanks

I am tempted to go to CC and spend $100 before 1/31 and get a driver fitting to see what's going on, but if I do, then I spend $100 I could have spent on a new shaft off ebay or maybe go with a different driver, such as the Fusion.

You're better off first trying the DIY fitting tutorial in the link below when you get the chance. I'd estimate 95% (or likely more) of amateur driver fitting problems (especially consistency issues) have to do with playing length too long. Next likely candidates would be shaft weight and swing weight - all 3 of which you can check yourself to some degree. All it takes is some lead tape and foot powder spray (and a driving range or indoor hitting studio). Shaft flex and stiffness is actually one of the least likely candidates for causing those types of problems - particularly if you at least demo'd the club in a hitting bay prior to buying. There is still a small chance flex may be an issue but you really have to rule out the other factors first.

PS - It may help minimize the severity of the misses with your current swing but it's not a substitute for lessons with a good instructor. Take the money you save by fitting yourself and go get a lesson with it :-)

http://www.golfwrx.c...up-diy-fitting/

Thanks Stuart, I actually have that link bookmarked and was going to try the part about balancing the driver head to find the sweet spot, but forgot about the other areas Howard addressed in that excellent post. I need to try those when the weather gets better.

Reason I asked about shaft stiffness for the driver was that I believe I read somewhere that if a shaft it too flexible, it can cause the ball to be inconsistent direction-wise. I also have a very high ball flight, and I thought that could be related to too flexible a shaft too, but i did have an issue with my irons in the past flipping my wrists, so maybe I did it with the driver too.

I really think it might be related to me not closing the clubhead properly, and so sometimes I overclose it and sometimes I don't close it enough, and so it goes wherever. I think I may try to get a lesson or two this spring, Good Lord willing, to see what the local pro says. We have a nice municipal course and a young man on the high school golf team told me at church that the pro helped him, and so I would like to see what he sees in my swing that I need to adjust.

If we had determined the shaft was an issue, and i could find the right one, I would probably go with the shorter length. I think the 815 plays at 45.75", which is even longer than a standard driver, and I thought about dropping down an inch or so. I have tried choking up on the club at times and sometimes it seems to help me hit it straighter. I am really not clear on all the talk about swingweight and how it affects things, but had thought also about trying some different weights in the head to see if that helps a little too. Maybe if I try tuning and lessons, I might not need another shaft and could hopefully start finding the fairway.

Thanks again guys.

Reason I asked about shaft stiffness for the driver was that I believe I read somewhere that if a shaft it too flexible, it can cause the ball to be inconsistent direction-wise. I also have a very high ball flight, and I thought that could be related to too flexible a shaft too, but i did have an issue with my irons in the past flipping my wrists, so maybe I did it with the driver too.

When a shaft is "too soft", yes it's possible that it can cause some of those issues for some people but it's probably not in the way you think. If one was able to completely ignore how the shaft feels and make perfectly identical swings with a shaft that's 'too soft', there really wouldn't be much inconsistency in most cases and it might cause a little more dynamic loft so a little more launch and spin - but only if the release was late enough.

Big inconsistencies and larger changes in launch/spin actually come from potential changes in the swing that may be caused by the feel of the shaft loading and unloading do not match the players expectation for what they think they should be feeling. And it's completely subjective, if you look at the physics, there is no real concept of "too soft" or "too firm" as long as you are in the right ball park for stiffness (not getting into the extremes like maybe a long drive champ trying to swing a senior flex shaft). So for that to happen, one much have the right sensitivity and certain preconceived notions for what they think they should feel AND it's generally accompanied by a noticeable sense of 'wrongness' in how the shaft/club feels when they swing it. e.g. "ohhh my - that felt like a wet noodle", or "that was like swinging rebar".

But in any case, if that feel of wrongness doesn't exist, one really has to rule out all the other potential causes first, then using the same length/weight/ and swing weight, they can try shafts with different profiles to see how much those changes might be effecting the results.

If we had determined the shaft was an issue, and i could find the right one, I would probably go with the shorter length. I think the 815 plays at 45.75", which is even longer than a standard driver, and I thought about dropping down an inch or so. I have tried choking up on the club at times and sometimes it seems to help me hit it straighter.

Don't be afraid to go more than an inch. Many don't find the sweet spot until they get to 44.5", 44" or even 43.5". But you don't have to do it all at once. Nothing wrong with taking it in stages.

I am really not clear on all the talk about swingweight and how it affects things, but had thought also about trying some different weights in the head to see if that helps a little too. Maybe if I try tuning and lessons, I might not need another shaft and could hopefully start finding the fairway.

Swing weight is another 'feel thing' where the results can be very subjective. It's really trying to get the feel of the heft of the club to match your natural sense of rhythm and timing and also potentially the amount of grip pressure or a sense of presence of where the club is during the swing. So if you keep those thoughts in mind while your trying different amounts of weight in the head, you should come pretty close to getting a good fit. And it doesn't matter how good your swing is, you'll always benefit (usually in consistency and accuracy) when you can get those feels dialed in.

Thanks Stuart, I appreciate all the information, that's very helpful.