Shaft Recommendation with TrackMan Data from fitting.

Jhale91 · February 20, 2018

Hi all,

I’m new to GolfWRX but already addicted. I recently had a driver fitting at my local club fitter. Great experience, but I’m not sure if I got to try the shaft that best for my swing. Here’s a little about my golf game. I played baseball in college and now I am addicted to golf. I play at least once a week. I’m currently a 15 handicap so I still have a long way to go. Like all new players I struggle with consistency.t My miss when I first started playing was a huge slice (baseball swing). I now attempt to hit a draw for the most part and if I miss it’s usually a hook. At the fitting I tried all of the the drivers. My fitter decided that the M3 440 was the Head for me. I have a bit of a spin problem as you will see from my TrackMan data. Sometimes in the high 3000. The 440 really brought that spin down. The shaft that helped bring the spin down the most was the handcrafted Xstiff Yellow shaft. Please let me know what you guys think!

kenwiggins11 · February 20, 2018

I think they those a great numbers. Only thing that is see is that your launch angle is high relative to you attack angle. In addition your path was left with a face that was closed which explains your hook as you stated. Back to topic I like those numbers and you will smashing bombs! Jealous of the new driver. Keep us posted what your decide on.

Stuart_G · February 20, 2018

Smash factor isn't very good. That and the inconsistencies in both launch and spin typically means poor and/or inconsistent face impact location. That's also likely the source of the high spin numbers you were getting.

Was that driver at the stock playing length or did your fitter have you try shorter playing lengths?

What weight was the HZRDUS yellow that he fit you into? Sometimes going up in weight is another way to help with the consistency issues (work with playing length first, then shaft weight second).

NPVWhiz · February 20, 2018

I've been doing a lot of TM work in the last few months trying to learn about and try to solve a particular problem that I have with spin. The thing that stood out to me about your numbers is that you can see that much launch angle with a fairly shallow angle of attack.

It is certainly true that suboptimal contact can affect smash and that is usually well correlated with instances of bad spin or launch angle. And with a demo, it's hard to expect the kind of consistency you'd want to really narrow in and trust the numbers, but most fitting scenarios are what they are: time-limited rush jobs from someone who has no prior knowledge of your swing or how you play or what the current state of your bag is. I'm lucky to have access to a new TM4 at a local range where I can rent time and do some of my own assessment work.

I hit the M3 440 9 deg on the monitor last week with several different shafts (Tensei non pro Blue 60s, 70s white and 70x white) and didn't see a smash above 1.45. In the same session, I saw two other heads consistently produce number in a) 1.40 to 1.43 range and 1.48 to 1.50). I can comfortably say that I have one head that is just plain low smash, and two other similar heads that consistently make numbers with the same shaft at 1.48 to 1.50. So you can see some head to head variability. It's entirely possible that you're not going to hit a new head and new shaft at a different length that you are normally accustomed to playing right on the button in a fitting session.

I think you could probably benefit from a bit more favorable landing angle, along with taming the launch angle. I just finished posting in another thread about how here in the midwest, a lot of us public course players rarely see firm and fast conditions with the amount of fairway watering we usually have to endure. Maybe out in Phoenix that isn't as much of an issue and the standard TM optimal windows would be right for you. For that reason, I'm leaning toward trying to find a new setup that is a little lower on the launch angle, spin, height and shallower landing angle to try to get a little more roll for the actual conditions I find myself in most of the time. But optimal numbers are not worth much if it isn't a shaft that you like in terms of how it feels and how consistently you can hit it on the course. If you can't ever develop any confidence in it in play, great numbers are not worth much.

I don't know if the 440 comes in a lower loft. That might be one option. It might be that just a little practice and time with the club might move it into the window with something like very small adjustments to tee height and ball position. If I wasn't ever going to play another round of tournament golf, I'd rather have a shaft I love because it is effortless to hit it straight and consistently.

Did you have a chance to try the Hzrdus Black 75 in 6.0 or 6.5? I hit the Yellow 63 in 6.0 a few months ago and much preferred the Black in the heavier weight. It was much more stable and linear feeling to me. Haven't seen it on the monitor yet but my impression was that it was in a very good launch window.

I've read a lot on WRX about how there are limits to what you can do to kill spin with just a shaft change alone. The max I've seen so far is 700, which I think is a lot. Same head, just two different shafts in the same flex range. It seems like lower loft is the way to go if you have a shaft that you like and is just launching too high with a little too much spin. I've also seen two ostensibly similar heads, with the same shaft, produce 3100 and 2400 spin. The good news is that spin problems are easy to kill these days. Lots of options.

If you had the TM data sent to the website as a dynamic report, you could take the approach that I do and nuke shot 3 from the numbers by calling it an outlier...then the averages look a bit better, at least in terms of spin Odd that that particular shot had a 13 deg launch.

Jhale91 · February 20, 2018

Smash factor isn't very good. That and the inconsistencies in both launch and spin typically means poor and/or inconsistent face impact location. That's also likely the source of the high spin numbers you were getting.

Was that driver at the stock playing length or did your fitter have you try shorter playing lengths?

What weight was the HZRDUS yellow that he fit you into? Sometimes going up in weight is another way to help with the consistency issues (work with playing length first, then shaft weight second).

Weight is 65 length is 45