Not your normal fitting question

[granata10]

I know everyone asks is fitting worth it , i know it is, but here is the back story. I am a former club pro and was on staff with Ping for years. When I first was on staff with Ping, 2006, I went through a full fitting with the rep at Miles of Golf. I have used those specs for every set of Pings (i5, S56, ie1) i have had since then. Orange dot, standard length, Dynamic Gold S300. At the beginning of the year I got a new set of irons, Ping i210 with Power Spec lofts. I ordered them to the same specs I always have, orange dot, standard length, S300.

 

This year I have been playing very well. My handicap has dropped to the lowest it’s ever been, +1.6 but my irons are the weak part of my game. I hit it high and normally hit a slight draw, and I have no problem controlling trajectory. Where I do struggle is cutting the ball and my miss is left. It seems the ball is turning left and starting left more than it has in the past. I don’t know my spin rate but will say most of the time the ball spins back slightly or at worse is one bounce and stops.

 

A couple other things have me wondering if I should have gotten fit this year.

 

1- I was struggling with my wedges, especially control trajectory. I switched the shafts out to an 8 iron DG x100 (8iron spinner trick). It worked GREAT!

 

So now I am wondering if there is a better shaft for my irons. Not for distance but for better control / dispersion.

 

2- I noticed that my wear marks are from center to slightly heel side of center (especially on the short irons). In the past it’s always been center to slightly toe side of center.

 

I realize this normally a length issue but they are the same length as my previous set of irons.

 

3- There are a lot more shaft options than there was when I first got fit in 2006.

 

So with that all being said. Is it worth it to go through a fitting to try and get a tighter dispersion? Would a new shaft help tighten up the dispersion? It did in my wedges but not sure if irons would be different.

 

[rexroh]

I am not sure when but Ping changed their codes se time ago. Is orange dot today the same specs as previously. It may be worth a search.

[Howard_Jones]

> @granata10 said:

> I know everyone asks is fitting worth it , i know it is, but here is the back story. I am a former club pro and was on staff with Ping for years. When I first was on staff with Ping, 2006, I went through a full fitting with the rep at Miles of Golf. I have used those specs for every set of Pings (i5, S56, ie1) i have had since then. Orange dot, standard length, Dynamic Gold S300. At the beginning of the year I got a new set of irons, Ping i210 with Power Spec lofts. I ordered them to the same specs I always have, orange dot, standard length, S300.

>

> This year I have been playing very well. My handicap has dropped to the lowest it’s ever been, +1.6 but my irons are the weak part of my game. I hit it high and normally hit a slight draw, and I have no problem controlling trajectory. Where I do struggle is cutting the ball and my miss is left. It seems the ball is turning left and starting left more than it has in the past. I don’t know my spin rate but will say most of the time the ball spins back slightly or at worse is one bounce and stops.

>

> A couple other things have me wondering if I should have gotten fit this year.

>

> 1- I was struggling with my wedges, especially control trajectory. I switched the shafts out to an 8 iron DG x100 (8iron spinner trick). It worked GREAT!

>

> So now I am wondering if there is a better shaft for my irons. Not for distance but for better control / dispersion.

>

> 2- I noticed that my wear marks are from center to slightly heel side of center (especially on the short irons). In the past it’s always been center to slightly toe side of center.

>

> I realize this normally a length issue but they are the same length as my previous set of irons.

>

> 3- There are a lot more shaft options than there was when I first got fit in 2006.

>

> So with that all being said. Is it worth it to go through a fitting to try and get a tighter dispersion? Would a new shaft help tighten up the dispersion? It did in my wedges but not sure if irons would be different.

>

 

Im not a PING expert but i know they have changed something with their color dots...but dont know the details.

Take a ball marker test for LIE angles, you might have changed your swing (hand position at impact), and for that reason needs a slightly different lie angle.

 

You dont have to print this face label for lie angles, just hold up a photo of it and judge the impact line from the ball.

 

[Red4282]

Yes its worth it, go get fit. Fitting has evolved quite a bit since 06.

[granata10]

So a rainy day here in northern Michigan led to a road trip and I stopped by Club Champion and went through a full iron fitting. I will keep this short.

 

1- I hit a lot of different heads but my ping i210 was the best. Mizuno was close but I am staying with my pings.

 

2- my lie angle should be another degree flatter. It didn’t cure the lefts, it’s more Indian than arrow, but it helped.

 

3- and most interesting to me. I was able to hit a bunch of shafts in the Ping i210. We actually started with shafts, once we found one we then worked on finding a head (which like I said above ended up being my pings). Steelfiber 110 was the easy winner. From the first swings ball speed went up, smash factor went up and of course I hit it further and had a tighter dispersion pattern. I did keep going back and trying my irons and I could get those numbers to match the steelfiber but it wasn’t nearly as consistent and I felt like I had to be perfect to just match the numbers. With the steelfiber it was just easier to maintain speed and hit it straighter.

 

I am definitely going to try the steelfiber but going to start with my 5 iron and see how it performs on the course before I reshaft the whole set.

 

@"Howard Jones" quick question (I hope). The fitter recommends a d4 swingweight, (mostly because that’s close to what we were hitting when you have the adapter on the shaft) my Pings are d1. I am dropping approximately 20 grams from the shaft (about 2 sw points if I am correct). That would mean tip weighting the shafts about 10 grams to get the SW up to D4. Is that too much for someone who is fighting the hooks?

[Howard_Jones]

im not sure if i get this right, but did those clubs "just happens to be" D4 during test, and no other options was tested?

If it worked there, its no reason for why it would not work outside, so i would not worry about the numbers on the paper, and how much that is, i cant tell without knowing shafts weights and balance points. So if you did not hit a hook during testing, why worry about it?

[granata10]

we didn’t really try SW but the heads I liked best were around that D4 number. Honestly I could not tell much difference, feel wise, between my irons at D1 with S300 and the Ping head with steelfiber at D4. The dispersion was better with the Steelfiber but it was still my normal draw.

[granata10]

@"Howard Jones" I guess my question is my current irons have dynamic Gold S300 shafts and are D1 swingweight. If I want to replace those shafts with a Steelfiber i110cw and bring the swingweight up to D4 would that be too much to do with tip weights? I am guessing that would be about 10 grams needed in the tip.

 

Here is my math: current SW D1. -20 grams in the shaft brings the SW down to C9 to get up to D4 I would need about 10 grams