Club Champion (Las Vegas) fitting for irons

[jjfcpa]

I'm in Vegas for a week, so I thought I would take advantage of there being a Club Champion here and get a fitting for new irons. My first fitting and 2nd fitting was more than 2 years ago and we not impressed with either one.

 

Since I'm a senior golfer, I've always felt that there isn't much that a fitting can do for me that I probably can't do for myself. Read on to see if that is true.

 

In the past, I've basically purchased clubs (irons) online based on the following:

 

Lightweight senior shaft

-1/2 inch

2 degrees flat

 

My fitting was done by David. I submitted a pre-fitting questionnaire and we discussed it and what my goals were for the fitting. As I pointed out to David, I was looking for more distance and better dispersion. My miss with mid to long irons has been left of the target.

 

First off was to establish a baseline with my current 6 iron - Apex CF19, UST Mamyia F2 shaft. I hit about a dozen shots and we eliminated the outliers and established a baseline. After he reviewed my shots, he pointed some areas where he would like to see some improvement.

 

Spin was around 4400, he wanted it over 5000

Launch angle was a little low, and he wanted to see it increased to help hold greens

Distance was what it was and we both wanted to see some increase in distance - both carry and total distance

Peak height - he wanted it higher and felt it would help with both distance and holding the greens

 

Next, David selected a starting 6 iron head to begin the process of fitting me. He selected a Callaway Rogue X.

 

Next, I hit this head on 7 different shafts to determine what shaft provided the best improvement over my baseline. I would hit about 5 or 6 shots with each shaft and again we eliminated the outliers. This was not based only on distance, but all the shot parameters. As it turned out, the KBS Max Graphite (44g) gave me the best results.

 

Having identified the shaft that provided the best results, David then select 10 different heads, including some that I was interested in trying, and I hit another 5 - 6 shots with the KBS shaft to see which head gave me the best parameters. I can't really remember all the club heads that I tried, but some of the ones that I remember were as follows with results.

 

PXG SGI - felt good, but shot results were not that good.

Cobra F-Max Superlite - felt good, results were ok

Honma XP-1 - felt the best, but distance was not as good the top performer

Callaway Epic Forged - felt 2nd best, but distance and parameters were not the best

Titleist TS300 - felt really good, distance was 2nd best

 

In the end, oddly enough, the first head David selected, the Rogue X, delivered the best results.

 

David noticed that as the fitting went on, I was getting pretty tired so after trying all the heads that he had selected, he put the Rogue X on the KBS shaft just to see if it still provided the best results. In other words, he wanted to eliminate the possibility that it would still deliver better results than the others in my fatigue state. It did.

 

One last thing that David did was to adjust the lie to 1 degree flat to correct a dispersion issue, which it did. He stated that the shaft length was standard.

 

Finally, he said that I could order the new Rogue X irons based on the fitting or just pay for the fitting. I came to CC with the intention of just getting a fitting and fully expected them to tell me that the Apex CF19's were just fine for me. But after seeing the results with the KBS shaft and Rogue X head, I decided to purchase a new set of irons based on the fitting.

 

So, here are the results of my fitting as it related to me shot metrics.

 

Spin was now around 5600

Launch angle was up 2-3 degrees (even though the loft was less than the Apex)

Distance was increased by as much as 25 yards (yah, I know that seems shocking) over the Apex. Not every shot, but most were 10-20 yards longer. (total distance with less rollout)

Peak height was about 10 feet more

 

All the shot parameters were greatly improved.

 

What I've concluded is that at my skill level and age (senior golfer 71 years old), I should be playing a game improvement iron and not a distance iron. I suspected that my irons were working against me because I don't have the swing speed and skill level to take advantage of the capabilities of the club. As David stated, I can get better performance out of a club that is more suitable for my abilities.

 

Two days ago, I played Painted Desert in Las Vegas and shot an 84 with my Apex CF19's. Certainly, not a bad score, but the real question is what affect the new irons will have on my performance.

 

I intend to keep the Apex CF19's because after playing them for most of the year, they feel really comfortable and I have some confidence with them. Time will tell if the Rogue X will do better. I'll post updates once I play a few rounds with the Rogue X.

 

If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer as best I can.

[Galanga]

Thank you for the write-up, jjfcpa. I am always interested in fitting and especially with players, like myself, that are losing speed. I don't have the speed anymore for more player / player cb clubs, so looking towards player distance type clubs and maybe GI (but, currently can't get my head around the soles and offset). Likely head to CC here in a few months. As you age, it is like you are an entirely different player with different characteristics. Thanks again for the great write-up.

[jjfcpa]

> @Galanga said:

> Thank you for the write-up, jjfcpa. I am always interested in fitting and especially with players, like myself, that are losing speed. I don't have the speed anymore for more player / player cb clubs, so looking towards player distance type clubs and maybe GI (but, currently can't get my head around the soles and offset). Likely head to CC here in a few months. As you age, it is like you are an entirely different player with different characteristics. Thanks again for the great write-up.

 

I almost feel like there should be a separate forum just for senior golfers. Our needs seem to be very different from the average youthful golfer.

 

The hardest part is accepting that you have different needs and ignoring the never ending hype of the OEM's about more distance, better dispersion, etc.

 

 

 

[Galanga]

Agreed.

[LHGolf4]

Great write up. They are just about to open a CC within 30 minutes of me. I plan on going to finally get a chance to try a large selection with no one pushing you to buy something since you are paying for the fitting. I had a friend of mine go to Nashville for a fitting and he really enjoyed the process as well.

[jjfcpa]

I neglected to mention a couple of other irons that we tried.

 

Ping G700 - did not like the blade length - could not hit it.

Wilson C300 - performance was sub par.

Callaway Big Bertha - liked the black color but performance was not as good as the Rogue X.

 

The one thing I wish CC would have done is given me a ranked list of the shafts and the irons that I tried so I could further evaluate my results.

 

As far as feel was concerned, the Honma XP-1 and Titleist T300 felt the best after the Rogue X. They were probably the next best performers.