Most recent iron fitting.

[naws-golfer]

Sup everyone, just wanted to recap my last iron fitting. I see a guy who is trackman certified, expert fitter, yada yada. He studied under Scott Hamilton and is big on the GEARS system.

TLDR: I got fitted, was really surprised, learned some more, ordered clubs.

Prior clubs, fitted by this guy, who I also take lessons with. all clubs were 2* upright and 4* gaps from 48pw on down. basically 2* weak. Shafts were used to raise launch and lofts were weakened to improve spin. I was probably a 5hdcp when I was fitted, down to a 2.4 today. Cubs are ok, definitely raised launch and spin. the only problem was into the wind, had a lot of trouble with the spin nocking off too much distance. I've always thought I was a lower spin player, in both driver and irons, but that seems to be changing as my recent driver fitting put me into a subzero head and much stiffer shaft.

4/5 TMB xp95 s300

6-PW 716 Ap2 xp95 S300

Going in, I was focused on the Titleist CB and JPX919 Tours. They seem to fit the bill for offset, topline, general look, and I like the smaller club heads. I really wanted to have less offset, just looks better to me. I'll go through the heads I hit and then the shafts and then the specs. I can't remember what shafts were hit with each club because we flipped through them so much. We started off with the Mizuno optimizer tool and tried shafts from there.

Clubs:

JPX- loved the look, didn't love the feel. The toe on the mizuno clubs looks really bulky. I even tried the HMB and MMC they felt better than the JPX, but they looked really big at address. Didn't bother hitting a bunch of these, not contenders.

620 CB- Love the look and offset, didn't love the feel initially. We went on to hit the top 3 contenders outside off turf so more on that later. Definitely better than the mizunos, but not what was hoping for...

P760- He mentioned for his beetr players who didn't have a preference he fit a lot of guys into the P760. What I absolutely loved about these was the shorter blade length and the square-er toe section. the topline was a little thick and the offset was about the same as the JPX, but I hadn't considered them so I gave them a shot. Holy cow, these things felt awesome. TM says these are forged but they have some insert/face foam/ you know the spiel. They were more strongly lofted than the CBs so the numbers were really good, but a half club longer as expected. definite contender

Apex Pro- After the disappointment of the JPX, I was willing to try anything. Similar lofts to the P760, so longer than the CBs, but these were a huge surprise. I really liked the feel, it was hollow in a good way but hot. I can't remember exactly but seemed to launch similar to the CB and P760. I really was surprised, more offset than the 760 and CB but not offensive. Contender

Ping- I didn't hit any pings, but since the last S55 or whatever it was called, I haven't really been interested. They aren't great about sending the player's clubs for the fitting carts, and the blueprints are only glued, so they are almost impossible to fit, outside of a ping facility or staff fitter.

Shafts- I was in the XP95 S300 since the last fitting. they worked great in the AP2 and TMB as I've always been on the lower launching side of normal. The mizuno optimizer spit out a bunch of 120 gram stiff and X options that I had no intention of trying going in.

KBS C Taper- real stiff, no feel, never like the project x, so probably wasn't going to like these

PX LZ - Thought these might fit, just didn't love them

DG 120- always played these when I was younger until I found the original Rifle shafts in 5.5. Was surprised that the feel was better, but dispersion was pretty high.

KBS Tour- Another one I thought I would gravitate towards. Whether it was the shaft or head or combo, they didn't seem to work.

KBS $ Taper- The eventual winner. Dispersion was the tightest, despite face contact being the worst. I'll attribute that to hitting 60 iron shots with shafts that were 30% heavier than what I'm used to. definitely felt the best. As I've gone down the rabbit hole since the fitting, they are supposed to fit between the KBS Tour and C-Taper. Didn't feel like it to me, I thought this was what the KBS Tour was supposed to feel like.

We never tried any lightweight shafts except the Modus 105, but that was quickly a no. Talking to the fitter, he noticed spin was a little lower but the decent angle was the same. In his mind, balls should still stop with that angle and spin, but should get rid of the ballooning and big side to side misses.

We went outside and hit the Apex Pro with the DG, P760 with the KBs Tour and the CB in the $ Taper. I loved the flight with the APEX, but turf interaction was all over the place. The P760 was awesome on the ground, and the flight was good considering the lofts, the topline looked really thick in the sun as compared to the Trackman bay. I hit the CB the most outside the most, my contact wasn't great as I was pretty tired, but it went through the ground the best. The P760 in comparison took bigger divots.

In the end I pulled the trigger on the 6-PW in the CBs with the $Taper shafts in stiff. I wasn't trying to revamp my bag, and the way I've been hitting my TMB 4 and 5, I'm going to keep those in. the CBs will transition better and the lofts will be more inline. I went from 2* up and 2* weak back to standard across the board. As my swing has changed, Ive noticed a few more left shots and would love to get those gone. HE gave me information about how people have been fitting into too upright lie angles and since I take lessons regularly from him, he like the standard make up and really continue to work on path and such.

Hope that was enjoyable. The only questions left to answer are

a) do I replace the shafts in the TMB's to match, despite having current success. Definitely going to bend them back to standard.

b) What shaft go in a new set of wedges, I put xp95s in the vokeys, but the weight difference is really big now.

c) how can I stare at normal black ferrules and how many BB&F co posts can I see without spending the $ to replace the ferrules.

Off to the rabbit hole...

[Seidinho]

I hit the CB the most outside the most, my contact wasn't great as I was pretty tired, but it went through the ground the best. The P760 in comparison took bigger divots.

In the end I pulled the trigger on the 6-PW in the CBs with the $Taper shafts in stiff.

 

I really enjoyed your post but I was surprised by how it ended. I really had expected the P760s. Good luck either way!

[sanjaygolf]

Any reason why you didn't also try to the T100? Also, how do the 620 CB compare to your old AP2?

[Z1ggy16]

How steep are you? 760s are awesome for more shallow AoA but I could see if you really compress the ball/ground these could take too much earth.

Why no modus 120? Logical player to go up against $ taper 120.

For wedges.. If you can stand heavy, S400 ti are probably the best wedge shafts possible. Close second would be modus wedge. You could also soft step $ taper 125 possibly.

[naws-golfer]

I originally was fit into a set of TMBs. They were really expensive and decided to go ap2 with the TMB long irons.

i looooove the TMBs, I wish I would have ordered those knowing how much I liked the 4 and 5.

honestly, I’ve never loved the Ap2. I have the second iteration and then tried again with the 716. They felt fine, but despite being forged and all the other tech, they just never felt good. I was afraid the T100 would have been more of the same. The fitter noted he was selling fewer of the T100 than he thought he would when the new line was announced.

the cb definitely felt better than the ap2 off the face, but through the ground they were so much better. I’ve never loved the sole on the ap2.

[naws-golfer]

I've been shallow in the past, but recently have worked on my AoA. After the Modus 105 was such a fail, we didn't even bother with the higher weights. I like the idea of soft stepping the $ Tapers for wedges. I like the steel shafts to match, which is what I usually do with some lead tape for added feel. but I'll ask some other people smarted than me.

[naws-golfer]

Thanks! I'm excited. I think if I was going from 4-pw I would have gone with the 760's and made them a little weak. not only for loft and carry but to add a little bounce and hopefully get those divots a little cleaner. The thicker topline of the 760's was wayyyy more noticeable outside in the sun.

The CBs fit so well with the TMBs and at my speed, I wasn't trying to add a bunch of distance. The CBs looked the best out of any.

[gretzky17]

CBs was a bad choice -- you'll discover that in the coming weeks.

[naws-golfer]

Any reason in particular?

[naws-golfer]

They were just delivered, look great, what’s your issue?

[Shades234]

Conventional wisdom is to spec the same shaft in your wedges as your irons but then bump it up a swing weight. E.g. D3 irons -> D4 wedges.

Congrats on the new sticks.

[meb7]

Good luck with the fresh sticks! I always prefer something a little heavier in the wedges, maybe a flex soft. I have c-tapers in my irons and hi-revs in the wedges, both X so the weights are similar. Wedges, as has been noted, as much more about feel. Less likely to load the wedges like you do your irons.

[naws-golfer]

Thanks I have some lead tape on my 56/60, hopefully the same shaft plus the lead tape will lead to a little more feel, but I like to swing most of my wedges close to full a few times a round