Drewtaylor21's Golf Journey (Swing Changes, WITB, Results)

[drewtaylor21]

Except for the Open, this may be TW's last trip overseas for tournament golf. I can't imagine why he would've taken Dubai on other than the appearance fee. Why wouldn't he have just taken he week off and stayed around LA to get ready for the Genesis ?

surely he doesn't need money from appearance fees, maybe nostalgia going to somewhere he's won a few times?

 

he did look really tired

 

My only guess is he knows he needs tournament reps to prep for Augusta, and while the flight sucks, if I'm a very rusty Tiger, Dubai is a lot friendlier than the WM Phoenix Open. Between the scar tissue at that course and the frenzy at 16, I'm not sure he wants anything to do with that place right now. Just a guess, but I do think he's become a bit fragile between the ears. Dubai should also be a bit warmer, and I think if we see Tiger continue to play for a few years, he's going to have to pick and choose some events that naturally allow him to keep the back warm and limber.

 

I'm a huge fan of NLU, and I was pleasantly surprised with Alan when he was on there. I may have to start listening to his, too. Shane Bacon's Clubhouse is pretty good if you want one more!

 

Thanks Matt, I'll check it out! I know Shane does good work. I'm not usually a big fan of Alan Shipnuck, but so far the podcasts have been good!

[NeedAJoker]

Awesome thread!

 

Thanks! What part of the PNW are you from, if you don't mind me asking? (I grew up in Yakima)

 

I live in Spokane, but actually was down in Yakima for a sales trip yesterday. Snowy and cold, you made the right choice to go south :-)

[drewtaylor21]

Awesome thread!

 

Thanks! What part of the PNW are you from, if you don't mind me asking? (I grew up in Yakima)

 

I live in Spokane, but actually was down in Yakima for a sales trip yesterday. Snowy and cold, you made the right choice to go south :-)

 

Haha yeah I miss skiing, but I'm fine with not having to deal with snow anymore! I did my undergrad in Spokane and have a bunch of friends still up there, and my sister and her family live there as well. Besides the winter, it's a great place to be! If you're ever in need of a good ENT surgeon, I know a guy :)

[Dave D]

Except for the Open, this may be TW's last trip overseas for tournament golf. I can't imagine why he would've taken Dubai on other than the appearance fee. Why wouldn't he have just taken he week off and stayed around LA to get ready for the Genesis ?

surely he doesn't need money from appearance fees, maybe nostalgia going to somewhere he's won a few times?

 

he did look really tired

 

My only guess is he knows he needs tournament reps to prep for Augusta, and while the flight sucks, if I'm a very rusty Tiger, Dubai is a lot friendlier than the WM Phoenix Open. Between the scar tissue at that course and the frenzy at 16, I'm not sure he wants anything to do with that place right now. Just a guess, but I do think he's become a bit fragile between the ears. Dubai should also be a bit warmer, and I think if we see Tiger continue to play for a few years, he's going to have to pick and choose some events that naturally allow him to keep the back warm and limber.

 

well that didn't go to plan :-(

[Forged4ever]

Hey Bro, I hope all's well and the little Guy is kickin *** ?

 

Madison had her PC in this thread and Alayna, who just turned 18yo and she was going through it, saw your vids and chirped to Maddie, "boy, he's cute." Madison informed her that while yes, you were nice looking and a great guy, you were too old for her, married with a child and she should go to her room and finish her home work, lol(she's a HS senior).

 

So little Ava has a crush on friggin KYMs(she loves clowns) and Alayna's asking about you, haha.

 

I Love this place?!!!!

 

Continued success Bro??

 

Always,

Richard

[drewtaylor21]

Hey Bro, I hope all's well and the little Guy is kickin *** ?

 

Madison had her PC in this thread and Alayna, who just turned 18yo and she was going through it, saw your vids and chirped to Maddie, "boy, he's cute." Madison informed her that while yes, you were nice looking and a great guy, you were too old for her, married with a child and she should go to her room and finish her home work, lol(she's a HS senior).

 

So little Ava has a crush on friggin KYMs(she loves clowns) and Alayna's asking about you, haha.

 

I Love this place?!!!!

 

Continued success Bro??

 

Always,

Richard

 

HA! Thanks for that Richard :rofl:

 

The little guy is most definitely kicking a** and stealing hearts!

 

 

[robrey85]

Hey Bro, I hope all's well and the little Guy is kickin *** ?

 

Madison had her PC in this thread and Alayna, who just turned 18yo and she was going through it, saw your vids and chirped to Maddie, "boy, he's cute." Madison informed her that while yes, you were nice looking and a great guy, you were too old for her, married with a child and she should go to her room and finish her home work, lol(she's a HS senior).

 

So little Ava has a crush on friggin KYMs(she loves clowns) and Alayna's asking about you, haha.

 

I Love this place?!!!!

 

Continued success Bro??

 

Always,

Richard

 

HA! Thanks for that Richard :rofl:

 

The little guy is most definitely kicking a** and stealing hearts!

 

 

 

My God, is that a banana tooth brush? :rofl:

[drewtaylor21]

My only guess is he knows he needs tournament reps to prep for Augusta, and while the flight sucks, if I'm a very rusty Tiger, Dubai is a lot friendlier than the WM Phoenix Open. Between the scar tissue at that course and the frenzy at 16, I'm not sure he wants anything to do with that place right now. Just a guess, but I do think he's become a bit fragile between the ears. Dubai should also be a bit warmer, and I think if we see Tiger continue to play for a few years, he's going to have to pick and choose some events that naturally allow him to keep the back warm and limber.

 

well that didn't go to plan :-(

 

No kidding. I hate seeing him like this, but sadly its become the new normal. I'm always hopeful regarding TW, but it's hard to be terribly optimistic right now.

 

How great is this though?? lol

 

 

 

[drewtaylor21]

HA! Thanks for that Richard :rofl:

 

The little guy is most definitely kicking a** and stealing hearts!

 

My God, is that a banana tooth brush? :rofl:

 

Hahaha yes. Yes it is. And he doesn't even have teeth!

 

:cheesy:

[CSagan]

NoLayingUp with the sauce. That is pretty dang funny.

 

Sadface about Tiger tho.

[nikegal]

HA! Thanks for that Richard :rofl:

 

The little guy is most definitely kicking a** and stealing hearts!

 

My God, is that a banana tooth brush? :rofl:

 

Hahaha yes. Yes it is. And he doesn't even have teeth!

 

:cheesy:

Oh Drew, he is soooo adorable, haha. He is going to be a real heart breaker!! I really hope that I am able to break away and come with Richard when he gets better and comes west to see you and the guys!! Oh, regarding KYMs, Ava put his avatar as her screen saver and her teacher actually removed it herself because it had the appearance of a "deviant" clown and would "scare" the other little children. What perturbed me is that she hurt Ava's feelings and while Ava did not cry at school(this is a great thing that Richard taught her that unfortunately I had little success with because he told her never to let others see her emotions, lol), the teacher hurt her feelings and she cried when she saw Richard that night. He of course was furious but I dealt with it as Richard has a tendency to be a bull in a closet when it comes to Ava, lol. KYMs, a "deviant," lol?? Who woulda thunk it, hahaha. Have a nice weekend :) Fondly, Madison

[drewtaylor21]

Oh Drew, he is soooo adorable, haha. He is going to be a real heart breaker!! I really hope that I am able to break away and come with Richard when he gets better and comes west to see you and the guys!! Oh, regarding KYMs, Ava put his avatar as her screen saver and her teacher actually removed it herself because it had the appearance of a "deviant" clown and would "scare" the other little children. What perturbed me is that she hurt Ava's feelings and while Ava did not cry at school(this is a great thing that Richard taught her that unfortunately I had little success with because he told her never to let others see her emotions, lol), the teacher hurt her feelings and she cried when she saw Richard that night. He of course was furious but I dealt with it as Richard has a tendency to be a bull in a closet when it comes to Ava, lol. KYMs, a "deviant," lol?? Who woulda thunk it, hahaha. Have a nice weekend :) Fondly, Madison

 

Thanks Madison, we're pretty crazy about him! And it'd be great to see both you and Richard, so I hope you guys can both make the trip West!

 

I remember reading a post from Richard in another thread where he first told Kymar about Ava loving him the most out of all of us due to his avatar and it always cracks me up! I'm not sure if deviant is the word for Kymar, but he's.....something! haha

[drewtaylor21]

The swing and driver saga continues.

 

Got over to RobRey85's house today for some backyard Flightscope testing. We originally planned on doing this last weekend pre-Super Bowl, but it didn't work out. Rob has been doing some serious WRX'ing (aka tinkering with clubs) and has finally settled into shaft/length/swingweight with his irons, so he wanted to dial in yardage gaps with the FS. I mentioned a page ago that I snagged a Callaway GBB for a song, so I've been wanting to see if it is at all similar to the Epic head I was fit into at Cool Clubs. I've made a couple very minor swing adjustments too, so it was a perfect time to get together and figure some things out.

 

Swing adjustments: I spoke with George Gankas on the phone last week just to discuss launch conditions with driver and some of what he likes to see. We ended up getting into my swing and he took a look at this video I sent him

 

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He pointed out that from FO I was getting a little too much of a shift to the right with flexion/forward bend from about p3.5 to the top, then I had to shift my midline laterally to the left to recover in transition. Finally, slamming the left knee into extension at impact, which causes me to wipe down and left. Result, high spin fade, the shot I've been hitting for a long time now. George recommended a few things. More right lateral bend at address to help hit up, a little bit more thoracic extension in the backswing, and a few other of his trademark approaches to remedy the lower body stuff. I've been doing some work in the last week to address this, as well as my own self-assessment that my ball position was just a hair too far back with driver.

 

SLDR is currently set at 10.5* in the upright position, sliding weight two clicks to the draw side, UST VTS 6x shaft.

GBB is set at 10*, draw setting, sliding weight all the way to draw side, and a Rogue 60x shaft.

 

After warming up, I hit 10 balls with the SLDR, followed by 10 with the GBB using a ProV1x for all shots. Rob and I were alternating, so fatigue was not an issue. I also used foot powder spray on the face for each ball just to verify contact location.

 

All in all, numbers are looking better. Ball position feels like its outside my left foot, but on camera it's maybe a ball forward lol. Between that and the slight bit of additional right lateral bend at address, I really feel good about my set-up position right now. I'm still getting a bit too much of a lateral shift and flexion at p3.5, but I don't think it's quite as pronounced. The feeling of leaving my hands up in transition is one that has worked very well for me in the past, and I've gone back to that this week and I think DTL looks much better as a result. DTL at p6 looks really good to my eye.

 

[media=]

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Anyway, interesting numbers between the two clubs! Here are the averages for carry, spin, ball speed, AoA, and lateral landing

 

SLDR: 297.4, 2784, 170.9, 1.8, 1.1 R

GBB: 302.6, 2810, 173.7, 1.6, 1.8 R

 

The GBB looks like the clear winner, but despite the lateral landing averages being nearly identical, I had a couple of larger misses both right and left with it compared to the SLDR. The left misses are something I won't tolerate, especially for only 5 yards of additional carry, so the jury is still out. Some of that is likely the swing adjustments, but I'd like to get the GBB on the course to see how things hold up there next.

 

I'll be back at Cool Clubs this week to do my re-fit with the SLDR vs Epic. I'm honestly a little more intrigued about testing the GBB vs. Epic with the Accra shaft I was fit into last time though! It would be an interesting head to head.....I'm hoping that I'll be able to hit all 3 heads and make a decision from there. Regardless, I was very pleased with the GBB today, as spin was nearly identical and it's definitely a more forgiving driver than the SLDR. If it performs well for me on-course (accuracy), I could legitimately see it going in the bag over the SLDR. Time will tell.....

[CSagan]

Dang that is a lot of movement on the backswing. You're gonna be stuck with that SLDR forever haha. GL with fitting!

[QMany]

Swing is looking pretty darn good, brother.

[drewtaylor21]

Swing is looking pretty darn good, brother.

 

Thanks Matt same to you! I've been feeling good about the swing overall, just had gotten a bit off the last couple weeks. George's comments were just what I needed to get back on track.

 

I'm very curious to see if the little tweaks will have an impact on club fitting decisions down in Cali this week. I'll keep you guys posted!

[Golfjack]

You hit the GBB 5 yards further, but it's 0.7 yards more to the right. Not sure if it's worth it!!!

 

BTW that right lateral bend looks like it's something that would be hard to change, but might add a little more consistency? Interestingly enough can't even tell that your swing does that from the DTL view. Been fun following your journey!

[drewtaylor21]

You hit the GBB 5 yards further, but it's 0.7 yards more to the right. Not sure if it's worth it!!!

 

BTW that right lateral bend looks like it's something that would be hard to change, but might add a little more consistency? Interestingly enough can't even tell that your swing does that from the DTL view. Been fun following your journey!

 

Lol, well as I said, it's not so much the average dispersion that gave me pause, it's the fact that I hit two semi-foul balls left with the GBB that I didn't like. They were balanced out by two semi-foul balls to the right though, whereas the SLDR shots had a more consistent pattern. I think the GBB misses were more due to the little swing tweaks than the club though, so I'm going to keep testing. I definitely like the extra ball speed and carry. It's a friendlier driver to hit than the SLDR, I just want to be sure I can control it as well.

 

You are correct about the flexion during the backswing, it does cause some consistency issues. One of my tendencies is to hang back a bit coming into impact, and I'm sure the two are related.

 

Thanks for following!

[robrey85]

You hit the GBB 5 yards further, but it's 0.7 yards more to the right. Not sure if it's worth it!!!

 

BTW that right lateral bend looks like it's something that would be hard to change, but might add a little more consistency? Interestingly enough can't even tell that your swing does that from the DTL view. Been fun following your journey!

 

Lol, well as I said, it's not so much the average dispersion that gave me pause, it's the fact that I hit two semi-foul balls left with the GBB that I didn't like. They were balanced out by two semi-foul balls to the right though, whereas the SLDR shots had a more consistent pattern. I think the GBB misses were more due to the little swing tweaks than the club though, so I'm going to keep testing. I definitely like the extra ball speed and carry. It's a friendlier driver to hit than the SLDR, I just want to be sure I can control it as well.

 

You are correct about the flexion during the backswing, it does cause some consistency issues. One of my tendencies is to hang back a bit coming into impact, and I'm sure the two are related.

 

Thanks for following!

 

Chop them craps down to 44.5 or 45"! You'll control it like a champ.

[drewtaylor21]

Chop them craps down to 44.5 or 45"! You'll control it like a champ.

 

Hurry up and get that club building workshop finished in the garage! :fan_1:

[robrey85]

Chop them craps down to 44.5 or 45"! You'll control it like a champ.

 

Hurry up and get that club building workshop finished in the garage! :fan_1:

 

Hah! Spot me $1200 and it'll be done this weekend! :taunt:

[drewtaylor21]

Got back to Cool Clubs in Irvine today for my driver re-fit.

 

First thing first, large tip of the cap to Josiah and Cool Clubs for taking care of me. Due to weather issues last time, I was unable to see ball flight and my swing got a little (a lot) out of sync, so I didn't trust the results. Josiah was confident in the fit and didn't think the recommendation would change, so he offered to have me come back in at no cost and re-test my SLDR against the club they fit me into, which was the Callaway Epic, 10.5*, draw setting on everything, and an Accra FX-260 shaft.

 

To start, I was getting really good numbers with the SLDR. I don't have the trackman report yet, but I hit 5 balls and was carrying them about 295 with spin in the low 2000's. Best numbers I've gotten with the SLDR to date! I am really liking the little swing tweaks I made, and it has definitely impacted launch conditions for the better. The Epic/Accra was actually launching too high and spinning a bit more, so he made some adjustments. I tried the Sub-Zero head, but he didn't love it for me. Went back to the standard Epic with lower loft and that seemed to help. Pretty much a tie with the SLDR. We tried another shaft that I had liked in the first fitting, a mitsubishi made-for Cool Clubs shaft, but it just wasn't as stable as the Accra.

 

At this point, Josiah let me mess with a couple other driver heads I had brought with me, the GBB head I've mentioned and a Cobra LTD head I just picked up to demo (always liked the feel of this driver, just hadn't really tested it). Admittedly, I would have like to mess around with the GBB a bit more. We only hit it with the Accra shaft, and I think there's more there, but he said the results from that combo just weren't beating anything we'd seen already. I hit it again on the range after the fitting, back with the Rogue 60x shaft it came with and still really like the feel and ball flight, so it is a back burner club for now....(edit, after seeing the numbers on the trackman report, this club is solid!!)

 

The real winner today was the 2017 M1 460. Paired with the Accra shaft, he actually had me in the 8.5* head. I didn't take the time to look at the sliding weight or head settings, but I was absolutely MASHING this club. I hit one ball and said "that's the one!" 310 carry, 330 total, tight ball flight, and it felt perfectly balanced coming into impact. I hit two more exactly the same and we were done. No way anything else was going to beat that he said!

 

I am not making any decisions just yet, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results today! We may have found something that will genuinely knock the SLDR out of the bag....stay tuned for some more fun :)

 

 

EDIT: Just got the trackman report from Josiah

 

Club speed, Ball Speed, Smash, Spin, Launch, Carry

 

SLDR 10.5*, standard lie, draw weight, UST VTS shaft: 116.6, 171.5, 1.47, 2600, 13*, 295.6

 

GBB Epic, 9*, draw setting lie and weight, Accra shaft: 118.8, 173.6, 1.47, 3014, 11.1*, 295.6

 

GBB (old) 10*, draw setting lie and weight, Accra shaft: 117.4, 173.2, 1.48, 13.5, 2358, 302.2

 

M1 460 8.5*, upright, weights max forward and draw, Accra shaft: 117.9, 174.6, 1.49, 2379, 12.3, 307.5

[CSagan]

M1 club! Leggo

[Hstead]

Knew that was coming.

[Golfjack]

Sweet! Welcome to 2017! LOL. That's a solid reason to switch for sure. Pretty much achieves everything you wanted to and more. You're getting not 5 yards but 12!!! That extra distance should help translate into some great results!

 

Question: Slider 10.5 and M1 8.5 delivered nearly the same launch angle. Did you tilt more yourself or were the degrees adjusted on the clubs?

[drewtaylor21]

Sweet! Welcome to 2017! LOL. That's a solid reason to switch for sure. Pretty much achieves everything you wanted to and more. You're getting not 5 yards but 12!!! That extra distance should help translate into some great results!

 

Question: Slider 10.5 and M1 8.5 delivered nearly the same launch angle. Did you tilt more yourself or were the degrees adjusted on the clubs?

 

Launch seemed to be fluctuating from ~11-14 today just depending on attack angle and where I was hitting it on the face. I had a +5 AoA on one of the shots with the M1 lol, new record for me!!

 

I was hitting the ball very high today though, so I think if I continue making the same type of swing I will end up in a lower lofted driver than what I've been playing the past few years.

[Golfjack]

So any chance we get to see a new round of auditions of hybrids to replace the other SLDR in the bag? Or the distance gapping is right where you want it to be?

[robrey85]

Now that's DJ style AoA!

[drewtaylor21]

So any chance we get to see a new round of auditions of hybrids to replace the other SLDR in the bag? Or the distance gapping is right where you want it to be?

 

Currently the gapping is where I want it, but the hybrid is definitely the most inconsistent club in my bag as far as dispersion goes.....there are some interesting things coming though :)

[Dave D]

All these damn M1s & M2s! It's a freaking epidemic!

 

12 yards more carry though is worth the change! How was it on dispersion?