Sluggish swing speed fitting three years later

[sfdoddsy]

A few years back, I took advantage of a special offer from Australia's premier club outfit and had a driver fitting.

Now that I am old and decrepit my swing is increasingly sluggish, but it is (apparently) very efficient.

Their recommendation was to keep my then current driver (Callaway GBB), but change shafts. And they had numbers to back it up.

Of course, being a Golfwrx ho, I did nothing of the sort.

Cut to a dozen or so drivers later.

The same place is currently having a similar special offer, so I went back in today and had another fitting. My current driver is a Ping G410.

This time the recommendation was that the G410 is too low spin and I needed to get launch and spin up. The winner was a lofted up Cobra F9 and a very light Accra shaft.

Once again, they had numbers to back it up.

However, when I went back to my fitting from 2016, it became fairly obvious that (for me anyway) there has been zero improvement from three years of driver technological breakthroughs.

I suspect I'm probably better off with a lighter shaft than I think, but the 2020 F9/Accra is no different than the 2016 GBB/Oban HB.

Ball speed, smash factor, launch, spin, carry and dispersion are basically identical.

My conclusion is that driver improvement is marginal at least for me. Which is not such a bad thing I guess.

Aside from the occasional hook, I was swinging quite well today.

Here's the figures.

 

[WristySwing]

I don't think there is anyway to put this other than bluntly.

I think this is a very, very misinformed view on what is going on. The fitter got your smash factor perfectly efficient 3.5 years ago, and as you said, you did nothing about it and tried a whirlwind of drivers and you are now on the 410. You go back in for a fitting, they fit you perfectly again, increasing your carry by almost 16 yards due to a more efficient strike and using spin to keep it in the air longer, which makes total sense from a fitting perspective. Yet now your PO'd that you don't gain anything further from 3 years ago despite your swing speed dropping 2 miles an hour...yet the ball speed was actually faster?

Dude, no. That alone should tell you that technology has improved. A perfectly centred strike loses roughly 3-4y of carry for every mile per hour lost of input speed. You are inputting roughly 2mph less speed but gaining 3mph more output. You have this backwards. They fit you better this time than they did 3-4 years ago. How can you possibly conclude that tech and fitting is junk when you gained 16 yards of carry over your current driver? What you could hit 3 years ago is irrelevant to the equation. Tiger could hit a driver with 180+ ball speed with an X100 tipped 1.5" inches in a steel headed driver, now he gets about 170 ball speed with a 65g shaft in a titanium head. You sound like one of those old codgers that comes in to the retail stores and is ticked off they don't hit a 6i 200 yards but they do on the course. Your expectations vs. reality are not very aligned.

Time moves forward not back. I would be over the freaking moon if someone got me 16 yards I didn't know I had and hitting it as far as I did 3-4 years ago, especially if my distance had dropped. It's obviously up to you whether or not you want to buy the club but that is a freaking massive improvement.

[puttingmatt]

Basically , a lighter shaft is all that is left for you . Outside of working on

your swing, which you won't do. Most don't. You can only buy so much

so called improvement from equipment, i think your carry numbers

show the story, Father Time, waits for no one. As always, the last place a golfer looks at , is his swing,

 

[puttingmatt]

One final note, you can look at lighter shafts or even counterbalanced shafrs, keeping in mind of swingweight and feel concerns, but this would require another meeting with a fitter, which you may or may not want to do, you still have choices.

[sfdoddsy]

Just a follow up. I ended up buying the recommended F9, initially with the stock Helium shaft.

Good drives were about the same as good drives with my G410, which was about the same as my Fusion etc etc.

But a bunch more than I'd like leaked right instead of my usual slight draw.

So I added the recommended shaft (Accra i42).

I'm not normally a massive shaft believer since my numbers (on Trackman) are fairly consistent whatever I hit. But in terms of dispersion the i42 certainly seems to suit me better than the Helium.

A few misses left but none right, which is fine with me as I prefer a one way miss.

Distance feels like it is a bit more consistent, if not necessarily longer on well-struck shots. Height is up.

Driving is normally my strength, but I only missed two fairways today (first two holes) so that is better than average.

Since I also had an unusually good putting and short iron round I shot my lowest score for quite a while.

:)

 

 

[sfdoddsy]

Just an update on my update. I took the Cobra/Accra down to my local golf store for an extended shootout on a GC2 versus my old Callaway Fusion gamer, which I should never have dumped.

The numbers don't quite match the Trackman (higher ball speed and spin) and I was swinging very well, but the Cobra/Accra combo was slightly longer and noticeably and measurably more consistent.

The shot shape was my preferred slight draw, and front to back and side were much tighter.

So I take my skepticism fully back.

 

[mgoblue83]

Trust the Trackman numbers over a GC2. Glad you have positive results. You had nobody to blame except yourself based on the first post.