arydolphin
GTHC!
I had a fitting at the Taylormade Performance Lab in Bolton, Massachusetts yesterday. The facility is about an hour west of downtown Boston. I thought I'd post a review for people that are curious about this process, to go along with other reviews on this site about the facility. I didn't take my camera, so no pictures, sorry.
First of all, a little bit about my game. I'm a 13 handicap, 30 years old, play a round once/week and get to the range 2-3 times/week. I've only been fitted for my driver and putter in the past. Prior to the fitting, I hadn't had my swing speed measured since a couple of years ago, when it was low-80s with a 6-iron and high-90s with the driver. I used to fight hooking the ball, but taking lessons this summer resulted in significant grip and posture changes. I know that I've gained clubhead speed with the changes and am now fighting a slice, so I thought this was a good time to get fitted for new clubs. Short game and putting is the best part of my game; accuracy with the long clubs in my bag, especially the driver, is my weakness. Bag setup prior to the fitting: TM 2007 Burner TP 10.5* with Matrix X-Con 5 stiff shaft, Ping G15 17* with Aldila Serrano stiff shaft, Adams Idea Pro Gold 20* and 23* with Matrix Altus stiff shafts, Callaway X-18 Pro Series 5-PW with Dynamic Gold S300 shafts, Cleveland CG12 wedges (50*, 54*, 60*), TM Mezza Monza 35" putter. My priority for the fitting was looking for a new driver, iron set, and putter. I am a Taylormade fan, but as you can see from my current bag, I'm not particularly loyal to their brand, I'll play what works best for me.
The session started with meeting the fitter, Steve Tolpa. He was very easy to talk to, and instantly put me at ease as I was pretty nervous coming into the session. We talked about my current bag setup, and what my likes and dislikes were. We also talked about my tendencies and what I'm working on with my instructor at this time. After a few practice swings, we moved on to the motion capture part of the session. A bunch of motion capture sensors are attached to your chest, back, waist, elbows, wrists, knees, and feet. You also wear a hat with sensors on it. You may think that all of those sensors are cumbersome, but after a couple of swings, I didn't notice them at all. The fitting is done with standardized clubs that have sensors on them as well, and I hit 4 clubs: 6-iron, sand wedge, driver, and putter. You take at least 6 swings with each club, and you wait for a tone to sound letting you know that the motion capture system is ready, and then you take a normal swing.
After you are done with each club, you get to review a TON of stats about your swing, as well as look at a 3-D reconstruction of your swing. Basically, if you've seen how EA Sports does the motion capture stuff for their sports games, you will see yourself looking like that on the swing. The good stuff for me: average 6-iron swing speed was 87.1 mph, average driver swing speed was 103.7 mph! Also, my path was all of my clubs approaching the ball was slightly from the inside, my path with the 6-iron was 4.5 degrees downward, so I know that I'm actually hitting down on the ball. However, the clubface for the driver averaged 6.6 degrees open to the path, no wonder I've been slicing my driver! There are a ton more stats that you can look at, as well as different numbers that the fitter can calculate based on the 3-D model of your swing. The fun part for me was learning my "new" swingspeeds, and also learning that my swingpath was pretty good, but I needed to work on the open club face at impact. Also, my current driver was fit for me 3 years ago, when I had a negative angle of impact with the driver (aka hitting down on it) and spun the ball a ton, so I got fit into a low spin head (2007 Burner TP) with a high loft and high-launch shaft (Matrix X-Con 5) to try to increase the launch and decrease the spin. Hitting drivers at this fitting showed that my angle of attack was -0.2 degrees (essentially flat), and my spin numbers were pretty low. Steve thought that the Supertri would be a better head than the Superfast head, because he felt that the extra spin from the Supertri head would work better for my swing. Sorry, I didn't ask him if there was a huge spin difference between the regular Superfast head and the Superfast TP head.
With my putter, I've always had a forward press and known that I've delofted my putter. My current putter has 2 additional degrees of loft from standard. We figured out that I still need additional loft added to my putter, but Steve also showed me that I could change my putter stance to get my right forearm more in line with the putter shaft, which should result in a more consistent stroke. Also, I had no idea, but the toe of the putter I tried was off the ground compared to the heel, so I need a putter that is bent flat compared to standard. I also discussed with Steve that I'm having trouble on faster greens, and he told me that I wouldn't need as much loft on faster greens, so we decided that 1 additional degree of loft would be better to go with on a new putter. At the end of the indoor portion, the computer gives you a set recommendation, but then you go outside to test all of those clubs!
We put a ton of club heads and shafts in a staff bag and packed up the launch monitor and went to the range. I warmed up hitting a couple of the XFT wedges, which was my first time hitting those wedges. I really didn't notice the edges of the removable face after a couple of shots, but the wedges didn't wow me. After that, I moved on to hitting 6-irons. Steve thought that the R9 irons would be the best fit for me, and I was happy to hear that since I had my eye on those irons prior to the fitting. With my swing speed, we didn't even consider the stock shafts; I hit the Dynamic Gold S300, KBS Tour Stiff, and Project X 6.0 shafts. I am pretty familiar with DG S300 from my current irons, and hit them pretty well. I moved onto the KBS Tour Stiff shafts, and noted a slightly lighter, but smoother feel in those shafts along with a slightly higher ballflight. I tried the Project X shafts for a few swings, but didn't like the harsh feel at all. I then hit the 19* Rescue TP hybrid, which fit my swing much better than the non-TP hybrid. Next, we moved onto drivers. I first tried the R9 Supertri with the Aldila Voodoo VS6 stiff shaft in 3 configurations: 10.5* on neutral, 9.5* on neutral, 9.5* with 1* closed. The launch was a little low on both of the 9.5* settings, and while the launch was better on the 10.5* degrees setting, the spin was a little too high and the dispersion wasn't great. Steve wanted to try other shafts, so I first tried the Fubuki 63 stiff shaft in the 10.5* degree head. The feel of the shaft was MUCH better than the Voodoo shaft, but wasn't as straight as we wanted, so we moved onto the Fubuki 73. This was the combo that I've been looking for, high straight bombs! This was a shaft that I would have never considered for myself prior to the fitting. After that, Steve asked me if I wanted to hit anything else, and we went back to the irons for a final decision. In the end, the KBS Tour Stiff won out over the DG S300 shafts.
The final part of the day was on the putting green. 3 models were brought out: Daytona, Ghost, and Spider Vicino. I definitely rolled the Ghost better than the other putters. The funniest part of the day was when Steve told me to hit some long putts to evaluate distance control with the Ghost. We picked a hole about 50 feet away, and I ended up making 2 out of 3 putts! Steve and I were laughing because we couldn't believe it, and I knew that I had found my new putter!
At the end of the day, I got a printout of all of my stats from the indoor portion of the day, along with a CD that has all of the videos of my swings on them. I also got a printout of my recommended set of clubs, and can order them from Taylormade through the fitting center whenever I want to do that.
As you can tell from the amount that I typed, I thought that the whole process was extremely fun and informative. I was told to expect it to take 2.5 hours; I ended up spending close to 4 hours there, mainly because Steve was patient with all of my questions and let me hit the clubs outside as much as I wanted to. He even told me that he wanted me to take more swings to make sure I knew what performed best, because he wanted to make sure that I was happy with my new clubs and not have to compromise. I never felt that Steve was trying to be a salesman for Taylormade, he really just wanted me to have fun with the process and find clubs that would make me play better.
Full disclosure: I had a gift certificate for this fitting that was a Christmas gift from my family last year when they were running the two-for-one special last holiday season (my Dad also did a fitting earlier this year). So I didn't pay for the fitting. The regular price at the facility that I went to is $350, which is pretty steep. However, I think that this process is such a unique thing that it justifies the price as a one-time thing. I can't see myself doing this every year, but may use it in the future if my swing changes significantly again. Also, I've always been a club and technology junkie, so all of the numbers that were presented were really fun for me to see. Finally, if you're a big Taylormade fan, you have to consider this experience because you can literally be a kid in the Taylormade candy store with basically any club to want to hit at your disposal.
If you've been patient enough to read to the bottom of this, thank you! Please feel free to ask any questions about the fitting in this thread, I'll try to answer them as best as I can.
First of all, a little bit about my game. I'm a 13 handicap, 30 years old, play a round once/week and get to the range 2-3 times/week. I've only been fitted for my driver and putter in the past. Prior to the fitting, I hadn't had my swing speed measured since a couple of years ago, when it was low-80s with a 6-iron and high-90s with the driver. I used to fight hooking the ball, but taking lessons this summer resulted in significant grip and posture changes. I know that I've gained clubhead speed with the changes and am now fighting a slice, so I thought this was a good time to get fitted for new clubs. Short game and putting is the best part of my game; accuracy with the long clubs in my bag, especially the driver, is my weakness. Bag setup prior to the fitting: TM 2007 Burner TP 10.5* with Matrix X-Con 5 stiff shaft, Ping G15 17* with Aldila Serrano stiff shaft, Adams Idea Pro Gold 20* and 23* with Matrix Altus stiff shafts, Callaway X-18 Pro Series 5-PW with Dynamic Gold S300 shafts, Cleveland CG12 wedges (50*, 54*, 60*), TM Mezza Monza 35" putter. My priority for the fitting was looking for a new driver, iron set, and putter. I am a Taylormade fan, but as you can see from my current bag, I'm not particularly loyal to their brand, I'll play what works best for me.
The session started with meeting the fitter, Steve Tolpa. He was very easy to talk to, and instantly put me at ease as I was pretty nervous coming into the session. We talked about my current bag setup, and what my likes and dislikes were. We also talked about my tendencies and what I'm working on with my instructor at this time. After a few practice swings, we moved on to the motion capture part of the session. A bunch of motion capture sensors are attached to your chest, back, waist, elbows, wrists, knees, and feet. You also wear a hat with sensors on it. You may think that all of those sensors are cumbersome, but after a couple of swings, I didn't notice them at all. The fitting is done with standardized clubs that have sensors on them as well, and I hit 4 clubs: 6-iron, sand wedge, driver, and putter. You take at least 6 swings with each club, and you wait for a tone to sound letting you know that the motion capture system is ready, and then you take a normal swing.
After you are done with each club, you get to review a TON of stats about your swing, as well as look at a 3-D reconstruction of your swing. Basically, if you've seen how EA Sports does the motion capture stuff for their sports games, you will see yourself looking like that on the swing. The good stuff for me: average 6-iron swing speed was 87.1 mph, average driver swing speed was 103.7 mph! Also, my path was all of my clubs approaching the ball was slightly from the inside, my path with the 6-iron was 4.5 degrees downward, so I know that I'm actually hitting down on the ball. However, the clubface for the driver averaged 6.6 degrees open to the path, no wonder I've been slicing my driver! There are a ton more stats that you can look at, as well as different numbers that the fitter can calculate based on the 3-D model of your swing. The fun part for me was learning my "new" swingspeeds, and also learning that my swingpath was pretty good, but I needed to work on the open club face at impact. Also, my current driver was fit for me 3 years ago, when I had a negative angle of impact with the driver (aka hitting down on it) and spun the ball a ton, so I got fit into a low spin head (2007 Burner TP) with a high loft and high-launch shaft (Matrix X-Con 5) to try to increase the launch and decrease the spin. Hitting drivers at this fitting showed that my angle of attack was -0.2 degrees (essentially flat), and my spin numbers were pretty low. Steve thought that the Supertri would be a better head than the Superfast head, because he felt that the extra spin from the Supertri head would work better for my swing. Sorry, I didn't ask him if there was a huge spin difference between the regular Superfast head and the Superfast TP head.
With my putter, I've always had a forward press and known that I've delofted my putter. My current putter has 2 additional degrees of loft from standard. We figured out that I still need additional loft added to my putter, but Steve also showed me that I could change my putter stance to get my right forearm more in line with the putter shaft, which should result in a more consistent stroke. Also, I had no idea, but the toe of the putter I tried was off the ground compared to the heel, so I need a putter that is bent flat compared to standard. I also discussed with Steve that I'm having trouble on faster greens, and he told me that I wouldn't need as much loft on faster greens, so we decided that 1 additional degree of loft would be better to go with on a new putter. At the end of the indoor portion, the computer gives you a set recommendation, but then you go outside to test all of those clubs!
We put a ton of club heads and shafts in a staff bag and packed up the launch monitor and went to the range. I warmed up hitting a couple of the XFT wedges, which was my first time hitting those wedges. I really didn't notice the edges of the removable face after a couple of shots, but the wedges didn't wow me. After that, I moved on to hitting 6-irons. Steve thought that the R9 irons would be the best fit for me, and I was happy to hear that since I had my eye on those irons prior to the fitting. With my swing speed, we didn't even consider the stock shafts; I hit the Dynamic Gold S300, KBS Tour Stiff, and Project X 6.0 shafts. I am pretty familiar with DG S300 from my current irons, and hit them pretty well. I moved onto the KBS Tour Stiff shafts, and noted a slightly lighter, but smoother feel in those shafts along with a slightly higher ballflight. I tried the Project X shafts for a few swings, but didn't like the harsh feel at all. I then hit the 19* Rescue TP hybrid, which fit my swing much better than the non-TP hybrid. Next, we moved onto drivers. I first tried the R9 Supertri with the Aldila Voodoo VS6 stiff shaft in 3 configurations: 10.5* on neutral, 9.5* on neutral, 9.5* with 1* closed. The launch was a little low on both of the 9.5* settings, and while the launch was better on the 10.5* degrees setting, the spin was a little too high and the dispersion wasn't great. Steve wanted to try other shafts, so I first tried the Fubuki 63 stiff shaft in the 10.5* degree head. The feel of the shaft was MUCH better than the Voodoo shaft, but wasn't as straight as we wanted, so we moved onto the Fubuki 73. This was the combo that I've been looking for, high straight bombs! This was a shaft that I would have never considered for myself prior to the fitting. After that, Steve asked me if I wanted to hit anything else, and we went back to the irons for a final decision. In the end, the KBS Tour Stiff won out over the DG S300 shafts.
The final part of the day was on the putting green. 3 models were brought out: Daytona, Ghost, and Spider Vicino. I definitely rolled the Ghost better than the other putters. The funniest part of the day was when Steve told me to hit some long putts to evaluate distance control with the Ghost. We picked a hole about 50 feet away, and I ended up making 2 out of 3 putts! Steve and I were laughing because we couldn't believe it, and I knew that I had found my new putter!
At the end of the day, I got a printout of all of my stats from the indoor portion of the day, along with a CD that has all of the videos of my swings on them. I also got a printout of my recommended set of clubs, and can order them from Taylormade through the fitting center whenever I want to do that.
As you can tell from the amount that I typed, I thought that the whole process was extremely fun and informative. I was told to expect it to take 2.5 hours; I ended up spending close to 4 hours there, mainly because Steve was patient with all of my questions and let me hit the clubs outside as much as I wanted to. He even told me that he wanted me to take more swings to make sure I knew what performed best, because he wanted to make sure that I was happy with my new clubs and not have to compromise. I never felt that Steve was trying to be a salesman for Taylormade, he really just wanted me to have fun with the process and find clubs that would make me play better.
Full disclosure: I had a gift certificate for this fitting that was a Christmas gift from my family last year when they were running the two-for-one special last holiday season (my Dad also did a fitting earlier this year). So I didn't pay for the fitting. The regular price at the facility that I went to is $350, which is pretty steep. However, I think that this process is such a unique thing that it justifies the price as a one-time thing. I can't see myself doing this every year, but may use it in the future if my swing changes significantly again. Also, I've always been a club and technology junkie, so all of the numbers that were presented were really fun for me to see. Finally, if you're a big Taylormade fan, you have to consider this experience because you can literally be a kid in the Taylormade candy store with basically any club to want to hit at your disposal.
If you've been patient enough to read to the bottom of this, thank you! Please feel free to ask any questions about the fitting in this thread, I'll try to answer them as best as I can.
