StanTheCaddy
Who wants 2 have some fun
On Saturday, April 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] I went for my first ever fitting. I got an iron and driver fitting for Christmas and was real excited for this entire experience. I was also a little nervous about the whole experience as well. I was going to make a major purchase based on this session. Being this was my first time going through a fitting I wanted to make sure I got the right clubs for me.
I was really focused on the iron part of the fitting since I had planned on getting new irons for this season. I’m thrilled with my driver shaft from the #HandCraftedExperience but was curious to see it perform with some other heads in it. I had the raw shaft from the #HandCraftedExperience tipped with a TaylorMade adapter so I could try all the new Callaway and TaylorMade drivers with my shaft.
I showed up to the range about 20 minutes prior to the fitting. I let the guy at the register know I was here and he told me I could stretch or hit a small bucket in the stall at the end. The fitting studio is separate from the range. I went down to the end of the range and decided to just stretch and do warmup swings. I figured I was going to hit plenty of golf balls during the fitting.
When I was up Bill (head of the facility and fitter) came up to me and asked if I was up next for a fitting. He was very nice and walked me into the fitting studio. Once I got into the private studio Bill asked me some questions about my game. We talked about my game and current equipment. I told him I had been trying a few irons leading up to the fitting and told him what I was looking for in an iron. I let him know I was looking for a GI iron but nothing SGI but I definitely valued forgiveness, consistency and distance. However, I went in with an open mind. I told him I’ll play steel or graphite shafts and I ultimately wanted the best possible club. This was my mindset and I believe is real important going to a fitting.
Bill had me start off hitting some shots with my current 6 and 7 irons. The hitting bay was turf but not your typical mat you see at the driving range. Much softer and let you know when you hit it fat. The bay looked out onto the driving range and was hooked up to a Trackman. Being able to hit outside and be able to see the shot was something I really valued and part of the reason I chose Novo Golf for my fitting. Once he had some baseline numbers with my current irons we got started.
What Bill told me was that he would give me iron/shaft combos and that I should not look at the club or shaft. Just take it and swing. It was tough but I did this. I never looked to see what iron or shaft I was hitting. This eliminated the bias and let the numbers speak for themselves. With that said, I still knew occasionally what shaft or club I was hitting. I knew when I was hitting a Recoil shaft and a couple irons that have a distinct look.
I hit a whole bunch of irons shafts: KBS, True Temper, Mitsubishi OTi’s, UST Recoils, Matrix Programs and a few other graphite shafts. The irons I hit included: Callaway Apex CF16, TaylorMade M2 and M2 Tours, Cobra King F6, Mizuno JPX 850’s, Titleist AP 1’s, Miura irons (not sure which ones), Epon’s (I believe AF-703) PXG's (again, not sure which one) and a few others I can't remember that I’m leaving out. In other words, A LOT of different combos. Bill was using the numbers from Trackman and asking me about how certain combo’s felt to eliminate certain options and whittle it down.
After hitting a bunch of different combos Bill started putting the same shaft in different heads. Based on my feedback and the numbers it was clear to him that this was the correct shaft. After hitting a few different clubs with the same shaft he started to go back and forth between 2 irons that were clearly outperforming the others based on the numbers.
The shaft was the Mitsubishi Rayon OTi85 in regular flex. It actually came down to this exact shaft in regular or stiff flex as the best performing for me. The 2 top irons for me were the TaylorMade M2’s and The Titleist AP 1’s. After some more swings it was clear what the winner was. Looking at the numbers between these 2 (I also asked him to show me some numbers from other clubs as well just to see them) the TaylorMade M2’s were the CLEAR winner. They were the longest, straightest and most forgiving. It was ironic because I told Bill at the start of the fitting that I wasn’t a huge fan of the look of the bigger irons. When he showed me the results he told me “I know you’re not going to like to hear it but the clear winner is the M2’s.” I knew he was going to say it because I knew when I was hitting the M2’s based on the look at address. Definitely not my favorite look at address, probably my least favorite actually. But every time I hit I was just launching it and it was so easy to hit. Not only that, but my misses were going straighter and longer based on the eye test when I was watching the ball. In the end the M2’s were 4 yards longer than any other iron (AP 1’s came in 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] place) and the forgiveness was better than the others as well.
I brought my “C” swing to the fitting and that was probably perfect. I had the perfect mix of great, good, average, bad and awful shots. Through them all the TaylorMade M2’s were the winners. Now I was going to really test my “Open Mind” theory. I said I was going to go with the numbers but did I really want to pull the trigger on a set of SGI irons? I looked at the numbers some more and talked through them with Bill who really knows his stuff. There were clubs where I averaged a higher smash factor than but still fell short of the M2’s. This to me spoke a lot about the forgiveness of the club. Additionally, he talked to me a lot about my very high launch angle. The M2’s didn’t spin as much as the others and with my high launch the spin numbers were real good with the M2/OTi combo. Some of the others were ballooning and losing distance because of the high launch higher spin. With some of the lower spinning shafts I had a difficult time getting good distance and I didn’t like the way those shafts felt.
After talking numbers about how much the TaylorMade M2/Mitsubishi OTi85 combo would cost (The OT iron shafts are pricey) I decided to pull the trigger. However, since we kind of went back and forth on the flex Bill thought it would be best to hard step the OT85 Regulars. I preferred the weight to the stiff flex which was 7 grams heavier. Bill also told me that he would bend them 1* up based on the fitting. Last I told him I wanted Golf Pride Tour Velvet .620 grips. I like the way the club feels with an undersized grip even though I have large hands. Just a personal preference that I’ve gone to in all my woods so I figured I’d do the same with my irons.
So in the end, The TaylorMade M2 irons 5-GW will be in the bag this season. He said they should be ready by next week. The only concern I have is with the PW, GW and maybe the 9 iron. I like hit 3 quarter shots with these clubs and I really like chipping with the PW and GW. Coming from the original Apex irons this will be an adjustment. I will be paying close attention how I do around the greens and with the knock down shots. If they aren’t performing I may have swap up 2 or all 3 for the M2 Tour’s. That's for later though, I'm very excited to know that I'll be gaming the right irons for me this season.
This whole process took about 1.5 hours. We took a break and came back and hit some drivers but to be honest I was worn out and didn’t have enough left in the tank to be able to really make a decision on if I would get a new driver. I think if I were to do it again I would do the iron fitting and driver fitting on separate days instead of back to back. Bill ordered the shafts and irons and told me he’d give me a call when they were ready.
The experience I had with Bill at Novo Golf was very positive and would recommend him to anyone in the Tri-State area. It’s a great facility with so many different head and shaft combo’s. The only thing I would have liked to have been a little different would be to try a 6 or7 iron then maybe a 9 or PW instead of only hitting 6 and 7 irons. I left very happy and can’t wait to get the irons on the course. I meant to take some pictures but go so caught up in the fitting I forgot so here are some pictures of the studio from the internet.
I was really focused on the iron part of the fitting since I had planned on getting new irons for this season. I’m thrilled with my driver shaft from the #HandCraftedExperience but was curious to see it perform with some other heads in it. I had the raw shaft from the #HandCraftedExperience tipped with a TaylorMade adapter so I could try all the new Callaway and TaylorMade drivers with my shaft.
I showed up to the range about 20 minutes prior to the fitting. I let the guy at the register know I was here and he told me I could stretch or hit a small bucket in the stall at the end. The fitting studio is separate from the range. I went down to the end of the range and decided to just stretch and do warmup swings. I figured I was going to hit plenty of golf balls during the fitting.
When I was up Bill (head of the facility and fitter) came up to me and asked if I was up next for a fitting. He was very nice and walked me into the fitting studio. Once I got into the private studio Bill asked me some questions about my game. We talked about my game and current equipment. I told him I had been trying a few irons leading up to the fitting and told him what I was looking for in an iron. I let him know I was looking for a GI iron but nothing SGI but I definitely valued forgiveness, consistency and distance. However, I went in with an open mind. I told him I’ll play steel or graphite shafts and I ultimately wanted the best possible club. This was my mindset and I believe is real important going to a fitting.
Bill had me start off hitting some shots with my current 6 and 7 irons. The hitting bay was turf but not your typical mat you see at the driving range. Much softer and let you know when you hit it fat. The bay looked out onto the driving range and was hooked up to a Trackman. Being able to hit outside and be able to see the shot was something I really valued and part of the reason I chose Novo Golf for my fitting. Once he had some baseline numbers with my current irons we got started.
What Bill told me was that he would give me iron/shaft combos and that I should not look at the club or shaft. Just take it and swing. It was tough but I did this. I never looked to see what iron or shaft I was hitting. This eliminated the bias and let the numbers speak for themselves. With that said, I still knew occasionally what shaft or club I was hitting. I knew when I was hitting a Recoil shaft and a couple irons that have a distinct look.
I hit a whole bunch of irons shafts: KBS, True Temper, Mitsubishi OTi’s, UST Recoils, Matrix Programs and a few other graphite shafts. The irons I hit included: Callaway Apex CF16, TaylorMade M2 and M2 Tours, Cobra King F6, Mizuno JPX 850’s, Titleist AP 1’s, Miura irons (not sure which ones), Epon’s (I believe AF-703) PXG's (again, not sure which one) and a few others I can't remember that I’m leaving out. In other words, A LOT of different combos. Bill was using the numbers from Trackman and asking me about how certain combo’s felt to eliminate certain options and whittle it down.
After hitting a bunch of different combos Bill started putting the same shaft in different heads. Based on my feedback and the numbers it was clear to him that this was the correct shaft. After hitting a few different clubs with the same shaft he started to go back and forth between 2 irons that were clearly outperforming the others based on the numbers.
The shaft was the Mitsubishi Rayon OTi85 in regular flex. It actually came down to this exact shaft in regular or stiff flex as the best performing for me. The 2 top irons for me were the TaylorMade M2’s and The Titleist AP 1’s. After some more swings it was clear what the winner was. Looking at the numbers between these 2 (I also asked him to show me some numbers from other clubs as well just to see them) the TaylorMade M2’s were the CLEAR winner. They were the longest, straightest and most forgiving. It was ironic because I told Bill at the start of the fitting that I wasn’t a huge fan of the look of the bigger irons. When he showed me the results he told me “I know you’re not going to like to hear it but the clear winner is the M2’s.” I knew he was going to say it because I knew when I was hitting the M2’s based on the look at address. Definitely not my favorite look at address, probably my least favorite actually. But every time I hit I was just launching it and it was so easy to hit. Not only that, but my misses were going straighter and longer based on the eye test when I was watching the ball. In the end the M2’s were 4 yards longer than any other iron (AP 1’s came in 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] place) and the forgiveness was better than the others as well.
I brought my “C” swing to the fitting and that was probably perfect. I had the perfect mix of great, good, average, bad and awful shots. Through them all the TaylorMade M2’s were the winners. Now I was going to really test my “Open Mind” theory. I said I was going to go with the numbers but did I really want to pull the trigger on a set of SGI irons? I looked at the numbers some more and talked through them with Bill who really knows his stuff. There were clubs where I averaged a higher smash factor than but still fell short of the M2’s. This to me spoke a lot about the forgiveness of the club. Additionally, he talked to me a lot about my very high launch angle. The M2’s didn’t spin as much as the others and with my high launch the spin numbers were real good with the M2/OTi combo. Some of the others were ballooning and losing distance because of the high launch higher spin. With some of the lower spinning shafts I had a difficult time getting good distance and I didn’t like the way those shafts felt.
After talking numbers about how much the TaylorMade M2/Mitsubishi OTi85 combo would cost (The OT iron shafts are pricey) I decided to pull the trigger. However, since we kind of went back and forth on the flex Bill thought it would be best to hard step the OT85 Regulars. I preferred the weight to the stiff flex which was 7 grams heavier. Bill also told me that he would bend them 1* up based on the fitting. Last I told him I wanted Golf Pride Tour Velvet .620 grips. I like the way the club feels with an undersized grip even though I have large hands. Just a personal preference that I’ve gone to in all my woods so I figured I’d do the same with my irons.
So in the end, The TaylorMade M2 irons 5-GW will be in the bag this season. He said they should be ready by next week. The only concern I have is with the PW, GW and maybe the 9 iron. I like hit 3 quarter shots with these clubs and I really like chipping with the PW and GW. Coming from the original Apex irons this will be an adjustment. I will be paying close attention how I do around the greens and with the knock down shots. If they aren’t performing I may have swap up 2 or all 3 for the M2 Tour’s. That's for later though, I'm very excited to know that I'll be gaming the right irons for me this season.
This whole process took about 1.5 hours. We took a break and came back and hit some drivers but to be honest I was worn out and didn’t have enough left in the tank to be able to really make a decision on if I would get a new driver. I think if I were to do it again I would do the iron fitting and driver fitting on separate days instead of back to back. Bill ordered the shafts and irons and told me he’d give me a call when they were ready.
The experience I had with Bill at Novo Golf was very positive and would recommend him to anyone in the Tri-State area. It’s a great facility with so many different head and shaft combo’s. The only thing I would have liked to have been a little different would be to try a 6 or7 iron then maybe a 9 or PW instead of only hitting 6 and 7 irons. I left very happy and can’t wait to get the irons on the course. I meant to take some pictures but go so caught up in the fitting I forgot so here are some pictures of the studio from the internet.
