skujan
Active member
Maybe just a bad round. The new driver is better than the previous one, right?
The 60 and over Thread
It would not appear so. I've struggled at times with 5 days of practice. The loss of distance may be due to a decline over the winter. But I do not like this club so far.
skujan
Active member
I did. The numbers were similar except the Callaway was longer. Of all the clubs tested, they were the only two that showed decent launch numbers. He was focusing on backspin and launch angle. The club head speed was higher and backspin lower with the Callaway (hence the better distance) and he saw some consistency in those numbers. The process and logic seemed very solid to me.
Grand Stranded
Keep grinding… you never know
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Do you have any type of playability deal from where you bought it? It’s still early days with your Smoke Max, but after 5 days of practice and 1 round in, you should be fairly well adjusted to it. You wouldn’t be the first guy to get a bad driver fitting.
Guys like me might be the exception to the rule, but if I were you, at this point I’d be hitting other drivers, and looking to either exchange it for something else, or get a new shaft.
Jon, don’t take this the wrong way, but you also have to be honest with yourself, and ask, am I putting good swings on it? You should be able to feel whether or not you’re making good contact. If you are, and you’re having these issues it’s fit related. If you aren’t, you can’t expect a club to make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t.
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MonroeBob1955
Well-known member
The optimist in me says one round in winter, probably wet/slow fairways. Rusty swing. Bad nights sleep. When I got my Qi10 my distance was down considerably. Once course dried out a bit, distance rebounded. I suspect same for you. It normally takes me awhile to adjust to a new driver. The Qi10 has been a unicorn in that respect.
If it doesn’t work out with the Smoke maybe talk to the fitter. Best of luck to you.
All I can say after these last couple of rounds is that:
1) I still absolutely love my G425 17.5* 5 wood. I have absolutely smoked it every time I hit it and it went where I wanted, how I wanted. From 208 yard carry into a gusty wind over the weekend, to a turn and burn 243 yards quartering downwind reach for a par 5 in 2 today ( Even after 243 I was still a couple yards short. LOL) Then a perfectly cut 2nd shot to layup on a par 5 from the wrong side of the fairway, just smoked it 232 into the quartering wind. Yep a cut that long into the wind. This club which I have tried to replace with a 16.5* TSR2, and was thinking of getting a 16.5* Paradym HL3 to replace just shouldnt go anywhere. I am just being silly wanting to send it up north..
And the Bridgestone Tour B RXS is quite controllable, once you figure out it needs just a bit more effort to turn than a TP5 or similar.
2) My usually solid short game has deserted me. Hell, more than deserted me, it has outright betrayed me. 7 yards off the green on a par 5 in 2, walk off with a bogey. Things like that repeatedly. Despite the cold temps, damp conditions and winds, my full swing game has been pretty darn solid. God forbid it should all work at once. I really need to figure out whats up with the short game, pitch, chip and putt are all pretty sad at the moment.....
3) Interesting to say the least when two of your fourcome drive so far over the green on a 295 par 4 that they lost their balls in the woods....... I was a half a lob wedge (about 45 yards) short, dead center. And I took a 6............. YUUUUK.
4) I love playing with the young guys, they have an interesting perspective on things.
1) I still absolutely love my G425 17.5* 5 wood. I have absolutely smoked it every time I hit it and it went where I wanted, how I wanted. From 208 yard carry into a gusty wind over the weekend, to a turn and burn 243 yards quartering downwind reach for a par 5 in 2 today ( Even after 243 I was still a couple yards short. LOL) Then a perfectly cut 2nd shot to layup on a par 5 from the wrong side of the fairway, just smoked it 232 into the quartering wind. Yep a cut that long into the wind. This club which I have tried to replace with a 16.5* TSR2, and was thinking of getting a 16.5* Paradym HL3 to replace just shouldnt go anywhere. I am just being silly wanting to send it up north..
And the Bridgestone Tour B RXS is quite controllable, once you figure out it needs just a bit more effort to turn than a TP5 or similar.
2) My usually solid short game has deserted me. Hell, more than deserted me, it has outright betrayed me. 7 yards off the green on a par 5 in 2, walk off with a bogey. Things like that repeatedly. Despite the cold temps, damp conditions and winds, my full swing game has been pretty darn solid. God forbid it should all work at once. I really need to figure out whats up with the short game, pitch, chip and putt are all pretty sad at the moment.....
3) Interesting to say the least when two of your fourcome drive so far over the green on a 295 par 4 that they lost their balls in the woods....... I was a half a lob wedge (about 45 yards) short, dead center. And I took a 6............. YUUUUK.
4) I love playing with the young guys, they have an interesting perspective on things.
I think the fitting was solid. I have nothing bad to say about the people involved. Probably 90% of people who have this drive love it. The majority of folks who go through fittings benefit from them. I'm crappy enough that there is no benefit from either.
That said, there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for questioning whether there's a difference between hitting indoors with a launch monitor and outdoors on a course where it matters. I know 100% there is, others apparently don't realize a difference exists with some of us.
I was super excited about this and very optimistic that it might help in just the smallest way... until I started to see some issues on the practice range. Today validated those concerns and I don't know enough to do anything about it. Is it a worse club than what I had before? Maybe not. But it sure as hell isn't any better - and that's my point.
This is 100% on me. I made what turned out to be a poor financial decision and that's all there is to it. I'm likely going to return to using, purchasing and building DTC equipment because there is zero reason not to. This was just an expensive lesson I had to go through. I'll hang on to the Callaway and occasionally bust it out to take some swings, maybe play a few rounds with it. If for no other reason, as reminder of what to never do again. Lol.
This could have been worse. I could have gone balls deep into a full OEM bag fitting.
Jon, don’t take this the wrong way, but you also have to be honest with yourself, and ask, am I putting good swings on it? You should be able to feel whether or not you’re making good contact. If you are, and you’re having these issues it’s fit related. If you aren’t, you can’t expect a club to make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t.
Of course I'm not putting good swings on the club. I'm a high capper FFS. Lol. I made what I thought was decent contact on a couple of swings today but failed to reach my "performance average" from last year. It could be what @MonroeBob1955 mentioned in his post above. Honestly, I've lost a little SS over the winter despite the 94 mph readings I was getting at the fitting. But this is less about distance and more about hoping all the hype and tech might bring about just a small amount of accuracy. I never expected it to make a sizeable difference (or chicken salad out of chicken ****, Lol).
CTRosarian
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The damp and cold may be affecting the turf interaction you are used to with your wedges and putter.
skujan
Active member
???
It was a professional fitting. I didn’t ask a lot of questions or direct him towards any club. I took his advice 100%. We were demoing a 9 degree head set to 10.5 (I believe) and he built and sold me the 10.5 degree head on the same shaft that provided the best results. The logic behind building the 10 degree was that as I age, there’s a chance the loft may need to increase - something that couldn’t be accomplished with the 9.
He told me that everything else would be the same.
There wasn’t any picking a club off the rack.
skujan
Active member
I don’t feel like it’s the fitter’s fault that I have a crappy, inconsistent swing.
I’m now leaning towards selling it as used and hopefully recovering some of the initial cost. Do you think $500 is a reasonable asking price for a driver with maybe 100 swings?
Grand Stranded
Keep grinding… you never know
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1. I doubt you’ll get $500 for a used driver.
2. I don’t understand why you won’t at least do what @skujan and I suggested, and go back to the fitter and try to remedy the situation.
3. One more thing, I believe I’m correct in saying a 9* head adjusted to 10.5* isn’t the same as a 10.5* stock head. If you come across the ball you want to increase the loft and thus close the face in an effort to present a more square face to the ball. With a stock 10.5* you would be hitting it with an open face. Does that make sense?
You never said where you were fitted (as far as I know), but I wouldn’t buy a just released AI driver from a fitter who didn’t have a 10.5* head for me to hit.
Bottom line, you have some decent speed working for you with your swing, but you’re missing both ways. I’m going to play internet idiot here and suggest a Ping 430 SFT in 10* and lofted up would be a nice club to start the session with.
At least give it a shot before you take a loss on what you paid. (The Ping is also $50 cheaper, so you could get yourself some golf balls if he doesn’t refund the difference).
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I was thinking the same thing.
Grand Stranded
Keep grinding… you never know
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If you list the club on eBay…
Let’s say you start an auction at $399 to draw interest? You might get very lucky and have it go for between $450 and $475. Then either you or the buyer would have to eat the shipping costs, which could range from $30 to $70 depending where they live.
Then there’s the tax the buyer must pay, and the seller fee (about 12%?) eBay would charge you.
Take all that into account, and a buyer would be paying full retail ($599) if he won the auction at $475 but he’s getting a used club, Who would do that?
You would be lucky to clear about $420 if it sold for $475 AND the buyer paid the shipping. Around $380 if he doesn’t.
EDIT I just checked, and Callaway lists the trade in value at $350. Because it’s their club, that’s the highest price you’re probably going to find out there.
Let’s say you start an auction at $399 to draw interest? You might get very lucky and have it go for between $450 and $475. Then either you or the buyer would have to eat the shipping costs, which could range from $30 to $70 depending where they live.
Then there’s the tax the buyer must pay, and the seller fee (about 12%?) eBay would charge you.
Take all that into account, and a buyer would be paying full retail ($599) if he won the auction at $475 but he’s getting a used club, Who would do that?
You would be lucky to clear about $420 if it sold for $475 AND the buyer paid the shipping. Around $380 if he doesn’t.
EDIT I just checked, and Callaway lists the trade in value at $350. Because it’s their club, that’s the highest price you’re probably going to find out there.
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Grand Stranded
Keep grinding… you never know
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I’m thinking he should try lofting up to 11-12* with his 10.5* Smoke, and see if that straightens out his ball flight. What are your thoughts, Phil?
Either way, these are the type things that can be easily answered by bringing the club back to the fitter.
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When I emailed him about the lack of control, he told me "that shaft is the right fit for you". I emailed his this morning about taking it out of the bag and have not heard back. It's all good.
I appreciate the advice, but why would I go back to a fitter who either A) didn't know the heads would yield different results, or B) wouldn't realize he ****** up/didn't give a **** once presented different results on the practice range than those of the fitting bay?
We tried the Ping, and just like the latest releases from Cobra, Taylomade, Titleist, XXIO, and whatever other OEM they carry, the results were pretty bad. If the club that yielded the best results - the Callaway - does this poorly, I see no reason to waste even more money and time going down that similar path with other OEM clubs.
Bottom line: OEM equipment is not going to do anything towards improving my scores. Apparently, neither is a certified fitter. Those two things can arguably make things worse.
I didn't post my experience to complain about a process that seems to work wonders for others. I was just talking golf. I spent a few bucks (more than I'll likely spend in the next 3 years) to rule out an option towards trying to get a little better. I can give the club to one of my sons, screw around with a different shaft or club settings, or just let it sit in the garage and collect dust. In the meantime, I'll sleep like a baby knowing a little more than I did two weeks ago. Had I not gone through this exactly as I have, I'd be second-guessing myself for the next several years. Now, at least I know.
How does that proverb go... it's not the arrow it's the archer? Time to move on.
Yes! If lofting the 9° up to 10.5° seemed to work, doing the same with the 10.5°, increasing loft, should at least be given a try.
Sometimes, even having been "fit" for a club, a little tweaking on one's own can make a difference. I was fit for my PXG driver with 7.5g weights in the heel and back, and a 2.5g weight in the toe, which is theoretically a draw bias. I had some decent success with it that way, but experimented with 7.5g weights in bot the toe and heel and a 5g weight in the back and have been killing the driver, not so much any more distance but exceptionally consistent.
Grand Stranded
Keep grinding… you never know
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Okay, just know none of this was intended to badger you in any way. It was meant to try to help you remedy a situation none of us enjoy seeing you in.
I hope you didn’t take this any other way Jon.
Not at all. I sincerely appreciated all the advice. Thanks to everyone for trying to help.
I suspect this stuff happens to others from time to time. I've made single club iron purchase that didn't work out so it's nothing new to me. Occasionally, I come across one that works out well and I'll build an entire set.
I feel like I've monopolized the thread, and though it was not my intent, maybe I was coming across as complaining.
Grand Stranded
Keep grinding… you never know
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No worries, and this was a helluva lot more interesting than that thing between me and the guy accusing the players at my club of sandbagging!Not at all. I sincerely appreciated all the advice. Thanks to everyone for trying to help.
I suspect this stuff happens to others from time to time. I've made single club iron purchase that didn't work out so it's nothing new to me. Occasionally, I come across one that works out well and I'll build an entire set.
I feel like I've monopolized the thread, and though it was not my intent, maybe I was coming across as complaining.
Lol. I typed up a response to his posts but decided not to post it. This is such a great thread and for the most part that sort of BS is rare. Hate to see that stuff but I guess it’s the internet, so…No worries, and this was a helluva lot more interesting than that thing between me and the guy accusing the players at my club of sandbagging!
JPR1959
Well-known member
I went to a fitter a couple years ago and got fit for a set of irons. I hit the Apex irons and purchased them with the specs I was given. I played those irons from June until March of the next season. I never got the height or spin needed. I reached out to Callaway, and at their suggestion I went to another fitter. I was willing to pay for new shafts, so after that fitting I contacted Callaway about the shaft change. I was put on hold, and after a couple of minutes, the rep came back on the line and said they would replace the entire set with another set of brand new Apex irons. At this particular time, Callaway was upgrading their Apex line to Steelfiber shafts. I would not hesitate in your situation to reach out to Callaway about this particular club. They might be able to give you something right up your alley. It never hurt to ask.
I have a couple of Mizuno 12* drivers, allegedly draw biased, but it is quite subtle, and a 10.5* with no bias if any of you guys are interested. Various R shafts. Cheap, they are just sitting here..... Only reason I quit playing the 12's (One at home, one at cottage) is because I got into the 13.5* Burner Mini.
On another note, wife is pushing me to take the kid to the Novi golf show. I reminded her of when she insisted I go to a boat show so I bought yet another one.......
She said go to golf show anyhow..
On another note, wife is pushing me to take the kid to the Novi golf show. I reminded her of when she insisted I go to a boat show so I bought yet another one.......
She said go to golf show anyhow..