Putter, wedge and ball Fitting

Quite simply any been fitted for a putter, wedges and balls and did you see an improvement in performace.

Putter - yes. Had a full toe hang 34" Odyssey #9 with 3 degrees of loft (which I was actually pretty good with) then got fitted and was advised that shorter, lower loft less toe hangy (but not face balanced) putter was a better fit. Tried a few and came out with a Scotty Cameron Newport 2.5 de-lofted to 2 degrees and the lie bent to 67 from 71. Once I got used to it I was (and still am) much better.

Wedges - kind of. Had a half hour mini fitting for Titleist and at the end had 10 minutes on wedges. That was a simple matter of hitting 3 balls with each grind and bounce in the lofts I wanted. Found ones I liked and bought them. They feel a lot nicer than my old(er) wedges so I'm more confident but I haven't really noticed that I'm actually much better or closer on approaches.

Balls - no. Predominantly use ProV1x but quite happy with ProV1, Srixon ZStar in yellow, Nike RZN platinum, Callaway Hex Tour Black. If I'm playing well the same type of ball will be used for the whole round. If I'm rubbish I'll change it (as if it's the balls fault!) which sometimes has a psychosomatic effect and improvement but if I'm still rubbish I'll change to a cheaper or older ball that I don't care so much about losing!

I would be very interested in getting a ball fitting, but I've never seen it offered anywhere.

When I first read the title I thought it said ball fisting

No, me neither. I've heard of brands doing it to come up with the "best" ball that they make for you but never an independent one.

I guess there's no money in it for anyone to bother doing all the work to set it up.

An american Golf near me is ofeering free putter, wedge and ball fitting next weekend, so booked an appointment for them all. Its gonna take up to three hours.

I fully expect i will end up requiring a new putter, but given that i use PRO V's figured the best case is i get to spend less on balls, wort cas i am using the right ball.

As for the wedge fitting i just figured why not.

No reason why not to go. 3 hours seems a bit steep though.

I suspect AG will discover you "need"

Scotty Cameron (parallels with me having a fitting and coming away with a scotty are completely coincidental!)
Vokeys (parallels with me having a fitting and coming away with 2 new vokeys are completely coincidental!)
ProV1x (because they're also the most expensive things they've got that you don't currently use)

Our pro fixed the shop up with a simulator this year to be able to do all-year lessons and I had a half hour look at the balls I use to see what differences there were.

Summer I mainly use TM Tour Preferred, ProV1 or (lately) the Callaway ChromeSoft (Handicap a flattering 4 at the moment). Winter I switch to SrixonAD33 and Calloway SuperSoft as everything stops dead unless we're frost bound.

Driving numbers/distance were much the same amongst all the balls, the winter ones actually a couple of yards longer and the spin numbers for all 3 summer versions with shorter clubs were on par. The winter ones were around 1200rpm less spin which is not surprising I guess.

Summer choice ultimately came down to personal choice as no great difference in performance (for me) and at £30 as opposed to £40+ for the others the ChromeSoft won out. They do feel much softer off the putter face than a ProV which I do like so very happy with them.

Was interesting to look at the numbers so I thought it was worth the time for me.

Interesting Turnip, I personally dislike the AD 333 (although not quite sure why!) and not tried the Chromesoft or the Supersoft (have used Chrome + which is OK).

Find Callaway balls seem to suffer more damage than Srixons or Titleist equivalent, which (to me) at least party negates the price differential (although the Hex Black and Chrome + I have are less than £20 being an old model). I tend to use pearl grade lakeballs which makes a doz mint ProV1x about £18.

I don't tend to switch in winter (probably more fool me)

A couple of years ago I wouldn't have thought I'd be using a Callaway ball as had hated every one I'd tried (still got a 3 pack of Hex black(?) in the cupboard somewhere). Pro started stocking Callaways rather than Srixon and as I switch in the winter, and play a lot of mixed golf with my missus who has a tendency to lose my balls while playing greensomes!, bought the SuperSoft and really liked them. Moved on to the ChomeSoft this summer and now my main choice.
Not noticed the damage issues but then my irons technique isn't pro-like (sweep more than compress)and so I don't tend to scuff balls badly.

Never really got into lake balls (mild paranoia about quality) but looks a useful option at that price. 333s were early option to more easily laugh off another nice drive disappearing into the bundai off my other half's 3 wood (if I was ever going to snap a golf club it would be that one).

Swap putters in the winter too, to one with a softer face to alleviate a harder ball. Probably cr*p but works in my head anyway.

I tend to get my balls from charity shops, unfortunately they don't offer ball fittings at the moment.

Got your hands on the Skip Bornhooter Singature yet Mac?

I am a bit sceptical about recycled balls, like a lot of people. Or preowned, preloved, pearls or any of the names that are being attached to cheap balls these days.

It's always been my impression that balls that have been submerged for any length of time don't fly as well because they have a soggy feel. So I experimented - I put six balls in a bucket of water in the garden on Sept 10 and retrieved them last weekend. I took them out on Saturday and tried them on Sunday on the practice ground. In every case they didn't go as well as a similar ball from the practice bag. With a driver or 5 wood the difference was about 10 yards. With a 5 iron it was about 6 yards, and with a 9 iron it was about 4 yards.

So I'd say if you buy second hand balls, don't buy lake balls. They always look slightly discoloured as well, so fairly easy to spot. Balls that have been lost in the grass somewhere are fine though - even though they get wet most nights until someone finds them I guess.

Interesting George.

One thing I'd like to know about is how long a shaft in a club lasts. I've had a few break from rusting on the inside, and i'd be interested to see the loss of performance over a period and when you should really replace them, or if performance is maintained for a very long time.

SR - don't know. I had a set of Ping III irons years ago, which I loved. After 9 years one of the shafts broke at the hosel, and I had it replaced. Then in the next year five more broke in the same place. There was no sign of rust on the outside of the shaft, I couldn't really say about the inside.

I changed to Ping Zing 2, where two of the shafts broke after about 8 years. Since then I had a set of Callaway irons (Hawkeye) and two sets of TaylorMades, and no shafts have broken since (except a wedge that snapped round a tree when I was trying to hack it out of the jungle).

No graphite shaft has ever broken on me, and I don't recall ever seeing anyone break one either. Clubs must be tough these days.

I suppose what I was trying to say was, rust or not, whether shafts degrade over time and whether metal fatigue is something we ought to consider in the irons we have in our bag.

I know woods can get hotter over time as the face becomes worn and thinner meaning an increase in the "trampoline effect", but just wondered what effect time and use had on shafts, specifically metal ones.

When you buy second hand lake balls, are they genuinely lake balls, or is it just a phrase for second hand balls?

I think it's a bit of a generic term Beninho. I've certainly seen plenty people hunting in gorse and bushes for balls, yet I've never seen anyone selling "gorse balls" or anything like that.

Very interesting that they perform poorly, I would have thought a ball was 100% hydrophobic.

super_realist wrote:I suppose what I was trying to say was, rust or not, whether shafts degrade over time and whether metal fatigue is something we ought to consider in the irons we have in our bag.

That's a good point. I'm not familiar enough with metallurgical principles to know whether the performance of steel shafts degrades as they become worn, or whether they perform just the same until the day they break. I suppose if you set up one of those iron byron things and had it hitting shot after shot 24x7 you'd find out.

I saw one of those machines at Callaway in Carlsbad Ca a few year ago. They had it hitting a driver, to measure the mean time between failure of the face. It was hitting 15 balls a minute, and all the shots were exactly the same. The balls were all landing within a few feet of each other, and all rolling about 10 yards and stopping in an area about the same size as my kitchen. It was quite uncanny.

It was easy to retrieve the balls - just take a giant bucket down the range and scoop them up, even as balls were being hit. It was the complete opposite of a regular driving range where the balls are randomly dispersed all over, and you are never safe regardless of where you are on the range.

I had a free putter fitting thing. A guy who was a putter fitter was at an event and had a 10 foot putt set up with a slow mo camera to measure your strike, spin and bounce. He reckoned you wanted to have a max of six inches of 'jump' before the ball lands and begins it's roll. I had nearly a foot of bounce that gave a load of backspin, meaning I wouldn't weight my putts too well. He did say that it was the putter rather than my strike - taylormade ghost spider (lengthened to 40inch), he'd had one and had the same problem.

super_realist wrote:I suppose what I was trying to say was, rust or not, whether shafts degrade over time and whether metal fatigue is something we ought to consider in the irons we have in our bag....

I'm sure some shaft OEMs will cotton on to that idea soon enough and persuade us that we have to swap out our shafts every year or so in order to play magically better...

MontysMerkin wrote: He did say that it was the putter rather than my strike - taylormade ghost spider (lengthened to 40inch), he'd had one and had the same problem.

Clever salesmanship....

40 inch? Are you about 8ft tall?

Super, what length of putter do you have?

Depends which putter Mac,
I've got a Scotty Newport which is 35" (probably too long)
Yes Sandy which is 34"
Yes Donna which is 33"

I presume the 40" one was one that you grip well down, sort of counter balancing.

It's probably because it has a counter balanced weight in the grip and you're encouraged to grip lower down. You're probably placing your hands on the grip in the same place as a regular length putter.

I'm 6'5", but bad back means I have to keep as 'tall' as I can.

George1507 wrote:I am a bit sceptical about recycled balls, like a lot of people. Or preowned, preloved, pearls or any of the names that are being attached to cheap balls these days.

It's always been my impression that balls that have been submerged for any length of time don't fly as well because they have a soggy feel. So I experimented - I put six balls in a bucket of water in the garden on Sept 10 and retrieved them last weekend. I took them out on Saturday and tried them on Sunday on the practice ground. In every case they didn't go as well as a similar ball from the practice bag. With a driver or 5 wood the difference was about 10 yards. With a 5 iron it was about 6 yards, and with a 9 iron it was about 4 yards.

So I'd say if you buy second hand balls, don't buy lake balls. They always look slightly discoloured as well, so fairly easy to spot. Balls that have been lost in the grass somewhere are fine though - even though they get wet most nights until someone finds them I guess.

Interesting. Whilst I haven't undertaken any testing those numbers raise an eyebrow (in surprise - not disbelief I hasten to add). My own experience of them (I have only used the top grade and only ever bought from lakeballs.com - most of which really do seem like so called "one hit wonders") is that they are pretty much perfect with no discernible difference in performance (or colouration) from a newbie out of the sleeve. What I have no idea about is whether the balls (presumably majoritarily from the US given some of the logos) have been submerged for any length of time. I had assumed that the ball retrieval would perhaps be weekly or bi-monthly and so balls hadn't sat underwater for ages. I certainly have no issues with any of the balls I've bought (the idiot that hits them, however...)

Edit to clarify - I'm referring to lakeballs, not refurbished balls. Those I have found a couple of and have been noticeably worse than an original.

Well yesterday i had a putter, wedge and ball fitting and despite it costing me £800 quid in new equipment i now have a 6 wedge set up which compliments the new 50 hards guarenteed i will get from the new ball.

In all seriousness was really worthwhile, i was recomended the Titliest Velocity for winter and callaway chrome for summer, so instant saving on golf balls.

Putter fitting took 5 putts when the woman proclaimed the i have the right putter, a good putting stroke with very little rotation and all thats wrong is me right sholder was too open at address.

I did but two new wedges, moved to a 50 vokey f grind from 52 vokey and got a 56 vokey m grind to replace cleveland sand wedge due to the gapping being more constance.

Theyy didnt try to push any brand or sell me anything i didnt actaully need which did surprise me.

On the Lakeballs he did say there was a distinct performance deteration, and that some of the balls could have been in lakes for years.