Hi Team Titleist,

To start off, I want to say thank you for the great feedback we received on my last post. Our program is built around the philosophy of helping players, so it’s great to see all of the interest in fitting. 

For our next installment, I thought it would make sense to share a recent iron and hybrid fitting at Pinehurst. I was working with Dave, an avid golfer who has been playing golf at a very high level for a number of years and arrived with a really dialed in set of clubs. 

My first question to Dave was, “what can we improve on?” He talked about his struggles with maintaining optimal trajectory in the longer irons, and this is a problem I find to be quite common amongst many golfers.

This was a very unique fit because shaft was not a huge portion of the fitting process. Dave has played Dynamic Gold S300’s for some time, loving their performance, and even after trying various alternates he has yet to find anything better for his swing.  Given Dave’s skill level, we decided to focus on looking at incremental changes. 

We did test a few different shafts, but in the end the best feel and results came from the S300’s. You may notice in the images below that his spin rates could be considered a little high, but this can be attributed to his preferred fade shot shape.

So let’s get into the fit…

The first thing we always want to do is hit the player’s current clubs to ensure we are making positive changes. 

Dave’s Current Gamer:

714 AP2 4-P, +W, True Temper Dynamic Gold S300, Std Length - Std Loft – Std Lie

915 H 18* SureFit Tour Hosel Setting: A·1, Graphite Design AD DI 105 Stiff 40.5”

After comparing 714 to 716, we found that by keeping the specs the same we improved in some key categories with the new product. The first and most important is ball speed, which increased from 121mph to 123.7mph. This may not seem like a lot, but any increase we can find will become essential to gaining that height we talked about in the longer irons. 

LONG IRONS

Now that we have a baseline ball speed of roughly 124mph in the 7 iron we began hitting longer clubs.  Ball speed separation is the biggest component to achieving distance separation.  The philosophy behind iron and long game gapping is we want about 5mph of difference between irons, and about 7mph of separation when we get to clubs with larger chassis such as a hybrid or fairway metal.  This is not a firm rule nor does it have to be exact, but it is a great guideline to follow.  We still want to focus on the players distance needs. When we have two clubs with similar speeds, they will go the same distance; they will just get there at a different trajectory.

Keeping our 5mph rule in mind, we started hitting AP2 5 irons aiming for a target ball speed of 134mph.  We can see that the AP2 is producing 132mph of ball speed with a land angle of 43°. The land angle, or angle of decent, is very important because it gives us green stopping ability. Ideally we are looking for anything around 45° which is very neutral at these ball speeds. 

During testing with Dave we determined the AP2 4 iron wasn’t generating the ideal trajectory and overall performance he needs. The reason is due to the lack of ball speed being produced, which does not allow the player enough separation between the 5 and 4iron. At this point, the only way we can get more ball speed is to increase the size of the head; or as we refer to it, the chassis. Dave wanted to maintain a similar look and feel, so we moved into the AP1 line.  With the AP1 Dave’s ball speed increased to 136.5 mph, and this increase in speed allowed for more appropriate distance gapping, as well as a more ideal ball flight with green stopping performance. 

HYBRIDS             

The next club in Dave’s setup is very important because this is where he has struggled in the past.  This is a great opportunity to give the player exactly what they are looking for and help him consistently shoot lower scores. A carry distance of 210-215 yards was the goal we had in mind. Dave had his current 915 H with a Graphite Design DI 105 shaft, so we installed it into the 816 line for testing. I asked Dave to hit both the H1 and H2, and he quickly gravitated towards the H2 model. As you can see in the data, the DI shaft in an 816 H2 21° did not quite provide Dave with the results we were looking for. I then moved him into a Diamana W+ 100 S because of the similarity of weight.  Right away it was a winner; every number was reached and the feel was better than the previous club.

THE RESULTS

Overall the fitting was great. Dave was very open to trying some things outside the box like adding an AP1 into his set to hit that 200 yard shot he had struggled with. The hybrid is a great addition to his set because he can now hit a very high and soft 210-215 yard shot. We kept his 915 H 18° hybrid in the bag, but turned it down in loft to give him a more chasing shot to hit for placement whenever necessary. 

Dave came into this fitting as a great player and left a great player with enhanced versatility in his longer clubs. He is able to hit all the shots the course demands without any overlap, and each club now plays a specific and important role for his game.

DAVE’S NEW SETUP

816 H2 21° Diamana W+ 100 S 40” SureFit Tour Hosel Setting: A·1

716 AP1 4 Iron Dynamic Gold S300 Std Length – Std Lie – Std Loft

716 AP2 5-P, +W Dynamic Gold S300 Std Length – Std Lie – Std Loft