Thanks!

It turns out that there is a Trackman at San Jose Muni which is not far. I will have to see about trying it out one of these days! It would be nice to know what the true yardages are for each club in my bag... Hmmm, a new optimized driver would be pretty cool also!

Regards, Herbert

If you are near there, you should get in touch with Leith Anderson. He's a driver fitting specialist who has all the absolute latest high tech gear. I'm on his email list, just to read his stuff, because I'm in the midwest. I get the impression his prices are reasonable and he loves to work with serious golfers. Not meaning scratch, but serious about their game.

Here is his latest email:
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=bllv5ibab&v=001QcKplmKMacHkhSPWVkzobQ8veAeueZSPxl3PIgRgWQTa4DvpZiRVUEDxl1CcEzZnVQnt3munxMrGiDqlBzNVHlBWjZNKxXu68B-ENkzaD-0dCPJnkjvMUILy-z0hcuCb

Yeah I have been thinking about getting up to see those guys... They have some sort of free driver fitting going on now so maybe I will see if I can get in on that.

Regards, Herbert

Did you buy a new stick?

I am eagerly awaiting my new Taylormade TP Burner with a voodoo shaft. Unfortunately it has been stuck at DHL in Leipzig for the last week. I think they are worried it may be a bomb of some sort. LOL Are we allowed to use the word bomb here?? Oh..somebody is at the door......

The swing analyzing equipment was interesting. Among all of the ball flight charts and etc. it also shows shaft flex and clubhead movement in the 3 milliseconds leading up to impact. There were all sorts of graphs and stuff. Leith said that he did not understand half of them yet.

I hit my driver pretty much the same as the magic driver. 98 to 103 mph clubhead speed and 220 yard carry. I was surprised that my angle of attack was negative or hitting down which is causing me to put way to much spin on the ball losing distance. I had the ball up off of my lead toe and I was still hitting down on it... This was not the case last fall when hit drivers on launch monitors at demo day so I seem to have screwed myself up somehow. Actually I have gotten less slantidicular then I should be which might be a factor in angle of attack. Something that I am going to correct.

The session was a bit disturbing as I got my grip and swing corrected part way through. I probably would have hit his driver a bit better if I did not change to a conventional grip and swing part way through the session. Such changes are not difficult for me after all of these years but still I am not as bad with an SA swing as I am with a conventional swing. Part of the overall problem is that I am working on maintaining spine angle which is a huge swing change for me. I would have hit the ball a lot better a month or two ago.

He said my left hand grip was terrible and then tried to correct it and said that it was good. The thing is that it was exactly the same as before he fixed it...

He also said that I looked like I was trying to swing like Moe Norman. LOL I guess that is a bad thing as he sounded pretty disgusted when he said it.

Also my driver has too weak of a shaft in it for my swing which I already new. I will probably order a shaft and re-shaft it one of these days. Any recommendations? I also will need to do the 3 and 5 woods. I don't even carry the 3 wood anymore because I hit nothing but hooks with it while playing.

Regards, Herbert

If you are hitting it on the screws, a driver should carry 2.4 yards per MPH. Did he comment anything about why you are carrying 20 yards short? Is it the A of A and spin? Or are you missing the sweet spot? Or both?

Whether or not you plan to change your A of A, you might benefit from learning about driver head shapes and how they affect the spin. "Low spin" is now a meaningless marketing buzz term, usually combined with "High launch". While high launch and low spin are the best combo, most driver designs are high spin, no matter what they say in the ads. The reason for this is that most golfers benefit from more backspin on their drives.

However, if you already have more than you need, you can try a lower spin head design.

Here is a low spin head:
http://www.golfworks.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_MA0035

Here is a high spin head:
http://www.golfworks.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_MA0128

The principles apply to any brand. A low spin head is tall and compact. A high spin head is low and stretched. You can look at the Taylor Made SuperTri and Super Deep. More and less spin, respectively. Titleist has the same distinction in their line. NORMALLY, the average swing speed golfer is directed to the stretched lower design, and the high swing speed better golfer to the more compact, tall design. Of course, tour pros are paid a lot of money to play clubs, and they can be seen playing the maximum game improvement styles. I'm guessing they overcome the spin tendencies with loft and shaft changes, and maybe internal weighting.

Also, almost no pro, despite their superior skill, plays a 46" driver, yet that is what is sold to the gullible public. But that's another story.

You will also find more spin with a softer shaft and less with a stiffer one, normally. Some people dispute this, but that is the common finding on monitors.

I think I too have a negative A of A. I play a 12* driver that actually measures 14*! If I play a true 10.5, it really flies low. A true 12-13 is about right for me, playing medium. My 12(14) flies just a bit high but not bad. However, it is an older 460 with a tall face, before they started stretching them. It does not spin a lot at all. At the Bridgestone ball fitting, my launch angle was ~15* and spin 2500 RPM. They liked the LA but said the spin should be more like 3000 for my 93 MPH speed. Well, my experience with many drivers is that this head and others of the same style are the longest for me. I have tried to beat this old driver out of my bag, but it has bested all comers. If it had a degree less loft it would be perfect, but I can't find anything so far. When I play with guys with similar swing speeds and iron distances, I'm hitting my driver past them, sometimes by a lot. So what I'm saying is, you might do better with a higher loft but lower spin head. Or not, that's what fitting and experimenting is all about.

What driver are you playing now? What shaft? How quick are your tempo and transition? How is your lag or release?

My driver is a Taylormade R580.
The shaft is R flex M.A.S.2 ultralite 60 mid torque tip medium. I cut it down to 44 1/2 inches to make it play a little stiffer. Leith said I should be playing a stiff flex firm tip shaft.

Regards, Herbert

Yeah, you probably should. I'll send you a note offlist.

My one recommendation is to get a filament wound shaft if you go graphite. They are the only ones that don't have 'weird' spine patterns. The filament wound shafts I've used have had almost no spine at all. This is one I've used.

Peter