I'll admit that I'm dying to get out and play after a Minnesota winter. I spent part of the day at a Cleveland demo day and another part of it looking at Golf Galaxy and Golfsmith.

Wondering if anybody out here has plunked down the cash for a new weapon? If so, what did you get?

I lurk at golfwrx and bsg a little bit, but don't know nearly as much about shafts and the like. There does seem to be a bunch of good options. Btwn the new Callaway options, two new TaylorMade options, Ping Rapture, Cleveland HiBore XL and the like.

Thoughts?

Ditto on the new Tour Hi-Bore XL.  49 degree lie angle, 3 degree open face.  This is an absolute weapon!!!

This is the club Vijay helped design and used in the Mercedes.

The new Rapture series from Ping is more for the high handicappers, is it not?  They will still be continuing with their existing series of clubs as well, such as the G5 driver.

During my recent AZ trip, there was a Callaway demo day at my friend's club. Both of their new drivers, the FT-5 and the square FT-i, were very impressive.

The shaft is the key.  I just got a new Titleist driver and 3-wood with a 95 gram extra stiff shaft.  I had previously used a lighter shaft with s-flex. Makes all the difference in the world because my ball spins less. I don't think I've gained distance but control is way up.

My advice is to test a lot of shafts.    

Quote from: cary lichtenstein on March 18, 2007, 02:38:56 AM

Quote from: Wayne_Kozun on March 17, 2007, 10:51:27 PM

The new Rapture series from Ping is more for the high handicappers, is it not?  They will still be continuing with their existing series of clubs as well, such as the G5 driver.

I have the new Rapture, it is the same as the G2 and G5, they just keep moving the weight around. It is more forgiving on mishits.

So its pretty much the same except that it costs about $150 more!

Yes, but your shot dispersion is tighter and if you get a high tech shaft and have it pured, you can spend  another $300 on top of that

I was fitted for a driver last summer. I tested the Hibore, Callaway, TaylorMade, etc. According to the launch monitor, the best for me was the Callaway. However, the Titleist 905 was a close second and it fit my eye much better. I went with the Titleist and have been very happy with it. Now that I've maxed out at 460ccs, I don't see changing for a while.

How do you know what would work best of the non-standard shafts?  

Last year during Ping demo day at my club I tried out a bunch of drivers and the rep had me on the computer to measure club speed, spin rate, etc.  We found what was the best club for me with the optimal spin rate - which had a stiff shaft, less loft and an offest - so I now play the G5 9* offset - I had been playing a G2 10* regular shaft with no offset.  

How do I know if one of the other shafts would help and even if they did could that not even necessitate a different loft on the driver?  It is not that easy to use the trial and error method as you can with stock shafts.

Wayne,

Many of the manufacturers include premium shafts in their testing facilities.  Titleist in their Science Van did even two years ago.  I expect that when I go to the Callaway high performance centre up in Vaughan later in the week that they will too.  I've never done Ping so them I don't know.  It's probably the only effective way to do trial and error, although it would be better to do it on an outdoor range so you can actually see the ball flight.

As GJ has pointed out a good fitter can narrow down the possibilities for you and may have samples to try.  Or you can take the appproach I've used in building my own clubs.  Buy a bunch of shafts and heads that have profiles that fit my measured swing, then build them, try them and swap the components to find the ones that matches best.  It gets kind of expensive (9 drivers in the basement so far   ) but the difference in results is astonishing.  A head that doesn't work with one premium shaft works wonderfully with another for instance.  Aldila NV, ProtoPype, VS Proto, Graffaloy Comp NT, Proforce V2, GD Purple Ice, I have them all and they all perform differently even though they are all notionally stiff shafts.  I've had three NV shafts that are the same that performed differently.  One turned out to be mislabelled.  Then try mixing and matching them to different heads and lofts, pheew. It ain't easy finding the right one, and the manufacturers get rich selling the hope that the next one will be magic just for you.

Has anyone ever seen proper research into how consistent a swing you need before you can really get benefit from a personal fitting?  Surely this technology was developed for touring pro's who have a repeatable swing and can control and alter it to suit conditions. Even then Tiger says only 2 golfers have ever 'owned' their swing.

I've played with single figure golfers who judging by ball flight have a pretty repeatable swing, but the rest of us?  Most evidence is anecdotal but I'm sure the average player 'improves' for a while after getting a new driver so of course anyone will say the fitting was worthwhile, but can it be proven and accurately measured?