Money on Fire

I went into Golfer's Warehouse over the weekend to follow-up on something I'd been meaning to do for the longest time; get fit for my (or other, if needed) golf clubs. The process is pretty cool. They have you hit balls in front of an optic monitor thingy which measures club speed, ball speed, ball spin, launch angle, etc. My fitter was a great guy who after analyzing the datat told me that I would always struggle with the setup I had. He said my swing was pretty sound and thought I could really benefit from some after-market shafts.



That all rang pretty true with me. I just never seemed to have 100% confidence that my equipment was correct for me. I work terribly hard at the game yet lately, I haven't been seeing the improvements I thought I deserved. He said my ball flight had too much spin for the launch angle and it wouldn't be true to me and would eventally cause me to "correct" it in the next swing making matters worse since it was caused by improper equipment rather than improper swings. Its all very technical but fascinating to a number freak like me.



He also measured my "grouping" which is the general area where my shots were landing - yeah, the computer can compute all that - and promised me he could tighten it up with new shafts, i.e. make the circle smaller. So, if my average miss was 18 yards, he could make it like 12. That's a big deal! Furthermore, he LOVED the club-heads on my set, so apparently, the deal I got last year was an actual deal. He merely thought the shafts I was playing were not correct for my swing-type.



I trusted the guy and the data. He could have sold me new gear but he felt I was best served by the stuff I have after I tweaked it. He actually talked me out of new gear because nothing in store would have had the shafts he felt were perfect for me. Plus, without me even hitting one of my hybrids (new-fangled 3 and 4-irons, which I hate) he told me there was no way I would be able to hit them consisetently. And I can't. Hence the reason I hate them.



So I spent some money but not too much. I have all my newly shafted clubs and I'm eager to put them to the test. The driver shaft was rather pricey at nearly $200. But believe it or not, they have a $2200 driver shaft in store. Good God! And a new driver, again without the perfect shaft could run about $400. He also suggested shortening the driver shaft back a bit after taking into account my swing arc.



Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about it all, but probably a rather boring blogger. But, if I could take 3 strokes off my game this summer, throught equipment and short game improvements I'd be a happy camper.



Now, if only this damn snow would melt.