18 replies to this topic

[SurfinTurf]

I have 30-40 yards of carry on my playing partner but he regularly out drives me cause he's hitting knuckle balls all day long. I swear I think he'll get 80 yards of roll-out in soft conditions.  

    I had a 350 yard drive the other day. Yep, downhill with a tailwind! All the same I'm stoked! So we're looking for his ball. What's that up there 20 yards? Oh crap, sure enough. Let the smack talk begin. I still haven't heard the end of it. He takes it to the clubhouse, the proshop, everywhere! This has got to stop.

I hit a very straight tee ball, very penetrating trajectory, level AoA. Launch angle is too low though despite my teeing it high and having my left shoulder up at address. I'm playing a 10.5* V2 Rapture with a PX 7B4. I love this set-up but….

    Let me be the first to say "Get fitted". Okay, now that that's out of the way.

   Any suggestions on where to go from here, from an equipment point of view?

Edited by SurfinTurf, 26 March 2012 - 10:16 PM.

[schlyer]

Does he play the same ball as you?

[SurfinTurf]

schlyer, on 26 March 2012 - 08:41 PM, said:

Does he play the same ball as you?

He spends way too much time pickin' up lost balls. He'll play anything.

I like ProV1's or Srixon Z stars.  Maybe I'll try some ProV1x's again but not sure they're very good for my short game.

[wolfpack]

Yeah..  go back to the Rapture V1!!  

[Thrillhouse]

its not equipment related, I have a friend like that too, carries the ball 270 but I swear it rolls out 60 yards all the time, its just the way he hits the ball, I would love to do it but I dont hit the ball like that.

[SurfinTurf]

wolfpack, on 26 March 2012 - 09:17 PM, said:

Yeah..  go back to the Rapture V1!!  

LOL! I have a 10.5* V1 with a 757X arriving tomorrow!

Edited by SurfinTurf, 26 March 2012 - 10:09 PM.

[SurfinTurf]

Thrillhouse, on 26 March 2012 - 09:20 PM, said:

its not equipment related, I have a friend like that too, carries the ball 270 but I swear it rolls out 60 yards all the time, its just the way he hits the ball, I would love to do it but I dont hit the ball like that.

I will not mess with my swing...
I will not mess with my swing...
I will not mess with my swing...

I'm thinking go back down in loft and and find a higher launching / low-ish spinning shaft.

Sucks cause I love the PX and I'm trying to stop ho'ing around.  As you can see by my above post

Edited by SurfinTurf, 26 March 2012 - 10:44 PM.

[grumpy84]

Yo I see youre in PG, I am over here in Salinas holmes haha. What tracks do you usually play?

Who do yo have do your club work?? I need to have a kiyoshi swapped into my adams head and dont trust anybody around here to do it haha,.

[SurfinTurf]

grumpy84, on 26 March 2012 - 10:16 PM, said:

Yo I see youre in PG, I am over here in Salinas holmes haha. What tracks do you usually play?

Who do yo have do your club work?? I need to have a kiyoshi swapped into my adams head and dont trust anybody around here to do it haha,.

Bayonet & Blackhorse, Laguna Seca, Poppy Hills but mainly PG back nine. Ex-surfer still needs to be by the ocean.

Go see Nate at Golfmart in Seaside. He's good, and he's a good guy.

Edited by SurfinTurf, 26 March 2012 - 10:41 PM.

[grumpy84]

SurfinTurf, on 26 March 2012 - 10:31 PM, said:

grumpy84, on 26 March 2012 - 10:16 PM, said:

Yo I see youre in PG, I am over here in Salinas holmes haha. What tracks do you usually play?

Who do yo have do your club work?? I need to have a kiyoshi swapped into my adams head and dont trust anybody around here to do it haha,.

Bayonet & Blackhorse, Laguna Seca, Poppy Hills but mainly PG back nine. Ex-surfer still needs to be by the ocean.

Go see Nate at Golfmart in Seaside. He's good, and he's a good guy.

PG back nine is pretty epic, front nine not so much haha, Laguna is a cool layout, just cant get past their bouncing, carpet-like greens.

Sweet! I know Nate, he's a good guy, played with him at Carmel Valley Ranch one time. I heard he was doing a lot of the work down there, but wasnt sure if he still worked there or not.

[SurfinTurf]

grumpy84, on 26 March 2012 - 10:43 PM, said:

SurfinTurf, on 26 March 2012 - 10:31 PM, said:

grumpy84, on 26 March 2012 - 10:16 PM, said:

Yo I see youre in PG, I am over here in Salinas holmes haha. What tracks do you usually play?

Who do yo have do your club work?? I need to have a kiyoshi swapped into my adams head and dont trust anybody around here to do it haha,.

Bayonet & Blackhorse, Laguna Seca, Poppy Hills but mainly PG back nine. Ex-surfer still needs to be by the ocean.

Go see Nate at Golfmart in Seaside. He's good, and he's a good guy.

PG back nine is pretty epic, front nine not so much haha, Laguna is a cool layout, just cant get past their bouncing, carpet-like greens.

Sweet! I know Nate, he's a good guy, played with him at Carmel Valley Ranch one time. I heard he was doing a lot of the work down there, but wasnt sure if he still worked there or not.

Nope, front nine is just a warm up at best. I usually go straight to the back.

Hope he's still there. Haven't made it down there for a few months but he's built most everything I own.

Edited by SurfinTurf, 26 March 2012 - 11:02 PM.

[lwelch70]

In all honesty, as well as many things in golf, it could be attributed to a combination of things. Head, shaft, ball, etc. Have you been a launch monitor with it lately? Some information on spin rates and accurate launch angles would benefit you more than any guessing game would. From the sounds of it, since you say you have a low penetrating flight, it could most defiantly be that you are simply spinning the ball way too much. Since that shaft is a tip stiff shaft, it could be the ball. Could be that without changing your swing, the shaft is indefinitely not tip stiff enough. Does your ball come out low and stay low? Or does it seem to climb to a higher altitude as it travels away from you?

[SurfinTurf]

grumpy84, on 26 March 2012 - 10:43 PM, said:

PG back nine is pretty epic, front nine not so much haha, Laguna is a cool layout, just cant get past their bouncing, carpet-like greens.

Oh by the way, you'll know the hole I'm talking about, 16 at PG, 383 from the whites. I have 25-yards in. My buddy is nearly in the pond but okay. But he's pin-high!

Did I mention that he's 25 years my senior and plays a regular flex?


Edit:
Sounds like BS, but again downhill with a tailwind.

One more Edit:
He's also a Hogan disciple and a religious student of the game. Endlessly spouting knowledge. Usually while I'm setting up to hit. Very handsy, not much flexibility left but damn!  

He's retired and plays 18 every day. I usually just catch up with him for the back 9.

Edited by SurfinTurf, 27 March 2012 - 03:07 AM.

[jewofgolf]

You know honestly it sounds to me like your spin is just a little high for your launch angle.  This could be as simple as sticking with the PX, which is, relationally speaking, higher launch for its super low spin.  I think you just need to go down to a 9.5* and tee the ball a touch higher.  Also, if you are not getting roll out, you don't yet know what a truly low launch/low spin flight looks like.  The most optimum flight, IMO anyway, will actually fall out of the sky if you mishit it.  I have personally accepted that when I mishit the ball, it won't carry far, but when I do hit it correctly, it's going extremely far.  In all cases, it rolls a good amount, like it's supposed to, unless I'm using my carry driver, but that's a different topic!

[npark]

sounds like what happened to me, had a new driver/shaft combo that I was hitting really really well...or so I thought.  Would go out and hit good looking fairly high and what seemed to be low spin shots with no balloon out driving most better than average guys on the course. Well, I went out and played with some buddies that work in a golf shop and hit the ball long, really long.  On the first few holes they were telling me good drive, then said that less even on the same hits, followed by the big one on #10, man we see your ball rocket off the tee and expect it to be up by ours but every time you are 30 yards short...something isn't right.  We tinker with balls, no change same issue.  They said it just seems to fall like it hit a glass wall about 2/3rd's out, cant explain it, might be too much spin.  I had never previously thought I had too much spin, there wasn't a balloon but apparently too much spin was killing it.  That week I vistited them and borrowed a lower loft club and I had a lower launch/spin shaft which I rotated out with my higher loft and higher spin shaft to find a combo that was close.  From there I figured I would get some spin numbers for the two (my gamer and the new trial combo) on a LM and see what it had to say, sure enough my combo had too much spin...even though I never personally noticed it.  With numbers in hand I then did some research and settled on a new mid-high launch/low spin combo that I couldn't be happier with.  I am now hitting it up with them and thank them every time I do lol.  I would have never known if they wouldn't have pointed it out, would have been happy with what I 'thought' was good.


***moral of the story, get some numbers and see where you are at, report back and fine tune that driver***

Edited by npark, 27 March 2012 - 12:44 AM.

[wolfpack]

SurfinTurf, on 26 March 2012 - 09:59 PM, said:

wolfpack, on 26 March 2012 - 09:17 PM, said:

Yeah..  go back to the Rapture V1!!  

LOL! I have a 10.5* V1 with a 757X arriving tomorrow!

Expect an update when this solves your problem...

[SurfinTurf]

lwelch70, on 26 March 2012 - 11:01 PM, said:

In all  honesty, as well as many things in golf, it could be attributed to a  combination of things. Head, shaft, ball, etc. Have you been a launch  monitor with it lately? Some information on spin rates and accurate  launch angles would benefit you more than any guessing game would. From  the sound of it, since you say you have a low penetrating flight, it  could most defiantly be that you are simply spinning the ball way too  much. Since that shaft is a tip stiff shaft, it could be the ball. Could  be that without changing your swing, the shaft is indefinitely not tip  stiff enough. Does your ball come out low and stay low? Or does it seem  to climb to a higher altitude as it travels away from you?

I have a low and deep take away and come into the ball very level but hard. Not quite to parallel but with a hard "catch". My buddy says I swing like the Hulk. Not sure that's a compliment. I'm 6'2, 225 lbs and seemingly unable to give it less than 110%. I don't know what it looks like but I relate to the action of Robert Garrigus.

I marshaled at the AT&T recently and saw the range sessions of  TW, Phil, Mahan, Baddeley, Harrington, Hoffman, etc, etc. Watching them  made me realize my trajectory was comparatively low. Also their drives  would continue to climb longer to a beautiful high apex. My ball gets out there almost as quickly and does continue to climb, just not for as long and then just drops.

Is this too much spin? I never balloon it with the PX shafts. Then again I seem to play just as well into a 30 mile an hour headwind. I always thought ballooning = too much spin, but that's NOT my problem at ALL.

Funny to think that I'd need to go down in loft to get a higher trajectory.  But might be the case, huh?

I'll try and get some numbers here but Big Thanks for the guidance in the mean time.

Edited by SurfinTurf, 29 March 2012 - 08:16 PM.

[SurfinTurf]

npark, on 27 March 2012 - 12:38 AM, said:

sounds like what happened to me, had a new driver/shaft combo that I was hitting really really well...or so I thought.  Would go out and hit good looking fairly high and what seemed to be low spin shots with no balloon out driving most better than average guys on the course. Well, I went out and played with some buddies that work in a golf shop and hit the ball long, really long.  On the first few holes they were telling me good drive, then said that less even on the same hits, followed by the big one on #10, man we see your ball rocket off the tee and expect it to be up by ours but every time you are 30 yards short...something isn't right.  We tinker with balls, no change same issue.  They said it just seems to fall like it hit a glass wall about 2/3rd's out, cant explain it, might be too much spin.  I had never previously thought I had too much spin, there wasn't a balloon but apparently too much spin was killing it.  That week I vistited them and borrowed a lower loft club and I had a lower launch/spin shaft which I rotated out with my higher loft and higher spin shaft to find a combo that was close.  From there I figured I would get some spin numbers for the two (my gamer and the new trial combo) on a LM and see what it had to say, sure enough my combo had too much spin...even though I never personally noticed it.  With numbers in hand I then did some research and settled on a new mid-high launch/low spin combo that I couldn't be happier with.  I am now hitting it up with them and thank them every time I do lol.  I would have never known if they wouldn't have pointed it out, would have been happy with what I 'thought' was good.


***moral of the story, get some numbers and see where you are at, report back and fine tune that driver***

Yeah, sounds like my issue. Thanks Npark!

Edited by SurfinTurf, 27 March 2012 - 02:26 AM.

[SurfinTurf]

wolfpack, on 27 March 2012 - 01:17 AM, said:

SurfinTurf, on 26 March 2012 - 09:59 PM, said:

wolfpack, on 26 March 2012 - 09:17 PM, said:

Yeah..  go back to the Rapture V1!!  

LOL! I have a 10.5* V1 with a 757X arriving tomorrow!

Expect an update when this solves your problem...

You got it Bro!

Edited by SurfinTurf, 27 March 2012 - 03:08 AM.