CashelFM
16-01-2008, 12:39 PM
Currently my R540 is illegal so I am using a 3 wood or my dads Wilson Deep Red MAXX while playing for our Clubs Winter League Team. Went for a lesson last night and had my overall swing looked at along with a slight alteration to my setup when driving. I wanted this before I went through the process of testing new drivers.
After the lesson I took a few of the demo drivers for a hit.
Callaway FT5 Draw 9.5 Stiff Speeder shaft - First up the club felt really nice and sat well behind the ball. It sat slightly closed but actually not that bad. Far less closed than the FTi draw model. The weight to the club seemed to suit me quite well and I struck the first few shots really solidly. The flight of the ball was penetrating but probably slightly lower than I might have liked. I got decent carry distance although I lost the ball in the dark at the back of the range. The sound was good from all of the hits (much nicer sounding than the FT3). I hit one pull with the club but my bad shot of a high cut never surfaced. Only hit about 15 balls but struck them all really well. I was thoroughly impressed with this club and would have been happy to have been properly fit there and then.
Titleist D1 9.5 Stiff Aldila VS Proto 65 - I had high hopes for this driver after reading a lot of comments about it. I never found the triangular shape too hard to get on with and thought the club looked quite good. It sat behind the ball well and instilled a bit of confidence. It felt a bit lighter than the FT5 and although I hit some good shots my overall shot dispersion was pretty poor. I hit a variety of shot shapes from what felt like the same swing. Distance wise I never felt that it was any shorter than the FT5 but again the dark night never helped with this. Basically I was not confident that the ball was going where I was aiming so this put me off the D1. I hit pulls, pushes and straight shots. Probably more straight shots on the whole though. The club also felt a bit too light for me. However I would be prepared to try other shafts to find one that suits as I reckon that I just found a shaft that never suited my swing. I really wanted to like this driver :(.
Titleist D2 9.5 Stiff UST Proforce V2 65 - Next up was the D2 which I had already told myself I would be better with the D1 as the D2 would be less forgiving and I would hit shots all over the place. However I immediately felt at home with the D2. It looked and felt much nicer than the D1. Maybe I am just traditional at heart but it sat really well behind the ball and I felt very comfortable swinging it. The yellow shaft seemed a bit full on and probably took away from the looks of the club in my opinion but hey you have to move with the times. The weighting seemed to suit me more and I felt really confident stepping up to the ball. I hit my shots slightly lower than the FT5 but they still had a nice penetrating flight. Distance wise it was hard to tell but again they disappeared into the darkness at the back of the range. Dispersion wise the shots were much tighter than with the D1 but not as tight as the FT5. I really like the feel from the club and feel it is definitely worth another look.
Srixon ZR-W 9.5 Stiff SV-3014 Fujikura Shaft - I actually like the looks of this club although the standard shaft is a bit too gimmicky for my liking with a variety of colours. Again a pretty traditional shape which I felt comfortable with. Nice weighty feeling to the club which translated into a solid feeling from the strikes. The balls flew on a reasonably high flight and while the strike felt really solid the ball flight never felt as penetrating as the FT5 or D2. I hit a number of bad shots with this club and would put it alongside the D1 for dispersion results. Again this could be shaft related or the fact that I had hit almost 200 balls up to this point.
Summary
In summary all of the clubheads look good and sit well behind the ball so I would have no qualms in getting on with any of them from a looks perspective. However the FT5 came out tops for me on performance as I hit the best shots with this. It generally went where I aimed it and I never hit any horror shots. I would like to get onto a launch monitor with the FT5 and D2 to compare the results side by side. I wanted to love the D1 but we never got on and I wanted to steer clear of the D2 but we seemed to have a lot in common (like a dodgy teenage crush on the wrong girl I guess!). It became very apparent that you need to try a number of different shafts with the same driver head to get a shaft that suits you. The driver heads are all good quality so if you get the right shaft I am sure they will all perform very well. The other drivers I wanted to test but have not had the chance are the MP600 and the G10.
I am currently resisting the urge to phone the fitting centre to get on their launch monitor with the FT5 and their OptiFit cart this weekend. The upcharge on some shafts from Callaway are pretty dear though as the FT5 is £259 before any shaft upgrade price.
Cheers
After the lesson I took a few of the demo drivers for a hit.
Callaway FT5 Draw 9.5 Stiff Speeder shaft - First up the club felt really nice and sat well behind the ball. It sat slightly closed but actually not that bad. Far less closed than the FTi draw model. The weight to the club seemed to suit me quite well and I struck the first few shots really solidly. The flight of the ball was penetrating but probably slightly lower than I might have liked. I got decent carry distance although I lost the ball in the dark at the back of the range. The sound was good from all of the hits (much nicer sounding than the FT3). I hit one pull with the club but my bad shot of a high cut never surfaced. Only hit about 15 balls but struck them all really well. I was thoroughly impressed with this club and would have been happy to have been properly fit there and then.
Titleist D1 9.5 Stiff Aldila VS Proto 65 - I had high hopes for this driver after reading a lot of comments about it. I never found the triangular shape too hard to get on with and thought the club looked quite good. It sat behind the ball well and instilled a bit of confidence. It felt a bit lighter than the FT5 and although I hit some good shots my overall shot dispersion was pretty poor. I hit a variety of shot shapes from what felt like the same swing. Distance wise I never felt that it was any shorter than the FT5 but again the dark night never helped with this. Basically I was not confident that the ball was going where I was aiming so this put me off the D1. I hit pulls, pushes and straight shots. Probably more straight shots on the whole though. The club also felt a bit too light for me. However I would be prepared to try other shafts to find one that suits as I reckon that I just found a shaft that never suited my swing. I really wanted to like this driver :(.
Titleist D2 9.5 Stiff UST Proforce V2 65 - Next up was the D2 which I had already told myself I would be better with the D1 as the D2 would be less forgiving and I would hit shots all over the place. However I immediately felt at home with the D2. It looked and felt much nicer than the D1. Maybe I am just traditional at heart but it sat really well behind the ball and I felt very comfortable swinging it. The yellow shaft seemed a bit full on and probably took away from the looks of the club in my opinion but hey you have to move with the times. The weighting seemed to suit me more and I felt really confident stepping up to the ball. I hit my shots slightly lower than the FT5 but they still had a nice penetrating flight. Distance wise it was hard to tell but again they disappeared into the darkness at the back of the range. Dispersion wise the shots were much tighter than with the D1 but not as tight as the FT5. I really like the feel from the club and feel it is definitely worth another look.
Srixon ZR-W 9.5 Stiff SV-3014 Fujikura Shaft - I actually like the looks of this club although the standard shaft is a bit too gimmicky for my liking with a variety of colours. Again a pretty traditional shape which I felt comfortable with. Nice weighty feeling to the club which translated into a solid feeling from the strikes. The balls flew on a reasonably high flight and while the strike felt really solid the ball flight never felt as penetrating as the FT5 or D2. I hit a number of bad shots with this club and would put it alongside the D1 for dispersion results. Again this could be shaft related or the fact that I had hit almost 200 balls up to this point.
Summary
In summary all of the clubheads look good and sit well behind the ball so I would have no qualms in getting on with any of them from a looks perspective. However the FT5 came out tops for me on performance as I hit the best shots with this. It generally went where I aimed it and I never hit any horror shots. I would like to get onto a launch monitor with the FT5 and D2 to compare the results side by side. I wanted to love the D1 but we never got on and I wanted to steer clear of the D2 but we seemed to have a lot in common (like a dodgy teenage crush on the wrong girl I guess!). It became very apparent that you need to try a number of different shafts with the same driver head to get a shaft that suits you. The driver heads are all good quality so if you get the right shaft I am sure they will all perform very well. The other drivers I wanted to test but have not had the chance are the MP600 and the G10.
I am currently resisting the urge to phone the fitting centre to get on their launch monitor with the FT5 and their OptiFit cart this weekend. The upcharge on some shafts from Callaway are pretty dear though as the FT5 is £259 before any shaft upgrade price.
Cheers