Yesterday, a couple of mates and I went on a bit of a Sanctuary Cove Bender. Played the Palms course in the morning, followed by 2x Iron fittings at Cool Clubs.

Before I get into the iron fitting, the Palms is a very nice course - a good spot for the October Champs. The Palms clubhouse is also home to a most excellent Yoga class that saw us finishing in a herd of yummy mummies leaving. Outstanding.

On to the fitting, some people might wonder how this all works, so thought I might detail the experience. I got fit with Jack, a very down to earth fella, how was up for a laugh. We started by discussing my goals and outcomes I was looking for the fit. I had 4 goals for this fit:
  1. I have a set of i20 heads on the way, so fit me into the best shaft for them
  2. Fit me into the best combination he could, based on what he had available
  3. Increase the height of my ball flight, as I am a lower ball hitter
  4. Give me a hit of the Covert Forged, because they are hard to try around Maryborough.

My clubs for the day were my rocketbladez tours, running C Taper R+, buil 0.75 long. These I built myself.

We started by Jack taking CPM, Swingweight, and length readings of each club. I was proud to say I was within 0.2 SW points using his digital SW scale, but lengths were a little over the place (+/- 1/8"). The frequency machine showed my 6i was a little stiffer than the set, the 4i was a little weaker.

The fitting started inside the studio using a trackman off a mat to get baseline data. I was swinging my 6i about 87mph, smash factor about 1.4. Highlighted I have a slight out to in path, with a less open face giving me very baby cuts. Carry showing 155m, which I would expect on the course.

Jack grabbed a number of heads and shafts and we headed to the range.

Heads chosen: Ping i25, Nike Covert Forged, SLDR, Miz MP-54, 714 AP2, Ping S55, Callaway Apex Forged
Shafts Chosen: GD Tour AD 65, Steelfiber i95, Accra Tour 80i, Nippon 950

We started with the Tour AD 65. A crazy light shaft, but launched high, and went long. Jack didn't think this wwould be the answer, but wanted to see if I could handle lighter shafts. From there we moved into the Accra. This shaft had beautiful feel, and I really enjoyed hitting it. Height was up, but dispersion was a bit wide.

Cycling through all his gear, it was obvious that some of my fitting numbers from previous fits had either been off, or my swing has significantly changed. I have been to a couple of less intense fittings, and have been put into 2deg up, 1" over. Jack was sure I should be std lie, 1/4" over. I swapped back and forward between my RBZ Tour, and the clubs he set for me, and it was obvious that 1" over is too long. It was leading me to flatten the plane, and hit bigger cuts.

We tried a number of the heads with this shaft, and it led to the elimination of the SLDR, MP-54 and AP2. I wanted to like the MP-54, but it was tough to hit consistently. The SLDR was just meh, and the AP2 I thought had quite a poor feel.

This left the i25's, Covert Forged, and Apex. We cycled through all the shafts again, and based on feel and numbers, it was apprent that the Steelfiber was the shaft for me. Once the shaft was locked in, I kept changing through the 3 heads. I specifically wasn't paying attention to numbers, just feel, and ball flight. By the end, the head said the i25's, the heart said the covert forged. In my books, these 2 edged the Apex in feel and performance. Once we were done, I asked Jack what he thought, and based on numbers and his observation, he said i25's just ahead of the Covert Forged. He asked if I want to try some wedges, so I hit a few Vokey's, Mack Daddy's and Fourteens. I hate to admit the Vokey's won, and with Jacks help with some setup issues, was able to generate a bit of spin for the first time.

We packed it up, then headed inside to finish off.

Final testing was some impact tape with different lie clubs, which Jack was happy to confirm standard lie was the go. We then talked through the options for builds. Can do new from USA for the top dollar, or they can build them in Aus for a bit less. No dramas to supply the i20 heads I have on the way either. I explained to Jack I like to build my own, to which offered no BS and understood if I wanted to go that way.

In all I was very happy with the fitting, and with the 20% voucher in our golf buggy from the morning's round, cost $158. I was there for about 2hrs, had a great number of laughs, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I don't think I will go down the path of buying from them - over $2k for the irons. I don't know if the i25 / Steelfiber won because I have i20 heads and a set of steelfiber shafts already ordered before I went. Maybe it is just won of lifes great coincidences, though if I could find a decent price on Covert Forged, I'd probably dump the i20's for them.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope it might be of benefit to someone who wasn't sure what to expect if they were considering this type of fitting.

Final Numbers:
RBZ Tour / C Taper R+: CHS: 85.5, Smash: 1.42, launch: 10.6, spin: 6151, carry: 146.8
I25 / Steelfiber i95: CHS: 86.7, Smash: 1.43, launch: 12.3, spin: 6065, carry 153.5
Covert / Steelfiber i95: CHS: 88.9, Smash: 1.42, launch: 10.3, spin: 5903, carry 156.0
Apex / Steelfiber i95: CHS: 87.4, Smash: 1.42, launch: 7.6, spin: 5069, carry 152.3

Cheers,
Ben