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 Add equipment to the list. I play with Ping Eye 2 irons that I bought from a friend in 1988 ... when Ronald Reagan was president and I was still in college. They helped me shoot under-par rounds, albeit a long time ago, and are arguably the best irons ever produced in the golf industry. Over the years, I've tried different sets of irons but never found anything that made me think I should take the plunge. It's not that I'm caught in a time warp, because I've used different drivers, several wedges and dozens of putters over the past 20 years. But my irons have always been the constant. With divorce rates in the country hovering around 50 percent, I guess it was only a matter of time before I traded up for a newer model. Callaway Golf was nice enough to welcome me to their headquarters in Carlsbad to show me what I've been missing in terms of club technology. Chris Nelson, the clubfitter assisting me through the process, has fit thousands of players from tour professionals to beginners. He had his hands full, as I am a skeptic by nature and wary of all the marketing jargon that comes with trying to sell me something I might not need. What I really wanted to know was how much better could a club from today be over a great club from 20 years ago? "Do you remember what a computer looked like 20 years ago?" Nelson asked. "A powerful computer would have filled a room. Now it's the size of a notebook. Where we as a company have been moving over the last couple years is using multi-materials and moving weights around in the club to make a golf club easier to hit without forcing someone to change their swing." I was brought into a room filled with cameras and sensors. I hit shots with a 6-iron and the computer registered everything from clubhead speed and ball speed to launch angle and spin. Different heads were combined with different shafts and grips until a combination delivered the desired result. When we found the right combination the feedback came immediately in crisp, solid shots that were repeatable. "Twenty years ago, there wasn't a whole lot going on in the golf club," Nelson said. "The center of gravity was near the hosel and perimeter weighting was just coming out. In the FT iron you were hitting, 80 percent of the club's mass is in the cradle and there is a titanium plate in the face that keeps ball speed up on off-center hits. Center punch hits are even more solid. The biggest change is the forgiveness factor that today's club delivers." Lord knows, I need forgiveness. The question is how confident are clubfitters that the numbers generated by the sensors in an air-conditioned room will translate into the real world? "One hundred percent," Nelson said of his confidence in the readings. "I've done enough fittings, especially out in the field, where I would take these numbers nine times out of 10 and twice on Sundays. The software can really dial it in. We do three to five fittings per day. Almost every person I fit, within a week or two, gives a great compliment or sends a thank-you letter saying how much they enjoyed the experience. Now they are hitting the ball further and straighter than ever before." So what do my numbers mean? For that I turned to my lead instructor, Dale Abraham, who translated the feedback into layman's terms. "Your driver speed of 102 is good for an amateur," he said. "A PGA Tour professional is between 105 and 130 mph. Tiger is in the upper 120s to 130. The spin rate on your driver is pretty close to optimal, which is 2600. However, your launch angle of 16.9 is too high. We need to get that down a bit and that can be accomplished with a lower loft driver. Otherwise, the numbers look pretty good." |
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