Wilson Golf Product Testing and Fitting Experience @ Cabot Citrus Farms | Follow Along Here

[Chip Duffer]

I’ve enjoyed reading about the experiences of the fortunate members that got the Wilson experience. This trip was right in my backyard and I had hoped to drive up and see if I could watch a bit but work didn’t allow that. 
 

I didn’t apply this year because my game is out of whack due to the renovation I’m doing on my house and work have all but eliminated my chance to golf for a few months. 
 

I’m very pleased to see that the WRX members had a stellar experience at Cabot with Wilson here in Brooksville.

 

Wilson is definitely on my radar. Thank you all for the fine commentary about the experience and the Wilson equipment. It seems that many of the members are accomplished golfers. 

[wam78]

I may just have to give the carbon a run at some point this season.  Also, the fairways look so damn good.  It’s like a mix with Titleist and TM.  Amazing shape!

 

Also the ZM wedges might have to go back in the bag as well.

[Pure716]

As promised…

 

Monday, February 17th

 

I’ll save everyone the recap of my travel struggles which have already been covered here. I ended up being the first GolfWRX member to arrive at our cottage at Cabot Citrus Farms where I was greeted by @knudson81 and Lindsey from @Wilson_Golf. This gave me about an hour before dinner to choose a room, unpack, and take some pictures.  As you can see, Wilson Golf put a ton of effort into the little details inside our cottage such as: a Wilson Golf den caddy on the porch, a GolfWRX x Wilson Golf Cabot driver headcover, tons of GolfWRX logo’d Wilson Staff Model golf balls, and Wilson Golf throw pillows. Additionally, there were four Wilson Golf backpacks with each of our names displayed on the kitchen counter. And that’s not even the best part? Our cottage was overlooking the lighted Trackman driving range.

 

 

That night we had dinner at The Cafe with the entire Wilson Golf crew. The building itself is too small for the volume of play Cabot will generate. Which, isn’t an issue since it appears to be a temporary solution while the permanent restaurant is being built.  The food was great and it felt like the perfect introduction to get to know the people behind Wilson Golf ahead of tomorrows fitting.

 

Tuesday, February 18th

 

We met @knudson81 at The Cafe for breakfast before our fittings at 9:00 am. After breakfast we headed back to our cottage where we were shuttled to the back of the driving range. As great as the view of the range was from our cottage, the back of the range was even better. In the center was a large, flat tee where driver, fairway woods, and iron fittings were taking place. The far left side of the range had a large short game area with flags positioned at varying distances for full/partial swings along with a main chipping/pitching green and bunker. 

 

The four of us were given a few minutes to warm up before being divided amongst the four stations: driver, irons, and wedges, with the fourth station being a tour of the Tour Van. Somehow, I had completely missed the Tour Van on my drive in the day before.

 

My first station was the driver fitting working with @Wilson_Golf_Harry. We started by getting a baseline with my current driver.  Naturally, right after telling Harry how driver is my best, straightest club in the bag, I proceeded to hit roughly ten horrible shots in a row. All excuses aside: first fitting of the day, not loose, not being used to hitting in front of a camera crew, etc, this didn’t give him much of a baseline to work with. So much so that it wouldn’t be fair to compare numbers off of that baseline. Instead, what I will share is the process.

 

When I was fit for my current driver one of the goals from my fitter was to get my peak height up (Ideally around 110 feet). Harry felt that my peak height had gotten too high and wanted to see a slightly flatter trajectory, especially in windy conditions like we had that morning.

 

Additionally, my driver has a very heavy swing weight (E0). This isn’t by design, that’s just how the build panned out. Naturally, my first impression of the DYNAPWR Carbon and DYNAPWR LS drivers were how light they felt by comparison.  I occasionally get stuck from the inside and will have a big left miss. Harry thought that the heavy swing weight may be contributing to this miss. At the same time, he didn’t want the swing weight to be radically different from what I am used to.

 

The driver fitting focused around these two objectives: flatten the trajectory and get the swing weight to a lighter, but comfortable range that reduces the left miss. Harry had me try both the DYNAPWR LS and DYNAPWR Carbon heads. We pretty quickly narrowed it down to the DYNAPWR Carbon 9.0° with the Denali 60S shaft. The DYNAPWR Carbon comes stock with swappable front (6g) and back (12g) weights which Harry adjusted to get the swing weight, launch, and spin where we were looking for.  We ultimately landed in front (9g) and back (12g) weights. By the end of the fitting I was starting to hit it well. Which, made me feel relieved to at least demonstrate what I typically see on the course.

 

Next, I headed over to the short game area for my “wedge fitting.” I used the quotations here because this was more of a trial period compared to a formal fitting. While there was a Wilson Golf staff member present to answer any questions, the thought was to get an idea of what we’d like to have built when we visit the Tour Van.

 

My current gamers are SM10 48.10F (bent to 49°), 54.10S, and 60.10V (bent to 59°). The Wilson Staff Model ZM wedges are only available in one bounce option in the 48° and 54° heads. Therefore, the only remaining question was which bounce offering we would go with in the 60°. On paper, the 60.10 should have been the clear winner. After all my current wedge has 10 degrees of bounce, I’m neutral to shallow angle of attack, and play most of my golf on Bermuda grass.

 

We started with chip and pitch shots around the green.  Oddly enough, I found both the 60.06 and 6.12 to be much better than the 60.10 in this area. From here, we went over to the full/partial swing target greens to see how the respective models performed on fuller shots.  All three were equal in this regard. Finally, the plan was to try all three wedges out of the green side bunker as a tie breaker. The 60.06 performed the best here with the 60.12 in close second. At this point I was really unsure.  The Wilson Staff member suggested I explain everything when I visit the Tour Van and ask for their opinion.

 

I was picked up from the short game area and driven back to the main parking lot where the Wilson Tour Van was parked. After a quick tour of the van, I was asked to pick out three wedges, shafts, grips, and stamping (up to six characters). As instructed, I explained my experience with the wedge fitting and left it up to their expert opinion. The guys on the Tour Van suggested the 60.12 since the bounce would be reduced to 11° once it is bent to 59°.

 

Once we had three heads picked out I was asked how I would like them to be stamped. I’ve really never had custom stamped wedges before and wasn’t sure what to go with. I decided to give them creative license with references to my alma mater - North Carolina State. Factoring in the six character limit, we landed on "NC State", "Wolf", and "Pack" in the school colors (red & black). Getting to be in the Tour Van, watching my custom set of wedges being built, was one of the coolest golf experiences of my life.

 

Before the wedges were finished I was picked up to go to my final fitting with Ed. Ed started by having me hit a few shots using the Wilson AI Fit club. From there, he explained how the program was built, how to interpret the data, and showed me the fitting recommendations. The AI fit recommended the Staff Model CBs with Dynamic Gold 115. Coming from T-150 irons with KBS Tour V 110s, this wasn’t too far off what I was used to.  Ed had me take a few swings with the Staff Model CBs in both the Dynamic Gold 115 and KBS Tour V 110 shafts. I was getting nearly identical numbers between the two shafts.  Due to this, Ed recommended we stick with KBS Tour V since that is what I am used to.  Now that we had the shafts ironed out, Ed had me hit both the Staff Model CBs and DYNAPWR Forged heads back to back. Unlike the driver fitting, by this point I was hitting both really, really well.  While both heads produced nearly identical results, my typical miss with irons is low center face. Ed felt that the Power Holes on the DYNAPWR Forged would really help with this miss and suggested we go that route.

 

We still had a little time remaining while other GolfWRX members were finishing up their fittings. So, Ed let me try fairway woods, hybrids, and driving irons to round out the top of my bag.   I’ve recapped that portion of the hitting here.

 

We walked over to Cantina 21 for lunch after everyone was done with their fittings. Cantina 21 is Mexican themed halfway house located on The Squeeze which was delicious.  After lunch we were given a little time to head back to our cottage and change for the afternoon’s activities.

 

One of the unique things about Cabot Citrus Farms is that they offer activities outside of golf. Throughout the trip I found myself thinking how this is one golf destination I know my wife would really enjoy visiting. We were given the choice of either fishing or skeet shooting, axe throwing, and archery.  While I would have been happy going with either option I chose skeet shooting, axe throwing, and archery.  This ended up being a great way to take a break from golf, spend time with the Wilson Golf crew, and have some friendly competition. We finished up our actives and met up with the other group around 4:00 pm. This left us with a few hours to kill before dinner at The Porch. The Wilson Golf crew was kind enough to invite us to join them for some drinks on the putting course.

 

Living close to Pinehurst, I’ve played the Thistle Dhu a number of times and never really understood the appeal. After all its just a crazy putting green, right? Well, playing the putting course at Cabot Citrus Farms in an 8-some really changed my opinion on that. It was an absolute blast and served as a little preview as to what we were in for on the Karoo.

 

It look us nearly as long to play 18 holes on the putting course as it did to play all 11 holes of The Wedge later that night. With the remaining time before dinner I walked over to the Pro Shop and I have to say, Cabot Citrus Farms has one of the best pro shops I’ve ever been in. We were told to report for dinner with only our putters in hand for the evening round on The Wedge.

 

The Porch is perched upon a hill, overlooking The Squeeze, the putting course, and the range, and is adjacent to the first tee of the Wedge. They have a wood fired oven for pizzas and a beverage cart for drinks. As the sun is setting, with the lights all lit up, it really is one of the best spots on the property. Again I found myself thinking how this is one golf destination I know my wife would really enjoy visiting.

 

We sat here talking golf while our pizzas were in the oven.  Before any food came out the Wilson Staff crew surprised us with our custom wedges from the morning, just in time for our night golf round on The Wedge. This is where the people behind Wilson Golf really went above and beyond. If you can recall, I was really torn between the 60.12 and 60.06, ultimately going with the 60.12 after speaking with the Tour Van. Well, I was surprised with a fourth wedge - the 60.06 - stamped with "Jimmy V" in honor of NC State’s 1983 National Championship men’s basketball coach who passed away from cancer in 1993. That was not something I requested, or even mentioned, and was entirely the idea of the folks at Wilson Golf.  What more can you say about them than that?

 

We ended the long day by playing the Wedge with our new set of custom wedges. The highlight of the night belongs to @Red4282's first ever hole-in-one on the final hole of The Wedge.  We had so much fun a few of us decided to play again.  I ended up closing down The Wedge with Lindsey, Marcus, and Bob Thurman from Wilson Golf.

 

Part 2: coming soon

Edited February 25 by Pure716

[Wilson_Golf_Harry]

20 minutes ago, Pure716 said:

As promised…

 

Monday, February 17th

 

I’ll save everyone the recap of my travel struggles which have already been covered here. I ended up being the first GolfWRX member to arrive at our cottage at Cabot Citrus Farms where I was greeted by @knudson81 and Lindsey from @Wilson_Golf. This gave me about an hour before dinner to choose a room, unpack, and take some pictures.  As you can see, Wilson Golf put a ton of effort into the little details inside our cottage such as: a Wilson Golf den caddy on the porch, a GolfWRX x Wilson Golf Cabot driver headcover, tons of GolfWRX logo’d Wilson Staff Model golf balls, and Wilson Golf throw pillows. Additionally, there were four Wilson Golf backpacks with each of our names displayed on the kitchen counter. And that’s not even the best part? Our cottage was overlooking the lighted Trackman driving range.

 

 

That night we had dinner at The Cafe with the entire Wilson Golf crew. The building itself is too small for the volume of play Cabot will generate. Which, isn’t an issue since it appears to be a temporary solution while the permanent restaurant is being built.  The food was great and it felt like the perfect introduction to get to know the people behind Wilson Golf ahead of tomorrows fitting.

 

Tuesday, February 18th

 

We met @knudson81 at The Cafe for breakfast before our fittings at 9:00 am. After breakfast we headed back to our cottage where we were shuttled to the back of the driving range. As great as the view of the range was from our cottage, the back of the range was even better. In the center was a large, flat tee where driver, fairway woods, and iron fittings were taking place. The far left side of the range had a large short game area with flags positioned at varying distances for full/partial swings along with a main chipping/pitching green and bunker. 

 

The four of us were given a few minutes to warm up before being divided amongst the four stations: driver, irons, and wedges, with the fourth station being a tour of the Tour Van. Somehow, I had completely missed the Tour Van on my drive in the day before.

 

My first station was the driver fitting working with @Wilson_Golf_Harry. We started by getting a baseline with my current driver.  Naturally, right after telling Harry how driver is my best, straightest club in the bag, I proceeded to hit roughly ten horrible shots in a row. All excuses aside: first fitting of the day, not loose, not being used to hitting in front of a camera crew, etc, this didn’t give him much of a baseline to work with. So much so that it wouldn’t be fair to compare numbers off of that baseline. Instead, what I will share is the process.

 

When I was fit for my current driver one of the goals from my fitter was to get my peak height up (Ideally around 110 feet). Harry felt that my peak height had gotten too high and wanted to see a slightly flatter trajectory, especially in windy conditions like we had that morning.

 

Additionally, my driver has a very heavy swing weight (E0). This isn’t by design, that’s just how the build panned out. Naturally, my first impression of the DYNAPWR Carbon and DYNAPWR LS drivers were how light they felt by comparison.  I occasionally get stuck from the inside and will have a big left miss. Harry thought that the heavy swing weight may be contributing to this miss. At the same time, he didn’t want the swing weight to be radically different from what I am used to.

 

The driver fitting focused around these two objectives: flatten the trajectory and get the swing weight to a lighter, but comfortable range that reduces the left miss. Harry had me try both the DYNAPWR LS and DYNAPWR Carbon heads. We pretty quickly narrowed it down to the DYNAPWR Carbon 9.0° with the Denali 60S shaft. The DYNAPWR Carbon comes stock with swappable front (6g) and back (12g) weights which Harry adjusted to get the swing weight, launch, and spin where we were looking for.  We ultimately landed in front (9g) and back (12g) weights. By the end of the fitting I was starting to hit it well. Which, made me feel relieved to at least demonstrate what I typically see on the course.

 

Next, I headed over to the short game area for my “wedge fitting.” I used the quotations here because this was more of a trial period compared to a formal fitting. While there was a Wilson Golf staff member present to answer any questions, the thought was to get an idea of what we’d like to have built when we visit the Tour Van.

 

My current gamers are SM10 48.10F (bent to 49°), 54.10S, and 60.10V (bent to 59°). The Wilson Staff Model ZM wedges are only available in one bounce option in the 48° and 54° heads. Therefore, the only remaining question was which bounce offering we would go with in the 60°. On paper, the 60.10 should have been the clear winner. After all my current wedge has 10 degrees of bounce, I’m neutral to shallow angle of attack, and play most of my golf on Bermuda grass.

 

We started with chip and pitch shots around the green.  Oddly enough, I found both the 60.06 and 6.12 to be much better than the 60.10 in this area. From here, we went over to the full/partial swing target greens to see how the respective models performed on fuller shots.  All three were equal in this regard. Finally, the plan was to try all three wedges out of the green side bunker as a tie breaker. The 60.06 performed the best here with the 60.12 in close second. At this point I was really unsure.  The Wilson Staff member suggested I explain everything when I visit the Tour Van and ask for their opinion.

 

I was picked up from the short game area and driven back to the main parking lot where the Wilson Tour Van was parked. After a quick tour of the van, I was asked to pick out three wedges, shafts, grips, and stamping (up to six characters). As instructed, I explained my experience with the wedge fitting and left it up to their expert opinion. The guys on the Tour Van suggested the 60.12 since the bounce would be reduced to 11° once it is bent to 59°.

 

Once we had three heads picked out I was asked how I would like them to be stamped. I’ve really never had custom stamped wedges before and wasn’t sure what to go with. I decided to give them creative license with references to my alma mater - North Carolina State. Factoring in the six character limit, we landed on "NC State", "Wolf", and "Pack" in the school colors (red & black). Getting to be in the Tour Van, watching my custom set of wedges being built, was one of the coolest golf experiences of my life.

 

Before the wedges were finished I was picked up to go to my final fitting with Ed. Ed started by having me hit a few shots using the Wilson AI Fit club. From there, he explained how the program was built, how to interpret the data, and showed me the fitting recommendations. The AI fit recommended the Staff Model CBs with Dynamic Gold 115. Coming from T-150 irons with KBS Tour V 110s, this wasn’t too far off what I was used to.  Ed had me take a few swings with the Staff Model CBs in both the Dynamic Gold 115 and KBS Tour V 110 shafts. I was getting nearly identical numbers between the two shafts.  Due to this, Ed recommended we stick with KBS Tour V since that is what I am used to.  Now that we had the shafts ironed out, Ed had me hit both the Staff Model CBs and DYNAPWR Forged heads back to back. Unlike the driver fitting, by this point I was hitting both really, really well.  While both heads produced nearly identical results, my typical miss with irons is low center face. Ed felt that the Power Holes on the DYNAPWR Forged would really help with this miss and suggested we go that route.

 

We still had a little time remaining while other GolfWRX members were finishing up their fittings. So, Ed let me try fairway woods, hybrids, and driving irons to round out the top of my bag.   I’ve recapped that portion of the hitting here.

 

We walked over to Cantina 21 for lunch after everyone was done with their fittings. Cantina 21 is Mexican themed halfway house located on The Squeeze which was delicious.  After lunch we were given a little time to head back to our cottage and change for the afternoon’s activities.

 

One of the unique things about Cabot Citrus Farms is that they offer activities outside of golf. Throughout the trip I found myself thinking how this is one golf destination I know my wife would really enjoy visiting. We were given the choice of either fishing or skeet shooting, axe throwing, and archery.  While I would have been happy going with either option I chose skeet shooting, axe throwing, and archery.  This ended up being a great way to take a break from golf, spend time with the Wilson Golf crew, and have some friendly competition. We finished up our actives and met up with the other group around 4:00 pm. This left us with a few hours to kill before dinner at The Porch. The Wilson Golf crew was kind enough to invite us to join them for some drinks on the putting course.

 

Living close to Pinehurst, I’ve played the Thistle Dhu a number of times and never really understood the appeal. After all its just a crazy putting green, right? Well, playing the putting course at Cabot Citrus Farms in an 8-some really changed my opinion on that. It was an absolute blast and served as a little preview as to what we were in for on the Karoo.

 

It look us nearly as long to play 18 holes on the putting course as it did to play all 11 holes of The Wedge later that night. With the remaining time before dinner I walked over to the Pro Shop and I have to say, Cabot Citrus Farms has one of the best pro shops I’ve ever been in. We were told to report for dinner with only our putters in hand for the evening round on The Wedge.

 

The Porch is perched upon a hill, overlooking The Squeeze, the putting course, and the range, and is adjacent to the first tee of the Wedge. They have a wood fired oven for pizzas and a beverage cart for drinks. As the sun is setting, with the lights all lit up, it really is one of the best spots on the property. Again I found myself thinking how this is one golf destination I know my wife would really enjoy visiting.

 

We sat here talking golf while our pizzas were in the oven.  Before any food came out the Wilson Staff crew surprised us with our custom wedges from the morning, just in time for our night golf round on The Wedge. This is where the people behind Wilson Golf really went above and beyond. If you can recall, I was really torn between the 60.12 and 60.06, ultimately going with the 60.12 after speaking with the Tour Van. Well, I was surprised with a fourth wedge - the 60.06 - stamped with "Jimmy V" in honor of NC State’s 1983 National Championship men’s basketball coach who passed away from cancer in 1993. That was not something I requested, or even mentioned, and was entirely the idea of the folks at Wilson Golf.  What more can you say about them than that?

 

We ended the long day by playing the Wedge with our new set of custom wedges. The highlight of the night belongs to @Red4282's first ever hole-in-one on the final hole of The Wedge.  We had so much fun a few of us decided to play again.  I ended up closing down The Wedge with Lindsey, Marcus, and Bob Thurman from Wilson Golf.

 

Part 2: coming soon

All I remember is when we dialed you in, you were hitting frozen ropes down the middle of the range. Great to see

[adamwon84]

On 2/19/2025 at 8:42 PM, ArcticSound said:

 

These break downs and experiences all sound amazing! I love what Golf WRX and Wilson are doing for the community, they really are going above any beyond with giving folks a once in a  lifetime experience that they won't forget. 

 

I check this thread everyday out of jealously but also I am extremely happy for everyone that got to go! Looking forward to hearing more comparisons to the gear you all currently have with the new Wilson toys. Reading this just cements Wilson into my brain as a brand that I NEED to start looking more into! Thank you all for this, its been a fantastic read so far!

[Rory4Pres]

Does anybody know where the Wilson club heads are manufactured?

[DTorres]

17 minutes ago, adamwon84 said:

These break downs and experiences all sound amazing! I love what Golf WRX and Wilson are doing for the community, they really are going above any beyond with giving folks a once in a  lifetime experience that they won't forget. 

 

I check this thread everyday out of jealously but also I am extremely happy for everyone that got to go! Looking forward to hearing more comparisons to the gear you all currently have with the new Wilson toys. Reading this just cements Wilson into my brain as a brand that I NEED to start looking more into! Thank you all for this, its been a fantastic read so far!

  I’m with you. Im extremely jealous but I’m so thankful for @GolfWRX_Official and Wilson golf for these experiences and contributing to the GolfWRX community so sublimely. They are awesome to follow along and the amount of work you all put into this event has been nothing short of spectacular. Congrats again to @Red4282 on that hole in one! Cannot think of a better way to highlight an experience like this. Even though you are all home and enjoying your new equipment I’m still checking in daily haha.

Edited February 25 by DTorres

[adamwon84]

2 minutes ago, DTorres said:

  I’m with you. Im extremely jealous but I’m so thankful for @GolfWRX_Official and Wilson golf for these experiences and contributing to the GolfWRX community so sublimely. They are awesome to follow along and the amount of work you all put into this event has been nothing short but spectacular. Congrats again to @Red4282 on that hole in one! Cannot think of a better way to highlight an experience like this. Even though you are all home and enjoying your new equipment I’m still checking in daily haha.

absolutely, the community here is nothing short of incredible. Congrats again @Red4282!

[Red4282]

Trackman session done… posting soon, but the fairways are HOT

[radiman]

48 minutes ago, Pure716 said:

As promised…

 

Monday, February 17th

 

I’ll save everyone the recap of my travel struggles which have already been covered here. I ended up being the first GolfWRX member to arrive at our cottage at Cabot Citrus Farms where I was greeted by @knudson81 and Lindsey from @Wilson_Golf. This gave me about an hour before dinner to choose a room, unpack, and take some pictures.  As you can see, Wilson Golf put a ton of effort into the little details inside our cottage such as: a Wilson Golf den caddy on the porch, a GolfWRX x Wilson Golf Cabot driver headcover, tons of GolfWRX logo’d Wilson Staff Model golf balls, and Wilson Golf throw pillows. Additionally, there were four Wilson Golf backpacks with each of our names displayed on the kitchen counter. And that’s not even the best part? Our cottage was overlooking the lighted Trackman driving range.

 

 

That night we had dinner at The Cafe with the entire Wilson Golf crew. The building itself is too small for the volume of play Cabot will generate. Which, isn’t an issue since it appears to be a temporary solution while the permanent restaurant is being built.  The food was great and it felt like the perfect introduction to get to know the people behind Wilson Golf ahead of tomorrows fitting.

 

Tuesday, February 18th

 

We met @knudson81 at The Cafe for breakfast before our fittings at 9:00 am. After breakfast we headed back to our cottage where we were shuttled to the back of the driving range. As great as the view of the range was from our cottage, the back of the range was even better. In the center was a large, flat tee where driver, fairway woods, and iron fittings were taking place. The far left side of the range had a large short game area with flags positioned at varying distances for full/partial swings along with a main chipping/pitching green and bunker. 

 

The four of us were given a few minutes to warm up before being divided amongst the four stations: driver, irons, and wedges, with the fourth station being a tour of the Tour Van. Somehow, I had completely missed the Tour Van on my drive in the day before.

 

My first station was the driver fitting working with @Wilson_Golf_Harry. We started by getting a baseline with my current driver.  Naturally, right after telling Harry how driver is my best, straightest club in the bag, I proceeded to hit roughly ten horrible shots in a row. All excuses aside: first fitting of the day, not loose, not being used to hitting in front of a camera crew, etc, this didn’t give him much of a baseline to work with. So much so that it wouldn’t be fair to compare numbers off of that baseline. Instead, what I will share is the process.

 

When I was fit for my current driver one of the goals from my fitter was to get my peak height up (Ideally around 110 feet). Harry felt that my peak height had gotten too high and wanted to see a slightly flatter trajectory, especially in windy conditions like we had that morning.

 

Additionally, my driver has a very heavy swing weight (E0). This isn’t by design, that’s just how the build panned out. Naturally, my first impression of the DYNAPWR Carbon and DYNAPWR LS drivers were how light they felt by comparison.  I occasionally get stuck from the inside and will have a big left miss. Harry thought that the heavy swing weight may be contributing to this miss. At the same time, he didn’t want the swing weight to be radically different from what I am used to.

 

The driver fitting focused around these two objectives: flatten the trajectory and get the swing weight to a lighter, but comfortable range that reduces the left miss. Harry had me try both the DYNAPWR LS and DYNAPWR Carbon heads. We pretty quickly narrowed it down to the DYNAPWR Carbon 9.0° with the Denali 60S shaft. The DYNAPWR Carbon comes stock with swappable front (6g) and back (12g) weights which Harry adjusted to get the swing weight, launch, and spin where we were looking for.  We ultimately landed in front (9g) and back (12g) weights. By the end of the fitting I was starting to hit it well. Which, made me feel relieved to at least demonstrate what I typically see on the course.

 

Next, I headed over to the short game area for my “wedge fitting.” I used the quotations here because this was more of a trial period compared to a formal fitting. While there was a Wilson Golf staff member present to answer any questions, the thought was to get an idea of what we’d like to have built when we visit the Tour Van.

 

My current gamers are SM10 48.10F (bent to 49°), 54.10S, and 60.10V (bent to 59°). The Wilson Staff Model ZM wedges are only available in one bounce option in the 48° and 54° heads. Therefore, the only remaining question was which bounce offering we would go with in the 60°. On paper, the 60.10 should have been the clear winner. After all my current wedge has 10 degrees of bounce, I’m neutral to shallow angle of attack, and play most of my golf on Bermuda grass.

 

We started with chip and pitch shots around the green.  Oddly enough, I found both the 60.06 and 6.12 to be much better than the 60.10 in this area. From here, we went over to the full/partial swing target greens to see how the respective models performed on fuller shots.  All three were equal in this regard. Finally, the plan was to try all three wedges out of the green side bunker as a tie breaker. The 60.06 performed the best here with the 60.12 in close second. At this point I was really unsure.  The Wilson Staff member suggested I explain everything when I visit the Tour Van and ask for their opinion.

 

I was picked up from the short game area and driven back to the main parking lot where the Wilson Tour Van was parked. After a quick tour of the van, I was asked to pick out three wedges, shafts, grips, and stamping (up to six characters). As instructed, I explained my experience with the wedge fitting and left it up to their expert opinion. The guys on the Tour Van suggested the 60.12 since the bounce would be reduced to 11° once it is bent to 59°.

 

Once we had three heads picked out I was asked how I would like them to be stamped. I’ve really never had custom stamped wedges before and wasn’t sure what to go with. I decided to give them creative license with references to my alma mater - North Carolina State. Factoring in the six character limit, we landed on "NC State", "Wolf", and "Pack" in the school colors (red & black). Getting to be in the Tour Van, watching my custom set of wedges being built, was one of the coolest golf experiences of my life.

 

Before the wedges were finished I was picked up to go to my final fitting with Ed. Ed started by having me hit a few shots using the Wilson AI Fit club. From there, he explained how the program was built, how to interpret the data, and showed me the fitting recommendations. The AI fit recommended the Staff Model CBs with Dynamic Gold 115. Coming from T-150 irons with KBS Tour V 110s, this wasn’t too far off what I was used to.  Ed had me take a few swings with the Staff Model CBs in both the Dynamic Gold 115 and KBS Tour V 110 shafts. I was getting nearly identical numbers between the two shafts.  Due to this, Ed recommended we stick with KBS Tour V since that is what I am used to.  Now that we had the shafts ironed out, Ed had me hit both the Staff Model CBs and DYNAPWR Forged heads back to back. Unlike the driver fitting, by this point I was hitting both really, really well.  While both heads produced nearly identical results, my typical miss with irons is low center face. Ed felt that the Power Holes on the DYNAPWR Forged would really help with this miss and suggested we go that route.

 

We still had a little time remaining while other GolfWRX members were finishing up their fittings. So, Ed let me try fairway woods, hybrids, and driving irons to round out the top of my bag.   I’ve recapped that portion of the hitting here.

 

We walked over to Cantina 21 for lunch after everyone was done with their fittings. Cantina 21 is Mexican themed halfway house located on The Squeeze which was delicious.  After lunch we were given a little time to head back to our cottage and change for the afternoon’s activities.

 

One of the unique things about Cabot Citrus Farms is that they offer activities outside of golf. Throughout the trip I found myself thinking how this is one golf destination I know my wife would really enjoy visiting. We were given the choice of either fishing or skeet shooting, axe throwing, and archery.  While I would have been happy going with either option I chose skeet shooting, axe throwing, and archery.  This ended up being a great way to take a break from golf, spend time with the Wilson Golf crew, and have some friendly competition. We finished up our actives and met up with the other group around 4:00 pm. This left us with a few hours to kill before dinner at The Porch. The Wilson Golf crew was kind enough to invite us to join them for some drinks on the putting course.

 

Living close to Pinehurst, I’ve played the Thistle Dhu a number of times and never really understood the appeal. After all its just a crazy putting green, right? Well, playing the putting course at Cabot Citrus Farms in an 8-some really changed my opinion on that. It was an absolute blast and served as a little preview as to what we were in for on the Karoo.

 

It look us nearly as long to play 18 holes on the putting course as it did to play all 11 holes of The Wedge later that night. With the remaining time before dinner I walked over to the Pro Shop and I have to say, Cabot Citrus Farms has one of the best pro shops I’ve ever been in. We were told to report for dinner with only our putters in hand for the evening round on The Wedge.

 

The Porch is perched upon a hill, overlooking The Squeeze, the putting course, and the range, and is adjacent to the first tee of the Wedge. They have a wood fired oven for pizzas and a beverage cart for drinks. As the sun is setting, with the lights all lit up, it really is one of the best spots on the property. Again I found myself thinking how this is one golf destination I know my wife would really enjoy visiting.

 

We sat here talking golf while our pizzas were in the oven.  Before any food came out the Wilson Staff crew surprised us with our custom wedges from the morning, just in time for our night golf round on The Wedge. This is where the people behind Wilson Golf really went above and beyond. If you can recall, I was really torn between the 60.12 and 60.06, ultimately going with the 60.12 after speaking with the Tour Van. Well, I was surprised with a fourth wedge - the 60.06 - stamped with "Jimmy V" in honor of NC State’s 1983 National Championship men’s basketball coach who passed away from cancer in 1993. That was not something I requested, or even mentioned, and was entirely the idea of the folks at Wilson Golf.  What more can you say about them than that?

 

We ended the long day by playing the Wedge with our new set of custom wedges. The highlight of the night belongs to @Red4282's first ever hole-in-one on the final hole of The Wedge.  We had so much fun a few of us decided to play again.  I ended up closing down The Wedge with Lindsey, Marcus, and Bob Thurman from Wilson Golf.

 

Part 2: coming soon

Nice recap! I have every intention of posting mine soon too.  Been all go go go since I got back though trying to play catch up. Love how they hooked you up with that extra wedge too so you had the opportunity to really test them both back home.  

 

The property is gorgeous.  You mentioned coming back with your wife eventually a few times.  After a morning full of golf swings, it was a really nice break to just hop in a cart and make the drive over to the sportsman activity area.  Was really nice that it was far enough away from the courses that you couldn't hear the shots going off from shooting clay pigeons.  

[wam78]

If this does not win people over to Wilson, not sure what will.  Loving all of these recaps and discussions.

[Pure716]

Part 2: 

 

Wednesday, February 19th

 

Like yesterday, we met @knudson81 at The Cafe for breakfast. After breakfast we headed back to our cottage to pack up before our round of golf on the Karoo. We were not expecting anything; however, having followed the Wilson Golf Product Testing and Fitting Experience at Pinehurst thread last year we had an idea of what may be in store for us.

 

Shortly after 9:00 am we were told to head down to the range where our new set of clubs were waiting for us. As you can imagine, the scene looked a lot like kids on Christmas morning.  We each had a brand new Vessel golf bag with the Wilson Logo and our names embroidered on them. Inside of the bag were the clubs that we had been fit into the day before.  Additionally, every bag had the GolfWRX x Wilson Cabot driver head cover that was in our cottage, a Cabot embroidered bag tag, a Wilson Golf microfiber towel, and Wilson Golf umbrella (since the forecast was calling for rain).

 

We had roughly an hour to warm up for our round on the Karoo using our new clubs.  I tried to take advantage of the Trackman Range at Cabot and get some preliminary numbers before heading to the course. At around 10:36 am I teed off in the second group with @ColdOkieGolf, Lindsey, and Marcus from Wilson Golf.

 

A few of my earlier posts have covered pieces of the round on Karoo. In order for this to stand alone, I’ll recap the highlights here and link to other posts that go into more details. As I covered in an earlier post, @ColdOkieGolf and I decided to play it one-up from the first group (~7,500 yards) at around 7,000-6,900 yards. I made 6 birdies on the day and ended up finishing under par. Slightly disappointing as I had a great chance to break 70 which is rare for me now days. That being said, the score is a bit misleading.

 

I really didn’t hit the ball very well all day. As I mentioned in part one, my typical miss is low center face. This produces a lot of shots that fly straight, spin a little more, but appear to be solid shots. In reality they are the exact opposite. I know what you may be thinking, and even @grochol17 said it, “6 birdies on a course you've never seen with brand new clubs is a pretty good ad for Wilson.” Here’s the thing… I really don’t feel like I hit the ball well enough to do the clubs justice.

 

That being said, I still had some big takeaways from the round and the entire week that I would like to share.

 

1. The DYNAPWR Carbon 3 and 5-woods are super easy to elevate.  In my recap of the 5 wood I talked about one of the best shots I’ve ever hit in my life. A few hours later, I was sitting 270 yards out in the fairway on the par-5 14th hole of the Karoo. I had just made a costly double bogey on the par-4 13th and needed to make at least a birdie to keep my hopes of breaking 70 alive. Even though I struggle with elevating fairway woods off the deck I pulled the DYNAPWR Carbon 3-wood anyway and hit my typical miss, low center face. The 14th hole has numerous bunkers short of the green and I expected to find my ball in one of them. To my surprise, my ball was on green, about 30 feet short of the pin.
2. In my recap of the iron fitting with Ed I talked about my how typical low center miss with irons led Ed to recommend the DYNAPWR Forged over Staff Model CBs. Well, let’s just say I tested that theory all day long. There were a few shots early on where I missed low center on the face and it still carried onto the green. This goes to show that Ed made the right call. On the other hand, when I really hit one on the screws they launched higher than I’m used to.  This is not to necessarily a bad thing, but I would like to see how that ball flight performs in the wind. Personally, I would've liked a model between the Staff Model CBs and DYNAPWR Forged (Kind of like how the T-150 is between the T-100 and T-200). That being said, I recognize that Wilson Golf needs to make the best decision for their company as a whole and not just cater to my requests.
3. I was really struggling with the driver today.  I want to preface this by saying the fault is mine, and mine alone.  I was hitting it all over the place and no new club can make up for bad mechanics. In my driver fitting with Harry one of things I mentioned was that I like to eliminate the right side of the course completely.  That way, no matter how bad I am hitting it I can at least be confident that one side of the course is out of play.  Well, today I hit my driver right all day long which is very unusual for me.  I share this not to knock the new DYNAPWR Carbon driver - quite the opposite actually. I found the DYNAPWR Carbon driver to be very fade biased which is something a lot of GolfWRX members are looking for in a driver. This led me to look up the standard lie angle for the DYNAPWR Carbon driver (57°) compared to my GT3 (58.5°) which could account for this. I will also add that Wilson Golf nailed the looks on this driver.  It is absolutely perfect from address. As @radiman said, I could have done without the red but I understand it adds a splash of color. I don’t really even notice it anymore. Additionally, I was already thinking about how useful the more penetrating ball flight Harry was after in the fitting would be on my Scotland golf trip in 2026. In the meantime, @Red4282 suggested if the low ball flight bothered me, and I was still missing it right, I could always turn it up 1° to raise the peak height and close the club face a little. I may experiment with this after I give the DYNAPWR Carbon driver a thorough Trackman session. 
4. The wedges. I have a few big takeaways from both of my rounds on The Wedge in addition to the round on The Karoo. First, the wedges go really far. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s very noticeable and will take a bit to adjust to.  Second, they spin a ton. I had a short sided, 40 yard bunker shot on the par-3 tenth hole at Karoo and was able to stop it on a dime. This is, of course, partly due to having fresh groves on new wedges. I'm very interested to see if they retain this level of spin after months of use.  Finally, I would have liked to see grind options as opposed to just listing bounce.  I actually shared this feedback with Wilson Golf and completely understand their reasons for not doing so.  Again, it is just my opinion. I recognize that Wilson Golf needs to make the best decision for their company as a whole and not just cater to my requests.

All in all, I came away really impressed, especially with the DYNAPWR Carbon 5-wood and Staff Model ZM wedges in particular. Before this trip I would have walked right past Wilson Golf on my way to testing equipment from Titleist, Taylormade, Callaway, etc. Not anymore. Think about it - where else can you get a classic shaped, carbon driver for $100 less than other manufacturers? I said it on camera and I'll say it again, if you are not at least giving @Wilson_Golf a shot, you're doing yourself a disservice. 

 

I'm going to conclude this section with some in hand pictures of my new clubs, shafts, and grips taken using my Canon DSLR camera. I’m happy to answer any questions people may have. As I mentioned in an earlier reply, before I was selected for this opportunity I intended to complete a hybrid/fairway wood fitting at Club Champion to fill the gap in the top of my bag.  Once I was selected for this trip I pushed the fitting back to this afternoon.  I’m planning on bringing my DYNAPWR Carbon 5-wood and DYNAPWR 2-hybrid and will report back with some data. Stay tuned.

 

Edited February 25 by Pure716

[Pure716]

Part 2: continued...

 

GolfWRX wouldn't let me upload that many high resolution images at once. Here are the wedges!

 

 

Edited February 25 by Pure716

[Red4282]

So I royally messed up by not sending myself a trackman report. Trying to fish data off the app. Ill post soon. But in the meantime let me shamelessly plug myself:😅

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGg7DWxv16k/?igsh=MW8wZTd0ZHdpZWV2MQ==

 

 

 

Edited February 25 by Red4282

[radiman]

5 minutes ago, Red4282 said:

So I royally messed up by not sending myself a trackman report. Trying to fish data off the app. Ill post soon. But in the meantime let me shamelessly plug myself:😅

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGg7DWxv16k/?igsh=MW8wZTd0ZHdpZWV2MQ==

 

 

 

No shame in bragging about the ace! Love the fact that there was a cried watching and a video crew on site! Couldn’t have picked a better opportunity for a HIO!

[ColdOkieGolf]

Absolute legend!!

[Shilgy]

Great write ups guys, much appreciated.  I’m going to post this in the other Wilson thread about the drivers and such just so everyone knows.  I’ve stayed in touch with Ed since the trip last June and I asked him today about the head weights for the new line.   He assured me they would be available soon on the Wilson website and would let me know when they’re up and I will post again here with a link.

 

Ed also mentioned that they’ve been very lucky with those selected for these two trips….said it’s just been two really fun groups and Wilson is very glad to have done these and there will likely be more.

 

He particularly mentioned @radiman and said that on the Wilson Fit AI he hit 40g (I think that’s shaft load) and none zero nada of their pros had approached that!  He was impressed to say the least.👍

Edited February 26 by Shilgy

[ColdOkieGolf]

Radiman hittin' more G's than a cosmonaut.

When I did the fitting,  Ed said I made the AI sad.  He didn't even know that was possible!  It's not even programmed to talk but I'm pretty sure it weakly said "please, don't let that human hit again."

[Red4282]

Ok so what a pain. The trackman app stinks in my opinion, so I manually crunched all the numbers and here are the results. Testing done, rotating 3 balls (chromesoft x rrt) with each driver, same shaft, loft and length. I removed any shot that finished over 100ft offline, due to bad swings or strikes. There were only a handful. The data for drivers is 11 balls each:

 

Dynapwr Carbon 9*
Callaway AI Smoke TD 9*

 

Ball speed:

Dynapwr: 166.94 Peak: 169.4 Low:163.7

Cally:      168.14 Peak:171.1 Low:165

Launch:

DP: avg: 10.8

Cally: 10.4

 

Spin: 

DP: avg: 2588 pk: 3140 low: 1842

Cally:      2530.      2992        2240

 

Smash: 

DP: avg: 1.483 pk 1.49 low 1.47

Cally:      1.484      1.49        1.47

 

CHS:

DP: avg: 112.7 pk 113.8 low 110.1

Cally:      113.4      114.9        110.9

 

Carry:

DP: avg: 279.2 pk 291 low 262.7

Cally:      282.5      288.9    278.7

 

Total: 

DP: avg 303.5 pk 317.7 low 295

Cally:     307.7       313          300.6

 

 

Thoughts: Overall, very similar performance. The only tangible data that seemed of note was I was swinging the Callaway slighty faster across all shots basically, which led to more speed and distance. Why? Im not sure. The Wilson had the longest ball of the test and the smash, spin launch were nearly Identical.

Fairway data next.

Edited February 26 by Red4282

[Shilgy]

2 minutes ago, Red4282 said:

Ok so what a pain. The trackman app stinks in my opinion, so I manually crunched all the numbers and here are the results. Testing done, rotating 3 balls (chromesoft x rrt) with each driver, same shaft, loft and length. I removed any shot that finished over 100ft offline, due to bad swings or strikes. There were only a handful. The data for drivers is 11 balls each:

 

Ball speed:

Dynapwr: 166.94 Peak: 169.4 Low:163.7

Cally:      168.14 Peak:171.1 Low:165

Launch:

DP: avg: 10.8

Cally: 10.4

 

Spin: 

DP: avg: 2588 pk: 3140 low: 1842

Cally:      2530.      2992        2240

 

Smash: 

DP: avg: 1.483 pk 1.49 low 1.47

Cally:      1.484      1.49        1.47

 

CHS:

DP: avg: 112.7 pk 113.8 low 110.1

Cally:      113.4      114.9        110.9

 

Carry:

DP: avg: 279.2 pk 291 low 262.7

Cally:      282.5      288.9    278.7

 

Total: 

DP: avg 303.5 pk 317.7 low 295

Cally:     307.7       313          300.6

 

 

Thoughts: Overall, very similar performance. The only tangible data that seemed of note was I was swinging the Callaway slighty faster across all shots basically, which led to more speed and distance. Why? Im not sure. The Wilson had the longest ball of the test and the smash, spin launch were nearly Identical.

Fairway data next.

Which driver was that for the Wilson? And the Callaway?  You just said Dynapwr.

 

 

 

Yes, I could go back in the thread and find it but I’m lazy…so there’s that.😎

[Red4282]

Just now, Shilgy said:

Which driver was that for the Wilson? And the Callaway?  You just said Dynapwr.

 

 

 

Yes, I could go back in the thread and find it but I’m lazy…so there’s that.😎

Haha no problem Ill edit it as well. Dynapwr Carbon 9* and Callaway AI Smoke TD 9*

[Red4282]

Wilson Carbon 13.5 vs AI Smoke 13.5 mini. Same method as above. Some off ground, some on a tee. Not going to include peaks and lows as the data set is smaller than the driver test.

 

Average Ball Speed:

DP: 157.9

Cally: 156.2

 

Spin:

DP: 2887

Cally: 3978

 

Launch Angle:

DP: 10.3

Cally: 11.1

 

CHS and Smash

DP: 107.9/1.466

Cally: 106.3/1.47

 

Carry and Total:

DP: 253.4/278.5

Cally: 248.2/260.8

 

Thoughts: Quite large differences here. DP is longer, flatter/lower ball flight and less spin. I didnt see a ton of difference in overall forgiveness. 
 

Dynapwr Carbon 16.5 vs Ping G430 18* turned to 16.5:

 

Ball speed and Launch:

DP: 151.2/12.9

Ping: 147.3/15.3

 

CHS and Smash:

DP: 102.9/1.47

Ping: 103/1.42

 

Spin:

DP: 3341

Ping: 3331

 

Carry and Total:

DP: 248.7/262.5

Ping: 238.9/254

 

Thoughts. Ping Launches higher, less speed and distance. The Dynapwr sounds and feels SO much better as well. 

 

[Shilgy]

3 minutes ago, Red4282 said:

Wilson Carbon 13.5 vs AI Smoke 13.5 mini. Same method as above. Some off ground, some on a tee. Not going to include peaks and lows as the data set is smaller than the driver test.

 

Average Ball Speed:

DP: 157.9

Cally: 156.2

 

Spin:

DP: 2887

Cally: 3978

 

Launch Angle:

DP: 10.3

Cally: 11.1

 

CHS and Smash

DP: 107.9/1.466

Cally: 106.3/1.47

 

Carry and Total:

DP: 253.4/278.5

Cally: 248.2/260.8

 

Thoughts: Quite large differences here. DP is longer, flatter/lower ball flight and less spin. I didnt see a ton of difference in overall forgiveness. 
 

Dynapwr Carbon 16.5 vs Ping G430 18* turned to 16.5:

 

Ball speed and Launch:

DP: 151.2/12.9

Ping: 147.3/15.3

 

CHS and Smash:

DP: 102.9/1.47

Ping: 103/1.42

 

Spin:

DP: 3341

Ping: 3331

 

Carry and Total:

DP: 248.7/262.5

Ping: 238.9/254

 

Thoughts. Ping Launches higher, less speed and distance. The Dynapwr sounds and feels SO much better as well. 

 

I’m closing in a a year with the 13.5° 3 wood and Carbon driver…obviously last edition…and as I’ve mentioned before they have been the best I’ve played for a while.  Better than(if I can remember all) TSR3, TSR4, Rogue Max. May have been a few others.😏

[Red4282]

13 minutes ago, Shilgy said:

I’m closing in a a year with the 13.5° 3 wood and Carbon driver…obviously last edition…and as I’ve mentioned before they have been the best I’ve played for a while.  Better than(if I can remember all) TSR3, TSR4, Rogue Max. May have been a few others.😏

I think the 16.5 is a no brainer to replace the ping. Might have to loft up just for gapping purposes. I really really like the 13.5 as well. My only concern is that low left rocket every now and then. While the mini is way shorter it has been such a fairway finder for me. But its also pretty bad in the wind. 

[radiman]

2 hours ago, Shilgy said:

Great write ups guys, much appreciated.  I’m going to post this in the other Wilson thread about the drivers and such just so everyone knows.  I’ve stayed in touch with Ed since the trip last June and I asked him today about the head weights for the new line.   He assured me they would be available soon on the Wilson website and would let me know when they’re up and I will post again here with a link.

 

Ed also mentioned that they’ve been very lucky with those selected for these two trips….said it’s just been two really fun groups and Wilson is very glad to have done these and there will likely be more.

 

He particularly mentioned @radiman and said that on the Wilson Fit AI he hit 40g (I think that’s shaft load) and none zero nada of their pros had approached that!  He was impressed to say the least.👍

Ed is the man! I assumed he was talking about the regular amateurs he’s got with the AI Fit system.
 

Honestly, I’ve had a couple of fittings through the years and nerves are always at play. An event like this with cameras around? Was off the charts. Ed had a way of getting your guard down and just making you feel comfortable. He’s a very positive guy and was absolutely spot on with the iron fitting. Was a pleasure working with him (all of them really). 
 

Even after the fit being almost the opposite of what any fitting chart has shown or any other fitter has gotten me into. I walked away trusting the irons Ed got me into. 
 

I’m just shy of 6’2” alway get fit into +.5”-1”. And anywhere from 2-3° upright. Walked out of there with standard length irons that were 2° flat and don’t think I’ve seen the ball curve left on me since. In the little bit of sim golfing I’ve done since returning, I’ve been seeing a very controllable fade. I love setting up left and watching the ball fall right without having to worry about a 2 way miss. 
 

The AI fit was correct in leading him down that path and he fine tuned it to where I’m at now. 

[wam78]

1 hour ago, Red4282 said:

Wilson Carbon 13.5 vs AI Smoke 13.5 mini. Same method as above. Some off ground, some on a tee. Not going to include peaks and lows as the data set is smaller than the driver test.

 

Average Ball Speed:

DP: 157.9

Cally: 156.2

 

Spin:

DP: 2887

Cally: 3978

 

Launch Angle:

DP: 10.3

Cally: 11.1

 

CHS and Smash

DP: 107.9/1.466

Cally: 106.3/1.47

 

Carry and Total:

DP: 253.4/278.5

Cally: 248.2/260.8

 

Thoughts: Quite large differences here. DP is longer, flatter/lower ball flight and less spin. I didnt see a ton of difference in overall forgiveness. 
 

Dynapwr Carbon 16.5 vs Ping G430 18* turned to 16.5:

 

Ball speed and Launch:

DP: 151.2/12.9

Ping: 147.3/15.3

 

CHS and Smash:

DP: 102.9/1.47

Ping: 103/1.42

 

Spin:

DP: 3341

Ping: 3331

 

Carry and Total:

DP: 248.7/262.5

Ping: 238.9/254

 

Thoughts. Ping Launches higher, less speed and distance. The Dynapwr sounds and feels SO much better as well. 

 

Really good stuff @Red4282  How did the sole of the DP fairway feel going through the turf in comparison to the ping?  Ping’s are so easy to launch.  

 

Feel like I keep repeating myself, but the looks and performance of the DP woods (from afar) seem to be competitive with anything on the market.

[Shilgy]

31 minutes ago, radiman said:

Ed is the man! I assumed he was talking about the regular amateurs he’s got with the AI Fit system.
 

Honestly, I’ve had a couple of fittings through the years and nerves are always at play. An event like this with cameras around? Was off the charts. Ed had a way of getting your guard down and just making you feel comfortable. He’s a very positive guy and was absolutely spot on with the iron fitting. Was a pleasure working with him (all of them really). 
 

Even after the fit being almost the opposite of what any fitting chart has shown or any other fitter has gotten me into. I walked away trusting the irons Ed got me into. 
 

I’m just shy of 6’2” alway get fit into +.5”-1”. And anywhere from 2-3° upright. Walked out of there with standard length irons that were 2° flat and don’t think I’ve seen the ball curve left on me since. In the little bit of sim golfing I’ve done since returning, I’ve been seeing a very controllable fade. I love setting up left and watching the ball fall right without having to worry about a 2 way miss. 
 

The AI fit was correct in leading him down that path and he fine tuned it to where I’m at now. 

Well said…and yeah, he was referring to ALL he has fit including pros. He was damn impressed by your numbers!

[Red4282]

16 minutes ago, wam78 said:

Really good stuff @Red4282  How did the sole of the DP fairway feel going through the turf in comparison to the ping?  Ping’s are so easy to launch.  

 

Feel like I keep repeating myself, but the looks and performance of the DP woods (from afar) seem to be competitive with anything on the market.

I wish I could help you there but I tend to be a shallow picker with fairways. Agree with the Pings launch and the spin numbers still stay reasonable as well. I didnt hit the DP max fairways but wonder if its performance would have been more similar to the ping.

[BraxtonFullerton]

14 hours ago, Red4282 said:

I really really like the 13.5 as well. My only concern is that low left rocket every now and then. While the mini is way shorter it has been such a fairway finder for me. But its also pretty bad in the wind. 

 

Was just thinking that, I have a few courses where a couple holes are always straight into the teeth. Having a 13.5 that spins like a driver but gives better dispersion in case it balloons would be invaluable in my bag.

[adamwon84]

16 hours ago, Red4282 said:

Wilson Carbon 13.5 vs AI Smoke 13.5 mini. Same method as above. Some off ground, some on a tee. Not going to include peaks and lows as the data set is smaller than the driver test.

 

Average Ball Speed:

DP: 157.9

Cally: 156.2

 

Spin:

DP: 2887

Cally: 3978

 

Launch Angle:

DP: 10.3

Cally: 11.1

 

CHS and Smash

DP: 107.9/1.466

Cally: 106.3/1.47

 

Carry and Total:

DP: 253.4/278.5

Cally: 248.2/260.8

 

Thoughts: Quite large differences here. DP is longer, flatter/lower ball flight and less spin. I didnt see a ton of difference in overall forgiveness. 
 

Dynapwr Carbon 16.5 vs Ping G430 18* turned to 16.5:

 

Ball speed and Launch:

DP: 151.2/12.9

Ping: 147.3/15.3

 

CHS and Smash:

DP: 102.9/1.47

Ping: 103/1.42

 

Spin:

DP: 3341

Ping: 3331

 

Carry and Total:

DP: 248.7/262.5

Ping: 238.9/254

 

Thoughts. Ping Launches higher, less speed and distance. The Dynapwr sounds and feels SO much better as well. 

 

I am really impressed with the detail of your reviews here, those numbers on the 13.5 Dynapwr are really impressive compared to that mini driver!