Driver fittings

[DeCuchi]

What about the ball?

I'm curious about the results of getting a driver fit with one type of ball or another. I see guys getting fit at stores or on a range, but they are not using the same type of ball they use on the course. Let's say you are fit using a decent 2 piece ball, but you play with a pro v or something. Isn't your driver no longer optimized? Has anyone ever measured the differences in their numbers with different types of balls? If so how drastic were the differences in your numbers? Balls speed, spin rates, etc.


I should add I'd prefer to be fit outdoors, but this is something I want to clear up. If you are going to a range do you just bring your own balls and call it part of the price? So far the only place I've seen make mention of the type of ball used is the Jim Mclean Center offering a choice of Titleiest balls.

[Shambles]

The greatest and most common benefit of a range is to let you perform a repetitive action that develops your balance and muscle tone in a swing action, and give you a visual feedback on your progress. The newness or brand of the ball does not matter all that much. All you really need is to see that you are bending the ball at the right place, or sending it that much farther on the carry, and are sending the ball on the right line.

Driver fittings are likewise not affected by type of ball used during the fitting. The ball's performance is mostly influenced by the quality of your swing and the swing speed you can achieve at point of contact. The purpose of the fitting is to give you a comfortable club that, hopefully, reduces the deleterious effect of your swing flaws but still allows you development room so that you can improve considerably and sometimes even dramatically without need for new equipment for a fair length of time.

In all cases, regardless of how much you spend, you still need to learn how to swing.


Shambles

[golfbum9]

Good point. A knowledgable club fitter will use real premium balls for their fittings- range balls are nearly worthless to use as a gauge.

[jewofgolf]

Shambles made a great point but did not answer the question. Yes, the ball matters. Tour level balls will vary within eachother by a few hundred rpm of spin and 1* of launch, so how do you think the variance changes when you add in the NXT Tours and such? Unless you are not very consistent at all, you need to get fit with your own gamer ball. The best thing you can hope for is that in an outdoor fitting, the person has a mid-level ball that will hopefully perform similarly to your own ball.

There is quite a dilemma here. You can get fit indoors, where who knows if you're really swinging the same way, or you can get fit outdoors, where who knows if the results mean anything. Maybe an 18 handicap could benefit from fitting, but I do feel like once you get down into the 3 or less handicap range, you really can't get a meaningful fitting anymore, and all you can do is buy stuff and try it, and get help from the folks here at golfwrx.

[DeCuchi]

I'm a 4 handicap who used to be scratch before I quit playing around 2004, so I'm pretty consistent with driving and putting(surprisingly) being the strengths of my game. My friends used to say that I had the most boring game ever. I was pretty long, hit alot of fairways, and lot of greens and had alot of 2 putts. Birdies generally happened on par 5's. Most of my score cards looked the same. 1 or 2 birdies and 1 or 2 bogeys and alot of pars.

I was kind or wondering why I haven't seen the ball factor being discussed much in a driver fitting. It's nice to have lots of shafts to match up to different heads, but it seems to me it would be a big deal when being fit to optimize launch conditions. Seems easy enough to do indoors by bringing your own balls, and just take them home when done. Indoors I feel that I swing different. I have banged a driver on the roof of a LM more than once. I don't know if that's weird or not, but I am concious of it when swinging in a LM. That's why I'd prefer to swing outdoors. I'd like to hear from others who have been fit as to what kind of ball was used, and their thoughts on whether or not it mattered much in the end. Or maybe even result of ball fitting sessions where a 2 piece vs a tour level ball were compared. How drastic were the differences in spin rates and launch angle? In the end I'm just trying to get the most for my money. Money is tight so I want to kind of "one and done" this thing. My irons are being tweaked now, and the driver is next on the list.

[Dscvrr St Louis]

[quote name='DeCuchi' timestamp='1313368789' post='3485673']
I'm a 4 handicap who used to be scratch before I quit playing around 2004, so I'm pretty consistent with driving and putting(surprisingly) being the strengths of my game. My friends used to say that I had the most boring game ever. I was pretty long, hit alot of fairways, and lot of greens and had alot of 2 putts. Birdies generally happened on par 5's. Most of my score cards looked the same. 1 or 2 birdies and 1 or 2 bogeys and alot of pars.

I was kind or wondering why I haven't seen the ball factor being discussed much in a driver fitting. It's nice to have lots of shafts to match up to different heads, but it seems to me it would be a big deal when being fit to optimize launch conditions. Seems easy enough to do indoors by bringing your own balls, and just take them home when done. Indoors I feel that I swing different. I have banged a driver on the roof of a LM more than once. I don't know if that's weird or not, but I am concious of it when swinging in a LM. That's why I'd prefer to swing outdoors. I'd like to hear from others who have been fit as to what kind of ball was used, and their thoughts on whether or not it mattered much in the end. Or maybe even result of ball fitting sessions where a 2 piece vs a tour level ball were compared. How drastic were the differences in spin rates and launch angle? In the end I'm just trying to get the most for my money. Money is tight so I want to kind of "one and done" this thing. My irons are being tweaked now, and the driver is next on the list.
[/quote]

It is a 'which came first the chicken or the egg' question.
If you are looking to maximize the driver you are currently using, then it won't matter the ball used in the fitting. We can use a number of balls in a GG ball fitting, and with your driver the stats on that ball will be fed into a program to find a ball which you will tend to benefit from most based on the numbers the test ball put up. It still tries to find characteristics of a ball that will help you maximize your swing characteristics.
If you are driver shopping then you will want to use the ball you are mostly playing on a full time basis, but after you get the driver figured out, a ball fitting could optimize that driver even more.

Not an exact science, but it really narrows things down.

Good luck.

[muxi87]

Doing a fitting without using the ball you'll use while playing is pointless. If getting fit, insist on using the same type ball you play...or better yet, get fit for the right ball at the same time.

[DeCuchi]

How many places offer a choice of ball outside, or do you bring your own and call it a sacrafice to the golf gods? In my case I'd be fitting the driver to a tour level ball. Might be time to pick up some Pro V1 or penta practice balls.

[muxi87]

[quote name='DeCuchi' timestamp='1313371703' post='3485840']
How many places offer a choice of ball outside, or do you bring your own and call it a sacrafice to the golf gods? In my case I'd be fitting the driver to a tour level ball. Might be time to pick up some Pro V1 or penta practice balls.
[/quote]

I'd have to think it'd be worth sacrificing a dozen or two balls. If you play Pents, the practice alls are a good idea--2 doz would only run you $40. If you play Pro V, make a visit to lostgolfballs.com.

If you're paying for the fitting and ordering the driver through a fitter, I'd just flat out tell him you want to hit your preference of balls when getting fit...a reputable fitter should be able to make that happen for you without you having to purchase the balls in my opinion.

[DeCuchi]

Pretty much what I figured. Thanks for the feed back.

[jewofgolf]

Another idea is to optimize your outdoor trackman session. What I mean by that is, save up 10 found balls that you normally play, and make sure you are warmed up before the fitting. As long as you hit 2 or 3 "solid" shots, that's all you need. The nice thing about outdoor fitting is that you get to see if the shot was a good one. If it was, those are the numbers you get when you what you feel was a good solid shot. Really, you could get by with 5 shots and be able to identify a reasonable range (within 100 RPM) and .5* Launch angle of your normal, solid shot.