I’m going to tinker with the multi iron shaft setup in the off season, but my top of the bag setup is set.
club championship qualifying is this month, with the setup to qualify on being about 7200 yards.
I’ve put a lot of thought in terms of how to setup the top five clubs in the bag.
Driver remains TSi3 at 10 degree, h2 weight at b2. While I’ve had bad swing days, this season the driver has been remarkably playable. Playing it at 10 over 9 degree really helps keep the ball in play, as I’m definitely leaving yards on the table but also content with hitting more fairways. It’s funny, when I have a 9 degree in my hand I always try to hit up on it which brings in some ugly misses, but with the 10 degree I’m focused on being neutral through impact which has dramatically helped consistency. While I love the xc shaft and Ventus (both are longer than the TP), the TP is just soft enough for me to feel I have full control to turn the ball over when I really need it.
3 wood: This has been a well documented journey, but on my home course, I have 6 holes which play long but require pin point accuracy off the tee. With a normal three wood, I would hit terribly tee shots with my 3 wood at least twice, up to 4 times a round, costing me a ton of strokes. It stems from me hating the prospect of roofing a fairway metal, so I always teed the ball low and often caught it a touch thin, leaving to disastrous results because half of those par4s aren’t short.
the mini driver in 13.5 has been a godsend. On pure strikes, it’s not any longer than my sim2 3 wood was, but because it’s such a deep face, I tee it with the equator at the middle of the face, and have zero fears of drop kicking it. On three quarter swings I get low playable bullets, on full swings I get a really high flight (definitely not “optimal” in terms of distance), but dead straight. I could probably be a lot longer with a 11.5 but on the off change I need to really get the ball moving off the deck, with the 13.5 I can give it a go, whereas with the 11.5, zero chance.
I really like the fact that I have a second goto club off the tee. I don’t like placing so much pressure on the driver to hit every fairway, so being able to mix it up is really helpful course management wise.
I have it set to one click higher with an old faithful Fuji pro 73 shaft. The VR7 is longer distance wise but I’m more comfortable with the higher flight of the pro73.
Hybrid: this has been a pain as well. I’m asking for a lot from this club. Serve as utility 3 iron type on the long par 3s (3 of my par 3s will be 200+ and wind), but also serve as a fairway metal on three of the par 5s that are getting in two. So I went with a sim2 rescue 17 degree. The hosel setting was key for me, have it in the upright side and two clicks higher, which essentially has it at 18 degrees and 58.5 lie angle. When I initially played it, I had it flat and could not turn the club over. Playing it 3/8"shorter than stock to be able to really feel like I need to stay on top of the ball for control.
im going to use the stock shaft because if I need to take some off this club, I feel like with the stock shaft being soft, I can comfortably swing it at 3/4 speed.
the u500 stays firmly in the bag, the u505 definitely has my interest as basically my utility and 4i replacement have to cover three clubs, and basically 210 to 240 carry. But that will have to wait until after club champ.
putter wise, I’m still going timeless. On my greens, the spiderX simply puts too much pace on the ball, no matter how slight jab stroke I try to roll it. While I would love the added peace of mind of using the spider, my pace with the timeless remains better.
