A couple of things that brought us to light so firstly we had a meeting very recently titleist who showed us the new sm9 wedges and we were then.
Potentially going to go. And review them we've not done yet we made it we may not it's very hard to review a wedge that meeting was very brief it was basically shown as the new wedges tell us the key technology given some samples done i think now there are i should have actually got this exact number. But somewhere in the region of 20 or 30 different actual wedges you can get. And that's very cool yeah from vogue titles folky before look at different colors. So you can get the different finishes. So there's about six different grinds within that there's several lofts and different bounces etc there's a lot to get your head around very kind of complex but they offer that so that essentially everybody is covered depending on the terrain that you play at depending on the way you deliver the golf club wedges depending on what loft your pitching wedge of your stock set of your current set is that obviously if your set has a 44 degree pitching wedge then.
Your gap budget needs to be stronger than if your pitching wedge is 47 degrees obviously whether you like to sit the face more open whether you like to kind of exactly there's. So much obviously to choose from and then.
Even with the finishes they've got a tall chrome they have a rusty version they have a dark version they did a blue version last year. And that is ultimately titleist who are in my opinion makes from the best wedges trying to cater. For basically everybody and make sure that nobody is left wanting. But the thing that i struggle with a little bit is all that choice if you walk into most golf retailers they'll either have no wedges. For you to try at all so literally none or they may have one random 56 that you can have a shot of yeah. So my kind of question really is we know how much we use our wedges you know around the green from bunkers pitching you know a hell of a lot. But you can't try them they're talking about the importance of all these different grinds but again you can't get fitted with that and certainly on the golf course we also know that our sandwich in particular lob wedge was a hell of a lot from little different lies. And again out of sand hence the name sand wedge but we're on earth by maybe woburn can you go out. And actually try the correct titleist wedge for you out of a bunker you can go to wilburn. For a fee by the way well yeah i need. And even on top of that again we talk about the importance of a fitting into in terms of length of golf club langle of golf club grip thickness shaft material shaft flex where could you go for an sm-9 in this grind with it half inch longer with the grip you like on yeah that you can go. And you can try a bunker that's also not got worn out grooves exactly that's another thing they said. And i get it after 500 shots of the wedge the grooves will start to wear. And the spin kind of captures it would deteriorate you won't get that top top performance which is why tour pro swap the wedges quite often. So it just kind of i know it's kind of getting slow again to a point but it just got me thinking we hear about fitting fitting fitting find the ground for you find this fine that but where can you go to actually try them all i would say right now there's there's a couple of categories which are still not perfect. But as close to being as perfect as the count for fittings yes things like drivers yes drivers is probably the category where you are almost as close to being fitted everything's on a flat plane it's when you hit driver it's very controlled when you go. For a fitting obviously you've been a fitter in the past you'll have a selection of heads pretty much all the loss but now with the loft sleeve you can twink tinker. And tweak you'll have an array of shafts and sometimes even though shafts have different thickness of grips yeah they're probably only things that you can't carry every selection of all the shafts in every single combination of grip. But near enough you can get it dialed in you've got a launch monitor you can pretend you've got on a hole sometimes you actually get fitted on a hole if you need to yeah it's pretty close putter fitting it's just just jumping on them from that the only thing i would say still had using the same golf ball american golf traffic using a range ball oh it's a decent ball you're not using the pro v one you might play with. And lastly i've always seen from you you can sometimes this isn't the issue with the actual fitting. But from the fitter and the golfer's perspective i look at which one's on the longest but yeah you're right it's as close as a closed measurement yes um putter fitting as well it's the best it is you can do it on a sometimes an artificial green inside that's fine certainly on these zen greens at slope. And everything else you can use your actual golf ball if you wish you'd like to think you will do a lot of now putter fittings either have a putter that has a retractable shaft like ping. Or like even roll where you can actually take the shaft out now. And put a new shaft in with a different neck you can measure the roll on the launch monitor it's fairly controlled. And consistent you're not just taking your best ones yeah either you're getting the feel of the putter there's no uh tape. Or anything on the face you'd like to think when you're putting it's the best one it has to be. So i think generally putters obviously like you mentioned there's probably the best iron. So so yeah in fact it's probably up there with wedges it is because you're hitting typically there's a seven iron yeah how do i hit the out of foreign again because you might hear irons outside obviously. And so often you'd say so say you came for fitting with me and i'm in a bay and i've got the titleist whatever i you know whatever brand callaway demander and i said to you right rick i'm going to put in the stock shaft hit hit you're quite strong in your next.
100 bang my bank actually that works really well are you a bit taller. So you need a quarter of an inch longer i'm not gonna actually have to try though yeah we should have to order it blind. And hope it works and then.
Even ordering it blind what what will that do to affect the the lie angle of the golf club. But the weight of the golf course by the way the weight sits at a dress uh yeah that's such a really good point. So irons and wedges are really the categories where you it's it's the industry is letting you as golfers down. And then.
You know a bit more juicy gossip so not jim juicy gossip but something else i thought about i spoke to a golf brand today.
I'm not gonna name which brand is it's irrelevant um. And asked one of the people who is my opinion i trust. And and i would agree with if you were fitting a decent player now determine that how you want decent. But if you've been a decent player and in your testing again how you come to conclusion is up to you whether it be on the live board which is quite dated now. Or on gc quad or whatever it might be and they came up as needing one degree upright in the ryan would you consider one degree enough to quantify ordering a custom set the answer was yes i would one degree is enough to quantify you know ordering them custom. So i said that's fine however. with your brand in question what is the tolerance when people order a set of clubs. And their tolerance so this when they send the club out to this to the retail stores the consumer is one degree. So let's just say rick or there's a set of x-brand golf clubs and these all should be one degree upright your four eye might be but then.
Your five iron might be two degrees upright yeah. But then.
Your six i might be standard and you go back to one degree up right so there's an error there but you can't have it both ways you can't say that one degree upright is definitely enough to quantify needing to get custom clubs. But we'll give you a leeway other side there's another brand another massive manufacturer who i've since found out and done some research offer two degrees of um error tolerance wow so you could order a set that you've been told you are a tall person you come in with the handle quite high you need two degrees upright in your irons well your four right in could be standard. But in your five iron could be four degrees upright wow and this happens to loft as well so your forehand could be one degree weak your five line could be two degrees strong that's cool so how i'm not again i'm just just trying to spark conversation really but it just gets you thinking doesn't it like yeah because you wouldn't get that on a tour truck i wouldn't imagine a tour truck is. And again going back to when we had tommy on the podcast he really did change my mind on on this idea of being sponsored on tour because you feel like you've got like a mechanic working on your clubs all the time. And they must be checking them constantly and their tolerances will be zero they'll be zero like they can't have a tolerance. And it just gets me thinking again is cost is fitting important yes i would say. So because if you had a friend who was brand new to golf. And said rick i've just been out. And bought some golf clubs and looked at what they've got and they've got one iron down to sanding and tiny little blade they've got a seven degree drive with 300 cc head you would look at them and say well actually these golf clubs probably aren't going to give you those forgiveness those things you get to be better forgiven. But it does lead me to believe this whole fitting message now people feel. So passionately behind it i do think it has been kind of really really manipulated by the golf industry from golf brands. And golf retails to make people go out and continue to buy clubs because there's this story that you need to be fitting yeah. But actually it's almost it's almost custom shopping yes as opposed to custom fitting 100 because let's say um again if i had a mate who plays off 18. And he had some clubs i thought they're not great for you i can give him a custom shopping. And go and explain to them you might want to go down to a store and they'll give you a list of things that you might need [Music].
