I can get long winded, I know. That makes these Monday emails long. Starting today, the Fitters Corner will get it’s own separate email. Also on Mondays, now you can choose the content you want from me. The Newsletter will still be all things Callaway, but only that. You can get your updates in a flash.

I get requests sometimes for some of the older posts I wrote. So, I started a blog. Each of the fitters corner pieces that I wrote are in here. Same with the Business Pro pieces. Plus a few others. If you’re curious… Here you go:

Jim Yeager – Blog

Xander WiTB PGA Championship

Xander has a (almost) full bag of Callaway clubs.

Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Driver (10.5°) – MCA Diamana PD 70TX Shaft

Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Fairway Wood (15°) – MCA Diamana PD 80TX Shaft

Apex UW (21°) – MCA Diamana D+ 90TX Shaft

Apex TCB Irons (4-PW) – True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 Shafts

Jaws Raw Wedge (52°) – True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Shaft

Odyssey Las Vegas Prototype Putter

A Chrome Tour Golf Ball

There are a couple things that stand out to me here. First, the 10.5* driver. As hard as he hits it, and he likes to fade and draw the ball, he still plays a 10.5* head. It’s interesting that his spin doesn’t get too out of control.

Next, he plays a 3 wood and a 21* utility wood. This UW is like a cross between a 7 wood and a 19* hybrid. For a day in, day out set, maybe a 21* UW would pair really well with a 3HL (16.5* FW Wood). I play a 3 wood, 5 wood and 21* UW, and this got me thinking about my own bag…

Last, his iron lofts. I’m way to OCD to be able to handle this, but here are the lofts of his irons:

4i – 23.2*

5i – 27.1*

6i – 31.4*

7i – 35.4*

8i – 40.2*

9i – 44*

PW – 47.8*

Jaws Raw 52 is 52*

Put this into perspective… These are 2-3* WEAKER than the new Apex MB/CB/Pro. And yet, he STILL hits a mile. Average PW is in the 150 range, 8 iron in the 170 range, 6 iron is in the 195 range. I hit it OK, but if I hit these clubs, I’d struggle to hit the 9 iron 125 yards.

Yesterday, he had a couple of 7-irons where his ball speed was 133. I fit a lot of people who can’t do that with a driver.

His 8-iron is 40* of loft. The Paradym Ai Smoke iron has 32* of loft. I had to check that twice. 8* weaker. That’s crazy.

So for the doubters who say “Tour players only hit it far because their lofts are stronger and their clubs are longer.” Get a grip. They are that good.

This video is insane. This is Xander hitting clubs “chip, stock and tomahawk”. The control of spin and distance is unbelievable.

Xander – chip, stock, tomahawk

Also interesting that his “tomahawk” seems to be a shot that can get away from him. Sound familiar? Sounds like how the rest of us play golf all the time. Perhaps when people say “It doesn’t even look like they (tour players) are swinging that hard”, is true. For them, they are swinging at 85%. What would you (or your students or fitting prospects) look like if you were swinging at 85%?

I found it cool that his ball speed on a Fairway finder driver was in the 165 mph range, his stock was 172 mph ish, and hammered was 178. Yesterday, his ball speed on his tee shot on 18 was 187 mph. With each of these shots, he gained about 10 yards with the driver, but his control suffered a little more with each bump in speed – the trade off of distance vs. straight intentionally done by a player… How cool is that?

So, let’s do the math. What percentage of max power should a player swing to get the best blend of distance and control. 80%? 85%? Maybe 90%? Is the extra juice worth the squeeze? Does that last 10-15% of effort give you an extra 10-15% in ball speed? For Xander, at 172 mph on a stock shot, he gained 6 MPH in ball speed when he tried to step on one. 10-15% of 172 is 17-26 MPH. He got 6 MPH. Backing out further, for every 1.5 MPH of extra ball speed is roughly 1 MPH of clubhead speed. This means he had to swing it 4 MPH faster to gain 6 MPH in ball speed. 6 MPH in ball speed should equal 18 yards of carry (3 yards per MPH in Ball speed – all things being equal). On this shot, he got about 6 yards. Clearly, this shot was mis hit, so is the risk worth the reward if it brings that into play.

On 18 yesterday, he ripped one. 187 MPH ball speed. He was right with Colin Morikawa all day yesterday, but on 18 he was 25 yards past him. So far past him, that he drove it past his layup area. Was this adrenaline? Perhaps, but there is a lesson in here. Can we play better golf if we don’t swing so damn hard?? Of course, we know the answer is yes.

So, why do we wail away when we go to a fitting? Why do we, as fitters, let players wail away during a fitting? Perhaps part of our job is to keep a player calm and in control during a fitting. Can we focus on consistency, while keeping an eye on ball speed and swing speed? Can we not talk about the things that a player sees as a contest or a challenge (club head speed, ball speed, carry distance), yet instead talk about things that will make him score better (curve is only 9 feet, that shot was 6 yards from your target line)? At the end, after we’re all done, maybe that’s the time to wrap it all up and chat about the numbers.

You know that anyone who says they have no problem with distance will try to swing too hard to prove it to you. You also know that anyone who says they want to hit it further will swing to hard to see how much they can get out of it. Who is left? Someone who isn’t looking for a new club? Haha.

Impress me with how good you can hit it, not how fast you can swing the golf club.

Perhaps we wrap it up like this: “With this new driver, you are almost 10% closer to the center line, and your ball speed went up almost 4 MPH. All in, you hit it straighter and longer than your current club.

Until next time, challenge yourself to get better. When you get better, people play better. You can make a difference for them.

jy