Driver Upgrade w/o fitting?

[Streetscape]

Wanted to grab some opinions on driver and fairway wood upgrades.. Currently gaming 915D2 (9.5º) and 915F (16.5º). I think I am leaving some forgiveness on the table, and maybe distance? I haven't been fit before, and I don't feel the most confident in going for a fitting yet. I would like some more peak height as well, and read that CG placement on newer heads would help with that. All that being said, would it be foolish just grabbing newer heads (Would like to stick to Titleist, so thinking TSI or TSR) with similar lofts and running with it? Would I notice anything considering the no fitting? Or should I stick with what I have until I can get fit properly?

[rsballer10]

17 minutes ago, Streetscape said:

Wanted to grab some opinions on driver and fairway wood upgrades.. Currently gaming 915D2 (9.5º) and 915F (16.5º). I think I am leaving some forgiveness on the table, and maybe distance? I haven't been fit before, and I don't feel the most confident in going for a fitting yet. I would like some more peak height as well, and read that CG placement on newer heads would help with that. All that being said, would it be foolish just grabbing newer heads (Would like to stick to Titleist, so thinking TSI or TSR) with similar lofts and running with it? Would I notice anything considering the no fitting? Or should I stick with what I have until I can get fit properly?

TLDR - get fitted.

 

performance gain from good fit >> performance gain from tech.

[Veebee3]

I mean it’s really just a question of how much you care about optimizing the performance vs how much you care about the money. Sure you can swap out heads and be “fine”, people do it all the time. But 9 times out of 10 a good fitting will yield noticeably better results. The changes in tech going from your current head to a TSR1 could help, but could also hurt if the launch, cg, weight, spin, ect. properties of the new head dont jive with your swing. Given that youve never been fit before i think it is well worth the $50-100 investment to do it so you at least know what properties to look for if you choose to buy used. 

Edited June 26 by Veebee3

[BlkNGld]

50 minutes ago, Streetscape said:

Wanted to grab some opinions on driver and fairway wood upgrades.. Currently gaming 915D2 (9.5º) and 915F (16.5º). I think I am leaving some forgiveness on the table, and maybe distance? I haven't been fit before, and I don't feel the most confident in going for a fitting yet. I would like some more peak height as well, and read that CG placement on newer heads would help with that. All that being said, would it be foolish just grabbing newer heads (Would like to stick to Titleist, so thinking TSI or TSR) with similar lofts and running with it? Would I notice anything considering the no fitting? Or should I stick with what I have until I can get fit properly?

 

Why are you not confident in going for a fitting?   What would make you more confident about getting fit, and why would you not want to wait until then to get new clubs?

[bluedot]

So suppose you buy one of the drivers that you mention.  No matter what the results, the exact same questions from your post will remain.  If nothing changes, you wasted time and money.  If things DO change, the question will be whether or not more was available.

 

Get fitted.  Hit your current driver as a baseline, see what the fitter can do to beat it, and then decide if it’s worth it to you.  Given that the 912 came out 15 years ago, I think some great improvements await you.

[Yrrdead]

Normally I come down on the "fitting is overrated" camp. Mainly due to the majority of us not having access to actual decent fitters. That being said that is coming from being a reformed club ho w/ a launch monitor. That doesn't sound like you.

 

Like others are saying go get fit.  At the bare minimum head to a club champion pay the $100 and spend a couple hours banging drivers. 

 

 

That being said if I still lived in San Diego I would be dropping the $750 for a full Tour Fitting at Titleist. And I'm not even a Titleist guy. I just think you would be hard pressed to find a better value than a fitting at TPI. 

[parbung]

if you're on a budget, like me, find a club with shaft/specs that you're looking for at GG or PGASS, check your numbers, and go on from there. 

 

i like to look at the carry and total distance, spin rate, and launch angle. you can look online for the optimal numbers for spin and launch. 

 

i got lucky and found a club that increased my driver distance by 30-40 yards with wayyyyyyy better dispersion than my old one.  

 

otherwise, listen to everyone here and go get fitted. 

 

[hammergolf]

6 hours ago, Streetscape said:

Wanted to grab some opinions on driver and fairway wood upgrades.. Currently gaming 915D2 (9.5º) and 915F (16.5º). I think I am leaving some forgiveness on the table, and maybe distance? I haven't been fit before, and I don't feel the most confident in going for a fitting yet. I would like some more peak height as well, and read that CG placement on newer heads would help with that. All that being said, would it be foolish just grabbing newer heads (Would like to stick to Titleist, so thinking TSI or TSR) with similar lofts and running with it? Would I notice anything considering the no fitting? Or should I stick with what I have until I can get fit properly?

Don’t worry about not being confident about seeing a fitter. In fact, when I was in the golf business my first statement to customers was to just relax. They were not going to be the worst or best gofer I’ve ever fitted. No doubt getting fitted is going to help you hit it longer and make your marginal shots better. I would NEVER buy a driver or fwy wood blind. 

[phizzy30]

You would benefit from a newer driver because they are more forgiving across the the face compared to the ones from 10+ years ago.  With that being said, a proper fitting would optimize/dial in performance to get the most outta your swing which is far more valuable, IMO, rather than blindly buying equipment hoping it will work.    

[Streetscape]

5 hours ago, Yrrdead said:

Normally I come down on the "fitting is overrated" camp. Mainly due to the majority of us not having access to actual decent fitters. That being said that is coming from being a reformed club ho w/ a launch monitor. That doesn't sound like you.

 

Like others are saying go get fit.  At the bare minimum head to a club champion pay the $100 and spend a couple hours banging drivers. 

 

 

That being said if I still lived in San Diego I would be dropping the $750 for a full Tour Fitting at Titleist. And I'm not even a Titleist guy. I just think you would be hard pressed to find a better value than a fitting at TPI. 

That’s also a partial reason for no fitting yet. I want to do a TPI fitting lol

7 hours ago, BlkNGld said:

 

Why are you not confident in going for a fitting?   What would make you more confident about getting fit, and why would you not want to wait until then to get new clubs?

Not confident cause my swing is still changing, and I feel like one day of fitting isn’t always the best metric for on course. Sort of worried about the value I suppose? My good drives are getting 280-290 total, bad ones are either out of play or 200-230 total. In my mind paying the ~$200 for 10 years better tech to most likely reign in my misses seems like a good deal.

[Streetscape]

1 hour ago, hammergolf said:

Don’t worry about not being confident about seeing a fitter. In fact, when I was in the golf business my first statement to customers was to just relax. They were not going to be the worst or best gofer I’ve ever fitted. No doubt getting fitted is going to help you hit it longer and make your marginal shots better. I would NEVER buy a driver or fwy wood blind. 

I guess confidence may not be the best descriptor. I mentioned it above, but more worried about using one day of data to dictate everything, along with the value proposition since my woods are fairly old.

 

Your second point about not buying blind is what makes me ask the question. I don’t really want to either. I have attempted hitting used clubs and I have a bad indoor swing with driver. I don’t feel like it represents how I swing on course

[hammergolf]

10 hours ago, Streetscape said:

I guess confidence may not be the best descriptor. I mentioned it above, but more worried about using one day of data to dictate everything, along with the value proposition since my woods are fairly old.

 

Your second point about not buying blind is what makes me ask the question. I don’t really want to either. I have attempted hitting used clubs and I have a bad indoor swing with driver. I don’t feel like it represents how I swing on course

The key is to bring your driver and compare them. No new club is going to be magic, and they will always be reliant on the swing you put on them. 

Edited June 27 by hammergolf

[Howard_Jones]

12 hours ago, Streetscape said:

Wanted to grab some opinions on driver and fairway wood upgrades.. Currently gaming 915D2 (9.5º) and 915F (16.5º). I think I am leaving some forgiveness on the table, and maybe distance? I haven't been fit before, and I don't feel the most confident in going for a fitting yet. I would like some more peak height as well, and read that CG placement on newer heads would help with that. All that being said, would it be foolish just grabbing newer heads (Would like to stick to Titleist, so thinking TSI or TSR) with similar lofts and running with it? Would I notice anything considering the no fitting? Or should I stick with what I have until I can get fit properly?

I suggest a real fitting, if you can find and affort it, but maybe some mods on what you got is all thats needed to improve both distance and dispersion?

You can do that as a DIY project...all you need to do is described here.
(no advanced tools or pre-knowledge needed)

By reading and following the steps described, you also get some knowledge and understanding about what a REAL club fitting is all about, so its valuable knowledge also for your future needs.
 

 

[Drivingrangehero]

7 hours ago, Streetscape said:

My good drives are getting 280-290 total, bad ones are either out of play or 200-230 tota

If this is the case, then you are not finding the middle of the face consistently, which is a big reason to go through @Howard_Jones DIY Driver tune up. 
 

What is the playing length of your driver? 
 

I went through the DIY and it was a game changer for me. I have found that going down to a 44.5” playing length, and adding a little headweight to my driver has found me more fairways than ever before. 
 

Cutting down my driver an inch + didn’t cost me any ball speed/ distance, in fact I’ve gained, on average with ball speed, but the gains on total distance were substantial, since I’m not getting the high spinning block right, or the low spinning toe hook. 

 I still may push one right, but it’s not a high spinning block, it’s struck much more solidly, just a path issue, so it’s longer, and not as far off line…… I can’t even remember the last time I hooked my driver honestly, my misses now are all just pushes to the right, but they are no wildly off line…. I would lose it right sometimes around 75y 😝 

The DIY has a lot of technical stuff in there, but the basics are simple to do at the range, choke up incrementally, and if it feels to light, add a little lead tape, repeat, repeat, repeat until you find what gives you best dispersion and strike location. For me, my best was in between 44.25” and 44.75”, with different amounts of weight, so split the difference and cut at 44.5” and added 6g of headweight on my Ping G400max, and 9g on My Tour Edge driver 

 

You can see substantial gains with your current driver, and with the information you come out with, you could fine tune the next driver with very little effort after putting in the work with your current gamer 

[rsballer10]

7 hours ago, Streetscape said:

Not confident cause my swing is still changing, and I feel like one day of fitting isn’t always the best metric for on course. Sort of worried about the value I suppose?

they may not be the *best* fittings out there, but a lot of retailers will roll the cost of the fitting into the purchase of a new club. I wouldn't overthink this one here, someone is going to hand you different setups to hit. They're going to look at the numbers, but you will know after some swings whether you have confidence in the combo or not.

Quote

My good drives are getting 280-290 total, bad ones are either out of play or 200-230 total. In my mind paying the ~$200 for 10 years better tech to most likely reign in my misses seems like a good deal.

The tech will get some of this distance back, but not as much as you think. A better fit could potentially get those strike points closer to the middle of the face. Where you won't see 80-100 yards of distance loss.

 

8 hours ago, Streetscape said:

Your second point about not buying blind is what makes me ask the question. I don’t really want to either. I have attempted hitting used clubs and I have a bad indoor swing with driver. I don’t feel like it represents how I swing on course

The difference between our "good" swings and "bad" swings are a lot closer than most people think. Our patterns are pretty hardwired in, that's why making swing changes is hard.

[RogerinNewZealand]

Keep the 16.5😇

[Drivingrangehero]

1 hour ago, RogerinNewZealand said:

Keep the 16.5😇

+1 

 

You may want to even keep the driver after you go through Howard’s DIY. 
 

I had my Titliest 905r for 7 years, bought a new driver, and ended up taking the new driver out of the bag, and kept the 905r in play for another 3 years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[BlkNGld]

12 minutes ago, Drivingrangehero said:

+1 

 

You may want to even keep the driver after you go through Howard’s DIY. 
 

I had my Titliest 905r for 7 years, bought a new driver, and ended up taking the new driver out of the bag, and kept the 905r in play for another 3 years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

I tried a G43010K and found my G400LST to be straighter.   Nothing's been able to replace my 10 year old FW, to where I'm starting to worry it'll fail before I find something to replace it.  

 

New tech is great, but it's not an automatic fix.  

 

[Drivingrangehero]

2 hours ago, BlkNGld said:

 

I tried a G43010K and found my G400LST to be straighter.   Nothing's been able to replace my 10 year old FW, to where I'm starting to worry it'll fail before I find something to replace it.  

 

New tech is great, but it's not an automatic fix.  

 

I still play an Adams Pro hybrid from 2014 and I have a 3y old PXG 7w, but it’s no better than the 2013 Adams Tight Lies (ladies head) that it “replaced” I have even been thinking of benching the PXG for the Tight Lies that has a PX 8C4 graphite shaft in it from 2012

 

 

Edited June 27 by Drivingrangehero
Added info

[RogerinNewZealand]

2 hours ago, Drivingrangehero said:

+1 

 

You may want to even keep the driver after you go through Howard’s DIY. 
 

I had my Titliest 905r for 7 years, bought a new driver, and ended up taking the new driver out of the bag, and kept the 905r in play for another 3 years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Oh Boy.. i have 10.5 905T ys6R

Its the Classic Driver

Tm200 3 wood..

Ping Anser putter..

Always keep some Classics to wind up people you play with!!

RogerinNz

[phizzy30]

3 hours ago, Drivingrangehero said:

I still play an Adams Pro hybrid from 2014 and I have a 3y old PXG 7w, but it’s no better than the 2013 Adams Tight Lies (ladies head) that it “replaced” I have even been thinking of benching the PXG for the Tight Lies that has a PX 8C4 graphite shaft in it from 2012

 

 

I still have my tour issue R11 deep face proto and nothing's been able to kick it outta the bag as far as the modern hybrid heads go.  Then again, tech hasn't much for hybrids over the years.  

[RSLP]

 

using Howard's advice, head over to the Golf Mart nearest you during off peak hours.  hit some used drivers.

 

find one that increases the height and decreases the distance dispersion.  Buy it / game it.