I received an e-mail on June 9th from a club manufacturer who specializes in woods, with a super offer to all PGA professionals. They broke into the club business on Tour building 3 woods, and they really built a super 3 wood. I have had one in my bag for I believe around 4 years. I got it out of DJ’s trunk (he had two in there). Since it was made on Tour for him, it was way too stiff for me and I had to have it re-shafted. The head looks great, is unbelievably solid, and with the right shaft I bomb it straight, with good height. Off the tee I can almost keep up with my driver.

This company is really trying to break into the driver market and the offer was for one of their two models at basically half price, and 1 per pro. I hit the driver at the PGA Show in January at Demo Day. It felt solid and had good high trajectory. Since a pro can’t have enough drivers, even if I had to buy it, this deal was the next best thing to free and too good to pass up. I decided that my 3 wood needed a matching mate and in less than 30 seconds from reading the offer, I was dialing for drivers to order one.

When I got the service rep, he confirmed my PGA membership number and info was legit. I double checked the offer terms were correct and I placed my order. My first question was could they make them to custom specs. I got a big yes. I asked what the lie angle was and he couldn’t answer it. They were offering the driver with 2 shaft selections where one shaft made the club $200.00 more expensive. The less expensive was a well know and respected shaft and highly used on Tour (DJ used it in his driver for a while). So I said I would go with the lower price one. I actually joked that in the event they didn’t get my shaft stiffness specs correct, and I had to re-shaft it, I would not feel so bad having to shell out more $$$ for a new one.

My driver came in 2 weeks later, which is not bad for a custom order. When I opened the box, the club was wrapped in a big cellophane bag and there was a label sticker on the bag that had the company name and a bar code below it. Below that was model name, 10.5 R Aldilla Voodo shaft. Next lines were: Shaft type: STD…shaft flex: STD…Length 44 1/2” …Grip: STD…Grip Size: + 1 wrap…Lie: STD…Loft: STD

I asked for them in the order to start with an R (regular shaft and tip it to get it to a medium stiff flex. I am pretty certain I asked for 44 inches but got 44 ½. I did ask for and got the + 1 extra wrap under the grip. I have to admit that when I got the club out of the wrap it looked real good, despite its enormous head. The pear shaped head was fine, but the face had the look of being slightly closed, from the center of the head to the heel, which worried me, as this had the look of pulls and hooks. With black enamel finish matched my 3 wood and they would be a good looking pair of woods. If it would perform like my 3 wood I would have me one super driver.

I went straight to the club to hit a few shots on the range. The club head felt good and solid, sounded a little loud but dense and OK. The shaft was another story. As soon as I was loose and put a little spank and strength into the swing, it was as I feared. The ball was hooked left of left. If I swung like a doo bopper, it was descent straight with only a slight pull left or block to the right. I took it on the course for a few holes and if I swung normal speed and force it was left of left. The clincher was on # 10. I was hitting straight into the setting sun and there was no chance to see the ball.

I hit my regular drive a little low in the heel. Not being able to see the ball, I felt it was in the left side of the fairway or light rough. I hit the new driver with what felt like a perfect swing and solid contact. Again, not being able to see the ball, I was confident I hit it down the right center where I was aiming and picked up my bag and started walking down the right side of the fairway. When I got to where the ball should have been there was no ball. The only ball I saw was 1 foot into the left rough. It was my first ball that I hit, which I was certain was in the left side of the fairway or light rough. The ball with my new driver was 20 yards left in the woods, which was a minimum of 40 to 50 yards left of where I would bet I hit it. It was obvious to me that the shaft had to be too weak and was over kicking, closing the club head at impact sending my ball to the left of left.

I drove the 72 miles to go see my club fitter/builder, Billy Delk, PGA, to have him check out the flex on my new driver to see where it was versus the “gold standard” of my 3 wood and the other 3 drivers he re-shafted last month. Billy put the new driver on the frequency machine and it was 23 cycles less than my three other ones. A flex range has 10 cycles per range. This driver being 23 cycles less meant that it was 2 1/3 flexes too weak. Instead of the stiff shaft I ordered, they missed the regular that the label said it was and I got a senior shaft. I may be a senior but I don’t need senior shafts yet.

So, I left the club with Billy and wrote him a check for a re-shaft and told him to call me when it was ready. SO, like I predicted to the order rep, I ordered the less expensive shaft in the event it wasn’t right and I had to change it I would be out less money spent. Not being psychic, how did I know that would likely happen? In the end, the good news is I will have another really good driver when Billy gets done doing his magic in re-shafting it to fit me.

Is there a moral to this story? Sure is! When you have problems hitting your driver or any club, and especially if you feel you made a good swing and the ball flight has the wrong zip code, be suspicious first of the club and the shaft, not you and your swing.

To get a good HIT…The club has to FIT!

The Surge!

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