Last Saturday I had the pleasure of being fit at Sleepy Hollow GC, Scarborough NY and figured I would fill you all in on what it is like at a regional fitting center.
When you pull up through the entrance gate, you take a right and go all the way down. You will find yourself at the Golf Teaching Academy. There is a small one-story house at the back-end of the range. There is a grass range, a turf range, then there are 3 different bays that each have garage-like doors that open up. After warming up on the mats, I went down to the furthest bay to start my driver fitting.
Inside this bay is a hitting mat, the entire back wall is a mirror, there are 3 different cameras....and best of all, a Trackman launch monitor gently sits behind you waiting to track every statistic possible. On the other side of the Golf Learning Center, there is a myriad of teacing aids and holes cut into the floor, as well as various fitness and AV equipment. Even from just looking at it, you can tell it is top of the line.
We started off hitting my current driver 909D3 9.5 with V2 X 76g. I was carrying about 242 (very depressing) on average. What was crazy was how much spin I was generating (over 4000rpm). This proved to be the most significant challenge for the fitting. From there we tried the stock shaft offerings in the 910D3 9.5* first. The RIP was better, but still over 3200 rpm.
The pro (Kevin Sprecher) then started to really involve me in the fitting. He has many many many shafts to try in every flex. We also hit the R11 TP and the Superfast 2.0 TP. Kevin informed me through each driver/shaft combination what was going on. I swing up to the ball with my driver (ranging from .5* to 4*) so my launch angle was not the problem. Kevin also enjoyed seeing my miss-hits and that is actually how we made the decision between the final two shafts.
Eventually we moved into the "upgrade shafts" and into a 910D3 8.5* head in the C2 setting. In the end, it came down to the Diamana Whiteboard X, and Matrix Ozik HD6. The Trackman had been logging my stats for every hit, and these two were the best option for me. In the end, we went with the HD6 because on my mishits (many of them), the shaft was producing less spin than the Diamana. Because we got my spin down below 2800 rpm, I picked up about 10 yards of carry to move to 253 carry on average. Kevin informed me that if i worked on hitting the center more, I would gain even more distance. My swing speed was roughly 107 but my ball speed was only 146-155. Obviously, I will work on this in the future.
I checked my e-mail the evening after the fitting, and Kevin had politely informed me that it was scheduled to ship within the next 3 days. I can't wait for my driver to get here!
Sleepy Hollow GC is one of the best facilities I personally have ever been to. This is my second time going there, and I would recommend this location to anyone. The staff is awesome, and the facilities are top of the line. It is such a cool experience as an amateur, to get fit that thoroughly. I am very confident that the head/shaft combination is the best for me. I would go back to Kevin and Sleepy Hollow any day of the year.
If you want to get fit correctly and thoroughly at a fraction of what it costs to go to Manchester or Ocean Side, go to your nearest Regional fitter. It was well worth the 55 minute drive from my house in CT.
I look forward to heading back there to see Kevin next spring for my iron and wood/hybrid fitting.
-Joe
910D3 8.5* C2 setting, Matrix Ozik-HD6