Sunday, February 17, 2013

TaylorMade Kingdom Experience

 
I got the opportunity this week to visit the TaylorMade Kingdom at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia.  This is an exclusive club fitting/club making facility that is invitation only.  For the most part, the only people invited are PGA Tour players and PGA members like myself who are on TaylorMade staff. 
The building, range, amenities, and staff were second to none.  I went there to get fitted for the 2013 season.  I was there for a total of 4 hours!  We could have easily worked another 2 hours.  The gentleman that I worked with had been there for 7 years and seen just about everything.  He was as knowledgeable as anyone I had ever talked to about equipment.
The process started with a short talk about what my game was like and what I would like to see happen with the ball flight.  We started by measuring and hitting my current equipment.  After that, we started to hit the new Rocketbladez Tour irons with a variety of shafts.  It was amazing how a different shaft effected the feel and trajectory.  FYI the shafts that we were hitting are not available in the store!  After about an hour we arrived at the perfect fit for the irons.
The big stick was the next to fit.  My current driver was an E1 swing weight which was super heavy.  My drives tend to spin too much(3500 rpm) and float with no roll.  The driver we eventually arrived upon was the R1 with a Diamana Ahini 60 stiff shaft.  The ball came out like a bullet and the rpm dropped to around 2300!
The fit for the 3 wood was a 16.5* head turned open 1.5*, so it played about 15* and gave me the open look at address that I like.  Diamana Kai Li 70 stiff was the shaft.
The fit for the Hybrid was an Adams Super LS 19* with an Oban Revenge 85 gram shaft.
The coolest thing was the putting lab that they had.  They set me up on a perfectly flat 12 foot putt indoors.  A variety of putters with sensors on them were used until the proper fit was reached.  They fit for how well can you aim the putter and if you can hit the putt with a square face.  I hit about 25 putts in 30 minutes and missed one!  The guy said I was in the top 10% of all the staff players he had ever seen in the putting lab.  I asked him who the best and worst putters were and he said Loren Roberts and Davis Love respectively.
It was an amazing experience.  The thing that you take away from it is the doubt that your equipment is wrong for you.  After leaving, you know that your stuff is 100% correct for you.  Confidence in king.