Keep on Target

Posted 25 June 2011 - 05:44 PM

 

Ok I have came across very few things in my 35 years of golf that really made an impact on my game and more importantly my SCORE. Since joining this forum "to improve my driving through hoeing!" I was lead to try the Adams A4 Tech 9015 Prototype head and the overwheming shaft suggestion is the Harrison SAGA shaft. After talking to a rep by the name of Cody (phone call was extensive - 45 min. Q&A) I ended up with a SAGA 60 X-flex. The combo was the real deal for me! There is science and no hype behind their stuff which was very refreshing! I've been all over their website after becoming a fan of the SAGA.

I read about the testing they did with this product called the Shotmaker. And I thought I got to try it because the info made sense. Well I have 10 rounds with it inserted in the SAGA/Adams 9015 and my fairway are up 22% from 50 percent before to 72% after installing the Shotmaker. Which has my GIR's up 16% and HAS CHANGED MY HCP from a -1.2 to a +1.5 in one month+

My swing hasn't changed my practice time hasn't changed just my SCORES and the FUN that has created.

For those on this forum what like to tinker, try the newest stuff, like new technologies, or just a golf hoe than this is something to at least investigate! check out AND a VIDEO from youtube from the engineer at Harrison Golf.

They are JUST good people that have time to talk and answer questions from the little guys like us. And their stuff really works at least it has for me. I believe that they might be onto the next big thing in shaft performance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Golfwrx Post

My Golf Spy Post

Posted 18 October 2011 - 08:36 PM

Hi everyone. I've been a lurker/reader here at MygolfSpy for quite some time now, and have finally signed up for the forums. I've actually tweeted a few times with MyGolfSpy and bought the Powerbilt AirFoil Tour Driver based on the reviews here and recommendations. I am active poster a couple of other places, and participated in some discussions about the Shotmaker. I posted my thoughts recently on those forums, and thought I would do so here as well. I'm looking forward to posting around here, I think this is a great site.

Well, I had the opportunity to test out a few Shotmakers at my local Edwin Watts a week or so ago, and then take one out to the course. As you will see, for me I found the Shotmaker to improve my performance, but the results were sensitive to the different flexes I tried.

For the experiment, I inserted a Stiff Flex Harrison Eclipse 65 into my driver. First I can say, with or without a Shotmaker, the Eclipse immediately became one of my favorite shafts (along with Graphite Design Pershing 65). I’ve hit them all (and own a bunch like Fubuki, Blueboard, etc) and I find the Eclipse to be smooth feeling but tight. It is a fun shaft to play.

Anyway, to do the test, I tried to make it as “blind” as possible. By this I mean I had the Edwin Watts salesperson install the various Shotmakers (D, E, and F) and not tell me which one was installed when I hit it. For every test I took 5 swings and I did not use the backweight in the grip. Thinking back, I wish I did use the backweight because now that I took the driver to the course, I like hitting with the backweight installed. Before documenting the baseline figures, I warmed up about 20 swings into the monitor, and did not look at any results.

Base numbers without the Shotmaker were:
147 mph ball speed, 99 swing speed, 13.3* launch angle, 2561 backspin, -852 side spin, 241 carry 258 total distance, 8 yards offline

F Flex (first one I hit)
150 mph ball speed, 101 swing speed, 12.3* launch angle, 2515 backspin, -450 side spin, 244 carry, 262 total distance, 3.5 yards offline

D Flex (second one I hit)
148 mph ball speed, 108 swing speed, 13.6* launch angle, 3240 backspin, -1034 side spin, 236 carry, 249 total distance, 11 yards offline

E Flex (last one I hit)
150 mph ball speed, 103 swing speed, 13* launch angle, 2720 backspin, -665 side spin, 247 carry, 260 total distance, 6.4 yards offline

When I hit these, my initial impressions were:
I liked the first Shotmaker, could not stand the second Shotmaker, and liked the third Shotmaker. I was surprised to learn the second one I really did not like was the D. I figured it would be the F. I initially did not notice any substantial change in feel among the three Shotmakers, but I do feel that having one installed tightened up the feel of the shaft compared to hitting without a Shotmaker installed.

The next day I took these out to the driving range, and there I felt that the F flex, while giving me good results, caused the shaft to feel too “stout”. So I went with the E flex and then took it to the course.

On the course, I hit 6 of 11 fairways with my driver, and 1 of them I missed simply because I drove it too far through the dogleg. Of the 4 I missed, 2 of them were bad swings which caused low snap hooks (trying to get fancy and hit low runners into the wind). A third was a push that just missed carrying the junk by 2 yards (it was smashed, just pushed too far right), and the 4th missed by a few feet. What I saw in my mind’s eye on the well struck balls was a smoothing out of any draw or fade compared to what I expected to see when I looked up at the ball flight. For instance on a draw, the ball seems to start to draw and then just settle down and slightly tumble left after it hits its apex.

So what did I learn? I think the Shotmaker does improve accuracy, as long as it is fitted correctly to one’s swing. The D flex for me was a bad fit, and the results show. And even though the F flex gave me the best results, I stepped back 1 flex to E due to my feeling of not needing to commit full swing speed/energy to get good results. Now, is it worth $99 or $149 with the tools? That is for the buyer to determine. For me, someone who likes to tinker, I say "Yes". Even with a fitted shaft I feel the Shotmaker will add the last bit of performance and help keep the ball in play on those not so great swings. It will not help the pull hook swings – those shots are going left of left no matter what! But on those so-so swings, I think you’ll find yourself a few yards closer to the fairway than you would have otherwise.

2nd Annual Robot Shafts Shoot Out

 

Many of our clients were overwhelmingly intrigued by the results of the 2008 Robot Shafts Shootout. Quite a few of them have been urging us to commission a new round of robot testing against the best shafts of 2009. For this round of robot tests, we decided to test the Saga against the Fujikura Motore, Mitsubishi Fubuki, and Aldila Voodoo. You would likely agree that these are the crËme of the crop of golf shafts for 2009.

 

Just like last test, we prepared a simple comparison of their specifications below for your reference. Naturally, these specifications were measured by us. To be fair, we stated the testing methods below so that you can verify the results yourselves. In addition, we asked Golf Lab in San Diego to conduct an independent robot test with these four shafts so we could see how they perform. As a standard protocol, the tests were conducted solely by the Golf Lab, and Harrison personnel were not present during the test.

I think we all would agree that the three shafts from our competition are quality products. These shafts have already been proven to be good sellers in the market place. However, it is fair to assume that for each consumer asking for a $ 300 shaft, there will likely be ten asking for something that costs less but performs comparably. For this reason, the next time a value-conscious golfer comes into your store, we ask that you keep the Harrison Saga in mind.

Before the test, we measured the shaft specifications of all four shafts. They are listed below

We tested the shafts at a 100 mph swing speed, a standard testing protocol for testing a stiff flex shaft by Golf Lab. A third-party, 9.5 degree Alpha interchangeable driver head was used. The four shafts were butt cut to 45 ‡î long as measured by the Golfsmith method and a Golf Pride Tour Velvet was installed on each. Under standard Golf Lab procedure, eight center hits were tested for each club. The results are as follows: