Adam Rank Gets Fit for the Perfect Driver

00:00:00 Adam Rank is going on a quest to break 80 and is getting a new driver fitted to make the game easier since his current driver is cracked.

00:00:44 The Callaway Elite X driver testing showed high backspin that will reduce the distance.

00:01:41 The launch angle is a little high, so trying a club with a lower spin could increase the distance of your drives and help you shoot lower scores.

00:02:28 Lowering the back spin by moving the center of gravity resulted in improved numbers with the Titleist driver during testing.

00:03:24 Moving the center of gravity location has a massive influence on ball flight, more so than the shaft, with 35 being the ideal descent angle for a driver.

00:04:08 The golfer is satisfied with the driver's performance and wants to adjust backspin and ball direction to improve further.

00:04:54The speaker is testing a tailor-made golf club with modified weight placement and shaft to lower the center of gravity and potentially increase backspin.

00:05:53 The Titalist is the best option based on the numbers, but both choices are good and would be an upgrade from your current driver.

00:06:40 There is a lot of adjustability in drivers nowadays, so as a coach you can always make changes to improve backspin numbers by adjusting loft or weight positions.

00:07:27 You can get fit for a driver today and still have flexibility to make adjustments down the road, which is a significant improvement from fitting options ten years ago.

00:00:00 all right I am here with Adam Rank Adam you are on your quest for breaking 80 Yes So we are going to go through a driver fitting today Awesome Um to get you into something that's going to make this game a little bit easier You know what i think over the last couple of weeks the things that's given me the most trouble is the driver So I'm really anxious to try some things out Perfect Perfect Uh my new my current driver is actually um you know cracked Oh it could

00:00:24 be why you're having some problems with your driver No no no I'm not I got to I got to get my swing down but also want to check out some new drivers Fair enough So normally we would have Adam hit his current club just to get some baseline numbers Since your driver is cracked we're just going to jump right in and start testing some stuff So awesome That's where we'll begin Let's go

00:00:44 Okay So Adam the first club we're going to test is the Callaway Elite X Um your current driver is a 10 and 1/2 degree This is also a 10 and 1/2 degree Uh this is Callaway's version of kind of their straighter flight or more draw bias driver Okay So just to help you potentially kill some of that slice that we were that you told me about Um we're going to try that one first We'll test it out This is a 65 g stiff shaft that we have in there So uh should be fairly

00:01:07 close to kind of what you currently play but I know yours is cracked so we'll just start with this one All right Looking forward to it [Music] Okay Adam So you hit the Callaway first Um I ball speed's fine 125ish Your backspin's a little high with your driver So you actually have the opposite problem with a driver than we saw with your irons a while ago Okay Um so that number should be between call it 2,000 and 3,000 You're at 3,300 right now So that's going to rob you of a bunch of

00:01:39 distance Uh your launch angle with this one's actually a little high So almost 17° You're at 16 1/2 Ideally that should be closer to 13 Some of that can just be due to the loft of the club So we might try something that's maybe a little bit lower Um there's a lot of stuff that's really close to the green So like your descent's really close your launch angle is is on the upper half of the green but I would just like to get this back backspin number down cuz if we can do

00:02:02 that that's going to help you add a ton of distance to your drives and and ultimately that's going to go a long way to help you shoot lower scores I love that So let's try some different heads that we can do that with All right Adam So test club number two This is the Titalist GT2 So the center of gravity on this club head is slightly lower which should help us reduce the spin It's actually the exact same shaft that you were trying in the other one So we're

00:02:23 kind of just live in that 65 g range for for you right now But let's see with moving the center of gravity around if that helps to lower the back spin kind of where we want it to be No I like the look of it too So this is I'm excited to try that Yeah should should be a little different than the Callaway for sure So let's uh let's test it out All right let's go [Music] [Applause] All right Adam So the titleist saw some really good numbers man That was really

00:02:54 good Um so all we really did we changed the loft So we we delofted it by a degree and a half So you went from a 10 five to a nine And then we just changed the center of gravity location in the head Yeah So lower CG ideally to lower backspin That's exactly what we saw So you went from 3,300 in the Callaway down to an average of around 1,700 So it's definitely on the lower end of kind of where I'd want to see it Like I said I was looking for between 2,000 and 3,000

00:03:16 but I'd much rather have you on this end of the spectrum than on the 30,000 plus side Um because you can see the difference in the distance You were averaging a little over 250 versus with the cali was right around 210 So massive change just by moving the center of gravity location That's the biggest influence when we go through a fitting of just changing the club head A lot of people think that the shaft has a massive influence It's really more about where the where the center of gravity is

00:03:39 in the head where the weight is in the head because that's going to influence the ball flight the most Makes sense What about the descent angle i know that went into the poor So so for again for a driver for any club you're looking to hit it as far as you possibly can which really that's the goal with a driver You don't hear anybody walk up onto a T- box and go you know this hole only calls for 260 so I'm going to hit my 260 driver It's like no I'm going to try to hit

00:04:00 this as far as I can or I'm going to hit a 3-wood or something else So for the descent angle 35 is kind of your ideal number You're again just on the low end you're at 30° That's fine I'm not worried about stopping power with the driver because I don't need it to stop I need it to roll as much as I can Absolutely If this number was down at let's say 15 or 20 then I'd say we'd have a problem But if it's just on the lower side of 35 not a big deal All right If you're not worried I'm not

00:04:24 worried Yeah So let's uh let's test one more club Uh I would like to maybe try to get this backspin closer to that 2,000 range and and see what we can do I'd also like to get your offline to be a little straighter if we can So we may make some tweaks just to potentially fix the curvature problem But outside of that I'm really happy with where you are with that title No I was I was excited about that one too Got some really good numbers out there The distance I mean

00:04:46 everybody worries about distance That's what we wanted for sure All right Adam So we saw a lot of success with test club number two This was really good That was a fun one That was a good one Let's see if we can replicate it here So I've got you in the tailor made the Qi35 This is just their standard head There's two weight ports on there So I put the heavy weight in the front which is actually going to help us continue to lower that CG So the the CG is actually

00:05:06 slightly lower in this than it was in the Titalist but I did change the shaft on it So I'm with a little bit lighter shaft So we're in a 50 g instead of the 60 60 range that we were before Still a stiff flex but this is the Ventus Blue So I'm just curious if we lower the CG but potentially lighten the shaft if that offset helps us get the back spin kind of where we want So all right let's test a few out and see what we get Um but this this should be another uh good

00:05:28 option here for I can already It feels like a rocket ship It's ready to go I'm It's up to me though 275 What do you say i would love that All right Perfect Would love to eventually do that [Music] Okay Adam So you tried the Tailor Made It wasn't quite the rocket ship we were hoping for Um still not bad though Like overall uh your ball speed dropped just a hair You went from 133 to 132 So not a huge difference there Uh that 500 uh RPM jump in backspin though actually robbed

00:06:06 you of quite a bit of distance Oh So like you went from hitting it on average about 250 255 to still it's going 240 which is not anything to complain about especially when you came in with I was going to say like I I will take a 240 drive I would be okay So I mean either one of these like to be honest with you they're they're both really good options It's like if I had to pick one I would probably tell you the Titalist is the best one for you just based off of the

00:06:28 numbers that we saw But either one of these would be an upgrade over what you currently have which is a crack driver that you can't even hit right so that's true You've got you got a couple good choices here but um any questions about just the overall fitting how the process went um anything from a driver perspective you want to talk about no I mean when you're choosing and again we've talked about this with other clubs like where you're eventually going to be

00:06:51 what is one number where you're like well considering where we're hoping to be this is the most important thing to look for So I think the really cool part about drivers nowadays especially is all the adjustability that you have So you can change the loft you can change some of the weight positions in different drivers So to be honest with you it's really you're not going to make a bad decision here Um as a coach if we're looking like down the road let's say 6

00:07:15 months from now your backspin number is still too low Well guess what i can make some adjustments to change that Okay I could potentially add some loft to the club That would help bring the number a little higher Um I could potentially move some weights around in the club head That would also potentially help you get the number higher So like you don't need to think about it in terms of like oh this is absolutely like the driver I have to have 6 months from now

00:07:33 It's like I can get fit for a driver today and then also still have the adjustability down the road to get you into something where it still performs well for your game at that point I love that Okay that's what's really cool about fitting now versus what it was 10 years ago where it was like it's what you got man It's all we have We can't really make any changes So um I think the Titus is the is the winner for today but really cool Enjoyed uh enjoyed the experience with it Hopefully this helps

00:07:55 you with your driver woes on the golf course Yeah that would be huge Would it be fun to be playing from the fairway in 250 yards from the tea that would make the make breaking 80 a little bit easier A little bit easier A little bit easier Perfect [Music]

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