Well in this glorious weather it has just taken me 6 hours to drive back to the North West from St Ives.....
Do I mind...... Absolutely not as I am still grinning from ear to ear after a fantastic day!
I have put a few pictures below as well!
It was great to meet the other 3 people being fit and to have a coffee and a chat before we got down to business. What strikes you as soon as you walk into the St Ives Titleist fitting centre is the actual brand itself. I know that sounds a bit silly, but the professionalism, the appearance of the staff and the quality of the facility just all reeks of class.
I was lucky enough to be fitted by Phil, who works fitting and making clubs for all the tour pros. Nervous about hitting balls in front of him...... not much!!! He was great though. He went through the whole process and the numbers with me and specifically what the 913 driver had to offer over the 910 and my razr X Black. The new hot face was most prevalent for me, as my very first offering with the 913 offered 5mph more ball speed. After tinkering around with the settings and various stiff shafts, it even went up as much as 8mph (which apparently is a lot). After spending about half an hour trying to match my launch angle with a better spin rate I ended up with a 913 d2 9.5 deg with a 60g Phenom Shaft set at B1. My launch angle went from 14 deg (with a spin rate of 4000+) to 10 deg with a 2200 spin rate. Phil was great and Leigh the Titleist rep made us all feel welcome. I even got to have a hit with some Ap2's while the Paul was doing the interviews.
I really can not wait to give the club a go. We did not get to play 9 holes because of the weather. One thing I would say is that as a 17 handicapper I have always had a tendency to stay away from Titleist clubs. I would not give it a second thought now. The 913 felt amazing. I would say a custom fit is essential to get the right shaft and settings. I will let you all know how it goes on the course!
After the fitting we had lunch and then got to have a look around the Titleist factory. The way the clubs are made was really interesting. From the wedges, through to the irons, through to the woods, the process is meticulous. We then went into the warehouse (which would make the best Supermarket Sweep dash ever). They had every Footjoy shoe you could think of, next years bag range, gloves, clothes and clubs. They had so much gear lying around. It seemed second nature to them that there was a gorgeous set of Titleist Mb irons just stood against the wall next to 2 dozen pro v's and a load of gloves! Everybody in there was just oblivious to it.
We then went to see Henry (the other tour fitter) putting the finishing touches to our clubs. In their little tour fitters office they had gear for all the tour pros, 3 commemorative wedges to celebrate Rorys major win, putters (a few to many belly putters for my liking) and Henry took us through how he made our drivers.
I will probably edit this post 100 times as I keep on remembering things. I was an amazing day and I feel so so privileged to have experienced this. I would like to thank Mike H and especially Paul for hosting us on the day....
I am still buzzing....... I have just go to tell HID that I am going back next week to get fitter for the Ap2's 
