BMW International Open – Munich

June 25th, 2010

This week’s European Tour stop is Munich for the BMW International Open. With the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle (TTSV) located right on the range a busy week was always on the cards and that’s exactly how it panned out.

After over 30 consecutive days of rain the heavens finally relented on Monday at the Golfclub Munchen Eichenried, so once again the course will play very soft and scoring will be extremely low. Don’t be surprised to see something approaching 20 under par winning this week. At just over 7000 yards and par 72, it’s a relatively short course for the modern day bombers.

Click here to view the slideshow

After a few weeks in the U.S.A, including last weeks U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, a number of the European Tour’s top stars returned to Europe for this week’s event. One such star was Titleist Ambassador Robert Karlsson. Robert jumped on a plane from the west coast of the U.S.A late on Sunday night and was at work early Tuesday in Munich to fulfil a sponsor’s clinic on the range. Robert also took some time out during his practice schedule to work on a new 909 fairway. He felt that over the past few weeks he has been turning the ball over a little too much and that this had cost him a few dollars last week when his 2nd shot to the 18th at Pebble Beach found the Pacific. Following some work on Trackman the Team put together a couple of new options to try in Wednesdays Pro Am and Robert finally settled on a slightly stronger tipped version of his current shaft. Tipping his existing shaft maintained the feel that he is used to whilst giving Robert the additional stability he needed. Robert could really attack the ball with the stronger shaft without the fear of it going left. Robert was clearly happy with the new fairway metal and was kind enough to express his thanks to the Team on the TitleistEurope Twitter page.

Robert Karlsson

Model: 909 F3
Loft: 13°
Shaft: Grafalloy Prolaunch Red Fairway X-Flex (Tipped 1″)
Length: 43″
Grip: Golf Pride Multi-Compound Red/Black .580 Round (+1/32″)
Swingweight: D4

Also in Munich after a long distance commute from Pebble was Titleist Ambassador Ross Fisher. Ross has not had a vintage first half of the season but looked to been in fine form on the range in Munich. Ross was also keen to spend some time working with his 909 fairways. The reigning Accenture World Matchplay Champion has been switching between two different 909 fairways depending on the course conditions. He has a strong 909F2 13.5° adjusted to 12° which is perfect from the tee but a little more difficult to flight into a green if required. The second option has a little more loft and a different shaft and this looked favourite for this week’s course set up. It is slightly shorter off the tee due to the higher loft but offers a much better flight for those long second shots into par 5’s. With either option Ross delivers a mighty hit with and consistently carries the ball over 265 yards with either.

Ross Fisher

Strong Option
Model: 909 F2
Loft: 13.5° @ 12°
Shaft: Oban Devotion 8 X-Flex (Tipped 2″)
Length: 43″
Grip: Lamkin Tour Black Full Cord (+1/64″ & Reversed)

Weaker Option
Model: 909 F2
Loft: 13.5°
Shaft: Project X 8A4 X-Flex (Tipped 2″)
Length: 43″
Grip: Lamkin Tour Black Fullcord (+1/64″ & Reversed)

With access to the Trackman launch monitor Ross also wanted to take a look at his short iron composition. Titleist master craftsman Bob Vokey had put together a new 248.06 Spin Milled C-C wedge (adjusted to 47°) at the U.S Open last week as Ross wanted another 5 yards from his lowest lofted wedge to prevent him having to hit so many ‘soft’ 9 iron shots. Ross’ standard 48° wedge goes 130 yards and the new 47° fitted the bill perfectly, 135 yards on the button!! Great work as always Bob!!

With the World Cup in full flow, talk on the range was all about football but, when French Titleist Ambassador Gregory Bourdy checked in for a Trackman session the Team understandably steered well clear of the subject and stuck to the golf. Gregory wanted to use Trackman to analyse his irons and see how they were performing. His feeling was that he could get more from his current irons and felt that he was struggling a little with control into the wind. Gregory is a good solid ball striker and is quite aggressive down through the ball. This angle of attack was producing a lot of spin with Gregory’s 8 Iron, for example, producing some 800rpm more than we would ideally like to see. The team set about tweaking the lofts on his set of Titleist MB irons 1.5° strong which brought the spin down to a much more controllable level. Flight and dispersion were improved and Gregory gained 6-7 yards with all clubs. A great advert for custom fitting if ever there was one!!! Gregory also saw some very good figures with the True Temper Dynamic Gold SL shaft that he tried on the range and decided that he would like another set of the MB irons to his specifiction with these shafts fitted. The Team obliged and Gregory will take these away for further testing.

Irish Titleist Ambassador Simon Thornton also touched base with the Team to work on his 909 driver set-up. Having been brought up on blustery Irish links courses Simon is happy flighting the ball low but this is not ideal for gaining some yardage with the driver. Working with Trackman the team encouraged Simon to try and hit the ball higher and, by launching the ball a few degrees more, he managed to find 10-12 yards through the air. A change in technique coupled with a switch to the Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Kai Li shaft also helped tighten the dispersion on Simon’s drives and provide a much more controllable ball flight. An all around winner!!!

Simon Thornton

Model: 909 DComp
Loft: 9.5°
Shaft: Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Kai Li 70 X-Flex (Tipped 1.5″)
Length: 45″
Grip: Golf Pride Multi-Compound Blue/Black .600 Round (+1/32″)
Swingweight: D3

The final note on this week’s Blog is to congratulate Titleist golf ball loyalist Martin Wiegele on his second win of the year at last week’s St Omer Open. The win promotes Martin to the European Tour from the Challenge Tour until the end of 2011. It’s the second win in a matter of weeks for Martin who also claimed Challenge Tour victory in his native Austria earlier this month.

The next few weeks will have a huge impact on the Race to Dubai and Ryder Cup rankings with the winner’s cheques getting bigger and bigger, so good luck to all our Titleist Ambassadors in the coming weeks. It promises to be a great few weeks on the European Tour both on the course and in the TTSV. Keep your eye on the TitleistEurope Twitter page over the next couple of weeks for some really, really exciting stuff!!! Titleist 910 is coming to the European Tour!!

Next week the European Tour moves to Paris for the Open de France. Paris is a wonderful venue to visit but the big question is whether the French cuisine can top that experienced by the Titleist Tour Team in Munich this week. As you will see from this week’s slideshow the boys certainly enjoyed the gastronomic delights on offer.

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