Archive for September, 2010
The European Tour makes a welcome return to Paris, France this week for the third and final event on French soil in the 2010 calendar – the Vivendi Cup. The event is being held at Golf de Joyenval on the outskirts of Paris and will be held over two par-72 courses, the Marly Course and the Retz Course. The opening two rounds of the event are played in Pro-Am format with each professional having an amateur partner. Pro-Am formats always tend to lighten the mood and add a sense of fun to the event, but there are certain occasions where the amateur players can be more serious than the Pros; there’s nothing like the presence of a gallery to intimidate an amateur player.
Click here to view the slideshow
With the event being played across the two courses the majority of players chose to play a practice round on each, which meant that most didn’t spend much time on the range. As a result it was a quieter week than normal for the Team aboard the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle (TTSV).
One player who did find time to work on his equipment was Titleist Ambassador and local favourite Gregory Bourdy. Gregory took time out on Tuesday morning in Paris to work on his driver set-up as he was looking to gain some yardage off the tee. The formidable combination of the Trackman launch monitor and Titleist Fitting Technician Mattias Jelver went off in the search for extra yards and, as expected, didn’t disappoint. A change in specification to the 910D3, 8.5° fitted with the new Fujikura Motore F3 60 shaft in X-Flex delivered an extra 11 yards to Gregory’s drives. At this level 11 yards is a huge leap and Gregory was anxious to let his new ‘big dog’ see the golf course. He tried the driver during his Tuesday practice round and immediately asked if the Team could match the Motore shaft into a 909F2 fairway. He took away a 15.5° fitted with the Motore F3 70 shaft, also in X-Flex. In addition to Gregory’s new driver set-up we couldn’t fail to make mention of the Scotty Cameron putter that he currently has in the bag. This week’s slideshow has images of his super-cool Circle-T Napa; there’s no denying that it’s an absolute classic!!!
And whilst we’re on the subject of putters, another player sporting a sweet Cameron creation was Titleist Ambassador Simon Thornton. The Team has placed an order directly from the Scotty Cameron Putter Studio in California for Simon’s new flatstick and he was understandably excited when it was delivered to him on the range in Paris. The putter in question is a Studio Select Kombi-S with a Tour only, brushed black finish. Again, there are images of the putter in this week’s slideshow; we’re sure you’ll like it every bit as much as Simon did.
Next week, action on both sides of the Atlantic stops for one week only as the eyes of the golfing world are focused firmly on The Celtic Manor Resort for golf’s greatest spectacle – the Ryder Cup. No other golf event generates the same levels of passion, drama and excitement as golf’s premier team event and, with players on both the European and U.S. team in good form, the 38th playing of the Ryder Cup should more than live up to its billing. Titleist is well represented on both sides with Ambassadors likes of Rory McIlroy and Ross Fisher spearheading the European team and the likes of Steve Stricker and Rickie Fowler gunning for American glory. Titleist will be watching along with the rest of the golfing world to see which team prevails in golf’s proverbial pressure cooker. Good luck to all 24 players and may the best team win (so long as that team is European!!).
September 24th, 2010
The wonderfully named Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg, Austria is this week’s destination for the European Tour. Before talking about the Titleist activity at the tournament we must start with a word for the green staff at the venue who did the most incredible job in making sure the tournament could go ahead. Austria has been subject to some very wet weather over the past few weeks which left 14 of the fairways at Diamond Country Club needing serious attention. Amazingly, the green staff re-turfed each of these fairways just two weeks ago and still had the course up to standard for a European Tour event. The course looked in great shape during practice and the players, who are ultimately the ones that matter, were very complimentary about the course conditions – good work guys!!!
Back in the world of Titleist the 910 drivers are still very much the talk of the Tour. Since their introduction back at Loch Lomond the 910 drivers have received instant acclaim from Titleist Ambassadors and the conversion rate from previous generation product into the new 910 has been nothing short of phenomenal. By way of example, last week at the KLM Open in Holland Titleist had 31 drivers in play for the event, with 17 being the new 910. When it comes to equipment the Tour pros won’t change if it doesn’t perform; after all it is their livelihood on the line. So the sheer number of players to switch, and the rate at which the players are converting to 910 product speaks volumes for the performance offerred by this new range of drivers.
Click here to view the slideshow
In Austria this week the Titleist Tour Team were kept busy with…yes, you’ve guessed it…910 driver fittings. Two players who have already made the switch into the new 910 product were both keen to check-in with the team and see if they could achieve yet more performance from their new 910. Titleist Ambassadors Mark F. Haastrup & Mikko Ilonen both booked themselves in for some Trackman time and set to work with different shaft options in the quest for improved performance.
Denmark’s Mark Haastrup was the first through the doors of the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle (TTSV). Mark is currently lying 120th on the Race to Dubai and will be looking for a strong finish to his season in order to secure his playing privileges for 2011. As a relatively modest hitter Mark was looking for the 910 to find him some extra yardage, so Titleist Tour Technician Mattias Jelver set about assessing some different head and shaft options. Below is a statistical comparison of Mark’s current 910 ‘gamer’ versus the new option prescribed by Mattias as taken directly from the Trackman Launch Monitor. As you can see the additional distance was certainly achieved and, whilst the new specification is unlikely to go straight into play as Mark would like to test it further, it would seem that the mission was very much accomplished!!!
Mark F. Haastrup
Current Specifications
Model: 910D2 RH 7.5°
Shaft: Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Blueboard 73 X-Flex
Ball Speed: 159.2mph
Spin Rate: 2314rpm
Carry Yardage: 267.4 yards
Total Yardage: 291.3 yards
New Specifications
Model: 910D2 RH 8.5°
Shaft: Oban Kiyoshi 65 X-Flex
Ball Speed: 160.6mph
Spin Rate: 2408rpm
Carry Yardage: 274.6 yards
Total Yardage: 299.2 yards
Another Titleist Ambassador keen to work on his 910 set-up was “The Flying Finn” Mikko Ilonen. Mikko has had a solid 2010 season but is looking to improve on his current position of 72nd on the Race to Dubai enough to qualify for the season ending Dubai World Championship. Mikko has been a long-time user of the Aldila Voodoo XVS7 shaft and, whilst happy with the performance, came to the team looking for something that offered a different feel. Following his Trackman session the Oban Kiyoshi shaft again came out as favourite and, in addition to offering Mikko the sort of feel he was looking for, also provided an additional six yards of total distance which can only be a bonus. The Kiyoshi shaft is new from Oban and has only recently been available to the Tour players. The high launch, low spin characteristics of the shaft is yielding some very impressive results with the new 910 driver heads and looks like becoming a popular combination on the Tour. Below is the Trackman data from Mikko’s fitting session.
Mikko Ilonen
Current Specification
Model: 910D2 RH 8.5°
Shaft: Aldila Voodoo XVS7 X-Flex
Ball Speed: 162.2mph
Spin Rate: 2404rpm
Carry Yardage: 270.6 yards
Total Yardage: 298.6 yards
New Specification
Model: 910D2 RH 8.5°
Shaft: Oban Kiyoshi 65 X-Flex
Ball Speed: 164mph
Spin Rate: 2381rpm
Carry Yardage: 276.4
Total Yardage: 304.7
As the European Tour rolls on, so will the 910 Tour seeding and we fully expect more players to make the switch in the weeks to come. The Team are currently focusing their efforts on fine tuning the 910 product for our Titleist Ambassadors but there is also considerable interest from outside of the Titleist Tour Staff and definitely plenty more 910 work to come. In addition to the 910 drivers the European Tour will soon begin seeding the 910 fairway and hybrid products which promise to be every bit as good as the drivers and will complete the best range of metals that Titleist has ever produced. These are exciting times on the European Tour and we’ll be keeping you up to speed with everything Titleist and everything 910 in the coming weeks and months. Watch this space!!!
September 17th, 2010
With the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle not being able to make the journey from Gleneagles to Crans-sur-Sierre, this week proved to be fairly quiet on the equipment front. However, there were a handful of adjustments worthy of mention, as well as some amazing photos from what is widely regarded as the most stunning venue on the European Tour.
New Titleist staffer Matteo Manassero took delivery of a new 909H 21-degree to match the 17-degree he already has in play.
Model: 909H Loft: 21 ° Shaft: Project X HC1 Flex: Rifle 6.5 Length: 40” Grip: TV58R (+1/32”) Swingweight: D3 Tipping: N/A Setting: N/A
Click here to view the slideshow
Mikko Ilonen had his Deep Milled Newport T10 Black cut down to 34.5″ from 35″ so that he could try something new and look at holing some more putts this week on the tricky greens.
George Coetzee was looking for a new fairway to try in the next couple of weeks because he feels that he is hitting his current 909F2 with a ZCOM BT 30 too far compared to the rest of the metals in his bag. He also felt that the shaft was a little to stiff. We are going to build him a new 909F2 13.5 and 15.5 with the Speeder 757 X Stiff and make the 13.5 1/2″ shorter than the 15.5, which he can try next week at the KLM Open.
Soren Hansen is still working with his 910 driver but feels he getting closer, so with a few tweaks it should go in the bag soon.
Brett Rumford was in a buoyant mode after his strong finish last week at Gleneagles. He feels his game is in great shape and with a good record at Crans could be looking for another strong finish this week.
Chris Wood was fresh out after a visit to the Cameron Studio and was using the Studio Select Fast Back with the 1.5 neck. There is also the exact same putter being made but in the Tour Black Mist finish, which Chris loves the look of.
Also over the next few weeks to get ready of the tour launch of the new fairway and hybrids at St Andrews, we are checking what our staff players have in the bag so that we can provide them with the correct products in Scotland. Depending on the weather that week we hope to look after all that are in the field and work with them in the following weeks when the ET returns to warmer climates in Portugal and Spain.
Don’t forget that you can follow the Titleist Tour Team on a daily basis through the Titleist Europe Twitter page. The Team will be ‘Tweeting’ from next week’s KLM Open, featuring a field that includes 2 of this years major winners..
Please click here to follow the Team: http://twitter.com/TitleistEurope.
September 3rd, 2010
