Golf Monthly UK – August 2019

FITTING ON THE ROAD

TAYLORMADE’SMARKTHISTLETONDISCUSSESHIS

EXPERIENCESFITTINGSOMEOFTHEWORLD’SBESTPLAYERS

H

owhavetheM5andM6

beenreceivedontour?

Wehaven’tstruggledto

getanyoneintothis

year’sproduct–

obviouslywealwayshavesome

playerswhoareharderthanothersto

getintonewproduct,butourjobas

tourrepsistoshowthemthebenefits

andgetthemimprovements.These

guysareplayingfortheircareersand

theyareobviouslynotgoingtoplaya

productifitisn’tsuperiortowhatthey

havegotatthemoment.

Whatarethemainreasonsforthe

easierswitch?

I thinkit’sbecauselastyearwasthe

firstyearTwistFacecameaboutand

somepeoplewerealittlebitmore

resistanttoitthanothers.Butnow

everyone has seen the gains that it has

brought and a lot of our top players

have got it, so now people are a little bit

more open about it.

The initial feedback is that when

people are setting it down it looks a lot

squarer behind the ball – it’s got a

longer, narrower section where the

carbon fibre and titanium on the crown

meet, so it’s very easy to align. Some

people are quite sensitive to face

angles, so the fact it is easier to see

should help a lot. Tour players usually

like it to sit a little more open than

amateurgolfers,andwecannowgetit

pointingexactlywherealllevelsof

playerwantit.

Thesecondbitoffeedbackisthe

sound.Soundisrelativetofeel–the

playermightsay“ohthatfeelsnice”,

butwhattheyareactuallyreferringto

ishowitsounds.Thesoundthisyear

ontheM5andM6isthebestwehave

produced.Wearen’thavingtochange

itatallwithglueorhotmelt–wehave

hardlyhadtodoanyofthatatall.

TheweighttrackontheM5isalsothe

bestI haveworkedwithbecauseitisso

longfromfronttoback.Weareseeing

more changes to spin by moving the

weights than ever before – about a

600rpm change to spin whether you

have the weights front or back. That

also gives us more options as fi tters as

we can then fi ne-tune things. We can

really play around with the M5 head and

when we fi nd the perfect loft and shaft

set-up, we can pop the M6 head on and

see if that makes a diff erence.

Do golfers on tour tinker with their

product too much?

The guys on tour fiddle about a bit

more because we’re there

week in, week out with

them, so if it’s windy they

might want to drop 200 or

300rpm of spin and we will

tweak it for them. Then the

next week we will put it

straight back to where it

was, but that’s not

something we would

recommend club golfers

do as they might end up

losing the optimum setting.

Whatwouldyouradvicebetoa

fittergoingontourforthefirsttime?

Itwouldhavetobetolisten–themore

questionsyoucangetansweredto

findoutexactlywhataplayeris

thinking,thebetter.Aplayermightsay

heisstrugglingwithX,butwhenyou

lookintoit,itmightbesomethingelse

thatheneedshelpwith.

Dotourplayersgenerallywantmore

distanceoraccuracy?

Theplayersontournaturallypushus

forboth.Iftheyseetheyhaveextra

distance,theydon’twanttogiveitup.If

a tour player gains three or four yards

and the ball is going straight, they will

snap your hand off! But they push us

for both – two miles an hour faster is

attainable, but then the control has got

to be there as well.

What’s the most memorable

success you have had on tour?

As fitters, we get very emotionally

involved with all the players – we are

very much part of their team. If

someone has had a bad day, we are

straight on the phone to them asking if

there is anything we can do to help or

what problems they had. Guido

Migliozzi is someone I have worked

with since 2013. He was one of the first

guys I fitted – he was an amateur at the

time and only 16 years old. I‘ve worked

with him ever since then. I spent some

time with him in Australia this year and

got him fitted for the new product. He

put it in play straight away and within

three weeks he had won at the Kenya

Open – that’s the ultimate satisfaction

for me as a club fitter.

“These guys are playing for their

careers, but it has been easy for them

to switch into the new products”

FITTING ON TOUR

Mark in action

with one of

our readers