Foresight Sports Visit

As I mentioned in my last post, I had organised a visit to Foresight Sports EU (@ForesightEurope) in Guildford for a demonstration of the GC2 and their simulators for a project I am looking at trying to get off the ground in Bridgend.
Wow! What a fantastic bit of kit! I think I need one in my life and my golf game definitely would benefit from the measurements you can get.
As an example, we popped the dots on the face of a couple of my clubs (8iron and driver) so the Head Measurement camera (HMT) could do it's thaang. I was previously under the impression that my swing with the driver was severely over the top creating an out-to-in swing path resulting in a slicey fade or a low straight pull. There was definitely a slight out-to-in path but the revelation for me, and the main reason I don't make the most of my 107mph swing, was my strike. Another contributing factor was a 4 degree descending blow, but I couldn't get over how much effect my strike was having on the flight shape, trajectory and result! Nearly every single shot was from high on the face (right up near the crown!) and towards the heel. I tried teeing it up higher which only resulting in skying the shots into the roof and could not bring myself to lower the tee hight enough to get the centre of the face. I did manage to change my angle of attack to plus 1 degree but was still hitting the same place on the face with 17 degree launch and 45 yard peak hight! I use a 9.5 degree loft driver (Titleist 910 D3).
To get the ball out of the middle of the face I can see two options while using the same not too shabby swing. A: Tee it lower. I wasn't hitting the ground and could still hit up on the ball but not sure if the strike would then still be out of the heel. B: Grip down an inch on the club or cut the shaft down an inch. This should move the strike area into the middle of the face providing I keep the same swing.
I didn't think about option B while I was at Foresight Sports and had already broken 2 unbreakable tees so wasn't feeling inclined to try to tee it really low so I'll try it next time I'm at golf (Saturday's comp and Pyle and Kenfig). 
The data from the 8 iron with the dots was interesting. Not sure what to do with this nugget of info or exactly what it means, but at impact my lie angle was 4 to 6 degrees toe-down. At the moment, I'm going to ignore that one. The shots weren't good shots and I forgot to re-check it later when I was hitting it really well, but it could mean a couple of things. The most obvious being that the lie angle of the club was wrong for me. The less obvious option that I could think of was that it was showing a swing fault such as early extension and the compensations I was making to hit the ball. As I said, they weren't good shots at all.
Anyway, all this info has the potential to blow my mind.......but I loved it.
The simulated holes were also fantastic! We played 3 holes of the Brabazon at the Belfry and the results seemed incredibly realistic and put me in the exact types of trouble I normally end up in! Chipping, pitching and putting was amazing. Other simulators I had tried failed dismally with these shots but the GC2 was awesome! You just had to visualize a shot of the distance and type that you needed to play rather than totally relying on what you could see on the screen. The only putts that were difficult and slightly unrealistic were under 2-3 feet but you can switch gimme's on at any length to deal with that or just hit the short ones harder.
Neal (@nealstock) did a great job of showing me around the GC2 HMT and I am definitely going to organise a few sessions with a PGA Pro to get my distances sorted and also suss out my strike.
If you get a chance, go and find someone with the GC2 HMT, it's amazing!
Now to get back to work on sorting out my other project.

Wedge Dilemma and a day trip to Simulator and measurement heaven!

I have been playing 3 MD forged wedges since starting at Coed-y-Mwswr golf club (60, 56 and 52) and when I moved to Pyle and Kenfig I found that I needed to keep both my 2-hybrid and the 3-iron so one of the wedges had to go. The wedge that I got along with the least was the 52 degree gap wedge so it went into the garage (rapidly becoming the retired club storage unit!). Just before my birthday this year I had been finding myself around 100 yards from the pin way too often to not have a club suited to that distance and I wasn't confident standing over an easy pitching wedge because it often induced a shank! So after some deliberation I chose to purchase 2 Titleist Voket SM5 wedges. I wanted the 58.04 with T grind and the 52.08 with the F grind. Titleist didn't offer the T grind with the 58 (only available on the 62) so I went for the L grind which is similar although doesn't lay as flat.
They are really nice wedges and I hit them really well, I just miss being able to play a flop shot from the tight lies around the edges of our greens over the nasty bunkers. I couldn't really do that shot with the MD wedges as the bounce was a bit chunky but I have a cheapo 60degree wedge that I use  for practice in the yard that I can flop all over the place.
So today I decided to take to my MD wedges with a sanding belt using the cheapo 60 as a bit of a guide. After testing for feel and playability in the backyard I think I might have cracked it and will give it a go next time I play.
I also attacked the 56 sandwedge as I don't have any trouble playing the 58 from the bunkers and modelled the bounce and grind on the Vokey. It plays really nicely from the grass and dirt in my backyard and hopefully performs in the sand well too.
I have been loathed to hit my Mizuno MP650 3-wood lately so I might just drop that from the bag and play 4 wedges (including the PW). 3 wood for sale, hardly used!
I'm not stressing about the wedges, but hopefully I can figure out a solution soon. At least I've got choices now.
Tomorrow I am heading to Foresight sports, the home of GC2 launch monitors in the UK. I am looking at their simulators for another project I am trying to get going. Really looking forward to seeing them first hand and testing them out. I wonder if knowing my carry distances will have a big effect on my game? DUH!