Merrick Plays “old school” Shafts in Win at Riviera

Just goes to show that sometimes old school works.  John Merrick played a complement of Aldila NV shafts in his driver, fairway and hybrid clubs which are certainly “old school”.  He played a 75 X in his driver, 85 X in his fairway and 100x in his hybrid.   We affectionately call the NV the “green genie”, and this shaft almost single-handedly brought Aldila back from the brink of disaster in the late 1990’s.  It was literally the first “low launch, low spin” shaft on the market and was very successful given the balls and club heads that were available then.  Today, the NV is known to have a little bit too much spin, compared to other shafts on the market.  So how does Mr. Merrick make the NV work?  Well, I did not see the exact stats from Shot Tracker or TrackMan, but since John is playing an 8.5 degree Titleist 913 D2 driver, my guess is he has a neutral to positive angle of attack.  This puts less spin on the ball than most players on tour.  The average angle of attack on tour is NEGATIVE 1.3 which means players get low launch but higher spin.  Hence the mantra on tour, “high launch, low spin”.  All this tells us is that each player is different and matching shafts to their unique swing characteristics is what makes them play well on any given weekend.  Come see us and get YOUR clubs optimized for success!