Jim “Bones” McKay has been on the bag for more than his fair share of rounds on Tour. Now he spends most of his time sharing expert insights during broadcasts but when he’s not calling the shots on tour, you can find him working on his own golf game.
So we wanted to make sure he was dialed in.
Bones joined us at the Titleist Performance Institute in California where our Sr. Director of Tour Promotions J.J. VanWezenbeeck met him on the fitting tee to test out the new family of Titleist T-Series irons.
Watch as the two get to work and see what Bones ends up putting in his bag.
Let us know in the comments if you’ve have had a chance to test out the new T-Series irons yet and if so, we’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Yeah, it’s so good to be here. Appreciate it. Good. We’re happy to have you. It’s uh just driving down the road here in there and seeing the entire facility with I haven’t seen it since the radio. It looks amazing. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Let’s get you warmed up. Couple golf balls out here for you. Thank you. This center fairway is going to be our home today. So, target wise, we’re going to just work right up this center fairway. Perfect. Been playing much? No, not at all. I haven’t I haven’t played in in uh with the weather is unbearable at home and uh been on the road with my family a little bit. So tell me a little bit about your game. What’s the best part? What’s the worst part? I’ve certainly kind of gotten to that point in my life where I’m it’s starting to go the other way. I don’t swing it as well as I used to. I’m not as flexible as I used to be. I would say the best part of my game is my ability to keep it in play. You know, get the ball up and down around the greens, but certainly I’m not hitting my irons like I used to. Okay. in terms of ball flight. Little draw. Yeah. Okay. But uh certainly my my miss with the driver when it gets away from me is to over hook it. Got it. Um Yeah. So, in an iron fit, we try to make it easy and just call it the 3Ds. Okay, number one’s distance, but it’s consistent distance. Okay, it’s a little bit like when you’re catty and the worst is, hey, we got seven iron into this and and it carries a little long. So, it’s not how far we can get your seven iron to go. It’s how consistent can we get it. Okay. And then we want the right distance between clubs. An easy way to do it is 5 mph gaps. Okay. So when we find the ball speed of your 7 iron, we know your six iron should be 5 miles an hour faster. So that’s where we use multiple models and things like that because you know if you fit into a blade, take JT. Yeah. He doesn’t have the ball speed gap when we do a blade 5 iron to kind of move that up. So we move into a T100. And then next is we want really good dispersion. So left, right. So we want north, south, and left, right. That’s where we’re going to get into shaft type, lie angle, all those things are really going to help the left right consistency, right? And then big for us is descent angle. We’re looking for a 45 to 50° descent. So your ball stops. Okay. So that’s where we kind of determine where your last iron is and then we move you into, you know, whether that’s high lofted fairywoods, hybrids, those types of things. I see. So those are kind of where we’re going to take you through today. Gotcha. Well, one of the first things we’ll talk about is golf ball. So, Prov1’s going to be a little softer feel, but it’s going to be a little flatter flight. Okay. Where the X is going to provide some height and spin. So, with 40 and team, you’ve probably seen it. We want to work green back. Yes. So, with your wedges, do you like a little more spin, a little less spin? Probably a little bit more. So, as we start working through this, we’re hitting the new Prov1 right now, but as we work through this, we might say, “Hey, that X is going to help me in the wedges.” Okay, let’s fit the rest of the clubs to the ball that’s going to help your superpower, which is getting up and down, right? Okay, cool. I assume your next tournament’s the open championship. Are you going to Scottish, too? Uh, Scottish. So, I leave this weekend. Have you been to that um good Italian restaurant right there in Golan right by the golf course? I’ll say this, between Bonnie Badger, Herring Bone, that Italian place, and then that little pub right there is awesome. spawning badge is fantastic. So good. Yeah. Yeah. So, when we look at this, when we were hitting the first couple, we were in kind of that 6,000 spin down here. Okay. Now, when we move to the X, we’re getting a little bit more spin. Okay. So, as we fit your irons, that’s kind of what we’re going to be working with is that Prov1X is going to help you with some height and spin, especially as we get towards the long end of the bag. Okay? So, we’re never going to feel like we’re hitting a knuckle ball. Okay. One of the things I’ve been struggling with a little bit is my iron shots digging a little bit in terms of my divot. I’m I’m typically a more of a sweeper and uh and that’s something I’d like to address too is hit one more with that. We’ll start showing you as we as we get into it. Nice. So when I cleaned your club earlier, that one you can’t see as much, but we were hitting ball marks up here. Yes. So we’re just hitting it a little high on the face. So we’re going to we’re going to get you move down into this kind of Okay. fourth groove. Okay. But we also want consistent groove. So I don’t want it up and down the face because that’s going to help us get the consistent distance. Okay. Interesting. So that will be part of what we’re trying to do from a sole standpoint is get the sole for you for that. Wow. That’s fantastic. One more with yours and then we’re going to show you some of the new toys. Sweet. So, we’re going to do a little show and tell to start, but one of the things when we’re hitting your seven iron is you look at this land angle. So right now your seven iron’s landing between 38 and 44 degrees. Okay. So we go play a firm golf course because of that angle. It’s going to carry them forward. Yes. So now front pins become incredibly challenging. Yes. Even if you carry it to the hole now where we’re just over. So what we’re going to try to do is pitch this launch angle up. Okay. So, first club we’re going to show you isn’t necessarily going to be our answer, but part of this is just for you to kind of see the lineup. Okay. So, the first one we’re going to show you is T100. You’re playing T150 right now. This is the new T100. So, it’s going to be a little bit smaller head, but this is kind of our most played on tour. Okay. So, thank you. We’ll start here. Good start. So nice direction on these two. Yeah. But you can kind of see that that window. Yes. So we’re we’re still in that kind of same landing area that you you’ve been. Okay. So the easiest way to look at these golf clubs is as I widen the bottom. Yes. The center gravity lowers. The center gravity lowers. Easier up. Okay. To take home. All right. Yeah. So, this is T150. Okay. How’s this one look at a dress? They’re beautiful. Beautiful to look at. And it’s funny, too, because maybe it’s me, but like these these feel better to me, like more upright than what mine are. So, part of it on the 150 is it’s a millimeter longer. Okay. As we get longer this way, it’s going to give you the perception of more upright. Okay. Interesting. So, if I gave you a this guy, because it’s real short, it’s going to feel real flat. Okay. Which one is that? Oh, I didn’t put you through that one. I’ve cleaned a few of those. Yeah, I I made uh I made Growler hit that one just so Jordan could laugh at him. So you can see a little higher, right? So as we widen, we get some height. So we’re up to 42°. So going in the right direction. Yep. Really nice. Yeah, it hit that one pretty well. Now, let’s show you some stuff that might make your life easier. Okay, that sounds like a plan. So we’re up to 40°. We’re getting there. But at some point, this is what we would call a supported face construction. Now, we’re going to show you hollow. Okay. What hollow does is it frees up Marty and the R&D team weight. And what that does lets them use some materials to make the ball do some different things. Okay. So, this is T250. Now, we’re going to begin some business. This looks amazing. So, our goal here, this is our most popular threeiron on tour. Tour players looking for a lot of help at the very end, but for you and I, we’re moving it a little bit lower in the bag, right? Where Hey, I’d love easy launch. I’d love easy straight. Yes. All the way through. There you go. Sign me up. Oh, yeah. That felt really good. So, there becomes the easy button. Yeah. Yeah. portion of the program. Thank you. That really felt good. So, even missed a little bit. See how much higher that is? Yes, I do. Yes. So, on the last couple, our lands are up at 4344. So, they’re not necessarily spinning more, but they’re just launching a lot higher, and you’re just getting a little easier carry. That first one carried 148. You had been carrying your gamer. Yeah. 30. Yeah. Wow. We haven’t even fit it yet. That’s just clicking it on. That’s crazy. So, let’s show you one more easy button and see how that does. And then let’s start working in the dialing in the direction. Let’s do it. So, we’re getting some descent angle. We’re getting some of the ball speed parts. So, we’re going to show you the T350. This is almost a little driver design in an iron. Sweet. So there is variable face thicknesses behind the face. It’s got ball speed. This is Willow Taurus Cameron Young three iron. Okay. On tour. Okay. Cuz again, they’re pushing up into their wood. So they want max launch, max ball speed here. So we kind of talked about the hit. So in this one, no, you don’t get to do those. Oh, sorry. You don’t get to do that today. You get to take a day off. All right. So, this is giving us some ball speed, but not necessarily the height. And we talked about the turf interaction. Yes. So, with that, it brings us back to the 250. Yes. So, that’s going to be that nice balance. It’s a step up from your 150 in height, ball speed. Y, it has a little narrower sold than the 350. So, you could hear the hit wasn’t quite as clean on those. Right. So, we’re going to go back to the 250. Now, let’s start talking lengthwe, all those kind of okay kinds of things. So, this is going to be a tiny bit different setup than you hit the first round. Let’s see how this one feels. That felt great. How’s that through the ground? Really good. Okay. Just as you said. Love that. Yeah, it feels really good to the ground and everywhere else for that matter. So, cool part here is because you play over length. Yes. Is our fitting heads, we can take some weight out. Ah. So, we dropped a little of the total weight to more reflect what we’d build your golf club at. I see. The other thing we did is we added a degree of loft. Interesting. So the reason being is going to be a little bit height help and it’s going to be a little bit turf interaction. So see how easy those last two went through. Yeah. Didn’t have that stick feeling, right? Cuz the cool part here is you should never feel like you have to hit it high anymore, right? Is the club’s going to make it go high for you. Do the work for me. Yeah. Cuz you’ve been around some of the best instructors in the world. I mean, how often they go, “Hey, let’s hang back and try to hit it high.” Right. Doesn’t come out very often. Right. Love that. Yeah. So, little toe, but see how we want to be kind of right around that fifth groove groove right there. Yep. So, that’s where by giving it one degree weak, we’ve gained bounce. Got it. So, now this doesn’t want to stick as much. I see. So, instead of trying to move something the other way, if we strengthen anything for you, we lose bounce. Okay. Now, I’ve added a little bounce. So, this doesn’t want to stick. I love that. So, you were talking a little bit about line angle, right? Yes. So, line angle is going to really affect that starting direction. So, the easiest way to look at that is just flip that line over. But now, I’m going to set this line this direction. Okay. Let’s see how we go. That’ll play. Yeah. So, in this case, it’s just a little bit this direction, right? Yes. So, it’s just wanting to present the toe down just a hair. Okay. Does that make sense? Yes. So, the great part is we’re getting really close to our land angle, but what we’re going to try is slightly different line angle and let’s see where not only affects the line, we want to see where the start direction and the curvature are. Thank you. Just tell me after you hit these, what’s it just feel like? Oh, man. At a dress and through the ground, better, worse, same. I I love the way it looks at a dress. Okay. I I really do. How’s that on your line direction? That that felt good. Yes. Perfect. Let’s stripe one up on that one. But really good ball speed. We’re getting that land angle up a little bit. We’re easy 148 150 carry now. Okay. So, this will be the funny one is you talked about going between two degrees up and standard. Uhu. This is one. Okay. Yeah, it feels feels really good. Which is often because your clubs are long enough that they play upright. As we go longer, the effective lies more up. As we go shorter, it’s effective lies flat. So, we don’t really need them that up, but this is going to just give you that little sense of easy to draw. Okay. So, we want to get it to finish kind of right in the middle of that fairway. It should feel like you can just aim center, right, center, and just swing your swing. Yeah. So, we move that strike and we move that to nice and vertical. Yes. When we go one up. Yes. But you’ll notice since we’ve gone one up, there hasn’t been a single ball, right? Correct. Yes. So, now as a draw person, cuz that toes presenting just a little more up. This is the setup to go. It’s always going to go up and it’s always going to fall left like that. Yeah. That club feels terrific. Yeah. And so our ball speeds are kind of in that, you know, 106 108. We talk about ball speed gaps, right? So if seven’s, call it 107’s our average, we need this to be about 112. And we’re going to need the five to be about 117, right? Yeah. So I’m going to go bend a five iron real quick to the same specs as that. So feeling a really good spot. Seven iron. Yeah. We got We’re moving to the 250. We really liked what the shaft was doing. It’s something, you know, just giving it one degree weak and one upright kind of gets us a little bit in a nice mix. Okay. Where do our irons break? Right. Where do we we move into some woods? I’m fixing to break here shortly here for you. I’ll be very interested to hear your expert opinion. All right. Well, the good part is nothing changes. 45 to 50° land angle. That’s our guideline. Okay. If this is landing in that realm, yes, we’re on a five iron. If this is near our ball speed, we’re on a five iron. If it’s not, that’s when we use technology to take us the next step. I love me some technology. Not a bad start. Not a bad start. I hit that fairly well. That’s as good as I can hit one there. That’s pretty darn good. This is where we’re kind of right at the cusp because we said we want to get kind of closer to 117. We’re at 115. Okay. We want to get this up, you know, in that 43 to 45 range. So, it is it’s right on kind of the bottom of where we’d want it. Yes. This is the opportunity. 80% of the PJ Tour plays more than one iron model. Okay. Wow. The reason for it ball speed gapping and descent angle. Okay. So, if I go to a bigger number, it’s a bigger chassis that’s giving me ball speed and launch. Okay. So, this is an opportunity where the T250 is right on the cusp for you that we could potentially go to a 350 in the 5iron, right, to stem the tide. Got it. The 4iron is one we’re probably going to have to make a little We’re going to have to do a little change over to four iron. We’re just going to move your four iron to to something that’s going to look a little uh untraditional. Okay. by untraditional. It’s gonna I got it. It’s going to take a head cover if you want to use it. This. So, looking for a four iron replacement here. We’re looking for that 122 ball speed and we’re looking for that 45 degree land angle. Okay. Did that pretty well? Pretty close there. Yeah. Oh, that’s my bad shot there. It’s all right. To make life a little easier for you. This is always interesting when you get to different club types. Uhhuh. Is that was upright like your irons. Yeah. Where we’re definitely don’t need that. That’s why that was that big of a pole. Got it. Okay. I also took some weight uh out of the golf club which made it a little easier to get through. So, you went faster. So, what we’re finding is when when I took that weight out of the iron, make that lightweight club head, it just made life a little easier through, you actually started to get into the ground a little bit. Yes. So, we did the same here on this hybrid. Drop the swing weight slightly. So, let’s try it this way. Then, we’re going to try one different type of hybrid as well. Little heavy, but it felt good. Yeah. A little easier at that swing weight. Yeah. Yeah, I hit that. Well, yeah. So, now we’re up in that 120s. We’re getting back to the heights we want. Mid70s. Yeah. So, just for comparison, that’s a GT2 hybrid. Okay. We’re going to show you GT1 hybrid, but this is going to have a little that easy button world for you. Felt really good. Really nice there. Yeah. Yeah. 121 ball speed. Getting up into the 70s again. Now we’re gapping. Now that’s the 170 shot. Okay. How’s this look at a dress with a bigger footprint? Looks good. Yeah, it looks good. I I like them both a lot. I think they’re beautiful clubs. I mean, certainly they’re different, but uh I love I just love the way they look. Yeah. This one just gives us a little easier on the up. Yes. Which again for you swing-wise, I think just helps you keep balance. Uh-huh. Anytime you try to make it go up is when the bottom moves around. Okay. When you don’t have to Yeah. All those strikes have cleaned up cuz you don’t have to try to make the ball do something, right? Again, your rhythm’s so nice. I’ll take that as my mist, too. Cuz even if you thin it, you know, at four iron yard, cuz we’re still getting ball speed out of this, which when you miss your iron thin, we’re losing so much cuz we’re dropping the ball speed, right? You know, that only dropped about 2 miles an hour in speed. Okay, there it is. That’s as good as I can hit it. Yeah, there’s your new forant. That’s fantastic. You know, we talked about that 1223. We’re now at 123. We’re up in the 70s again. We got something that’s going to carry. Yes. So, you get this kind of cool mix where your T250 and your pitch 9876 350 and your five. Mhm. And then we move to a GT1 hybrid for your 4 iron. Yes. So, that becomes your mix. Yes. I love that. So, you get a little bit all get the help where you need it. Yeah. Through the ground. And then get a little help with ball speed at your five iron. And then we move into into some woods. Do you feel like this driver matches up to my what I do and all that stuff? I the one thing I’m, you know, was completely unsure of was the settings. You know, I would love to show you something even a little softer. Okay. Cuz I think what I’m finding is anytime you a little stiff, it wants to hang. Yes, that’s going to be a little I think that’s a little stiff for me now. And that’s where I think just where your rhythm is right now. Let me go grab something that Okay. that feels like it’s got a little thump on it. Thank you. And let’s see what it does. Okay. Thank you. Let’s hit your driver a couple times. Let’s see what we got. Oh, perfect example there, right? Yeah. The spin gets high on the driver cuz you’re not the club’s not imparting that energy back into the ball. Okay. So, the cool part is, hey, driver, we don’t want to land at 45 cuz we want it to roll, right? Yes. We want it to land right around 38. Oops. All of that feel much easier. The shaft feels way better already. Yeah, that feels way better. That was only 5 miles an hour faster. Okay, we’re already We’re already on to something. Okay, thank you. Five and a half. Let’s go. I don’t That’s as good as I can hit one. Yeah, that went 22 yards farther than the the second one with yours. Okay. Oh yes. So, by softening the shaft, instead of going to the 11 degree, we went to a 10. Okay. And we’ve added a little loft to it and made it a little upright to take some of that bleed out. I see. So, now our face to path, our face is getting a lot more at target and we’re still getting that chase out of it. Yeah. Wow. So, this is a 10 degree GT2. We tried a GT1 to start. There was actually too much spin. Which really helps you in the hybrid. Yes. But what we find is because I’m a one in one thing does not mean I’m a one and everything. And then for you, we were able to take a little of that stiffness out of the shaft that makes it easier to square and then use the lie and the loft to kind of get that squared up for you. I see. So with yours, cuz we weren’t kind of giving it, your ball speed’s 32. Now we’re 37 38. Okay. Which is really nice. So good. A lot easier from the fairway. Yeah, it is. G whiz.
