The Blackout Fitting — a sample Loft report

The Verdict

Buy four clubs, not fourteen.

Your three answers decided this fitting. You own a Qi10 Max — still the most forgiving driver TaylorMade has ever built, more forgiving than its own 2026 successor. Your 7-wood and 9-wood are brand-new 2026 Qi4Ds. And your Vokey is an SM10 56.12D — the exact high-bounce D-grind the Titleist agent independently prescribed as ideal for your swing. Ten of your fourteen clubs are already the right clubs. The fitting problem was never the top of your bag — it's that you play one wedge below a 43° pitching wedge.

≈$1,100 all-in, out the door

vs. $5,000 budgeted · ≈$3,900 preserved

Add a 19° 5-wood (Qi4D Max, matte black) — closes the 35-yard hole between driver and 7-wood with a loft you'll actually hit off the deck.

Add three black wedges — 48° / 52° / 60° around your kept 56: Vokey SM11 Jet Black (my pick) or TaylorMade MG5 Charcoal. Same $199.99 either way.

Pull the 5-iron. It's 23.5°; your 9-wood is 24°. Same club — the 9-wood just does it better. That slot becomes your fourth wedge.

Trade in the Qi10 3-wood and 4-hybrid you never hit (est. $150–300 credit), regrip the bag, and get a $35 lie-angle check on the irons.

Where the saved $3,900 goes: a 10-lesson coaching block, a short-game/bunker school, and a reserve for the 2027–28 iron cycle. All three agents, from three competing brands, converged on the same truth — at a 25 handicap, the biggest upgrade in the budget isn't a club.

The Set

The Surgical Build

Driver

keep

5-wood

new

7-wood

keep

9-wood

keep

6i–PW

keep

Gap

new

Gap

new

Sand

keep

Lob

new

Putter

keep

The Scoreboard

Three agents · three bags

1 · Recommended

The Surgical Build

TaylorMade agent's structure + Titleist's wedge platform. Keeps the ten clubs that are already right, fixes the two structural defects: the top-end gap and the one-wedge scoring game.

4 new clubs · 10 kept
Full blackout on every new club
Five clubs inside 100 yards

≈$1,100 net, all-in

2 · Full re-fit

Ping Midnight

The all-new-bag play. G440 K driver (highest MOI Ping has built), G740 Midnight irons, s259 Midnight wedges — every custom option free: lie color code, length, Soft Regular flex, black finish.

13 new clubs, built to your specs
SR flex — the honest 25-hcp flex
Caught Ping's Aug 7 price cut

$3,443.50 $1,556 under

3 · Premium

Titleist Blackout

The luxury build. GTS2 woods, T350 Black Vapor irons (blacked-out shafts and grips included), Vokey SM11 Jet Black wedges, GT1 9-wood — the only 9-wood any major OEM makes in 2026.

13 new clubs, driver-to-lob black
Best wedge deep-dive of the three
Finish upcharge: just $425

$4,124.92 $875 under

Why the cheapest bag wins: the Ping and Titleist builds are excellent, but both now require replacing a 2026 Qi4D 7-wood and 9-wood you bought this year and love, plus a driver that out-forgives its own successors. Your answers turned "amazing bag" from a shopping list into a scalpel.

The Recommended 10

The Surgical Build

Qi4D Max 5-wood · 18°→19°REAX FW 55 R · matte black
New · $379.99

Vokey SM11 Jet Black · 48°/52°/60°48.10F · 52.12F · 60.12K
New · $599.97

Vokey SM10 · 56.12DYour sand club — the exact right grind
Keep

Odyssey S2S Jailbird · 34″Zero-torque, center shaft
Keep — untouched

Qi10 Max driver — keptStill TM's highest-MOI ever
Keep — saves $650

Qi4D 7-wood & 9-wood2026 heads — your signature clubs
Keep

Qi irons · 6–PWRight lofts, right offset for you
Keep — saves $1,149

Alt: MG5 Charcoal 48/52/6048.09SB · 52.09SB · 60.11SX
Same price either way

Slot	Club		Spec	Carry*	Price
Driver	TaylorMade Qi10 Max	Keep	Regrip; verify loft sleeve setting on the monitor	205y	$0
5-wood	TaylorMade Qi4D Max · 18°	New	REAX FW 55, Regular · sleeve +1° → 19° · matte black	180y	$379.99
7-wood	TaylorMade Qi4D · 21°	Keep	Your club. Untouched beyond a regrip	168y	$0
9-wood	TaylorMade Qi4D · 24°	Keep	Your club. Replaces the 5-iron's job entirely	156y	$0
6i–PW	TaylorMade Qi irons	Keep	MCC Plus4 Midsize regrip · $35 lie-angle check · PW is 43°	146–99y	$0
Gap	Vokey SM11 · 48.10F Jet Black	New	DG 105 R300 · full-swing wedge, 10° bounce	87y	$199.99
Gap	Vokey SM11 · 52.12F Jet Black	New	DG 105 R300 · 12° bounce — chunk insurance	76y	$199.99
Sand	Vokey SM10 · 56.12D	Keep	Your wedge — verify grooves still catch a fingernail	65y	$0
Lob	Vokey SM11 · 60.12K Jet Black	New	Widest, most cambered sole Vokey makes — the bunker rescuer	53y	$199.99
Putter	Odyssey S2S Jailbird · 34″	Keep	Zero-torque, center-shafted. Nobody touches it	—	$0
Services — regrip ×10, lie/loft check, fitting session			MCC Plus4 Midsize throughout		≈$375
Trade-in — Qi10 3-wood + Qi10 4-hybrid			Estimate — run through TM/2nd Swing valuation		−$150–300
Net, out the door					≈$1,055–1,205

Out of the bag: 5-iron (duplicated by the 9-wood), 3-wood and 4-hybrid (traded in). *Carries modeled at a typical 25-handicap driver speed of ≈85–90 mph — replace with launch-monitor numbers on fitting day.

MG5 Charcoal vs. Vokey Jet Black — the one open choice. Identical price, both black, both correct. I lean Vokey: your kept 56 is already a Vokey, so all four scoring clubs share one face texture, groove spec, and sole philosophy — one predictable spin ladder instead of two. Take the fitting-day A/B and let the launch monitor break the tie. If the MG5s win on strike, the 48.09SB / 52.09SB / 60.11SX trio is the spec.

Inside 100 Yards

From one wedge to five clubs

PW43° · kept

99 yds

48°SM11 · 10F

87 · gap 12

52°SM11 · 12F

76 · gap 11

56°SM10 · 12D · kept

65 · gap 11

60°SM11 · 12K

53 · gap 12

The bunker rule — Hard or wet-packed sand → the 56. Soft, fluffy sand → the 60. The 60.12K's wide cambered sole makes digging nearly impossible if you commit.

The technique that comes free with 12° of bounce — Square face, ball forward, strike two inches behind, accelerate. The sole does the work — no opened-face wizardry required.

Every wedge carries 10°+ bounce — Bounce is the forgiveness parameter of a wedge. Low-bounce M/L/T grinds punish a steep, variable low point — they were explicitly rejected by all three agents.

Tight lies — Chip with the 52.12F, or the 56 square-faced and back of center. Never open the 60 off a tight lie — that's where the wide sole blades one over the green.

The Panel

What each fitter got right — and what we cut

TaylorMade

Agent verdict: 4 clubs, not 14

The TaylorMade agent's mandate was the hardest: you already own the brand, so its job was an honest keep-vs-upgrade audit. Its credibility move: it declined to sell you its own flagship irons, and it flagged that its own 2026 driver may be a downgrade from your 2024 one.

The driver honesty — Your Qi10 Max broke 10,000 MOI in 2024. Neither Qi35 nor Qi4D has reclaimed that number (≈9,700). A ~3% MOI delta is imperceptible — keep it, spend the $650 on lessons.

Why not Qi Max irons — Stronger lofts (PW 41° vs your 43°), thinner topline, less offset. That's marketing to better players' eyes — at the cost of the launch and confidence you actually need.

Why not P790 Shadowfall — The pretty black iron in the catalog — and precisely the low-forgiveness vanity pick the brief ruled out. Finish never outranked forgiveness in this fitting.

MyMG5 personalization — Five layouts, fifty logos, fifteen paint-fill colors on the Charcoal wedges. Initials on three matching black wedges is the parking-lot flex.

Bag math: new clubs $979.96 + services ≈$375 − trade-in $150–300 → ≈$1,055–1,205 net. The agent's own words: "spend a third of the budget, keep nine clubs, close every gap, and put the rest into the golfer."

Ping

Runner-up · the full re-fit

If you want the experience of a completely new, completely fitted bag, this is the one. Ping's pitch isn't a club — it's a specification system: lie angle by color code, custom length, deep stock-shaft matrix, and the Midnight blackout, all at zero upcharge. Total: $3,443.50, $1,556 under budget.

Soft Regular flex — the differentiator — A stock, no-upcharge flex between Senior and Regular that most brands don't offer — and probably the honest match for an 85–92 mph swing.

The color-code system — Ten lie-angle dots, fit dynamically on a lie board. A 1° lie error is ~4 yards offline at 150. Wedges get built to the same code as the irons — in writing.

The 54°, not the 58°, is the bunker club — 14° of bounce on the widest sole in the line. Square face, hit behind it, accelerate. Optional 15th club: the BunkR 64° bunker specialist ($195) if the test says so.

The one flagged risk — The 24° 9-wood and 24.5° 6-iron nearly overlap — they separate only via shaft length. Demand ≥10 yards on the monitor, or turn the 9-wood down to 23.5° (free hosel adjustment).

Why it's #2: the build itself is superb value — but it now means replacing your 2026 Qi4D 7w/9w and a driver that out-forgives Ping's own on MOI-per-dollar. If the surgical build ever feels like a half-measure, this is the full-measure answer.

Titleist

The premium blackout · best wedge thinking

The luxury build — and the source of this report's wedge philosophy. A four-wood top end (GTS2 driver, 18°, 21°, plus the GT1 24° — the only 9-wood any major OEM makes in 2026), T350 Black Vapor irons, and the full Vokey SM11 Jet Black ladder. Total: $4,124.92, fully blacked out driver-to-lob for a $425 finish upcharge.

The wedge doctrine this report adopted — "Buy bounce" — every wedge 10°+, the 60.12K as the most forgiving wedge Vokey makes, and the hard-sand-56 / soft-sand-60 rule. Its 56° prescription was a 12D — the wedge you already own.

Ascending Mass shafts — AMT Red Onyx: long irons ~10g lighter than short irons in one family — speed where you need launch, control where you need precision. The black shaft is stock.

SureFit everywhere — 16-position loft/lie hosels on all four woods, re-tunable free for the life of the bag. Driver at 45.0″ — strike quality beats theoretical speed, every time.

Refused to upsell — Every shaft in the build is a no-upcharge featured option, and the agent banked $875 rather than sell a premium shaft "your swing speed cannot detect."

Why it's #3 despite the polish: it's the best-looking bag of the three and the deepest fitting document — but at $4,125 it replaces the most clubs you already own that are already right. Its DNA survives in the winner: the wedge ladder, the grinds, and the Jet Black trio all came from here.

What Your Three Answers Changed

≈$2,000 in avoided spend

You told us	What it decided	Swing
"Qi10 Max"	Keep the driver. It's still TaylorMade's highest-MOI driver ever — more forgiving than the 2026 Qi4D Max (≈10,000 vs ≈9,700). The upgrade would have been a downgrade.	−$650
"SM10 56.12D"	Keep the sand wedge. The D-grind at 12° bounce is the exact spec the Titleist agent prescribed blind. One-generation-old SM10 vs SM11 changes nothing that matters to a single-wedge owner. Just check the grooves.	−$200
"Qi4D 7w & 9w, bought 2026"	Your signature clubs are current-generation. Every replace-the-woods line item in the Ping and Titleist builds got materially harder to justify — and the "Qi 4D" mystery in your voice memo solved itself.	−$600+

Fitting-Day Card

Bring the 56 and the 7-wood

Groove-check the SM10 56.12D, then A/B the wedge trios around it.

Fingernail across the face center — grooves should catch crisply. Then hit Vokey SM11 Jet Black 48/52/60 against MG5 Charcoal 48/52/60 on the monitor. Same price; let strike and spin numbers pick. If the 56's grooves are polished smooth, add an SM11 56.12D Jet Black ($199.99) and retire yours to the practice bag.

Lie board on the kept Qi irons — the highest return-per-dollar item on this sheet.

Two seasons of range mats bends irons flat, and 2° flat is a push you've been swing-fixing for a year. Dynamic lie check with impact tape, ~$5/club to bend. Do not accept a static chart read.

Confirm the 5-wood spec: 18° sleeved to 19°, REAX FW 55 Regular.

Verify carry lands ~178–184 — comfortably above the 7-wood and below the driver. If your driver speed reads under 85 mph, test the A-flex; ego is the only reason not to play it.

Ten bunker shots, square face, before you leave.

Five with the 56.12D, five with the new 60.12K: ball forward, hit two inches behind, accelerate. This is the technique the whole wedge setup was designed around — prove it works before the clubs go in the trunk. Then book the short-game school with the money this fitting saved.

Verification notes. All models confirmed current as of Aug 17, 2026: TaylorMade Qi4D metalwoods & MG5 wedges; Titleist GTS woods, T350 Black Vapor (released 7/23/26), Vokey SM11 (Feb 2026); Ping G440 K (Jan 2026), G740 Midnight (ships 8/20/26 — reserve now), s259 (Jan 2026). Prices are verified US retail; Ping fairway pricing reflects the Aug 7, 2026 cut. Trade-in credits are estimates. All carry distances are modeled for a ~85–90 mph driver swing and should be replaced with launch-monitor data.

Prepared by the Loft fitting desk — three research agents and one head pro.Loft

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