Discover Real World Examples of Why Custom Fitting is so Important

Golfers have a choice when it comes to improving their golf games: they can purchase a series of lessons to improve their technique, or they can try and buy a better game by purchasing new golf equipment such as golf clubs or golf shafts, which is often seen as a quick fix, albeit potentially an expensive one.

We probably all know a golfer who falls into this latter bracket. It feels like some new golf club is in the bag every weekend, which is just as quickly discarded when it doesn’t perform.

It’s easily done, though; as golfers, we can all fall for the hype surrounding the launch of new golf equipment. New golf clubs that promise us more distance, control, or spin backed up by tour stars telling us about the gains they’ve made by switching - who wouldn’t want to switch?

We then find ourselves in the local golf retailer or scouring online sites, looking at what’s available and whether we can afford to buy.

If we make a purchase, we experience the buzz of getting the new club or clubs and fielding questions from our regular playing partners about the latest addition to the golf bag. But what we get excited about is the results we will get by making the switch.

Imagine the disappointment when our new purchases don’t deliver the results we are craving. The game seems more difficult than ever, and we’ve potentially spent a lot of money on equipment that isn’t delivering the goods.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

You can still get the same buzz from buying new golf equipment and feel genuine excitement because the club or clubs you buy will improve your game.

How do you know what you are about to purchase will make a difference?

The answer is simple. You went for custom-fitted golf clubs.

The growth in custom fitting indicates that golfers are waking up to the fact that they need their golf clubs to be tailored specifically to their needs to play better.

A 2023 study by Golf Datatech in the US shows that custom fitting is the fastest-growing segment of golfers purchasing new equipment.

Of the golfers surveyed, 25% said their next purchase would be via custom fitting, but there is still more room for growth; 31% would still buy their golf clubs via off-course specialist stores.

The custom-fitting story is backed by industry data published in GOLF, which found that 87% of golfers who purchased custom-fitted golf clubs improved their handicaps by at least 10%.

Taking this information on board, for this week’s article, we thought it would be an excellent opportunity to focus on two areas:

How Would Custom-Fitted Golf Clubs Benefit Your Game
Real-Life Examples of Custom-Fitting Wins

How Would Custom-Fitted Golf Clubs Benefit Your Game

The best players in the world know exactly how their equipment will perform. They work with fitters to find every performance gain they can, and no detail is too small to be examined before a club goes in the player’s bag.

Professionals will work with launch monitors such as GC Quad to measure the results and find gaps in the data where adjustments can be made. Pros also have access to every type of golf shaft and club head combination available to hone in on their needs.

Pros want their equipment to be reliable. This gives them the confidence they need as they look for ways to improve their scoring and gives them more opportunities for success.

The argument is easy to understand for professionals; after all, they are playing for life-changing sums of money week in and week out.

But should amateurs have a different experience when deciding on their golf equipment? Are they not playing the game to improve? Should they not be able to get the most out of their golf equipment and have access to technology and specialised fitters to find the right clubs for their game?

The answer is an emphatic yes!

Golfers of any level can access custom-fitting and experience the same things the professionals do.

We’ve spoken before about how golfers come with different playing abilities, shapes, and sizes, so why would an “off-the-shelf” club benefit our games?

Custom fitting is a technology-enhanced process in which an experienced fitter can gain valuable insight into how you hit the ball and the resultant shots.

Technology provides the data needed to see where recommendations can be made that can help you:

Improve distance
Improve accuracy
Improve distance gapping between clubs

From there, the fitter can start building test clubs and measuring the difference in results before making a final recommendation.

With the correct head, optimising spin and launch numbers can increase distance. External weighting and adjustable hosels can also be used to tweak drivers, fairway woods, and hybrids.

Shafts play a vital role in helping us gain more clubhead and improving shot dispersion by marrying up the correct weight and flex to your clubhead speed.

Real-Life Examples of Custom-Fitting Wins

The theory behind custom fitting makes sense, and having anything from a custom driver fitting to a full golf bag fitting creates flexibility to dial in precisely what you need for your game.

But does it really work, and can any level of golfer benefit from custom fitting?

It is time to share data from some of the custom fittings we have carried out here at Golf Tech UK to demonstrate how effective working with one of our fitters can be and the results that can be achieved.

Case Study 1 - Improving Iron Play

We see many golfers with older sets of golf irons coming in for a fitting because they believe upgrading will give them something extra that their current iron set can’t deliver.

One such instance was a golfer who visited us using a set of blades they loved, but they knew they were missing out on distance and forgiveness.

When the golfer hit their 7-iron, we found that the trajectory of their shots was weak, and where the golfer was consistently hitting the iron meant it wasn’t offering any forgiveness.

This ultimately led to losing distance through low ball speed and high spin.

We tried several different irons and shafts, but we were getting the best numbers from the Callaway Apex DCB golf iron fitted with a Fujikura Axiom regular flex shaft.

The Apex DCB is billed as Callaway’s most forgiving forged iron. This forged head matched the forged blades the golfer had been using, meaning we could maintain the feel and looks that the golfer was familiar with at address.

However, the Apex DCB is packed with technology in its multi-material, hollow-body design.

Callaway has utilised AI technology to create “Flash Face Cup”, which helps keep ball speeds and spin rates consistent across the clubface. The strategic placement of 50 grams of tungsten weighting across the sole creates improved launch in the long to mid irons. The sole of the Apex DCB iron is also designed to improve turf interaction.

The Fujikura Axiom golf shaft is a graphite shaft designed specifically for irons. It features Fujikura’s groundbreaking VeloCore technology, which is seen in the flagship Ventus range. This technology helps to provide high levels of stability in the shaft, improving shot dispersion and strike.

Axiom also features a 3-part parallel design where long iron shafts are designed to aid maximum carry while still controlling launch and spin numbers, the mid-iron shafts promote workability, and the short iron shafts have maximum control.

This combination gave the golfer 19 yards more carry, increased ball speed by nearly 10 mph, and reduced spin by nearly 1000 rpm. The reduced spin didn’t harm the stopping power when the ball landed, as the apex height with the new combination was marginally higher than with the blades.

On the day, the golfer wasn’t consistently hitting out the middle. Still, the technology played its part, allowing the golfer to hit the ball further and better on off-centre strikes.

This is important during a custom fitting. We don’t hit every shot out of the middle of the club. Therefore, does the recommendation provide better results on those off-centre hits, helping the golfer keep the ball in play better on the course?

Case Study 2 - Positive Driver Change

Driver fittings are popular with us as golfers strive for more distance off the tee.

One golfer who came in for a golf driver fitting session suffered from toe strikes that were low in the face. These strikes created a lot of spin and ultimately robbed the golfer of distance and accuracy.

Our solution was TaylorMade’s new Qi 10 golf driver with a 9-degree loft fitted with Mitsubishi’s C6 Red golf shaft.

The new Qi10’s 60-layer carbon face helps increase ball speed off the face while existing twist face technology keeps ball speeds high with less curvature on off-centre hits.

The driver’s crown is now 97% carbon fibre and features a new infinity crown design to aid alignment. The increased use of carbon fibre allows TaylorMade engineers to use the saved weight to lower the centre of gravity and increase the MOI.

The Mitsubishi C6 Red shaft we opted for weighs 40 grams, which is light. Still, it features Mitsubishi’s TiNi technology, a combination of titanium and nickel within the shaft that creates a structure that produces high levels of stability and helps return the clubface consistently at impact.

The Qi10 head coupled to the C6 shaft increased carry distance by 21 yards and overall distance by nearly 30 yards. The increased distance can also be attributed to the shaft working perfectly to provide a more efficient and centred strike.

Gaining this amount of distance is huge. Consistently being 30 yards further up the hole vastly reduces the amount of club required for the second shot. We also tightened shot dispersion and reduced the golfer’s miss to the right, meaning the golfer is more likely to capitalise on their newfound distance from the middle of the fairway.

Case Study 3 - Drastic Distance Increases With The Driver

One of the most impressive results we have seen this year was with another golfer who was booked in for a driver fitting.

The golfer in question had been struggling with leaking shots out to the right that lacked power.

After a number of shots, we could see exactly what the problem was. Spin rates were high, but the launch angle was low, meaning poor and inconsistent carry distances. The golfer’s existing driver wasn’t the most forgiving, with a strike pattern consistently low on the face and an inefficient strike; this golfer was definitely losing distance.

The solution was to fit the golfer into a Cobra Darkspeed X golf driver with a Fujikura Ventus Blue 6 stiff flex.

The result was astounding. The golfer gained 62 yards of carry and 63 yards total to their drives!

Ball speed increased by 15 mph, and clubhead speed increased by nearly 10 mph this was due to increased confidence with the correct head and shaft combination allowing him to swing full potential. Not only did we add huge distance to this golfer’s drives, but we also drastically tightened up shot dispersion.

Why did this combination work so well for this golfer?

The Cobra Darkspeed X driver is packed with technology designed to maximise how far a golfer can hit the ball. Cobra has utilised carbon fibre across the crown and sole of the Darkspeed, reducing the head’s overall weight. The Darkspeed X’s head shape has been honed by the Cobra engineers in the wind tunnel, giving it a sleek aerodynamic look that further increases clubhead speed.

Internally, Cobra has reworked its PWR-BRIDGE technology, which now sits closer to the face to improve ball speed. Cobra has employed AI technology to design the PWRSHELL face, which creates mini sweet spots across the face to keep ball speeds consistently high regardless of the strike location.

The dramatic distance and shot dispersion gains are equally attributable to the Ventus Blue 6 shaft fitted to this driver. Featuring VeloCore technology, the Ventus Blue is tailored to a golfer’s swing speed. It offers unparalleled stability, helping deliver a more consistent strike and leading to tighter shot dispersion.

The bonus is the confidence this golfer has gained from standing on the tee with the driver in hand and knowing their chances of hitting a great shot are vastly increased. Gaining this much distance means this golfer sees the golf course entirely differently now. Hazards that were a risk before are now flown over with ease. Par 5s can be attacked in 2 more frequently, and long par 4s no longer seem as daunting.

The one thing these golfers have in common is that they were not elite amateurs or professionals honing their equipment. The lowest handicap was the golfer fitted with the Cobra driver with a handicap of 15.

We have demonstrated here that golfers of all abilities have access to a tour-level standard of experience when choosing their next golf clubs.

We use the same technology in GC Quad to analyse where a golfer’s strengths and weaknesses lie. We have an extensive range of heads and shafts from the best manufacturers in the business, all available to try - you’ll notice from the driver examples that each golfer was fitted with completely different solutions in head and shaft combinations.

We know from follow-ups with each of the golfers in our examples that they are getting more confidence and fun from playing golf thanks to the custom golf clubs each was fitted for. Any golfer is capable of achieving the same thing if they invest in custom-fitting when it comes time to change their clubs.

Our doors are open to help any golfer. If you have been inspired by reading and seeing the screenshots from the real-life examples we have shared, please book a custom-fitting session with us.

Depending on your needs, you can book anything from a driver fitting to a full golf bag fitting. You can book online via the Golf Tech UK website or give us a call to arrange a fitting session.

You can also see the extensive range of customisable options where you can build your ideal golf club or golf clubs and order directly from the Golf Tech UK website.

We’d be happy to help if you have further questions about custom fitting. You can make enquiries via the Golf Tech UK website or call us.