Finding Your Perfect Fit: Why Not All Club Fitting Sessions Are The Same

It’s time. The decision has been made.

You are in the market for a new set of golf clubs.

You’ve heard that being custom fitted for clubs is the way to go and because you are allocating a reasonable sum of money into the process you want to make sure you get a return on your investment.

That return can come in many forms such as:

• Increased distance

• Tighter shot dispersion

• More consistent yardage gaping throughout your bag

As golfers, we tend to gravitate towards the major manufacturers who promise us so much with each new release.

But the one thing about good club fitting is that you may find that the best club or clubs for you are from a manufacturer that you didn’t expect to consider at the outset.

This along with getting a better understanding of how far you hit your shots and how you deliver the club head into impact are all additional benefits of the time you spend with a professional fitter.

But there can be differences in the experience you have when considering being custom fitted for new clubs.

What we want to demonstrate in this article is that not all club fittings are the same and that taking the time to think about where you go for a fitting is so important to get your desired outcome.

The first option might be to consider your local major golf retailer.

Many major golf retail outlets will have some form of custom fitting available.

This is to everybody’s advantage.

You as the golfer get to try the latest gear and see numbers that indicate that the new shiny club is better than your existing set.

The “feel good” factor increases the chances of a sale being made to the benefit of the retailer.

But there are occasions where the club you fell in love with in the fitting process just doesn’t quite feel right and doesn’t seem to produce the same results when you take it out on the course or have an initial practice session with it.

How would that make you feel?

Have you wasted your money?

This isn’t necessarily the fault of the retailer.

Generally, they will get all their demo equipment from the major manufacturers at the start of every year and these demo clubs can have a hard life.

They are in constant use as golfers try them out as they narrow their selection process down with the fitter.

The effect of having hundreds of golf balls hit over a short period of time can start to alter the lofts on the demo clubs.

This can mean that the demo 6-iron that you’re hitting has been hit so many times already that the loft is actually now more akin to the loft of a 7-iron.

You might still hit this club well during the fitting but the reality of it is that if you go ahead and place an order the 6-iron you end up with will be lofted to a 6-iron and fly further.

That might seem an unexpected and pleasant surprise but could be a problem in terms of the different trajectories produced from hitting the demo club to what you get.

An additional difference relates to the attachment mechanisms used for screwing in different shafts to iron heads during a fitting session.

These often carry additional weight on the demo iron club because they need the durability to handle having lots of different shafts attached during the fitting sessions to test changes in distance, trajectory or accuracy.

The problem here is that whilst we might like the overall weighting seen in the demo iron club the weighting in the club we eventually purchase will be different as it does not have the same attachment mechanism.

This might not seem such a big deal but it can put golfers off custom fitting because what they ultimately end up with isn’t the same as what they demoed and they get different results than expected out on the course.

When you come for a custom fitting session at GolfTech our demo iron heads still can be fitted with different shafts but they don’t have the same weighty attachment device.

The benefit for you as the golfer is that we can guarantee that the weighting of the finished built iron will be exactly the same as the demo iron you hit during the fitting.

So what else can we do to guarantee that the custom-built clubs we make for you perform the same as the demo clubs you used during the fitting session at GolfTech?

Let’s take an example if you come in and want a completely new set of clubs.

At the end of the fitting session, we can be clear and agree with the golfer about which clubs are the best for them and the reasons behind that.

From there, a critical step is ensuring that we capture all the measurements of the demo club/clubs that were ultimately chosen.

The measurements we take are:

• The club’s length

• The exact loft

• The lie and swing weight of the club

So why are we meticulous about doing this?

For a start, every golfer is physically different in terms of their height and their arm length for example.

This ultimately dictates how long the shafts of each club should be and also the correct lie angle for each club so we need to have precise measurements if we are working with a tall or short golfer.

The golfer’s swing characteristics such as how much club head speed they generate help determine the correct shaft weights and flexes.

The overall weighting of the club is also critical to capture.

If during the building process of the club/clubs, the overall weight is inaccurate to the demo club the golfer can end up with clubs that are too heavy or too light for their respective swing speeds.

From this point, we then build the set of clubs based on these exact measurements.

It’s also important to note that we follow this process regardless of the manufacturers selected.

So for example if you go with Callaway Paradym woods and Titleist T200 irons all the measurements and angles are consistent throughout the finished set.

What is the benefit for you?

Your set is built in exactly the same fashion as the clubs you tested and liked during the fitting.

Regardless of the manufacturers you chose each club is built to the specific tolerances measured during the fitting giving you consistency throughout the bag.

You have the confidence that the financial investment you made in the fitting process and the clubs you bought will benefit your game.

Our sole objective at GolfTech is to ensure that if you come for a custom fitting you have complete confidence in our fitting process and that the clubs you purchase are exactly the same as agreed upon during the fitting.

The outcome of this is seeing those golfers who come for a fitting report back that they love their clubs and are playing good, consistent golf.

Taking the time to do the basics well is not difficult to do it’s just remembering to do them.

Feel free to contact us to arrange a fitting session if you are considering changing your clubs.