Opinion & Analysis
The differences between good and bad club fitters—and they’re not what you think
Club fitting is still a highly debated topic, with many golfers continuing to believe they’re just not good enough to be fit. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but it’s a topic for another day.
Once you have decided to invest in your game and equipment, however, the next step is figuring out where to get fit, and working with a fitter. You see, unlike professionals in other industries, club fitting “certification” is still a little like the wild west. While there are certification courses and lesson modules from OEMs on how to fit their specific equipment, from company to company, there is still some slight variance in philosophy.
Then there are agnostic fitting facilities that work with a curated equipment matrix from a number of manufacturers. Some have multiple locations all over the country and others might only have a few smaller centralized locations in a particular city. In some cases, you might even be able to find single-person operations.
So how do you separate the good from the bad? This is the million-dollar question for golfers looking to get fit. Unless you have experience going through a fitting before or have a base knowledge about fitting, it can feel like an intimidating process. This guide is built to help you ask the right questions and pay attention to the right things to make sure you are getting the most out of your fitting.
The signs of a great fitter
- Launch monitor experience: Having some type of launch monitor certification isn’t a requirement but being able to properly understand the interpret parameters is! A good fitter should be able to explain the parameters they are using to help get the right clubs and understand how to tweak specs to help you get optimized. The exact labeling may vary depending on the type of launch monitor but they all mostly provide the same information….Here is an example of what a fitter should be looking for in an iron fitting: “The most important parameter in an iron fitting”
- Communication skills: Being able to explain why and how changes are being made is a telltale sign your fitter is knowledgeable—it should feel like you are learning something along the way. Remember, communication is a two-way street so also being a good listener is another sign your working with a good fitter.
- Transparency: This involves things like talking about price, budgets, any brand preferences from the start. This prevents getting handed something out of your price range and wasting swings during your fit.
- A focus on better: Whether it be hitting it further and straighter with your driver or hitting more greens, the fitting should be goal-orientated. This means looking at all kinds of variables to make sure what you are getting is actually better than your current clubs. Having a driver you hit 10 yards farther isn’t helpful if you don’t know where it’s going….A great fitter that knows their stuff should quickly be able to narrow down potential options to 4-5 and then work towards optimizing from there.
- Honesty and respect: These are so obvious, I shouldn’t even have to put it on the list. I want to see these traits from anybody in a sales position when working with customers that are looking to them for knowledge and information…If you as the golfer is only seeing marginal gains from a new product or an upgrade option, you should be told that and given the proper information to make an informed decision. The great fitters, and I’ve worked with a lot of them, will be quick to tell a golfer, “I don’t think we’re going to beat (X) club today, maybe we should look at another part of your bag where you struggle.” This kind of interaction builds trust and in the end results in happy golfers and respected fitters.
The signs of a bad fitter
- Pushing an agenda: This can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Whether it be a particular affinity towards certain brands of clubs or even shafts. If you talk to players that have all been to the same fitter and their swings and skill levels vary yet the clubs or brands of shafts they end up with (from a brand agnostic facility) seem to be eerily similar it might be time to ask questions.
- Poor communications: As you are going through the fitting process and warming up you should feel like you’re being interviewed as a way to collect data and help solve problems in your game. This process helps create a baseline of information for your fitter. If you are not experiencing that, or your fitter isn’t explaining or answering your questions directly, then there is a serious communication problem, or it could show lack of knowledge depth when it comes to their ability.
- Lack of transparency: If you feel like you’re not getting answers to straightforward questions or a fitter tells you “not to worry about it” then that is a big no-no from me.
Side note: It is my opinion that golfers should pay for fittings, and in a way consider it a knowledge-gathering session. Of course, the end goal for the golfer is to find newer better fitting clubs, and for the fitter to sell you them (let’s be real here), but you should never feel the information is not being shared openly. - Pressure sales tactics: It exists in every industry, I get it, but if you pay for your fitting you are paying for information, use it to your advantage. You shouldn’t feel pressured to buy, and it’s always OK to seek out a knowledgeable second opinion (knowledgeable being a very key word in that sentence!). If you are getting the hard sell or any combination of the traits above, there is a good chance you’re not working with the right fitter for you.
Final thoughts
Great fitters with great reputations and proper knowledge have long lists, even waiting lists, of golfers waiting to see them. The biggest sign of a great fitter is a long list of repeat customers.
Golf is a game that can be played for an entire lifetime, and just like with teachers and swing coaches, the good ones are in it for the long haul to help you play better and build a rapport—not just sell you the latest and greatest (although we all like new toys—myself included) because they can make a few bucks.
Trust your gut, and ask questions!
- LIKE424
- LEGIT67
- WOW9
- LOL12
- IDHT8
- FLOP8
- OB5
- SHANK40
The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.
TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.
Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.
However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.
Past Winners at TPC Louisiana
- 2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
- 2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
- 2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
- 2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
- 2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
- 2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)
2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks
Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)
Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.
This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.
McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.
Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)
Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.
Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.
Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)
Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.
NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.
- LIKE8
- LEGIT3
- WOW1
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP3
- OB1
- SHANK1
After having four of the top twelve players on the leaderboard at The Masters, LIV Golf is set for their fifth event of the season: LIV Adelaide.
For both LIV fans and golf fans in Australia, LIV Adelaide is one of the most anticipated events of the year. With 35,000 people expected to attend each day of the tournament, the Grange Golf Club will be crawling with fans who are passionate about the sport of golf. The 12th hole, better known as “the watering hole”, is sure to have the rowdiest of the fans cheering after a long day of drinking some Leishman Lager.
The Grange Golf Club is a par-72 that measures 6,946 yards. The course features minimal resistance, as golfers went extremely low last season. In 2023, Talor Gooch shot consecutive rounds of 62 on Thursday and Friday, giving himself a gigantic cushion heading into championship Sunday. Things got tight for a while, but in the end, the Oklahoma State product was able to hold off The Crushers’ Anirban Lahiri for a three-shot victory.
The Four Aces won the team competition with the Range Goats finishing second.
*All Images Courtesy of LIV Golf*
Past Winners at LIV Adelaide
- 2023: Talor Gooch (-19)
Stat Leaders Through LIV Miami
Green in Regulation
- Richard Bland
- Jon Rahm
- Paul Casey
Fairways Hit
- Abraham Ancer
- Graeme McDowell
- Henrik Stenson
Driving Distance
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Joaquin Niemann
- Dean Burmester
Putting
- Cameron Smith
- Louis Oosthuizen
- Matt Jones
2024 LIV Adelaide Picks
Cameron Smith +1400 (DraftKings)
When I pulled up the odds for LIV Adelaide, I was more than a little surprised to see multiple golfers listed ahead of Cameron Smith on the betting board. A few starts ago, Cam finished runner-up at LIV Hong Kong, which is a golf course that absolutely suits his eye. Augusta National in another course that Smith could roll out of bed and finish in the top-ten at, and he did so two weeks ago at The Masters, finishing T6.
At Augusta, he gained strokes on the field on approach, off the tee (slightly), and of course, around the green and putting. Smith able to get in the mix at a major championship despite coming into the week feeling under the weather tells me that his game is once again rounding into form.
The Grange Golf Club is another course that undoubtedly suits the Australian. Smith is obviously incredibly comfortable playing in front of the Aussie faithful and has won three Australian PGA Championship’s. The course is very short and will allow Smith to play conservative off the tee, mitigating his most glaring weakness. With birdies available all over the golf course, there’s a chance the event turns into a putting contest, and there’s no one on the planet I’d rather have in one of those than Cam Smith.
Louis Oosthuizen +2200 (DraftKings)
Louis Oosthuizen has simply been one of the best players on LIV in the 2024 seas0n. The South African has finished in the top-10 on the LIV leaderboard in three of his five starts, with his best coming in Jeddah, where he finished T2. Perhaps more impressively, Oosthuizen finished T7 at LIV Miami, which took place at Doral’s “Blue Monster”, an absolutely massive golf course. Given that Louis is on the shorter side in terms of distance off the tee, his ability to play well in Miami shows how dialed he is with the irons this season.
In addition to the LIV finishes, Oosthuizen won back-to-back starts on the DP World Tour in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mauritus Open. He also finished runner-up at the end of February in the International Series Oman. The 41-year-old has been one of the most consistent performers of 2024, regardless of tour.
For the season, Louis ranks 4th on LIV in birdies made, T9 in fairways hit and first in putting. He ranks 32nd in driving distance, but that won’t be an issue at this short course. Last season, he finished T11 at the event, but was in decent position going into the final round but fell back after shooting 70 while the rest of the field went low. This season, Oosthuizen comes into the event in peak form, and the course should be a perfect fit for his smooth swing and hot putter this week.
- LIKE12
- LEGIT3
- WOW1
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP1
- OB1
- SHANK1
Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.
Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.
But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.
To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.
Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.
If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.
In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.
Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.
While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.
So, what about grooves and face texture?
Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.
Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.
But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?
The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.
So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.
And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.
- LIKE32
- LEGIT7
- WOW1
- LOL1
- IDHT2
- FLOP3
- OB1
- SHANK3
Dave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
John Daly stuns fans into silence with brutal opening tee shot on PGA Tour Champions
Things got heated at the Houston Open between Tony Finau and Alejandro Tosti. Here’s why
Justin Thomas on the equipment choice of Scottie Scheffler that he thinks is ‘weird’
Tiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
Report: Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in preparation for the 2024 Masters
Two star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
Report: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
Daniel Berger WITB 2024 (April)
Daniel Berger what’s in the bag accurate as of the Farmers Insurance Open. More photos from the event here. Driver:...
Rasmus Højgaard WITB 2024 (April)
Rasmus Højgaard what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic. Driver: Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees)...
Rory McIlroy WITB 2024 (April)
Rory McIlroy what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic. Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees) Shaft: Fujikura Ventus...
Sam Burns WITB 2024 (April)
Sam Burns’ what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. Driver: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond S (9 degrees...
-
19th Hole2 weeks agoDave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
-
19th Hole3 days agoJustin Thomas on the equipment choice of Scottie Scheffler that he thinks is ‘weird’
-
19th Hole2 weeks agoTiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
-
19th Hole3 days ago‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
-
19th Hole3 weeks agoReport: Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in preparation for the 2024 Masters
-
19th Hole1 week agoTwo star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
-
19th Hole1 week agoReport: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
-
19th Hole1 week agoNeal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
emncaity
Feb 9, 2021 at 2:15 am
“orientated”
[giggle]
But here’s a question, and I don’t understand why it’s not asked more often: Why don’t people simply get educated about what length and lie should be for their own measurements, what kind of spin rates you’re looking for on various clubs, and what tends to produce those optimal rates (and dispersions too)? It’s not exactly rocket science. A few hours will do wonders. Why don’t people simply do that, follow a reliable fitting chart for loft and lie (and adjust from there), just buy some time on Trackman or other analyzer, and do the numbers for themselves?
phizzy
Sep 25, 2020 at 6:29 pm
I have been fit numerous times over the years starting in 2008. First fitter I went to didn’t give me the opportunity to hear my input and kept pushing certain club heads and shafts. He did play on the PGA for less than a full season as he claimed(did my research),so I thought he was credible. Boy was I wrong. He fit me into a super tri with fubuki alpha 60x and it would balloon on me with too much spin. Less than a year later I found another fitter and have been giving my business to him ever since. He was always asking for my input and never pushed products. He would give me the info from his trackman and would recommend what would best suit me. Recently, I did a driver fitting with him and walked away with a SIM Max with Ventus Black 7x tipped one inch at 45 inches. Hitting 320 total yard bombs with minimal dispersion and am very happy. A good club fitter is essential to maximizing your time out on the course.
SteveT
Sep 2, 2020 at 10:59 am
Any iron fitting I’ve experienced, either for myself or a friend, always involves using the demo 6/7 iron from any set, and this involves those often on the overrated “Top 100 Fitters List” With all this talk about proper fitting, I doubt the typical customer ever reaps the benefits of things like set gapping. I do believe a real fitting is only experienced by those privileged enough to visit an OEM performance center or similar facility.
Speedy
Aug 30, 2020 at 4:47 pm
“The biggest sign of a great fitter is a long list of repeat customers.”
I don’t think so.
BG
Aug 19, 2020 at 2:12 pm
Everyone and their dog is a fitter these days; finding a good one is indeed a challenge. What’s even more frustrating is when the custom clubs you order do not come back to the specifications for which you were fit. Frustrating when you are expecting D4, and everything comes back D2.5. I’ve struggled with OEM’s, and custom builders alike. It’s a big ball of mess out there if you ask me.
Joe Beau
Aug 18, 2020 at 10:04 am
Ok. How about providing us with a list of some qualified fitters? I haven’t heard of 1 within 100 miles of me.
Alistair Harper
Aug 17, 2020 at 3:11 pm
I’ve been fortunate to have as a best friend, one of the top fitters in the industry, Larry Bobka who has fit my clubs for decades and it makes a WORLD of difference. Over the years Larry has put people like Tiger, Phil, Adam and hundreds more pros into the best set-ups for their game. Cannot overestimate the value of a quality club fitting by a great fitter.
Peter
Aug 14, 2020 at 11:30 pm
Upgrading after 20 years, I had my heart set on some WS irons. Got measured and hit some balls. It turned out that I wasn’t up to standard for the ‘player irons’ I was hoping for. I was given 6 iclubs from different manufacturers to hit with the instruction of not looking at the names on the iron. Found my preference and walked away with a set of i200s. After 3 years, still enjoy hitting them everyday
Jack Wullkotte
Aug 14, 2020 at 3:13 pm
How come you did’t print my response to your article about club fitters?
joro
Aug 14, 2020 at 5:53 pm
That happens a lot.
joro
Aug 14, 2020 at 12:46 pm
Being a teacher and fitter myself I think about 10% of the “Fitters” are really Qualified to do a proper and good fitting. Most are guys that are given the job because they are apprentices or just a good player. As a former club maker for a Major manufacturer
and making clubs for Tour Players what they need in way of shafts, grips, lie angle, and balance, which is something that most Club Fitters overlook, the small but important stuff.
I have known my own specs for years but even so when I went to a Major Club manufaturer for a fitting as a staff member the guy who fit me who was supposed to be one of their best fitters said to me forget the past, you are over 60 so you need to go to SR. flex and lighter. I was playing stiff and heavier at the time and very well at the time. So he fit me and sent me off with 2 sets of “Expertly fitted” clubs. They were awful!!!! So I rebuilt them to my specs and they were great. That was one of the top fitters at the fitting range. Soooo, take it as you may, and never have a fitting indoors, you have see the full flight of the ball to determine what you really need.
Leftshot
Aug 14, 2020 at 11:13 am
A few things missing. How comprehensive is the fitting? Are you fit for length,lie angle, swing weigh, other shaft and head characteristics, or just offered two shafts one with an R stamped on it and one with an S. The fitting should be done with YOUR ball of choice.
Kevin Coombs, PGA
Aug 14, 2020 at 12:08 am
Properly fitted golf clubs reward and encourage the proper motion and give correct feedback for incorrect motion.
DW
Aug 13, 2020 at 6:40 pm
Can’t help but notice that the covering picture is indeed the fitting studio of the one and only TXG at Toronto…
Randy
Aug 13, 2020 at 11:19 am
FIRST TAKE SOME LESSONS!
It don’t mean a thing if you don’t have a swing.
JJ
Aug 13, 2020 at 10:09 am
Good fitter fits you for club length…bad fitter doesn’t. How many friends I have that got “fitted” but they never got fit for club length…especially in a driver fitting. I’ll just take my money and get lessons.
JThunder
Aug 13, 2020 at 1:02 am
“Experience, communication skills, transparency, a focus on better, honesty and respect”
“pushing an agenda, poor communication, lack of transparency, pressure sales tactics”
Not just a list of good/bad for golf clubfitters, is it?
Finding a good club fitter is similar to finding a good teaching pro. Some are objectively better than others; also important is finding the “right one for you”.
You may have to try a couple before you find a good fit – if you’re serious about getting fit, think of it like a test drive or a serious medical condition; you likely won’t stop at one opinion. And once you find that fitter, stick with them. Just like a good doctor, understanding your patient can be as important as understanding the medicine.
You can tinker on your own – but a really good clubfitter will gain more knowledge in a week that you will in a year, and it will be a costly year. You can also use WebMD to diagnose your own medical conditions.
Karsten's Ghost
Aug 12, 2020 at 5:47 pm
For most people, your indoor swing is not your outdoor swing. Your turf interaction is not your plastic turf interaction.
Hitting mats hide lie angle issues, promote loft, and bad balls promote spin. Cheap balls are not true flight…
If a fitter starts with bad data, they will fit you to that bad data. It doesn’t mean they’re not trying, but unless they can accurately account for variances (v unlikely), you’ll get fitting data to be a fantastic driving range king.
The worst part is you’ll go back to the range, everything will seem fine, and you’ll continue to guess at what you’re doing wrong on-course.
Doug
Aug 14, 2020 at 10:33 am
“Your indoor swing is not your outdoor swing?” Pure nonsense.
I would submit that ideally an outdoor fitting is preferable to an indoor fitting only because of visual ball flight confirmation against computer generated flight info. But an indoor fitting is completely acceptable.
juststeve
Aug 12, 2020 at 3:53 pm
I’m wondering if there is an objective standard by which to judge a fitter or the correctness of the particular fit recommended?
TacklingDummy
Aug 12, 2020 at 3:01 pm
There is a couple of metrics that I don’t think get fit well by many fitters is shaft torque and clubhead shape for drivers. A good club fitter will fit torque well based on the swing, strength/weakness, the launch numbers, etc. Well fitted torque to a swing can improve accuracy a lot without much sacrifice in distance.
Also, clubhead shape can have a substantial effect ball flight, controlling the face, and accuracy because of the different weighting. I think really good fitters know to fit a driver head shape and weighting that will fit a players swing. If a player has more/less face rotation in the swing and swing plane. Much like weighting of putters and the stroke (more face rotation-more toe hang, less face rotation-more face balanced putter).
Many golf fitters of course want to sell product. I get that. However, the not so good ones I have been to really try to keep you focusing on the the best shot you hit, rather than the best groupings. Most manufacturers do the same because they push distance more than accuracy. Personally, I want the driver that give me a tighter dispersion without too much loss in distance, not the driver I hit 15 yards longer on 1/10 and had 3/10 off the map.
While many good players can adapt to a driver, it is best to get one fit well to adapt the driver to the swing.
A. Commoner
Aug 12, 2020 at 2:25 pm
Please!! Proof reader needed.
SV
Aug 12, 2020 at 1:55 pm
Based on my experience a couple of years ago, there were a number of things missing. This was with a national fitting company. It seemed like a science experiment, try this, try that with no explanation. He kept emphasizing 1 or 2 mile per hour ball speed and better smash factor. The recommended driver didn’t carry as far and total distance was the same as my 6 year old driver. This was with a $200 upgrade shaft. Needless to say, I didn’t buy a new $800 driver.
Fitting may be recommended, but based on my experience, I can go to a big box store and experiment on my own. My preference would be to try at an outdoor range, either golf course or driving range, where you can actually see what is happening. Hopefully they would have a launch monitor, but I don’t think it is necessary.
Stephen Hodge
Aug 12, 2020 at 2:45 pm
Seeing ball flight at a driving range means nothing. You’re hitting a driving range golf ball that has probably seen thousands of hits in its lifetime. You’re also hitting outside with variables, like wind and temperature. You are subconsciously making adjustments to your swing to see the ball flight you like. The ball flight you see on the range with range balls is never the flight you see on the course with premium golf balls. Your experience with the fitting you had should not cancel out the other fitters around you or in other areas.
tom
Aug 12, 2020 at 3:05 pm
Gotta be outside.. wh said anything about range balls? A GODD fitter will use pro v1s or a comparable ball. Mats are forgiving. Turf interaction is one the most important things when getting fit for irons.
JJ
Aug 13, 2020 at 10:11 am
Goes to range and gets fitted…swings out of shoes about 40 times and gets fitted for the club that makes the fitter the most money.
DW
Aug 13, 2020 at 6:37 pm
Unfortunately the combo of outdoor and premium ball fitter is not that common. One can argue that indoor fitting while using one’s own ball may be a good “compromise”
Michele
Aug 12, 2020 at 1:54 pm
Where in Westchester ny or lower ct is a good club fitter
Eric
Aug 19, 2020 at 8:46 am
How much the player improves