Equipment
Addressing club fitting’s biggest myth: It’s only for good players
By far, one of the biggest misconceptions among golfers is that club fitting is only helpful to the most skilled who can really “tell the difference.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. Getting fit for a set of clubs is no different than getting fit for a suit or a dress — everybody can benefit from having something tailored just for them, whether it be simple adjustments or a full-blown bespoke experience.
To break down one of the club fitting world’s greatest myths, we have teamed up with Club Champion to help you better understand how the process can help you have more fun and play better golf.
What are the benefits of a club fitting for any level of golfer?
- For higher handicap and more beginner golfers, a club fitting helps to eliminate unnecessary variables that work against you on the course and while practicing. Especially for beginners or people taking lessons, it’s imperative to have equipment that works with your body, not against it. The right clubs prevent you from having to compensate for things like lengths that are too short or grips that are the wrong size.
- By working with a fitter, a golfer will get a better understanding of how his/her body and natural swing motion relate to their equipment.
- A fitting will help any golfer find out exactly what they need to achieve their specific performance or scoring goals.
- Fittings lead to lower scores, more distance, better dispersion, and a lot of other benefits whether you’re a high handicapper or a scratch golfer. The reason pros tinker with their clubs all the time is because details matter.
- It’s not just about making your best shots better, it’s about making your worst shots more playable. This applies across all skill levels, and the more a fitter can help keep the ball closer to the intended target, the quicker you are going to see results on the course and on your scorecard.
How does a less skilled golfer specifically benefit from a club fitting?
- The interesting thing is higher handicaps actually benefit more since there tends to be more low-hanging fruit that fitters can adjust that help them see instant results. In a way, it’s like making sure you have the right size bike — you’ll struggle to ride an improperly sized bike but as soon as you have the right fit, you’re flying.
- As mentioned above, a fitting helps beginners by removing obstacles that work against their natural swing motion.
- We fit a lot of golfers and generally, there’s an education gap with higher handicaps in terms of what technology is out there to help their game. We’ve had people come in with 20-year-old clubs who don’t know what sort of clubs are available on the market now and how much easier newer clubs can be to hit. If we use players on the lower end of the speed spectrum as an example – in the last 5 years have we seen a huge improvement in lighter weight shaft technology.
- We see some of the biggest gains with putters, a club many golfers really don’t think that much about when it comes to fitting. Most golfers just buy the style that suits their eye, not their stroke, so there are massive improvements to be had on the green. It could be a whole new putter or just a grip and length change but when you consider how many shots you take on the greens, a 15-20 percent improvement can be a game-changer.
How does something on the level of a “basic” fitting help golfers over using off the rack?
- Small details like shaft flex, length, and swing weight play a huge factor in success, and when you buy off the rack you’re just guessing on how those and many other factors will work for you.
- Even just having your existing set adjusted will lead to better golf. Even if it’s not absolutely optimized, small tweaks are a lot more beneficial than off-the-rack clubs built for the masses.
- No golfer is truly “average” in the sense that everyone’s body is so different. Height, swing motion, strength/speed, attack angle, etc. — all of these things change from person-to-person, even if everyone in the test group is the same handicap.
- Lastly, stock clubs are mass-produced, which can lead to inconsistencies throughout the set and those variables can be addressed and eliminated even with a basic fitting.
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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.
This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.
Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.
The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.
Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
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We enter week 4 of Thursday night men’s league feeling a little more confident in the game. BK is hoping to go a little lower and reduce the mistakes out there with these clubs in the bag. Watch the video for the full breakdown of why these clubs are getting the starting nod this week!
Driver: Titleist TSR2 (10 degrees, neutral setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana WB 63 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Lin-Q M40X TSPX Blue 7F5
7-wood: Ping G430 Max (-1 degree, flat Ssetting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 S
Iron: Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi 4
Shaft: Aerotech Steelfiber hls880 S
Irons: PXG 0317 Tour (5-PW)
Shaft: LA Golf A-Series 105 Low (4)
Wedge: Titleist Vokey SM10 (50-08F)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Dart V 105 F4 Wedge
Wedge: Ping S159 (56-10H)
Shaft: Ping Z-Z115
Wedge: Ping S159 (60-08B)
Shaft: Ping Z-Z115
Putter: PXG Battle Ready II Brandon
Shaft: BGT Stability Tour Spec One
Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour X
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Then-No. 1 player in the world Rory McIlroy began the week at the Wells Fargo Championship at 3-1 odds, if that gives you any indication of how well the Ulsterman was playing at the time. All he did at Quail Hollow was set the course record during his third round (61) and win the tournament by seven strokes.
Check out the gear Rory had in play nine years ago below.
Driver: Nike Vapor Pro (8.5 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana S+ 70 X
3-wood: Nike Vapor Speed (15 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Rombax Pro 95 X
5-wood: Nike Vapor Speed (19 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Rombax Pro 95 X
Irons: Nike VR Pro Blades (4-9) Buy here.
Shafts: Project X 7.0
Wedges: Nike VR Forged (46, 52, 56) Buy here, Nike Engage (58 degrees @59) Buy here.
Shafts: Project X 6.5
Putter: Nike Method 006 Buy here.
Ball: Nike RZN Black
WITB Time Machine is presented by 2nd Swing Golf. 2nd Swing has more than 100,000 new and pre-swung golf clubs available in six store locations and online. Check them out here.
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CrashTestDummy
Jun 28, 2021 at 7:51 pm
Lessons will help more with mid to high handicap golfers, but still all golfers can benefit from club fitting. Ill-fit equipment (especially ill-fit shafts) can produce a lot of bad compensations in the golf swing. At the very least, it can put golfers in the equipment that can help them improve the most and shafts that fit according to their tempo, strength, and swing speed, as well as clubheads that that can aid them in hitting the ball better. The majority of golfers I see are using ill-fit equipment or very outdated equipment.
Brandon
Jun 28, 2021 at 12:14 pm
There isn’t a fitter in the world who can help you when you hit 5 inches behind the ball and chuck beaver pelts all over.
Aztec
Jun 28, 2021 at 11:02 am
I’ve known a lot of people who get fitted into a driver saying they chose a specific combo of head and shaft because it had the tightest dispersion during the fitting process. But they still have their fades turn into slices and draws turn into hooks with no less frequency than before. And then there are the ones who had their shafts ‘pured’ – I have NEVER seen this make any difference to anyone’s game.
Nonsense
Jun 28, 2021 at 3:34 am
Agreed with the comments.
Get length and lie close for high to mid cap. Wait until someone has a semblance of a repeatable action.
I’ve got mates that shoot in the teens, and fitting them would be a disaster. But I also know some shorter women, one of which is playing mens length and she obviously struggles. That’s not a fancy fitting; that’s just common sense.
A. Commoner
Jun 27, 2021 at 12:15 pm
Nothing like an independent free-thinking unbiased Fuller Brush sales pitch.
Alex
Jun 27, 2021 at 12:03 pm
Worst article written. Stop pushing fitting to a 20 handicapper who cant tell a difference between a hosel or a club face
Mooseface McStoner
Jun 27, 2021 at 1:17 am
There are 3 problems:
1. There are far too many people “fitting” golfers who are not qualified to be doing it… thus ruining the experience and perhaps even driving them away from the game.
2. Pretty much everyone trying to make this case have a vested interest in more people getting fit – and purchasing higher-end products.
3. People think more with their wallets than their brains. They can justify “clubs” because they are shiny and new and magic, and will undoubtedly improve their game – says so in the ads! Whereas good fitters tend to dispel the “shiny new magic” myths… so much so, you might end up with the same boring old clubs bent to new specs, or “just” new shafts. Far less drool factor.
All you need to is watch every single thread on new clubs: looks are discussed far more than performance. And not just on new release – eg; “I wouldn’t play the AP2 cuz they were too techy looking, but those new 2022 T100s! Yum!”. Looks over performance = new clubs over fitting.
geohogan
Jun 26, 2021 at 7:16 pm
IMO the most important aspect of club fitting is lie angle.
Soft carbon steel, irons bend out of proper lie angle very easily.
Ive never found sets of clubs being used by mediocre to very good players that didnt have at least one of two clubs with lie angles drastically different than clubs they hit the best.
These relatively small (2-4 degree) adjustments can be made with a bending bar, as long as, the shaft isnt held rigid. ie let the shaft bend as clubhead lie angle is bent. If shaft is held rigid in a vise, the clubhead is easily broken, especially with hard SS clubheads.
IMO with clubhead on the ground in proper hitting angle, all the grip butt ends should be the same distance from the ground. its that simple. Welcome criticism.
Walter Sobchek
Jun 26, 2021 at 12:30 pm
Aside from basic shaft length and flex club fittings for higher handicaps is overrated. Higher handicaps don’t have accurate, repeatable swings so the club fitter has a harder time figuring out the best lie angle, etc for them. Higher handicaps would do better spending their money on lessons, try to learn how to swing correctly, and produce a more repeatable, correct swing.
Danie
Jun 25, 2021 at 6:26 pm
Biggest Myth: “Quality club fitting is available to most golfers”.
These club fitting articles get annoying. I get it, get fit. Try it outside of mega golf centres and cities, I dare you. Not even to mention the awesome shaft and club selection available to female golfers if they eventually do get access to a fitting studio.