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Find a Great Club Fitter, Then TRUST Them.
Finding the right club fitter will do wonders for the average golfer’s game.
In fact, I would argue that the average joe golfer stands more to gain from a good club fitting session than a professional golfer. I tried two other club fitters before the 3rd one had me fitted correctly. That’s right, the third time was the charm. Quite possibly the best club fitter in southwest Ohio is Mr. Kirby Bolen of Golfstix. Golfstix recently relocated within the Swingview Indoor Golf Facility (more on that technology real soon) in Loveland, Ohio.
A proper golf club fitting will tune you in to the right golf club, the right shaft, kick point, tip stiffness, shaft torque, and the right loft among many other variables. Believe me, there are a lot of them. The first club fitter I visited had me swing a driver on his launch monitor about ten times and then said 10.5 degrees and a regular Grafalloy Pro Lite 35R shaft. Let me tell you, he was dead wrong. I went back to him and said that the shaft is too weak, I am hitting it high and to the right very consistently. Then I asked about tipping the shaft. He said, "Nope it’s the right shaft for you". I never went back to him again and I sold that driver on eBay.
The second club fitter analyzed my swing correctly and told me I should play a 12 degree lofted driver because of my ball flight’s tendency to not climb enough. He was correct in that I don’t "hit up enough on the ball". Everyone swings differently, so the loft number on the club’s sole really may not matter. For example; I was launching the 10.5 degree test driver at about 8.5 degrees fairly consistently. That might be fine if I had a 100+ mph swing speed, but I do not. However, he was dead sold on a certain brand of golf shafts, none of which seemed to really fit me correctly. He really wasn’t interested in getting me aligned with the proper shaft. Since I seem to fall between a stiff and regular I seem to be a tough person to fit with the proper graphite shaft. Again, I never went back to him and my father in law got himself a brand new, barely hit driver that I pretty much hated.
About 3 weeks after the seeing the second club fitter, I stopped in at Golfstix in Cincinnati on a whim in 2006 and was fitted for a new driver, again. Kirby also took into account that even though my swingspeed wasn’t off the charts, I made a strong move at the ball and utilize a pretty strong grip. He recommended a 12 degree driver as well, but this time I was fitted with a Graphite Design YS 6+ stiff shaft. Once I combined that with the KZG Gemini driver I was set! I was hitting the ball pretty straight and even gained some yardage. Or so I thought.
While playing Black Lake Golf Club in upstate Michigan this past summer I made the mistake of trying out another guy’s Cleveland High Bore with a Grafalloy Pro Launch Blue shaft in it. I killed this guy’s driver, not once, but three times and right down the middle. This had me thinking that I could get more height and distance (we all want that right?) with the Pro Launch Blue shaft. I took my driver to Golfstix and and asked Kirby about swapping shafts so I could try it out. Afterall, I was convinced the Pro Launch Blue was a better shaft for me than the Graphite Design. Kirby told me right off the bat, "You won’t like it". However, he humored me, swapped the shafts around and off to the range I went. It took me less than 10 range balls to figure out that I was dead wrong. I took the club back, ready and prepared to eat some crow, but all Kirby did was smile, and rehaft the driver with the Graphite Design shaft. I won’t be trying anyone’s driver anytime soon, if I ever do again.
Kirby Bolen was recently named the International Professional Association of Clubfitter’s Clubfitter of the Year. He obviously knows what he is doing when fitting all types of golfers. Kirby got into the club fitting business purely by accident. While golfing in Myrtle Beach he went to see a custom golf club fitter for custom clubs and was amazed at what it did for his own golf game. His handicap dropped from a 7 to a 3, practically overnight. He was impressed so much that he went back to Myrtle Beach and trained under that same club fitter. He then left his job in commercial and industrial sales and started Golfstix in Cincinnati.
Kirby Bolen was selected as the 2006 Club Fitter of the Year.
Many of us have visited the big box golf stores, hit into the indoor range monitor and walked out with expensive golf clubs based upon the sales clerk’s quick recommendations. These recommendations will most likely fit a wide variety of golfers to a point, but the golf clubs will not be ideally suited for you as an individual. If you are thinking of visiting a clubfitter, ask around for recommendations, and when you get there, be open to what they have to say, ask the technical questions about shafts, lie adjustments and the other components that vary based upon your personal swing tendencies. A great club fitter, like Kirby Bolen, not only fits you properly, but explains things so that you can understand what is actually going on.
Although Kirby is an authorized KZG dealer, he will repair, or improve anything that you might bring him. It’s OK if your dead set on that old Burner Bubble driver that is smaller than any new 3 wood available today. Want to check or adjust the lie on your irons? Not a problem. He’ll work with you personally and without the car salesman sales pitches.
I am sure that many of you have had similar club fitting experiences and understand the importance of finding the right club fitter for you. If you seek to take your game to the next level, and feel that a proper club fitting is in your near future you’ll more than likely reap great rewards once on the golf course.
Kirby Bolen can be contacted here:
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News
SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips
SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”
“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”
Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.
According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”
CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.
“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.
Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history
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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar
Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.
It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.
PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place
The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.
This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.
With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.
360° and in!
A nervy par save by @TaylorPendrith to remain one back as he seeks his first PGA TOUR victory @CJByronNelson. pic.twitter.com/LVFXUSidSg
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 5, 2024
DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four
It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.
It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.
.@adrianotaegui birdies the 16th to tie the lead at -17 ?#VolvoChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/p4tfE5DRJa
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 5, 2024
PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella
Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.
64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.
.@TBalla21 eagles 17, shoots 65 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the KIA Open. pic.twitter.com/TTOL2LxSdh
— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) May 4, 2024
PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win
Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.
The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.
Off the green? No worries for @ScottDu12500063
8-under solo leader @InsperityInvtnl pic.twitter.com/hoj5OujL5C
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 4, 2024
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Morning 9: Pendrith’s maiden Tour win | Morikawa back with former coach | Brooks victorious
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Attorney
Aug 13, 2013 at 7:23 pm
Hi. Outstanding job. I didn’t expect this. This is a excellent story. Thanks!