Club Fitting

[Henry]

I was interested to see Chris' comments on club fitting in another forum thread.  I was about to pull the trigger on going to Club Champion Golf to get fitted. They do have a selection of Japanese equipment including all the Epon, Fourteen and Homna lines. I do understand fitting is based off Trrackman, smash factor etc. and I have known people to spend a ton of money getting the "right shaft" only to go back to their old equipment after several months. With that being said, for those that have been club fitted, what has your experience been? 

[nobmontana]

I don’t think trackman fitting is the be all end all process for deciding on clubs.   
Ultimately you don’t play on Trackman when you actually play.   
I do think it helps identify a certain group of shafts and heads that you are likely to do better with.   The biggest variable in the equation is your swing!   Can anyone swing with 100% repeatability?   Absolutely not!   That’s why Trackman session data can only be a “point in time” data rather than a definitive thing.  
one good Trackman session doesn’t mean that you will see the same numbers the next week.  
I think doing a Trackman session like once a year would be a good measure to track your changes for the basic parameters.   Especially when you are over 50 yrs old:(  like me... 

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by nobmontana

[bngolfer]

I agree totally! I think Trackman is perfect for finding your group of shafts that should work best for you. Then you bring heads with different shafts to the course and play. Preferably in different conditions (hot, cold, windy..) and make your decision on course. Or, like many of us do, buy loads of gear and see what you like best. Then you question that and buy some more...

I know I feel comfortable with D3 (or just above) swing weight and 120g shafts. But like Nobs, I’m getting older and have back problems. I will try Diamana Thumps come golf season. Lower swing weight and much lower overall weight.

[Ian-500]

What I found best about my fitting was the correct length and lie angles. Swing weight was D2.5 but I can play heavier or lighter than that as long as the length and lie are good for me.

[gregoire56]

I learned a lot from the fitting that I did.. such as proper shaft frequency for irons and woods, length, lie, shaft weight, and swing weight. Once I knew those things I could build almost any club to fit me by choosing the right shaft, and the rest I could choose by preference. That being said, at no time during my fitting was a Trackman used. Once I had all of this info I only had to try a few different shafts before I knew what worked best for me. I would tend to agree that, as far as a dynamic fitting is concerned, using a Trackman should not be considered the gold standard. Personally, I think Trackman is best used in a fitting capacity to get a starting point or baseline to proceed from and then to confirm a proper fit, but as was mentioned this type of thing is most applicable to somebody who has a very consistent and repeatable swing and Trackman results do not necessarily translate to course performance. However, I do think Trackman is very good for comparing comparable clubs against one another, especially when being tested by a player with a very consistent and repeatable swing. In such a test the same tester is hitting all of the clubs in the same controlled environment and the measurements are all being obtained by the same means, therefor if the clubs are built to comparable specs then the results will be reasonably valid. 

[+TourSpecGolfer]

Everyone should try it.  It does teach the golfer what type of numbers they produce and puts their strengths and flaws in view. I like fittings most to find my distance gaps. I have had a half dozen fittings,  I used to do 6 hour fittings myself when we had retail stores in Cali.  That said we have customers almost daily dump full fit sets for not fit sets and often shoot better scores but usually always enjoy more.

None of our customers who know gear well and what works for them get fittings anymore.  

Basics = loft/lie/length/swing weight/grip size.

Many more educated players already know what type of shafts work best for their swing,  weight, flex, bend profile and sometimes materials.  

Then the business side of fittings.  duplicatable process,  cookie cutter,  anyone can be taught to do fittings and the worse thing is customers walk out of stores with the fitters preferred brands.  

I started this game with fitters who could fit with their eyes.  way more valuable as they see the entire picture.  

I support fittings especially for the masses who don't know their usual spin rates,  launch angles and dispersion etc.

What is most important to you in this game?

Score?  having fun?  drinking or gambling? relaxing?

How to put a numeric value on feel? shape? quality? materials and where it's made?

 

[supo]

 drink, gamble... golf ?

ha,

sacrilege!!!!

[donnieu]

On 1/18/2020 at 12:38 AM, gregoire56 said:

I learned a lot from the fitting that I did.. such as proper shaft frequency for irons and woods,

I would go more specific than just irons & woods.... like 1W, 3W, 5W, long irons, short irons.   For example, I like to hit 3W medium launch while mostly eliminating the left, and 5W higher launch mostly eliminating push to right.   Reason being that 3W is typically not into a green, but 5W usually is.   Also my misses with long irons are usually hooks, but not much with other clubs.  

[+TourSpecGolfer]

On 1/17/2020 at 10:38 PM, gregoire56 said:

I learned a lot from the fitting that I did.. such as proper shaft frequency for irons and woods, length, lie, shaft weight, and swing weight. Once I knew those things I could build almost any club to fit me by choosing the right shaft, and the rest I could choose by preference. That being said, at no time during my fitting was a Trackman used. Once I had all of this info I only had to try a few different shafts before I knew what worked best for me. I would tend to agree that, as far as a dynamic fitting is concerned, using a Trackman should not be considered the gold standard. Personally, I think Trackman is best used in a fitting capacity to get a starting point or baseline to proceed from and then to confirm a proper fit, but as was mentioned this type of thing is most applicable to somebody who has a very consistent and repeatable swing and Trackman results do not necessarily translate to course performance. However, I do think Trackman is very good for comparing comparable clubs against one another, especially when being tested by a player with a very consistent and repeatable swing. In such a test the same tester is hitting all of the clubs in the same controlled environment and the measurements are all being obtained by the same means, therefor if the clubs are built to comparable specs then the results will be reasonably valid. 

That's the thing though,  I don't agree there is a "proper" shaft frequency for anything.  I like many believe shaft frequency CPM's is NOT a good way to measure flex or shaft performance.