Do your clubs fit you?

Properly fit equipment is important to all levels of golfers. Number one myth pertaining to club fitting, "I am not good enough to be concerned if my clubs fit me" wrong!

Regardless of your handicap, if a golf club fits you it will allow you to swing it, and will aid miss hit shots or poor swings. If the club does not fit you, it will swing you. This will cause the outcome of miss hit shots and poor swings to be much worse and through long term use encourages compensatory swing habits that may be next to impossible to correct. To make matters even worse improperly fit equipment has also been responsible for injuries in some cases. A golfer needs to find the correct length, weight and flex of club that allows them to swing the club without any forcing or manipulating to make solid contact. Grip size and the weight and length of club are of personal preference, however finding the proper flex for you specifically needs to be addressed in a different manor. I believe that it is optimal to have a shaft flex that is just shy of being to stiff. If you are not on tour or have access to the manufactures testing facilities, the best way is to do it your self. Take several different types of shafts (Dynamic Gold steel, Rifle steel, Dynamic Gold Lite, UST Graphite, Innovative graphite…) and different flexes from extra stiff to senior and ladies and go to the range and demo all of them. I know this sounds time consuming but you will find it will be well worth the effort. You will immediately know what club feels the best and is also the easiest to swing. Ego is not an issue here, you hit what feels and/or works the best.

The Art of Club Fitting

Technology has provided us with many different ways of personal club fitting, and most all of them are beneficial. The problem for most golfers is they are not on tour nor do they have access to some of today's latest technology. I am going to give you a way to fit yourself and use your local club builder to assist you.

Go to most any golf shop and request to try some of their demo equipment. Once you have at least five to seven different clubs or flexes go to the range and prepare to be one step closer to a better golf game. I would like for you to begin with the stiffest club you have, which should be an x-flex.

Hit five to ten shots with a normal swing and mentally log the feel. Does it kick for you, is it hard to swing, does it make you swing harder things like this. Now move on to the next club in the order. You need to work in order of stiffness. Example: extra stiff, stiff, regular, senior and ladies. You may even want to have a couple of each, unfortunately, do to mass production of shafts not all of them are exactly what they say they are. There is a chance that two dynamic gold s-300's may feel and or react differently to your swing. You will notice that as you move down the line from stiffest to weakest, the clubs become easier to hit and your shot dispersion becomes narrower. Once you have reached the weakest or softest club you have, work your way back up. This is where you will begin to notice what club actually works and feels the best. What you are looking for besides feel, is trajectory, shot dispersion, sound of impact and which way the ball falls once it has reached its apex. For a right handed golfer, if the ball has a low trajectory, hard clicking sound at impact and starts left or falls left, most likely the club is too stiff. A rising balloon ball that falls to the right and sounds a bit mushy at impact is possibly too weak. Make sure that these are normal speed golf swings you are making, they are comfortable, and no added power, you will only be delaying the process if you choose a club because of what it says on the shaft band. Once you find a club or flex that works with you not against you (and you will know) take it to your nearest trustworthy club builder and have him test your club on a frequency machine to find out what the true flex or cpm (cycles per minute) is. If the club builder is up to date with technology and he knows what he is doing he will be able to assemble a set of clubs by building off of the specs of the club that felt best to you. The club builders of today are professionals at what they do so if you get a good one he may even have some suggestions on how to improve on this method. This is by no means the only way or even the most efficient way of club fitting although if you follow my directions, I guarantee you will be the closest you have ever been to having a set of clubs that actually fit you. Once you have your clubs shafted, gripped and they are of proper length, it is now time to check the loft and lie. The only bit of advice I am going to give on this topic is "always check your loft and lie". I promise you that if you go by any set of clubs of the rack that several of the clubs are anywhere from one to three degrees off on either loft or lie or both! Again, mass production at its finest. Do you really think a major manufacturer that puts out no telling how many sets of clubs a month is going to make sure that all one, two or three thousand clubs are perfect to the degree, think again.

My point to you, take the time to do yourself a favor. Keep in mind if your 8 iron is strong and your 7 iron is weak, you have two clubs that go the same distance. Properly fit equipment will not suddenly let you shoot even par if you have never broke 80, but it is one less obstacle that will stand in your way of improvement.

And one more thing, do you think when they say, "So Tiger, what shaft did you want in these?" Tiger says, "Oh, just slap anything in there." Umm, let me see, probably not!

Basics of Club Fitting
 
This is a basic outline, which will guide you through your club fitting experience. Any other technology used would be a plus.