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What is custom fitting?
Dynamic custom fitting is the establishment of the specifications of a club or a set of clubs for an individual, while that person is actually hitting golf balls. The Professional observes the flight of the ball, the individual’s posture and technique, and takes the following issues into consideration:
Shaft length | Shaft flex | Shaft weight | Shaft torque | Shaft kick point | Lie angle
Loft angle | Bounce angle | Grip type | Grip thickness | Set composition
Given that the observation of the golf ball's flight is critical to finalising the specifications, do not let anyone tell you that you can be fitted correctly while hitting golf balls into a net, with or without a launch monitor. (see “Launch Monitors” below)
Why have your golf clubs custom fitted?
It can be compared to having a suit made. How many individuals would have the same waist, chest, arm length, neck, body and inside leg measurements? The same can be said for golf club specifications.
Before we go any further I will say that custom fitted clubs are of maximum benefit to golfers who have a consistent swing. It doesn’t need to be consistently good, just consistent. With every fit we ask a number of questions to develop a profile of the individual.
This helps us to ensure that we establish not only the correct specifications for each club, but also that the correct clubs are selected to complete your set. (see “Set Make Up” below)
I have been a specialist custom fitter (Trained by Titleist) for the last five years and have fitted clubs for hundreds of people.
Of those hundreds of people not one has been standard. That means that they could not take a set of clubs off the rack and play with them as well as they could if the clubs were custom fitted.
That is why there are not alot of sets of clubs in my Pro Shop; because very few people, if any, are “Standard”.
When should you be fitted?
If you are working with a Professional and going through some swing changes then now is not necessarily the time to be fitted, as your specifications may change with your new technique. Although having said that, we do see a number of people who have clubs that are contributing to their swing faults.
It is important that you are being fitted by someone who is a Qualified PGA Professional and has experience as both a Fitter and an Instructor. Here at Royal Queensland we custom fit everything from driver to putter to your personal requirements.
With technology changing so quickly the number of different shafts available is beyond most people's comprehension, and to understand the effects of the different shafts is another matter.
We have fitting carts for the following leading brands: Titleist, Cobra, Taylor Made, and Ping.
Once I have established your specifications, the clubs are ordered to those specifications.
Poorly fitted clubs or clubs that have not been fitted at all, bought off the rack, or, at a special price, can cause all sorts of problems - problems that require you to create compensations in your swing.
One of the big mistakes that people make is that they think that their specifications, will remain the same over the years.
As we age (gracefully or otherwise) our bodies change and so do our golf clubs, their specifications and technology.
The shafts that I am having in my new set, arriving in the next few weeks, will be steel shafts that weigh a staggering 95 grams each. Only a few years ago the lightest steel shaft was about 110 grams, and graphite shafts can now be produced as light as 50 grams.
That is why the DEMO CLUB system can be dangerous; because all demo clubs are standard specifications and will not, as mentioned before, suit many, if any people. Some clubs may feel better to you, but are they feeling better with a compensating technique or are they the correct specifications for you? Only a specialist Club Fitter/Instructor will know.
One thing that I stress is that I am a Golf Professional before I am a Salesman. If I do not think that a new custom fitted set of clubs is going to produce the results that you expect, then I will tell you.
The most staggering fitting that I have ever completed was for a gentleman who had been playing golf for approx 30 years, had a handicap of 17, and hit every shot with a left to right flight (fade).
The clubs that he actually required were 11/2 inches longer than he had been using for several years.
After 6 months with his new clubs he had a handicap of 12 and could hit the ball from right to left (draw).
The process we use to establish the correct shaft length requires the application of impact tape to the face of clubs of various lengths. The Guest hits shots with the clubs. The correct club length will see the marks on the impact tape (left by the ball) in the middle of the face of the club.
Having enjoyed the benefits of custom fitting myself, and through the feedback from the people I have fitted, I cannot stress enough the importance of custom fitting.
Set Make Up
Set make up is the selection of the correct clubs that suit not only your game but also where you play. The goal is to have consistent distance differences between each of your clubs. An example I can give you is with the short game area. Most modern standard sets of golf clubs have a pitching wedge and a sand wedge. The pitching wedge will be approx 46 degrees in loft and the sand wedge will be 56 degrees in loft, a 10 degree difference. The loft angle difference between a pitching wedge and a 9 iron is only 4 degrees. The gap between each of the other irons should be 4 degrees as well.
If this is how your set is comprised then you may well benefit from a gap wedge. A gap wedge is a wedge that can have 52 or 54 degrees of loft. The only way to establish if you require a gap wedge is to hit the different clubs to see the size of the distance gaps between each club.
Launch Monitors
A Launch Monitor is an electronic device that records a number of statistics about a golf ball and the club head when it is hit. These include initial ball launch angle, ball spin rates, the angle of the face of the club at impact, and clubhead speed. The problem comes from how that information is interpreted.
An example I can give you took place recently. I was in New Zealand conducting some training sessions on behalf of Titleist for Golf Professionals. A former European Tour Player asked me to fit him for a new Driver. I fitted him using ball flight only.
Once the specifications were finalised and the ideal ball flight was achieved the player asked if we could make sure the specifications were correct by using the launch monitor.
With an audience of 15 Golf Professionals, the player hit his first shot with the club I had specified, and all eyes went to the computer readout, in particular the spin rate. The spin rate was 3400. The comments came from the audience that the spin rate was too high.
I gave the player a club that would reduce the spin rate and had him hit another shot. All eyes, except mine, went to the computer readout again. That’s better they said. The spin rate was reduced to the apparently ideal 2800. I then asked the player to hit another shot with the same club but this time I asked the audience to watch the ball.
To their surprise the ball just fell out of the sky. I then asked him to hit a shot with the driver I had specified, the spin rate was back to 3400 and the flight of the ball was restored and the ball travelled another 20 metres.
If the person fitting this player had relied only on the launch monitor, the player would have been fitted with the wrong club. A launch monitor can not replace ball flight.
Chris Rutherford in his capacity as Titleist's Prominent Fitting Professional, presenting his custom fitting knowledge to his fellow Professionals
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