Finally took my irons in for a fitting

[hckymeyer]

I finally found the time to take advantage of the free fittings being offered by Pat Ryan golf in MN and went in this afternoon to get my irons fitted. It's amazing what can change in a swing in a years time and playing more consistently.

 

I was fitted with my old irons at the beginning of last year. Since that time I've switched irons, but had kept the same flex/length/swing weight with the new ones.

 

First off I filled out a 3 page information profile with the basic information (age, height, weight, handicap ect...) as well as a couple pages of what my goals are, what my current game and mis-hits look like and the current makeup of my set. Then we sat down together and talked about what I was concerned about with my current setup and what my goals of getting fitted were.

 

After getting warmed up I hit 10-15 balls with my current 7 iron and we looked at the numbers. Basically the monitor confirmed what I had expected. Decent swing speed, out-to-in path with a slightly open club face at impact and a pretty poor smash factor.

 

My 7-iron is a Scratch SB-1, so it was a treat that Tom hooked me up with a Miura Tournament Blade to do the rest of my fitting with. One a side note that is one sweet club, but I thought the Scratch iron held up pretty well against it.

 

My current shaft is a DG S300 and that is also the shaft I got fit into last spring with my old irons. With the Miura I went through 5-10 balls with a bunch of different shafts and lengths. Tom didn't tell me what was changing with each shaft I hit, but it was very interesting how much the feel changed with each different option. I think I went through 5 different shaft combo's before we sat back down and looked at the numbers.

 

I'm not exactly sure what monitor he was using, but the numbers that came back were club speed, club path, face angle, tempo, and smash factor. It was very eye opening to see how much certain aspects changed with each different shaft.

 

I was very consistent on 4 of the factors. My swing speed was always between 97-99mph, club path was always 1-3 degrees out to in, face angle was always 1-3 degrees open, and tempo was always .95 - .98 seconds. I was actually very happy with the way that came out, I know that I come outside in (I have a fade), but I didn't realize I was that consistent with my swing.

 

The smash factor. Here is where everything changed for me. My current setup was getting about 1.19 and my best results with the various shafts was about 1.40. Tom said that's about 20mph of ball speed I was leaving on the table with my current setup. I was pretty floored that with how consistent the swing was that just changing a little bit on the length and flex could produce that much change.

 

So here's where I ended up. Lengthening the clubs .25", bending 1 degree upright, going from D4 to D5 swing weight, and going from DG S300 to KBS C-Taper Stiff. I'm excited for the combo and can't wait to get them back in a few days.

 

I know it's been said a million times, but I can't stress how important getting properly fit for a set of clubs is. I've been working on some things with setup and address as well as grip and hand position, but nothing with the actual swing. I haven't changed my swing since last year, but the best fit for me now is very different than it was a season ago.

 

I'm looking forward to playing with the knowledge that I've given myself the best possible chance to play well.

[Matt Saternus]

Great to hear about the gains you were able to make! Thanks for sharing.

[BK in TEXAS]

That's cool. That's a ton of speed too! Did the monitor give you any dispersion figures?

[The Dansome]

Can't believe how a few adjustments go so far, excited for you to hit those. Man now I gotta look up good fitters in Vancouver, I wouldn't know where to start.

[GolfSpy Tim]

Pumped to see these results - pretty amazing how much of a difference that all makes - and I remember my first fitting and finding out just how consistent my swing was.

 

I think we all always want to believe that we have erratic and inconsistent swings, but in reality, we do one thing and we do it the same again and again, hence why making swing changes doesn't come so easy.

 

Looking forward to hearing if this translates into any strokes dropped.

[hckymeyer]

So I played over the weekend with my backup set of irons. It's a set that I personally put together of 1 iron through sand wedge of Maxfli Revolution black dot. I shafted them up with very cheap Apollo stepless shafts.

 

I've actually never hit these clubs before today, haven't had them swing weighted, no loft or lie adjustment. Basically a set of irons that any true clubmaker would probaby cringe at.

 

The funny part? Shot pretty much the same score as usual.

 

That being said I still can't wait to get my regular set back

[Super Tuna]

Those are some pretty sweet changes mate. Looking forward to hearing how you get on after your clubs come back.

 

Can't believe how a few adjustments go so far, excited for you to hit those. Man now I gotta look up good fitters in Vancouver, I wouldn't know where to start.

 

Have you looked into this yet mate?

 

So far on the list I've got

Andrew Jeffers at Golftec North Van - Seemed sort of a prickly guy (yet happier then Matthew) at the time but is obviously damn good at what he does.

 

Kathy at NorthView - She was getting sick at the time so I don't think I really accomplished anything, but she seems really sinere in wanting to help everyone. Plus NorthView is a TPI place which is plenty sweet.

 

XXX - I'm blanking on his name right now, but he does the in house fitting for Miura

 

After that, I'm drawing total blanks. Winston, who use to have a shop at Musqueam was damn good as a club tech but has since shut his doors.

[JBones]

I found out that one of the local pros, who is also a club fitter, does lie fitting and bending for very cheap; only $30 for a full set. I'm going to take my irons to him this winter and get the loft/lie adjusted.

[Paul S]

Got the clubs back yet!?!? I'm anxious to hear how it goes. I'll be dropping by there again maybe next week to have my clubs tuned up to the specs Tom and I found to be most advantageous for me. I still can't get over how lucky we both are to have taken advantage of such a quality fitting, and for free.

 

Paul

[hckymeyer]

Just got home about an hour ago from picking them up. Unfortunately I can't get out today and play them since I couldn't find a sitter for my son. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

 

I have a glow ball tournament Friday night and I want to play them in daylight before that

 

Now time to go put the grips on. Then maybe I can finally remember to take some WITB pics.

[hckymeyer]

So just got back from the first round with the newly fitted sticks and I can comfortably say the clubs aren't the problem

 

Overall shot about the same as I usually do when not playing fantastic (low 80's) but it wasn't my clubs fault. Hit some terribly fat shots, wasn't sinking anything outside 7' and chipping was on/off.

 

On to the irons... I thought they felt great. Had a really nice trajectory with the C-Tapers and I felt like I picked up about a club in length. It felt very weird hitting say a 7 iron from where I usually hit 6. I think most of my misses today were just mental due to hitting a club lower. I was subconsciously trying to swing harder because I was hitting less club than I was used to. When I forced myself to just swing normal the irons were spot on. It just felt like a hot knife through butter when I hit it flush with a good swing.

 

I think it's going to take a round or two to dial back in my distances, but from a first impression I'm very happy with the adjustments that were made and I picked about a club in length after getting fitted properly.

[revkev]

I'm going to tag on here - was going to start a new thread but this really fits with yours hckymeyer!

 

I went for a fitting last spring and had a similar experience in that the fitter took his time, had me fill some stuff out and talked to me about goals. Ultimately we found that my iron shafts were too stiff and too long for me - I got the irons reshafted and the lies tweaked. I don't know that I gained any distance but I didn't loose any distance despite cutting down the shafts .5 and I'm certainly more consistent.

 

The remarkable thing about my fitting was the amount of give and take between the fitter and myself - he respected the fact that I have a lower handicap and could see fairly quickly that my numbers were reflecting that handicap in regards to smash factor and dispersion pattern. He asked lots of questions about preferances for ball flight and such.

 

That brings me to my reason for coming here - I recently completed a fitting for my new Mizuno irons. It was a pleasant experience but there was absolutely no give and take between the fitter and myself about my game, what I'm currently playing with, why I might have made the choices that I made, etc. In my opinion it was too sterile - a device was put on a test iron that spit out numbers and that's what we went with - I tested a number of suggested head/shaft combinations and the one that performed best (even though I had three that performed almost equally) according to the numbers was recommended - I had a number of iron/shaft combos that received 4 stars according to their system. In retrospect I wish we had spent more time talking through the pros and cons of each of those combos.

 

So here comes the question. In everyone's experience how much give/take has there been between yourself and the fitter? How much weight has the fitter placed on your comments? Have you ever gone for a fitting, seen a result and thought, "I don't think he captured who I am as a golfer?"

[Matt Saternus]

 

So here comes the question. In everyone's experience how much give/take has there been between yourself and the fitter? How much weight has the fitter placed on your comments? Have you ever gone for a fitting, seen a result and thought, "I don't think he captured who I am as a golfer?"

 

I say this a lot about lessons, but it's equally true about fittings: If the fitter/instructor is not asking questions, they're not doing their job. It's YOUR game, YOUR equipment, hence YOUR decisions.

 

Now, I would say that more often than not the response to my questions is, "I don't know/Can't tell the difference/Doesn't matter" and that's fine, but I ALWAYS ask.

 

RK, I just coined a new term based on your questions: "method fitter". It's analogous to "method teachers" who try to jam the student into a certain swing regardless of whether or not it fits. Method fitters do the same thing with clubs, "The machine says you should play this, so take it."

[Paul S]

I actually went to this same fitter shortly after hckymeyer in Minneapolis. I think that part of what made him particularly excellent, aside from being a Class A club maker was just that... He is a club maker. His goal isn't to sell you something manufactured, but rather to build something for you. Now, of course he can pretty much do anything he wants with anything you bring him, so there isn't any deterrent to already having a set of clubs you like, but he can optimize them in true club making fashion.

 

A big box store kind of fitting may be only a decent place to start as long as you can take what you learn there at face value. I would absolutely recommend finding an actual club MAKER and getting fit to your equipment from them, because that's where you'll find the give/take experience that you're looking for. The key is to trust such a fitter implicitly. Tom will withhold results and beat around the bush if you try to figure out what he's putting in your hands for each round of shots until the end when he reviews the data. The only other major key is to NOT try altering your swing to produce specific results. It's not a golf lesson, it's a fitting.

 

OR, just make the trip up here to Minneapolis and look up patryangolf.com

 

Paul

[hckymeyer]

I actually went to this same fitter shortly after hckymeyer in Minneapolis. I think that part of what made him particularly excellent, aside from being a Class A club maker was just that... He is a club maker. His goal isn't to sell you something manufactured, but rather to build something for you. Now, of course he can pretty much do anything he wants with anything you bring him, so there isn't any deterrent to already having a set of clubs you like, but he can optimize them in true club making fashion.

 

A big box store kind of fitting may be only a decent place to start as long as you can take what you learn there at face value. I would absolutely recommend finding an actual club MAKER and getting fit to your equipment from them, because that's where you'll find the give/take experience that you're looking for. The key is to trust such a fitter implicitly. Tom will withhold results and beat around the bush if you try to figure out what he's putting in your hands for each round of shots until the end when he reviews the data. The only other major key is to NOT try altering your swing to produce specific results. It's not a golf lesson, it's a fitting.

 

OR, just make the trip up here to Minneapolis and look up patryangolf.com

 

Paul

 

Very well said Paul.

 

I think it really comes down to the goal of whomever you went to for a fitting. If their goal is to sell you new clubs then they are going to try and shoehorn you into whatever they're selling. If their goal is to fit you into the best possible clubs for your current game then there is going to be a solid conversation around what your current game is like and they are going to want your feedback and input about what you want your clubs to do for you.

 

I've been lucky enough to have great experiences at two different fitters in MN (Pat Ryan Golf and Totally Driven) and haven't yet experienced someone just trying to tell me what to get without a great conversation about the rational for choosing a certain club or shaft and what that equipment would do for my game.

[revkev]

I will say that from my limited experience I totally agree with Paul and I like Matt's new catch phrase.

 

My spring fitting was with a club builder who didn't care to build new clubs for me - I met him through another pastor - my experience was very similar to the one described here - the biggest good from that fitting was shortening my putter - I would never in a million years have thought of that - never but it has worked wonderfully - I almost always start a putt on the line I've picked now and pretty generally strike it solidly so I'm getting the pace right - remarkable.

 

Mind you the other fitter that I went to has won TMag's national fitter of the year award, twice, so it's not as if he's chopped liver. However he also has a stable of LPGA players that he fits and sometimes reputation and who you know trumps what you do. He clearly was - hey here's the print out, here's the data, this is what you're going to get. My contention is that when I looked at the data on the computer screen it really wasn't that clear - there were 3 clubhead/shaft combos that scored in the recommended range - If I had gone into this blindly and just ordered without the fitting I would have selected either the JPX 825 Pros or the MP-H4's with Project x 5.0. The 835 Pros Project x 5.0 were my number 2 choice on the computer and the MP4's steel were my number 3 again both well in the recommended range. I wanted the fitting because I couldn't remember how flat my lies needed to be and I wanted to try both of those clubs. The fitter said, steel, and most of the better players that I know play, steel, so I'm thinking - he must be right - he's the expert. Of course when you look at this better players and take out the ones who are under 55 you suddenly see that the better players in their 50's and 60's play graphite as often as they play steel.

 

I hit my graphite yesterday and had some visual observations - I launch the steel higher, it flies straighter (not as much draw), but I'm more accurate with the graphite because I hit it solidly more frequently and it generally curves the same amount every time, I'm also half a club longer with it with the exception of the 5 iron vs. 5 hybrid - I'm just ridiculously good with the Mizuno 5 iron - bizarre because I've never been good with a 5 iron in my life even when I carried up to a 2 iron - I know, I know, that's golf - Oh I way prefer the feel of the steel or at least the mizuno heads on the end of the steel shafts to my current irons but results are the point here and there's no comparison in the difference in results.

 

I have another related question but I'm going to start a new thread for that one.