I recently did an iron fitting and the results are confusing the heck out of me, so I thought I would get your guys opinion on this. To give you guys a background on the fitting, It was done indoors with a SkyTrak Launch Monitor at my local country club. (Far from a TXG experience, I know) I am a single digit handicap and a decent weekend warrior but nothing special. I am also 300 miles away from any Club Champion or top 100 club fitting facility, so my options are some what limited.
The Pro had me start out by hitting my current 7 iron, (Srixon Z745 w/DG S300 shafts) and Skytrak registered my carry to average around 175 yards with 77 mph club head speed and 115mph ball speed . The pro saw the carry distance and immediately told me that I would need an X flex shaft. It was a very quick assumption by him, and that surprised me because I am not the fastest swinger and am not all that comfortable hitting X Flex shafts since I never warm up prior to a round. He then had me hit the Mizuno Shaft Optimizer. The carry was around 178 yards, with 78 mph club head speed and 118 mph ball speed. The Optimizer recommended all light weight (<100 grams) regular flex shafts. (Tempo 4, Toe 3, kick 5, Release 3) I have a fairly slow and deliberate tempo and I don't generate a ton of club head speed, but again I was still surprised by the light weight regular flex recommendation.
What I find to be crazy though is that the club pro and the Optimizer were recommending shafts at opposite ends of the spectrum. One X Flex and one R flex. I know that an initial recommendation by anyone or anything is just a starting point, and then you test from there, but I am not sure anyone would have the stamina to test such a wide range of shaft flex's and weights during an hour long fitting. What if there had only been a club fitter and no Optimizer? I probably would have been fit into something like a DG X100. What if there was the Optimizer and no club fitter? Then I would have probably been fit into something like an R300 DG 95. That is a 35 gram and two flex difference!
My questions are, do you think it is ok to trust the shaft Optimizer? How can there be such a difference in recommendations? Could the launch monitor data be wrong? There are still a lot of human elements involved in a fitting, so how does someone determine they are getting an accurate fitting?