Will golfers mentality change?

[RickyBobby_PR]

The what irons for “x” hdcp? What shaft for “y” swing speed? And a few other similar topics seem to pop up slot around the forums. Golfers seem to be stuck in some of ways of thinking. With all the technology from launch monitors, club heads in irons and woods, shaft materials, access to fitters abd demo days, there’s a lot of information and “tools” out there.

With all of this access and technology will golfers ever break the old mentality and come around to there not a one shaft, head, iron category that’s a fit all mold? What works for one may not work for another.

what say you fellow spies?

[MattF]

I believe it will take a while because that thinking has been around for ages. I know one of the mantras here (and I'm in the club too) is get fit, get fit, get fit...but a lot of people are a bit slow on the up take.

[cnosil]

Simple answer is no. Everyone wants it to be easy and having to go to a location and try things out takes time. Just give me the answer!

[silver & black]

2 hours ago, cnosil said:

Simple answer is no. Everyone wants it to be easy and having to go to a location and try things out takes time. Just give me the answer!
 

Well... yes...  but it also takes money. I'd really like to get fit, and I'm going to try to do that over the Winter.

Some of us aren't in a position to spend the money on a driver/iron fitting and then purchase the clubs too. I know I have more pressing needs/responsibilities than being fit for golf clubs. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

18 minutes ago, silver & black said:

Well... yes...  but it also takes money. I'd really like to get fit, and I'm going to try to do that over the Winter.

Some of us aren't in a position to spend the money on a driver/iron fitting and then purchase the clubs too. I know I have more pressing needs/responsibilities than being fit for golf clubs. 

Are there demo days in your are? If so do all the major brands hold them?

[Mr. 82]

From a generic perspective, most golfers don't have a clue about getting fit, or shafts, or what works best for them.  Most of the guys I play with are just casual golfers, and their set of clubs cost them no more than $100, and they either inherited it from someone, or bought it at a garage sale.  Then again, these are the guys who have a priority list and golf is like #100 on that list, which means that the only time they play is if it's 72 degrees, sunshine, with no wind, and it's not hunting, duck, fishing or football season.  So that leaves April 13th on the calendar for golf for them.  

Honestly, in my circle of the universe of golfers that are semi-serious, there are maybe a handful of guys who spent real money on their clubs and got fitted for them.  My best friend is a major club ho, who went full bore on everything in his bag.  He had two year old Taylor Made irons and tossed them and got fitted for a newer set because he didn't like the results from them.  It's a never ending cycle with him though, as just about every time I meet up with him to play he shows me something new he just bought.  He's got like 3 brand new golf bags in the garage and he texted me the other day showing me the golf bag he just bought.  He bought a pull cart not even 6 months ago, and then he goes out and drops like $8k on a golf cart (he lives on the golf course).

But I can only laugh at his expenditures, because if I ever need a buddy to play a round of golf, I just text him and 99% of the time he's in.  And he's about the only one I can count on for that.  Everyone else always has something better to do.  I guess I'm just an odd ball if I am the only one looking at life through a golf lens first, and everything else is a distance second.

[RickyBobby_PR]

7 minutes ago, GSwag said:

From a generic perspective, most golfers don't have a clue about getting fit, or shafts, or what works best for them.  Most of the guys I play with are just casual golfers, and their set of clubs cost them no more than $100, and they either inherited it from someone, or bought it at a garage sale.  Then again, these are the guys who have a priority list and golf is like #100 on that list, which means that the only time they play is if it's 72 degrees, sunshine, with no wind, and it's not hunting, duck, fishing or football season.  So that leaves April 13th on the calendar for golf for them.  

Honestly, in my circle of the universe of golfers that are semi-serious, there are maybe a handful of guys who spent real money on their clubs and got fitted for them.  My best friend is a major club ho, who went full bore on everything in his bag.  He had two year old Taylor Made irons and tossed them and got fitted for a newer set because he didn't like the results from them.  It's a never ending cycle with him though, as just about every time I meet up with him to play he shows me something new he just bought.  He's got like 3 brand new golf bags in the garage and he texted me the other day showing me the golf bag he just bought.  He bought a pull cart not even 6 months ago, and then he goes out and drops like $8k on a golf cart (he lives on the golf course).

But I can only laugh at his expenditures, because if I ever need a buddy to play a round of golf, I just text him and 99% of the time he's in.  And he's about the only one I can count on for that.  Everyone else always has something better to do.  I guess I'm just an odd ball if I am the only one looking at life through a golf lens first, and everything else is a distance second.

I have a mix of the casual golfer mentality friends and the more avid club junkie with some in between those.

what I find fascinating is what’s supposed to be the more educated golfer aka forum/internet golfer still asks these types of qustions. But I do think it’s a combination of what Mattf and cnosil stated. The mentality of I swing 100mph with driver I’m supposed to be in stiff flex or the I’m 6’ tall with wrist to floor being x. Do I really need y lie angle, because that’s how it was done forever and now with various weights, bend profiles, etc there’s so many options some consumers are confused

[cnosil]

Well... yes...  but it also takes money. I'd really like to get fit, and I'm going to try to do that over the Winter.
Some of us aren't in a position to spend the money on a driver/iron fitting and then purchase the clubs too. I know I have more pressing needs/responsibilities than being fit for golf clubs. 

Don’t disagree with you at all. Everyone has priorities and a certain amount of disposable income. As someone mentioned go to demo days. Go to you local golf store and try equipment and see what works; launch monitors are readily available. Haven’t had a store tell me I can’t try things own and they will even switch shafts. I can do those things for free. And i know not everyone has a brick and mortar shop or demo day near by .

There is just too much to a persons swing to be able to give solid advice via a forum on what club will work best. It is a dialogue that occurs over a period of time based on demonstrable results and comparisons.

[TheWahoo]

Sometimes, I wonder if the OEMs aren't  counting on the "Golfer's Mentality".    I've got to think that their "Madison Avenue" people know that many golfers are chasing or looking for that magic club or just simply like shiny new clubs in their bags.   I do understand that over time, technology can make a valuable difference, but how can technology just in six months or a year make such a difference as to warrant $400 to $500 for a new driver or $1,000 for a set of irons over last year's models.  

When TGC televised from the last PGA show, I recall a Cleveland representative suggesting that they were going to keep their drivers simple.   He noted that while many of those drivers with the ability to move weights around seem like the latest and the greatest, the Average Joe Golfer simply doesn't know how to use that ability or related technology, that he just simply wants to pick up a club and be able to hit it.   I can't speak for others, but he sure knows me.   

[Mr. 82]

5 minutes ago, cnosil said:

There is just too much to a persons swing to be able to give solid advice via a forum on what club will work best. It is a dialogue that occurs over a period of time based on demonstrable results and comparisons.

 

Well, if you want to put numbers on it, I honestly don't come here for any advice.  It's kind of like when I am playing a round and am missing a shot or two here or there.  The last thing I want to hear is someone telling me how F'd up my game is.  And in tournaments they can't anyway, because advice is against the rules.  I casually browse for certain golf related equipment/items/stuff, and after spending 6 months contemplating a purchase, I spend that 6 months reading, digesting, thinking about, and narrowing down my options to what I think is the way I want to go.  SO essentially, it's like 5% of anything someone is saying here, and 95% of my own independent research.  I have spent a fair amount of time reading MGS official reviews of products, and then deciding on something after reading that, but the major factor in most of my purchasing decisions is money.  I just don't have a ton of disposable income laying around for me to drop on golf stuff.  But sometimes you see a deal that is just too good to pass up, like when they were selling Srixon Z Star balls for $20 a dozen back on Fathers Day.  I already had 4 dozen balls in the house, but that was too good of a deal NOT to buy them.

And I'll offer you this one nugget on being influenced by a friend.  A couple of years ago I was struggling with my 3 wood, and it was costing me dearly.  So the buddy I played with all the time told me how he loved the Callaway 4 wood and that I might want to give that a try.  So on a whim one day out of frustration, and seeing that club on ebay for like $125, I pulled the trigger on a used one.  Best money I ever spent as I absolutely love my 4 wood.  I just wish PING made a 4 wood in the G400 line.  But it will be REALLY hard to get that 4 wood out of my bag.

[RickyBobby_PR]

12 minutes ago, TheWahoo said:

Sometimes, I wonder if the OEMs aren't  counting on the "Golfer's Mentality".    I've got to think that their "Madison Avenue" people know that many golfers are chasing or looking for that magic club or just simply like shiny new clubs in their bags.   I do understand that over time, technology can make a valuable difference, but how can technology just in six months or a year make such a difference as to warrant $400 to $500 for a new driver or $1,000 for a set of irons over last year's models.  

When TGC televised from the last PGA show, I recall a Cleveland representative suggesting that they were going to keep their drivers simple.   He noted that while many of those drivers with the ability to move weights around seem like the latest and the greatest, the Average Joe Golfer simply doesn't know how to use that ability or related technology, that he just simply wants to pick up a club and be able to hit it.   I can't speak for others, but he sure knows me.   

Of course to an extent they are because they know the avg golfer isn’t getting fit, tends to buy what they know or a buddy tells them, Or they go to. If box store test some drivers and the only number other than price that matters is total distance.

i think it’s been shown enough from year to year the difference if any between release us minute and it’s not until you hit the 3-5 year gap that things start to separate for some. But marketing gets the uninformed and even the more informed sometimes

imo the adjustability is more for the fitters than the avg joe sonthat futters can get a golfer dialed in and many rarely change once fit. But it also serves to aid the marketing and able to show visual tech

 

 

 

 

[Mr. 82]

32 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

I have a mix of the casual golfer mentality friends and the more avid club junkie with some in between those.

what I find fascinating is what’s supposed to be the more educated golfer aka forum/internet golfer still asks these types of qustions. But I do think it’s a combination of what Mattf and cnosil stated. The mentality of I swing 100mph with driver I’m supposed to be in stiff flex or the I’m 6’ tall with wrist to floor being x. Do I really need y lie angle, because that’s how it was done forever and now with various weights, bend profiles, etc there’s so many options some consumers are confused

I can't speak for anyone else, but asking question here about your swing, or about certain clubs, or other golf related things, is much more comfortable to do here, and you know you'll get some feedback one way or the other.  If I ask these same questions in Edwin Watts, I subconsciously know that the sales dude in the store honestly doesn't know me, and probably doesn't give to flips about anything I am saying.  The only thing he cares about is how much I am spending.  It's also a possibility that there are 2 or 3 other people in the store at the time, and if I am tying him up with 100 random golf questions it becomes awkward.

And yeah, I can ask a buddy, but generally speaking if I am asking a buddy it's in the middle a round or something.  I don't know about anyone else, but none of my buddies will hang with me for an hour or so on the range while I pick their brain on my golf swing.  Most of the time it's hard enough to get them to just show up for 18 holes.

And professional advice via the form of instruction from an actual pro costs money, and you have to make an appointment, and set aside your schedule to get that done, etc.  And even then it's very limited, because once you ask a question you'll probably want to stick with 1 or 2 things to work on, rather than going down the list of 30 or so issues you have with your golf swing.  That would be far too time consuming and confusing and the net results would probably be negative.

But hopping on MGS, and posing a question or two is not only free, but it's convenient, and doesn't take me away from anything else.  I'm also posting in my free time, and I didn't have to plan it in advance to make it happen.

Does all that makes any sense whatsoever?

[deejaid]

I think one of the problems is the amount of information given in custom club fitting. Now I agree that a person should be fit for their clubs, but length, lie angle, and shaft flex should be it for most golfers.

I laugh when I read of guys looking at their launch monitor numbers, wondering if they can lower their driver spin rate 300 rpm if they buy that $500 shaft upgrade. Does it really make that much of a difference?

Now I’ll ask this question. How many guys go for their fitting and drink a few beers while they are being fit? Zero, right? But on a golf course they will gladly have a few drinks.

Now there is no way you can possibly swing a golf club for optimal performance while consuming alcohol. Yet guys are playing launch monitor golf. Spending hours and thousands of dollars to get optimal launch conditions on a computer monitor to then go to the course and have a few drinks while playing, guaranteeing they will not be able to replicate those numbers the achieved hitting off a mat into a screen.

Now, not all golfers drink while playing, but to expect the same performance in a simulator as on the course is just as foolish. Hitting 25 shots in a row and getting data is much different than getting once chance at hitting a perfect drive on the first tee.






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[RickyBobby_PR]

13 minutes ago, GSwag said:

I can't speak for anyone else, but asking question here about your swing, or about certain clubs, or other golf related things, is much more comfortable to do here, and you know you'll get some feedback one way or the other.  If I ask these same questions in Edwin Watts, I subconsciously know that the sales dude in the store honestly doesn't know me, and probably doesn't give to flips about anything I am saying.  The only thing he cares about is how much I am spending.  It's also a possibility that there are 2 or 3 other people in the store at the time, and if I am tying him up with 100 random golf questions it becomes awkward.

And yeah, I can ask a buddy, but generally speaking if I am asking a buddy it's in the middle a round or something.  I don't know about anyone else, but none of my buddies will hang with me for an hour or so on the range while I pick their brain on my golf swing.  Most of the time it's hard enough to get them to just show up for 18 holes.

And professional advice via the form of instruction from an actual pro costs money, and you have to make an appointment, and set aside your schedule to get that done, etc.  And even then it's very limited, because once you ask a question you'll probably want to stick with 1 or 2 things to work on, rather than going down the list of 30 or so issues you have with your golf swing.  That would be far too time consuming and confusing and the net results would probably be negative.

But hopping on MGS, and posing a question or two is not only free, but it's convenient, and doesn't take me away from anything else.  I'm also posting in my free time, and I didn't have to plan it in advance to make it happen.

Does all that makes any sense whatsoever?

I totally get what you are saying and makes sense. 

[cnosil]

@GSwag. I am with you on all your points. Many of us try things on our own or provide some type of information. I was interpreting the original post as the occasional: what shaft should I get for my irons, my drive swing speed is 86 MPH, or what putter should I get. Impossible to answer without knowing the players goals and objectives. It is part of the bigger discussion that we can have here.

 

[SteddyGolf]

My perspective about custom fitting is somewhat different. I’ve always purchased standard everything. My swing developed around this standard. When testing the i210 irons I committed whole heartedly to the custom fitting modality. The results were mixed. Maybe what I was missing is the follow-up to verify zero.

So here is my take. When I buy a set of irons I go into them with the expectation they will last me 5 to 10 years. Over a 5 to 10 year period of time specific swing dynamics will change. If I custom fit to far off the standard fit path I run the risk of venturing far away from that original custom fit.

As a caveat and an exception to my way of thinking, if your body type, physical abilities and or physical limitations deviate a good bit from the norm then a custom fit even in the early stages of your learning process is essential.


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[RickyBobby_PR]

34 minutes ago, cnosil said:

@GSwag. I am with you on all your points. Many of us try things on our own or provide some type of information. I was interpreting the original post as the occasional: what shaft should I get for my irons, my drive swing speed is 86 MPH, or what putter should I get. Impossible to answer without knowing the players goals and objectives. It is part of the bigger discussion that we can have here.

 

Pretty much this was the jist. It’s nice to get opinions on whether as golfers in general we are stuck in a method of doing things and as we get more exposure and knowledge can/will we adapt or do we even want to adapt.

i like he golf talk and to see why we do the things we do