Club fitting - anyone else have a bad taste in their mouth

[Parski]

Does anyone else have a bad taste in their mouth regarding club fitting? 

I've been fitted twice... once for a driver (at Golf Galaxy), and another time for irons (at a TaylorMade demo days). Got fitted for a Ping driver, tried it for a year and a half and never really hit it well or consistent (gave it to my son who kills it). With the irons I got fitted into a set of SpeedBlades, again played them for an entire season, and again inconsistent. My local Pro watched me on the range and said, "Those don't fit you". He tried to bend them some (TaylorMade are difficult to bend), but... Now hitting Ping G400 (off the rack) and love them. Maybe it was the fitter (didn't really spend enough time with me?), or maybe my swing is just too inconsistent (granted, it was off-season), or maybe my swing changes from day-to-day or round-to round.  IDK Anyway, I now believe I can modify my swing to fit the clubs, rather than the other way around. Anyone else have similar experiences?

[StrokerAce]

I'd think in order to have a real valuable fitting you'd need to go to a local fitter or somewhere like club champion.

Not to say Golf Galaxy or demo days are no good (never tried GG) but the demo days I've been to are not a true fitting where it's just you and the fitter and they use the launch monitor and switch shafts in and out and try a number of different things.

Even so, I've had a person-to-person fitting and wasn't impressed with it.  They told me I could come back and get any adjustment needed but I think it all depends on who you get....

[TR1PTIK]

Can't speak about Golf Galaxy (though the impression I get online is that they aren't very good), but demo days are going to vary based on who the rep is for your region and possibly even their relationship with the facility that's hosting them (us humans being what we are and sometimes holding grudges if we don't like the way things happen from time to time). 

I've been to a Titliest demo and the rep was pretty good. I didn't buy anything because I really didn't have the money, but the course pro insisted I check it out so I did. The rep spent what I'd consider to be a fairly generous amount of time with me and helped me optimize the clubs I tried. He even took the time to help me with my swing a tiny bit since I was having trouble getting the face to close.

There are a number of reasons why you may not have had any success with those clubs, but are now able to find some with an off-the-rack purchase, but I'd argue if you could manipulate your swing to make the clubs work you wouldn't have had an issue in the first place. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that perhaps there was a significant issue with length, lie angle, or weight that threw you off.

As @GolfSpy Stroker suggested, it all just depends on who you get sometimes. I'd always opt to choose a fitter based on their reputation rather than going for the convenience of a golf store or demo day.

[bellairemi]

I worked part-time as a clubfitter for almost a decade and left the field concerned that the pace of change and ever rising costs of equipment (like shafts) and clubfitting tools (like Trackman) had outstripped the ability and financial resources of most fitters to keep pace.  Annually, I make the 8 hour round trip to a facility I know has the proper equipment and experience to do a good fitting; there are probably two dozen places that offer "fitting" services closer to me but it usually just someone who knows how to turn on the launch monitor and change the heads.  Demo days also are most definitely not places to get fit as that is not the goal of that day.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by bellairemi

[Devildog]

My son is a competitive junior player and got fitted quite well.  However, I went to the same guy and after 9 weeks of trying could never hit the irons he put me in well.   Went back to my previous set and hit them great.  Didn't need new irons but was lured by shiny new toys I guess.  My main takeaway is this, first off if you don't get fit using the ball you normally play it's almost worthless.  Second, it's more than numbers, feel and looks do matter.  Third, hitting off mats is not same as hitting off grass.  Finally, and I think this was part of my issue, the weight of the shaft and overall weight of the club wasn't taken into consideration.  I ended up in 105 gram shaft which is too light.  Went back to a S300 shaft in my old clubs and hit the ball great.  

[JAGolfore]

I will add my 2 cents.  Demo days are not the best time to get fit as they are trying to see as many people as possible.  A proper fitting will go through multiple shaft and head combinations for both irons and drivers.  You as the buyer must have an open mind as well as something you might not think will work.  I got fit for my driver at Club Champion.  Do I hit this club well, yes, but do I think a shaft that was less expensive would give the same results, yes.  I have the Accra Z465 shaft and I like it, but in hind sight I wish I was more informed as the consumer to try a less expensive shaft.  

In the end I think as the person buying the clubs you have to feel comfortable in what you are getting and have the performance match or exceed what you currently play to put new clubs in the bag.  

[PlaidJacket]

9 minutes ago, Devildog said:

My main takeaway is this, first off if you don't get fit using the ball you normally play it's almost worthless

I'm not buying that. What if you get fit with ball 'A' and then later a new model comes out. Do you go get new clubs? No. Are you only going to play a 2019 model ball for the next 5 years since you were fit to it? You'd better stock up.

What's worthless is.... a worthless so called cub fitter. They're a dime a dozen. There's way more to proper club fitting than a launch monitor as it mostly boils down the experience of the fitter IMO. As for demo days... these guys (typically) are not trained club fitters. They're Reps for the company trying to sell you their clubs. Maybe a Rep can start off driving around the country in a van while learning how to change heads and shafts and turn on a LM. Later he might move up in the company and start learning more about club fitting. But a factory Rep driving around in a van isn't exactly the top echelon at the company.

[null]

Your mistakes were 1) expecting a decent fitting at Golf Galaxy and 2) Getting fit a manufacturer demo day.  

 

[MDGolfHacker]

18 hours ago, Parski said:

Does anyone else have a bad taste in their mouth regarding club fitting? 

I've been fitted twice... once for a driver (at Golf Galaxy), and another time for irons (at a TaylorMade demo days). Got fitted for a Ping driver, tried it for a year and a half and never really hit it well or consistent (gave it to my son who kills it). With the irons I got fitted into a set of SpeedBlades, again played them for an entire season, and again inconsistent. My local Pro watched me on the range and said, "Those don't fit you". He tried to bend them some (TaylorMade are difficult to bend), but... Now hitting Ping G400 (off the rack) and love them. Maybe it was the fitter (didn't really spend enough time with me?), or maybe my swing is just too inconsistent (granted, it was off-season), or maybe my swing changes from day-to-day or round-to round.  IDK Anyway, I now believe I can modify my swing to fit the clubs, rather than the other way around. Anyone else have similar experiences?

I'll echo what a lot of the others have said.  I use demo days and local big box golf stores to narrow down my choices then I'd go to a club champion of golftec that will spend one on one time for the best optimal set for me.  BUT, sometimes you don't have a choice but to go to a golf Galaxy or Dicks so I would do a couple of visits along with a manufacturer demo day to see if their fittings all match up.  Hopefully they do.

 

MDGolfHacker

[RickyBobby_PR]

It’s all fitter dependent. There’s some reps at demo days I won’t even bother getting fit by and there are 3-4 across a few brands that are top notch.

big box stores are pretty much a no go for me. 

[revkev]

Does anyone else have a bad taste in their mouth regarding club fitting? 
I've been fitted twice... once for a driver (at Golf Galaxy), and another time for irons (at a TaylorMade demo days). Got fitted for a Ping driver, tried it for a year and a half and never really hit it well or consistent (gave it to my son who kills it). With the irons I got fitted into a set of SpeedBlades, again played them for an entire season, and again inconsistent. My local Pro watched me on the range and said, "Those don't fit you". He tried to bend them some (TaylorMade are difficult to bend), but... Now hitting Ping G400 (off the rack) and love them. Maybe it was the fitter (didn't really spend enough time with me?), or maybe my swing is just too inconsistent (granted, it was off-season), or maybe my swing changes from day-to-day or round-to round.  IDK Anyway, I now believe I can modify my swing to fit the clubs, rather than the other way around. Anyone else have similar experiences?

Other people have danced around it - I will say it - I wouldn’t call either of these experiences fittings.

You may want to ask your Pro who he recommends as a local fitter and try that out.

Good luck


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[tony@CIC]

Does anyone else have a bad taste in their mouth regarding club fitting?  I've been fitted twice... once for a driver (at Golf Galaxy), and another time for irons (at a TaylorMade demo days). Got fitted for a Ping driver, tried it for a year and a half and never really hit it well or consistent (gave it to my son who kills it). With the irons I got fitted into a set of SpeedBlades, again played them for an entire season, and again inconsistent. My local Pro watched me on the range and said, "Those don't fit you". He tried to bend them some (TaylorMade are difficult to bend), but... Now hitting Ping G400 (off the rack) and love them. Maybe it was the fitter (didn't really spend enough time with me?), or maybe my swing is just too inconsistent (granted, it was off-season), or maybe my swing changes from day-to-day or round-to round.  IDK Anyway, I now believe I can modify my swing to fit the clubs, rather than the other way around. Anyone else have similar experiences?

 

Been there done that. I've had various fittings at big box stores and at our Club's demo day. At the time I thought they were good and provided me the clubs that I needed. Then I went to a real fitter who is brand agnostic. He had fitting carts for all of the brands and I spent the better part of the afternoon hitting balls with a cross section of brands and different shafts. My wife recently went through the same experience with that same fitter. It's made a world of difference in both of our games.

 

 

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[HardcoreLooper]

I wrote at length about my Golf Galaxy fitting experience for the Cobra Connect Challenge 2 last year.  The TL;DR of it was that I received an awful fitting, got so angry afterward that I went back the next day and complained about it and received a barely adequate fitting from the fitting department supervisor.  I still wonder if I wouldn't have done better with the F8+ driver instead of the F8.

There's one extremely reputable fitter here in Richmond, my friends all rave about him, but unfortunately he stopped carrying Cobra.  The next time I'm buying clubs, I'll most likely go to him and just pick from one of the many other brands he works with.

Fitting is all dependent upon the fitter.  There are probably some good fitters at some Golf Galaxy stores somewhere in this country, but it's a crapshoot.  Improve your odds with recommendations.

[trentyoung33]

I recently got fit for a new driver at Club Champion. While I can say the entire experience was worth it, the major flaw with Club Champion is hitting indoors on a simulator. I know that it is the "standard" to get fit indoors with wind conditions and other variables potentially affecting the fitting, but I hated not being able to see the true ball flight.

The first time I hit my new driver on a range, the flight was not appealing. Definitely has taken some getting used to, and at the end of the day, it added 20 yards from my previous driver so I can't complain too much.

As far as the actual fitter, he was very knowledgeable and was able to rather quickly get spin numbers and launch angle to where they needed to be to optimize distance.

 

[StrokerAce]

9 minutes ago, trentyoung33 said:

I recently got fit for a new driver at Club Champion. While I can say the entire experience was worth it, the major flaw with Club Champion is hitting indoors on a simulator. I know that it is the "standard" to get fit indoors with wind conditions and other variables potentially affecting the fitting, but I hated not being able to see the true ball flight.

The first time I hit my new driver on a range, the flight was not appealing. Definitely has taken some getting used to, and at the end of the day, it added 20 yards from my previous driver so I can't complain too much.

As far as the actual fitter, he was very knowledgeable and was able to rather quickly get spin numbers and launch angle to where they needed to be to optimize distance.

 

I always found that interesting about club champion....they are a very nice facility and present themselves as a high quality professional fitter (as opposed to something like DSG) but the indoor thing was peculiar.

It's like getting fit by a computer algorithm....there's something to be said about seeing how the ball flies outdoors, hearing the club outside, etc.

But... a lot of really high quality places are doing it that way and it sounds like the results speak for themselves so I guess it works!

[trentyoung33]

5 minutes ago, GolfSpy Stroker said:

I always found that interesting about club champion....they are a very nice facility and present themselves as a high quality professional fitter (as opposed to something like DSG) but the indoor thing was peculiar.

It's like getting fit by a computer algorithm....there's something to be said about seeing how the ball flies outdoors, hearing the club outside, etc.

But... a lot of really high quality places are doing it that way and it sounds like the results speak for themselves so I guess it works!

It's funny you commented about the sound. I'd hit the Cobra F9 (driver I was fitted to) indoors multiple times at Golf Galaxy and then Club Champion. I loved the sound indoors, and when I hit it on the range it sounds completely different. That has actually taken some getting used to because it is very muted compared to my Epic that I was using previously.

[RickyBobby_PR]

2 minutes ago, GolfSpy Stroker said:

I always found that interesting about club champion....they are a very nice facility and present themselves as a high quality professional fitter (as opposed to something like DSG) but the indoor thing was peculiar.

It's like getting fit by a computer algorithm....there's something to be said about seeing how the ball flies outdoors, hearing the club outside, etc.

But... a lot of really high quality places are doing it that way and it sounds like the results speak for themselves so I guess it works!

It’s about optimizing the launch characteristics which indoors and using the right monitor can be achieved. The downside is as mentioned the outdoor perspective of seeing flight and acoustics. I haven’t done an indoor fitting and I do prefer outdoors for those reasons but one thing to consider is how many amateurs try to change something in their swing based on ball flight and/or numbers presented by the fitter in an effort to achieve something they are used to or perceive to be what they like. An indoor fitting takes that away and you get a general idea of ball flight.