Is Club Champion worth it?

[William P]

CarlH hit the nail on the head.

I would only advocate that you get fitted. I believe as stated by others that your swing is more consistent than you may think regardless of your level of play. Proper fitting clubs should enhance the learning experience as you grow into the game.

Personally, I found CC to be a very good experience, although I will admit it is a significant investment.  My fitter, Brian, was very knowledgeable and shared data with me as we progressed through the process. I was given options at every step and never felt as though I was being pushed towards a more expensive aftermarket product. So, as some stated earlier, it would appear that the fitter is a major factor in any fitting, and it is possible to have a good or bad experience with any option.

I hope all went weel for your father's fitting, and he enjoys the experience.

[RickyBobby_PR]

8 hours ago, Jim Shaw said:

wow, some really interesting and educational discussion on this thread. My takeaway is that this company would not be my 1st. choice at club fitting. I have heard this from more than one person in the circles I play with. 

I would think if you live in or close to a large community or city you will have lots of options, and MGS is a great place to get feedback. 

@ChitownM2, if you reach out on this site and ask the local spy's for fitting options I am sure you will get lots of options. 

 

CC wouldn’t be my choice either unless the fitter was well recommended, which isn’t that likely. There are only a few locations that would trust based on respected sources. 

7 hours ago, ChitownM2 said:

I've got a couple other options my father can go to if need be but the fitting is more expensive and they're ~ 1 hr away instead of 5 min so that was the real driver in him choosing CC, plus his unfamiliarity with all of the above pitfalls.

Honestly though there aren't as many options as your would think even in a major city.  True spec and cool clubs have a similar business model to CC and then after that you're looking at PGATSS where you risk getting a guy who watched a 1 hr video being your fitter.  Most of the courses that have pros who offer fittings only have affiliations with one or two brands so you can't get a full brand agnostic fitting.  And even then I haven't gotten great responses as to who the good ones are when I've inquired before.  

At this point I'm hoping this goes well today.  I spent a lot of time this weekend going through each mfr site and making a list of the shaft options that each offers in the budget of what my father is willing to spend.  I don't expect the fitter to have memorized the list of stock options for each mfr so that's why I am going so I can help with that info if necessary.  He's playing a senior flex now and even in his prime only ever played regular so that helped narrow the lists substantially.

PGAtourSS has a tour van fitting that will get you at least a somewhat competent fitter in most cases.

hes only playing the flex listed in the shaft that the manufacturer put on there. That shaft could be a regular or stiffer in another brand and a softer flex in a different band. Choosing shafts or limiting it to a flex based on one manufacturers label is a bad idea. Recoils as an example have the tendency to play stiffer. 

[Owengeorge13]

I like watching TXG fittings and true spec fittings on YouTube.  It gives/gave me an idea of how fittings should go before I went.  TXG is part of club champion now, but from what I have seen they do things a little different then the CC close to me.  Truespec  

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Owengeorge13

[RickyBobby_PR]

5 minutes ago, Owengeorge13 said:

I like watching TXG fittings and true spec fittings on YouTube.  It gives/gave me an idea of how fittings should go before I went.  TXG is part of club champion now, but from what I have seen they do things a little different then CC close to me.  Truespec  

 

CC is a shaft then head fitting where txg js head then shaft, btw this is how most fitters do it including the ones who fit the pros which is something Ian did for TM.

[HikingMike]

Super interesting thread

On 3/16/2020 at 8:21 AM, CarlH said:

Now, they will not have a Ping G400 head available and you'll need to utilize the latest Ping head for the fitting session.  

This may be slightly off topic, but I see this as a problem with fitting. I really want to do a fitting for a driver someday. But I won't pay $600+ for a driver. I would be happy to go back a season or two or three for another driver that reviewed well and fit me well. But there is no way to fit for those as the fitters won't have them. The only solutions are to buy used or something like that, and hope for the best, or to limit yourself to only a few driver options when you are fitted. I also don't know what shaft I should get (besides stiff vs regular), and I hear people talking about shafts a LOT here , so that might be important.

(Side note - you could also view this as a problem with manufacturers making new models every year so that the development costs are not spread out over multiple years as they were in the past... among other cost-ballooning factors.)

So new idea is to do a fitting, focus on stock options, pay the fitting fee and walk out with some of my numbers, plus which driver won out for me (including shaft), and then buy used. It looks like this may save me over $100. I would lose out on the fitting fee going toward the club purchase at some places, but the used cost discount appears to be large enough. Going back to previous years' models would save more money, but it might be difficult to have them in a fitting.

Here is one gamed out scenario assuming whichever driver I end up with is $550 retail.

Club Champion
$175 fitting
$550 driver retail
$725 total

Golf Galaxy
$70 fitting
$550 driver retail
$620 total

Hybrid fitting + used purchase
$70 fitting Golf Galaxy
$370 driver used
$440 total (add $105 if fitted at Club Champion instead)

I may have just found an independent fitter that's fairly close so I'll definitely investigate that more!

[RickyBobby_PR]

1 hour ago, HikingMike said:

I also don't know what shaft I should get (besides stiff vs regular), and I hear people talking about shafts a LOT here , so that might be important.

There no standard for flex standard in the industry so it’s not something I look at. Weight is more important and then it’s about feel. There are shafts in ref flex that play like a stiff in another brand. 
 

1 hour ago, HikingMike said:

Side note - you could also view this as a problem with manufacturers making new models every year so that the development costs are not spread out over multiple years as they were in the past... among other cost-ballooning factors.)

Manufacturers are working right now on drivers and other clubs that will be out in 5 years. 

[rlb4]

3 hours ago, HikingMike said:

Super interesting thread

This may be slightly off topic, but I see this as a problem with fitting. I really want to do a fitting for a driver someday. But I won't pay $600+ for a driver. I would be happy to go back a season or two or three for another driver that reviewed well and fit me well. But there is no way to fit for those as the fitters won't have them. The only solutions are to buy used or something like that, and hope for the best, or to limit yourself to only a few driver options when you are fitted. I also don't know what shaft I should get (besides stiff vs regular), and I hear people talking about shafts a LOT here , so that might be important.

(Side note - you could also view this as a problem with manufacturers making new models every year so that the development costs are not spread out over multiple years as they were in the past... among other cost-ballooning factors.)

So new idea is to do a fitting, focus on stock options, pay the fitting fee and walk out with some of my numbers, plus which driver won out for me (including shaft), and then buy used. It looks like this may save me over $100. I would lose out on the fitting fee going toward the club purchase at some places, but the used cost discount appears to be large enough. Going back to previous years' models would save more money, but it might be difficult to have them in a fitting.

Here is one gamed out scenario assuming whichever driver I end up with is $550 retail.

Club Champion
$175 fitting
$550 driver retail
$725 total

Golf Galaxy
$70 fitting
$550 driver retail
$620 total

Hybrid fitting + used purchase
$70 fitting Golf Galaxy
$370 driver used
$440 total (add $105 if fitted at Club Champion instead)

I may have just found an independent fitter that's fairly close so I'll definitely investigate that more!

I'm pretty sure 2nd Swing Golf can do a fitting using previous years used clubs.

[HikingMike]

14 hours ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

There no standard for flex standard in the industry so it’s not something I look at. Weight is more important and then it’s about feel. There are shafts in ref flex that play like a stiff in another brand. 

Yeah that's good to know about the flex. I didn't think there was any kind of standard. I guess you either rely on a fitter here, and/or your own judgement. But if you just buy something without hitting it, it's anyone's guess. 

Quote

Manufacturers are working right now on drivers and other clubs that will be out in 5 years. 

Ok but I was more referring to them releasing new models every year, regardless of lead time. I guess I haven't followed closely so I don't know for sure but many years back (90s and earlier?) there wasn't a new driver release every year that effectively replaced the previous model (targeted at the same golfers). But correct me if I'm wrong on that. I've never been in the market for a driver every year, lol.

12 hours ago, rlb4 said:

I'm pretty sure 2nd Swing Golf can do a fitting using previous years used clubs.

They look awesome. I've come across them before. That would be really neat if you can do a fitting that includes previous models. I wish one was in my metro area.

[cnosil]

21 minutes ago, HikingMike said:

 

Ok but I was more referring to them releasing new models every year, regardless of lead time. I guess I haven't followed closely so I don't know for sure but many years back (90s and earlier?) there wasn't a new driver release every year that effectively replaced the previous model (targeted at the same golfers). But correct me if I'm wrong on that. I've never been in the market for a driver every year, lol.

 

I varies based on clubs, but drivers are and have been a yearly kind of thing.  There really is no expectation that you should replace a driver yearly.   People like us should be on about a 5 year cycle.  

[HikingMike]

8 minutes ago, cnosil said:

I varies based on clubs, but drivers are and have been a yearly kind of thing.  There really is no expectation that you should replace a driver yearly.   People like us should be on about a 5 year cycle.  

Alright I was exaggerating a bit. Just erase that last sentence. But mainly what I'm saying (back to the fitting stuff) is I don't want to pay for a current year driver (any year) because the price is ridiculous.

My driver is a 2011 model, though I didn't start playing it until ~2017. And I kept my last set of irons for 25 years. I have never changed my putter

[cnosil]

8 minutes ago, HikingMike said:

 

My driver is a 2011 model, though I didn't start playing it until ~2017. And I kept my last set of irons for 25 years. I have never changed my putter

IMO, you could see improvement from a new driver.  If you hit the irons well they are probably okay.  Im sorry to hear you haven’t changed your putter; changing putters is fun.   That’s probably because I like putters

[RickyBobby_PR]

2 hours ago, HikingMike said:

Yeah that's good to know about the flex. I didn't think there was any kind of standard. I guess you either rely on a fitter here, and/or your own judgement. But if you just buy something without hitting it, it's anyone's guess. 

Correct unless you go get fit or do some testing yourself it’s a guess.

2 hours ago, HikingMike said:

Ok but I was more referring to them releasing new models every year, regardless of lead time. I guess I haven't followed closely so I don't know for sure but many years back (90s and earlier?) there wasn't a new driver release every year that effectively replaced the previous model (targeted at the same golfers). But correct me if I'm wrong on that. I've never been in the market for a driver every year, lol.

Some brands release a driver every year some every two and at least of them a different style every year while keeping two year cycles for the style.

the driver being worked for 5 years from Is replacing the one that was in development 6 years ago. The r&d money isn’t even the biggest part of the budget for the club price it’s marketing dollars 

[HikingMike]

2 hours ago, cnosil said:

IMO, you could see improvement from a new driver.  If you hit the irons well they are probably okay.  Im sorry to hear you haven’t changed your putter; changing putters is fun.   That’s probably because I like putters

I agree with you about the driver. And that would be fun to hit a bunch of newer ones and see what happens. I haven't been fitted for a driver before, only a 3w. My driver does have a stiff shaft though, whatever that means. 

Don't feel sorry for me, haha. I love my putter! Maybe I should try but I like it too much to change. I guess we have different relationships with our putters. You like to putt around a bit and I'm monoputtamous. 

 

[HikingMike]

1 hour ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Some brands release a driver every year some every two and at least of them a different style every year while keeping two year cycles for the style.

the driver being worked for 5 years from Is replacing the one that was in development 6 years ago. The r&d money isn’t even the biggest part of the budget for the club price it’s marketing dollars 

Yeah yikes on that one. I guess I have been golf marketing impervious all these years.

It makes sense they update the particular style-line drivers every couple years. So they can have a new release every year if they want, but they aren't straight replacing things every year. In the MGS reviews, they limit it to the current year, with some exceptions. There are probably plenty of practical reasons why they have to do that, but then you don't get a direct comparison for the last 3 years' models for example.

[cnosil]

35 minutes ago, HikingMike said:

There are probably plenty of practical reasons why they have to do that, but then you don't get a direct comparison for the last 3 years' models for example.

There are reasons with the biggest being scheduling.  I am one of their testers and we spend about a month doing each of the tests and it is a struggle to get eveyone through the sessions.  Right now they are also limited in space and have 2 hitting bays; hopefully the new HQ will open soon and bump that to 4.  That should also people to cycle through a little faster.   

[HikingMike]

26 minutes ago, cnosil said:

There are reasons with the biggest being scheduling.  I am one of their testers and we spend about a month doing each of the tests and it is a struggle to get eveyone through the sessions.  Right now they are also limited in space and have 2 hitting bays; hopefully the new HQ will open soon and bump that to 4.  That should also people to cycle through a little faster.   

Cool!

[ChitownM2]

Reporting back, overall things went fairly well.  After 2 sessions my dad is going with a mixed set of Cleveland Launchers a new Callaway CB sand wedge and staying with his current hybrids, fairways and his Rogue driver as nothing else really beat them out.  They did not have all the shafts for all the brands but we did find something that did work and he was able to place an order for clubs that they will build for the same price as retail.  Should take a few weeks to get everything and then can verify gapping and make any adjustments necessary.  

[Jim Shaw]

11 hours ago, ChitownM2 said:

Reporting back, overall things went fairly well.  After 2 sessions my dad is going with a mixed set of Cleveland Launchers a new Callaway CB sand wedge and staying with his current hybrids, fairways and his Rogue driver as nothing else really beat them out.  They did not have all the shafts for all the brands but we did find something that did work and he was able to place an order for clubs that they will build for the same price as retail.  Should take a few weeks to get everything and then can verify gapping and make any adjustments necessary.  

that is great, glad it worked out for him

[William P]

Glad to hear it went well for your father.

[cnosil]

12 hours ago, ChitownM2 said:

Reporting back, overall things went fairly well.  After 2 sessions my dad is going with a mixed set of Cleveland Launchers a new Callaway CB sand wedge and staying with his current hybrids, fairways and his Rogue driver as nothing else really beat them out.  They did not have all the shafts for all the brands but we did find something that did work and he was able to place an order for clubs that they will build for the same price as retail.  Should take a few weeks to get everything and then can verify gapping and make any adjustments necessary.  

I think this shows that you can get a good fitting at club champion and not have to get exotic shafts.   Go in knowing what you want and communicate that to the fitter!  

 

[3 hndcp]

1. If you are over a 10 handicap you should probably find a good pro that can look at your entire game to see where you need more work to improve your game. Better technique will last a lifetime of better golf.  Most players I see, and I've been playing since I was 4 and have played against Tiger, need some basic short game lessons to drop the most shots quickly. 1. Short game, course management, bunker and course management, will drop the most shots fastest. Once you've made improvements there and you're a single digit handcp then spending the money on a fitting might be the next step.   

2. If fitting on a simulator the fitter can(and often do) make adjustments that falsely improve your ball performance. A quick tail wind adjustment to the computer can easily add 20 yards to your driver.  Take your old driver to the fitting and be sure to hit it (without them touching the computer) to see if you're really picking up much distance. When I took my old driver every time I switched they went over and did an adjustment on the computer...it was so obvious.

3.  A basic understanding of shafts for free can get you very close to what you need.  You can get your club head speed with your driver for free at most golf stores. This is a good resource: https://medium.com/@thegolfhype.com/golf-swing-speed-chart-for-shaft-flex-a5826d4ef4c

One thing fitters wont tell you is that fancy expensive graphite shafts have more torque (head twist) than old steel shafts so you hit it in the woods way more often with Graphite than with steel, but you hit it 5 yrds FURTHER into the woods so yay! there's that...haha.   They make a lot more profit on flashy graphite shafts than old reliable steel shafts. 

Watching Golf Galaxy fitting commercial saying fitting made all the difference is such a lie for them to make more money. Like my investment business, all my competition tells grandiose stories for marketing purposes. 

I my boss took me for a fitting at Club Champion and the driver he paid a lot of money for is total JUNK.  I snap hook the crazy out of it.  

[RickyBobby_PR]

39 minutes ago, 3 hndcp said:

1. If you are over a 10 handicap you should probably find a good pro that can look at your entire game to see where you need more work to improve your game. Better technique will last a lifetime of better golf.  Most players I see, and I've been playing since I was 4 and have played against Tiger, need some basic short game lessons to drop the most shots quickly. 1. Short game, course management, bunker and course management, will drop the most shots fastest. Once you've made improvements there and you're a single digit handcp then spending the money on a fitting might be the next step.   

 

Higher handicap benefit more from a fittting than low handicaps and some people don’t want lessons and are happy with their game, having clubs that actually work for their swing regardless if they want to take lessons or not is better than not being fit. Lessons and fittings for have to be mutually exclusive. They really should go hand in hand for anyone who does have a goal to improve their swing

 

42 minutes ago, 3 hndcp said:

2. If fitting on a simulator the fitter can(and often do) make adjustments that falsely improve your ball performance. A quick tail wind adjustment to the computer can easily add 20 yards to your driver.  Take your old driver to the fitting and be sure to hit it (without them touching the computer) to see if you're really picking up much distance. When I took my old driver every time I switched they went over and did an adjustment on the computer...it was so obvious.

Even if the monitor is juiced having your current driver and a baseline on the monitor will tell someone if there’s improvement and a moved monitor can happen at outdoor fittings as can the course conditions to show more rollout 

 

44 minutes ago, 3 hndcp said:

One thing fitters wont tell you is that fancy expensive graphite shafts have more torque (head twist) than old steel shafts so you hit it in the woods way more often with Graphite than with steel, but you hit it 5 yrds FURTHER into the woods so yay! there's that...haha.   They make a lot more profit on flashy graphite shafts than old reliable steel shafts. 

The torque isn’t what is causing wayward shots and with no standard in torque measurement it’s an almost irrelevant thing to talk about or look at. I’ve seen a 2.1 torque shaft waggle like a noodle in slow swing.

There is a lot more than can be done with graphite shafts and they can be made to play stiffer than steel shafts.

46 minutes ago, 3 hndcp said:

I my boss took me for a fitting at Club Champion and the driver he paid a lot of money for is total JUNK.  I snap hook the crazy out of it.  

It’s junk for your swing but doesn’t make it a junk fitting for his

[GolferXY]

On 3/16/2020 at 4:52 AM, Mr. 82 said:

So I am staying with my sister for 10 days here near Asheville, NC, and I checked and not only is there Top Golf in Greenville, SC an hour away  but there is also a Club Champion in both Charlotte and Greenville, each within an easy drive, which definitely wasn't the case where I live in Tallahassee.

I've been considering seeing them to see if there is a better option for both my PING G400 driver and fairway club then the standard stock shaft in both.  From everything I've seen with Club Champion their goal is to evaluate every club by select manufacturers to find the one that is best for you.  But what if I life the clubs I currently have and just want to see if there is a better shaft that might perhaps increase distance in both clubs?  Is that something I can stipulate up front with them?

Also, I noticed a fitting session for those two clubs alone is $200 (they have a 33% discount, so that would soften the blow a bit).  That's a lot of money to me, but if I can go in there and have them evaluate everything with my driver and fairway club and find some improvement, distance wise, then I am definitely interested.  I just don't know if it would be worth the investment, especially since I am sort of straying from their conventional fitting model in that I want to keep my current clubs and just see if the shafts can be upgraded to something better.

Anyone have any thoughts on all of this?  Anyone do a club champion fitting and can offer me some advice, tips, or suggestions before committing to it?

I had a driver fitting with them and it was okay until I found out that they were charging me $100 for the fitting and $150 more for the club than I could get at a golf store with the same specs.  A couple years later I bought a fitting for my son and he never used it, so I went in for an iron fitting.  The young man who worked with me had a great attitude but wasn't interested in my input and pushed me toward a brand rather than try to fit me appropriately.  Seemed more salesman than fitter.

Late last year I went to PXG, paid $25 for an iron fitting, and I was frankly astounded by the professionalism and courtesy, not to mention the accuracy, of the fitting.  My friend also got fitted, and he was fitted into the Gen 5 while the Gen 6's were sitting on the shelf.  I thought that was indicative of a company that is trying to fit you into the best club for you instead of the best club for them to sell.

Also, unlike Club Champion that charges you $100 [minimum] for the fitting whether you buy or not, PXG applies your fitting fee to the price of the club[s] you buy.

 

[RickyBobby_PR]

8 hours ago, GolferXY said:

had a driver fitting with them and it was okay until I found out that they were charging me $100 for the fitting and $150 more for the club than I could get at a golf store with the same specs. 

Is that CCs fault or yours for not researching their fitting practices, policies and club making?

There are plenty of posts across multiple golf forums and other online groups discussing their practices.

8 hours ago, GolferXY said:

A couple years later I bought a fitting for my son and he never used it, so I went in for an iron fitting.  The young man who worked with me had a great attitude but wasn't interested in my input and pushed me toward a brand rather than try to fit me appropriately.  Seemed more salesman than fitter.

This isn’t just a CC problem, there are good fitters and bad fitters. Researching the fitter is a recommended practice before choosing one.

8 hours ago, GolferXY said:

Late last year I went to PXG, paid $25 for an iron fitting, and I was frankly astounded by the professionalism and courtesy, not to mention the accuracy, of the fitting.  My friend also got fitted, and he was fitted into the Gen 5 while the Gen 6's were sitting on the shelf.  I thought that was indicative of a company that is trying to fit you into the best club for you instead of the best club for them to sell.

Also, unlike Club Champion that charges you $100 [minimum] for the fitting whether you buy or not, PXG applies your fitting fee to the price of the club[s] you buy.

Most OEMs will apply the fee towards the purchase, their goal is to fit and then sell a club, they are getting your $25 or whatever the fitting fee is regardless.

CC and similar places and independent fitters are charging the fee for their time and their knowledge. They aren’t trying to make a sale, they are trying to get you into the best setup. Their business isn’t selling clubs, that’s a bonus. CC is a two piece business. They are a fitting service and a club making service. When going for a fitting you are paying for the fitters time and knowledge