What is the WORST place to get a fitting? Fitting HORROR Stories?

[Onestoptech]

1 hour ago, FrogginBullfish said:

A fitter saying the shaft doesn't matter doesn't mean that they weren't going to have you try other shafts. It just meant the main focus was getting you in the right head then fine tuning the shaft from there.

You absolutely do not need to lock in a shaft profile to figure out loft, lie, or length or to determine the best head for a player.

Based on these posts, unless you find a fitter who shares your exact fitting philosophy, you're probably not going to have a good fitting experience.

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I've had three great fitting experiences that each improved my game listed in original post twice by nike fitters as a sponsored team and once at club champion. The way TXG talks about it on there chanel also fits my idea of proper fitting. 

Golftec only had specific head and shaft combos that could be ordered OEM. When I asked if I could try a nippon shaft in a head i hit well he told me "that's not possible the only shaft available for that head is the kbs your swinging If I want to try a nippon shaft must try this other head."

That is a golrified big box store fitting. Golftec isn't a top tier fitter from my experience with the nevada location. Other locations maybe better. They are franchises after all.

A true fitting goes through the fitters matrix of shafts and heads to suggest the best setup for the client.

It doesn't say this is the options the oem offers let me order that for you at a markup. 

They order the clubs as components and build them to exactly the spec you need. 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Onestoptech
​​​​​​​Edit corrected spelling and format.

[aerospace_ray]

On 12/28/2020 at 10:54 AM, Buffly said:

What is the WORST place to get a fitting? Fitting HORROR Stories?

Please share fitters to "AVOID AT ALL COSTS" and any terrible experiences we can learn from?

--- edit: the following are my thoughts on the subject to get the ball rolling and not intended for anything other then contribution for the greater good---

I am thinking about a fitting in 2021 myself, and what little experiences I have had in big box stores verses what I see on TXG's YouTube videos has me really questioning my experiences as total fails.

I have gone 3 places: Roger Dunn in Santa Ana, PGA Superstore in Irvine, and Golf Galaxy (& Dick's which makes it 4 places)

Roger Dunn has hitting bays to test the clubs, new and used, before you buy, with launch monitors that only measure ball speed and use a fixed smash factor without any club path data (same experience at all the places I tried so I won't mention it again). This is open to the retail public without a true fitting which has led to many purchases for me on used equipment. They do have a real fitting experience with major OEMs and better launch monitors for a fee if you already know the brand you want. And, you have an option of getting 'fit' by the Roger Dunn employee in the public area if you want to look at used or multiple brands. 

The PGA Superstore experience I had was sub par to me. I wanted to try clubs that were over length and a better fitting shaft than what I had, but the help I got was super lame with very little actual fitting or recommendation. It did reveal a swing fault of handle raising and a need for upright lie that I have since adopted to my set of old Pings, so I can't say the experience was all bad. 

Golf Galaxy was very limited in knowledge and club/shaft combinations to test. It was more of a try before you buy kinda place. With the same fixed smash factor it seemed like they were falsely padding the results to sell more gear. I did make the purchase of my favorite club to this day early in my golf journey at Golf Galaxy - a used TM SLDR S 5w with a Stiff shaft, and I love it. 

The Dick's experience was the worst with a small selection and a tiny hitting bay which was a small try before you buy experience. 

The things I hope for in a fitting are: not brand specific, a deep dive into every detail from grip to toe of the club, full club and ball data, and using similar urethane golf balls. Is that too much to ask?

--- edit: I know I am a newbie, oddball who prefers used equipment and doesn't know anything about squat. This is to learn from your experiences that you share so that travesties like my experiences can hopefully be avoided for others. ---

So I won't necessarily put my example in the horror story category but it made me realize how good a quality, one on one personal fitting can be a positive experience (fitting that you request/schedule, not show up to a demo day that claims fittings..... ) Note, I am experienced with fitting (both old school static, modern trackman/monitor numbers and ball flight patterns). I like to geek out and discuss fitting/golf tech and outdoor driving range demo's don't always deliver at least in my experience.

Every now and then there will be a club from an OEM that I am interested in testing that I don't have readily access to. So a couple of times I have attended driving range "Demo Days". What I have found is many times the persons in the tents know zero about fitting variables, lack quality shaft/club-head model offerings to test and seem more interested in just letting you test a club or two and rush you if there are others waiting to hit.

I get that its a demo day but I just wanted to mention this type experience in case someone has the impression they will automatically receive top notch fitting from a OEM club tent with people managing it. You might, I did not and while most of the people representing the companies are nice they may not be legit fitting professional nor be able to give you the time needed to make correct assessments based on your abilities/swing. My advice is to call, make an appointment and request a competent fitter with club/component knowledge (shaft/grips/etc) as well as knowledge regarding fitting fundamentals. Good luck. 

[HardcoreLooper]

You can read about my fitting experiences at Golf Galaxy 

 and Club Champion 

in my reviews.  And unless you live in Richmond, VA, they're basically useless for selecting a fitter.  You've received plenty of good advice on how to properly get fit and what to expect, so I won't pile on there.

Golf is tough, but not impossible, on a limited budget.  If you're short on money but long on time, I like @cnosil's recommendation of learning how to fit yourself.  I'd also recommend getting a part-time job at a golf course or in a golf shop.  A buddy of mine works a couple shifts a week at Dick's to get to hit everything that comes in the door and get the employee discount.  I worked at a country club all through high school and college; that was the only way I was getting regular access to golf.

If you have neither time nor money and you want some kind of fitting, I'd use the Ping WebFit system and then scope the pre-owned sellers like 2nd Swing / Global Golf / 3balls and eBay for older clubs with the same specs.  

 

 

 

[DiscipleofPenick]

Before I joined this forum, I was in the same category. Not only didn't I know that fitters existed, but also didn't know what constitutes a fitting.

While my experience isn't a horror story, in retrospect it wasn't a good experience. My 'fitting' was with the Pro at our Club. Basically he let me swing a Ping driver and an iron and said 'this' is what you need. He had no other brands for me to try nor shaft combinations. Didn't do any static measurements and the shop doesn't own a launch monitor. On the other hand I was just starting out so not sure any other brands would have made a difference. That was 8 or 9 years ago.

Fast forward this past summer, one of my wife's friends who is a pretty good golfer wanted a new set of Clubs. My wife tried to convince her to go to our fitter, but she decided to do the expedient thing and use our Club Pro. Her experience with the same Pro wasn't any different: he ordered her a new set of Ping ladies irons and driver.


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Who is your fitter Tony? I've been to Windmill Golf Center in Macedonia for a driver and was happy with the results. I'm debating about doing a full bag fitting in the spring. Would like to know if you know another good option in the area. Thanks!

Take Dead Aim

[tony@CIC]

35 minutes ago, Tsmithjr9 said:

Who is your fitter Tony? I've been to Windmill Golf Center in Macedonia for a driver and was happy with the results. I'm debating about doing a full bag fitting in the spring. Would like to know if you know another good option in the area. Thanks!

Take Dead Aim
 

The bad fitting experience was with the Pro at our club. I have a high regard for Trent at Windmill.  I've had two fittings with him; a driver fitting in 2019 and full bag in 2020.  My wife had Trent for her full bag  fitting in 2019. What impressed her was not only the time he spent with her (she was a bit nervous) but in the end he told her to stay with her current driver. She went back this summer for a driver fitting (her drives improved dramatically). After Trent saw her drives, he ended up putting her into a 410 + with a men's senior flex shaft - and she brags about that all the time  .  I have a very high regard for Trent and his approach to fittings and have recommended him to others. 

[DiscipleofPenick]

The bad fitting experience was with the Pro at our club. I have a high regard for Trent at Windmill.  I've had two fittings with him; a driver fitting in 2019 and full bag in 2020.  My wife had Trent for her full bag  fitting in 2019. What impressed her was not only the time he spent with her (she was a bit nervous) but in the end he told her to stay with her current driver. She went back this summer for a driver fitting (her drives improved dramatically). After Trent saw her drives, he ended up putting her into a 410 + with a men's senior flex shaft - and she brags about that all the time  .  I have a very high regard for Trent and his approach to fittings and have recommended him to others. 

Thanks! I thought you've mentioned you took the drive to windmill from CIC, a bit closer for me. I had a different fitter, but Ive heard Trent's name. I was fit for my driver there and it was great, still my gamer. My fitter spent over an hour with me just on that club. Good to know there's a second for Windmill. I liked it because they had trackman set up on the range, not just hitting into a screen.

Take Dead Aim

[MattF]

9 hours ago, Tsmithjr9 said:

Thanks! I thought you've mentioned you took the drive to windmill from CIC, a bit closer for me. I had a different fitter, but Ive heard Trent's name. I was fit for my driver there and it was great, still my gamer. My fitter spent over an hour with me just on that club. Good to know there's a second for Windmill. I liked it because they had trackman set up on the range, not just hitting into a screen.

Take Dead Aim
 

I'll third third them if I didn't second them. I did a club evaluation in October (I think) there and was very pleased with it.

[Micah T]

Funny how people here go out of their way to avoid quantifying how many strokes most of could expect to get from a fitting. Sure there’s some percentage who’ve been grossly misfit, call them 20%, and that may be generous. But for the other 80% of us, I’d be surprised if most get more than 2-3 strokes from a fitting. 
Many here oversell fittings to any and all as some sort of golf panacea IMO. Again if you’re buying clubs anyway, by all means get a quality fitting. But if you’re getting fit solely expecting a night and day improvement in scoring, odds are you won’t get much of anything. 

2-3 strokes is easily worth a $160 fitting to me: at a certain handicap losing whole strokes by getting fit becomes worth its weight in gold. It’s on the consumer to ensure he or she gets what they paid for.


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[Middler]

3 hours ago, Micah T said:

2-3 strokes is easily worth a $160 fitting to me: at a certain handicap losing whole strokes by getting fit becomes worth its weight in gold. It’s on the consumer to ensure he or she gets what they paid for.


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I said no more than, that's best case except for someone who's grossly misfit. I got ZERO strokes from my fitting, and I am not the only one I'm sure.