edingc's 2022 Club Champion Full Bag Fitting Experience and Mini Review

[edingc]

edingc's 2022 Club Champion Full Bag Fitting Experience and Mini Review

Since this is a very long (2,000+ word) post with pictures, I’ve added my fitting results and mini review of the Club Champion fitting process right up top:

TL;DR (Fitting Results) - Dumina AutoFlex SF505X will be replaced with Fujikura Motore X F1 6X in my Callaway Epic Max LS head. Top four irons, in order, were Ben Hogan PTx Pro, Srixon ZX7, Callaway Apex Pro and TaylorMade P770. FlightScope Mevo+ doesn’t lie and is damn close to Trackman.

TL;DR (Club Champion Review) - Do your homework and be open/honest with your fitter. I would not want to go into a Club Champion without a clear purpose, or without an understanding of how they do business. Definitely worth the trip for gearheads. I’d hesitate to recommend a fitting at CC for someone who doesn’t have either a very deep pocketbook or a good foundation of golf club fitting knowledge. 

I had the opportunity this afternoon to go for a full bag (minus putter) fitting at my local Club Champion location. While I’m mostly satisfied with my bag heading into the 2022 season, I had several reasons for my visit:

• Chance to look at and hit the full line of 2022 releases.
• Check out as many graphite iron shafts and driver shafts as possible.
• Potentially find a more “player’s style” iron that jives with my swing.

While I’ve been around the forums for a while, I’m an upper single-digits handicapper as a quick refresher for anyone finding this post. I joined the forums in late 2018 as roughly a 25-30 handicap. Over the past several seasons, I have been working hard to improve my game through lessons and lots of practice and play. I’ve been lucky enough to play more than 75 rounds each season for the past two years.

I’m not shy about switching equipment. My dedicated WITB thread in my signature shows the evolution of my bag from the time I joined MGS until now. Between a couple of really awesome testing opportunities and long Michigan winters, I’ve turned every area of my bag over several times in the past three years.

Despite Club Champion’s somewhat spotty reputation, there is nowhere else locally with such a broad selection of equipment to try. My fitter, Jake, also previously worked for another local golf shop. He fit me for a putter in 2018 and a driver in 2019, so I had the benefit of some prior experience guiding my choice of fitters.

I’ll break this post into two pieces: my fitting experience and a small review on Club Champion. It seems everyone wants to know if they are “worth it” or not.

My Fitting Experience

I had a 1 PM appointment, so I worked a half day from home, hit a few balls in the garage to get in somewhat of a groove and then hopped in the car for the 20 minute ride to Club Champion.

I got to CC about 20 minutes early. Jake was ready for me about 10 minutes early. In retrospect, I should have used this time to stretch and warm-up with my Rypstick like I do on course. Something to remember for next time.

There were two goals of today’s fitting in my mind. One, to try the latest and greatest player’s style irons with more “traditional” lofts than my Sub70 699 Pros. Two, to evaluate the Dumina AutoFlex SF505X, which I purchased last season and did an unofficial review of on MGS. I hit the weights hard this offseason and have noticed the AutoFlex being inefficient and spinney when not hit perfectly. Also, while I’ve enjoyed the Sub70 699 Pros, I don’t hit the ball quite high enough or with enough spin. I have been fighting a left miss that can get pretty miserable when I’m not purposely trying to feel a “big fade” swing.

We started by baselining my 6 and 8 irons from the 699 Pros. As I have been seeing lately, I struggled with big sweeping hooks, lack of spin and peak heights that ideally should have been 10-20 feet higher. Admittedly, I routinely deal with a bit of anxiety and the first 15-20 swings were probably less than perfect, but the pattern was there. Speed-wise I was seeing about 95 MPH out of my 6 iron. That number stayed pretty consistent throughout my fitting, reaching somewhere around 98 MPH at peak.

From there we worked toward trying to improve upon both my left miss and the lack of height and spin. Jake started me with a TaylorMade P770 head as he said they tend to launch the ball quite high despite the lofts. I worked through the P770 for a while, trying an Accra i110 Tour shaft, an LAGP model, KBS TGI 110 and then SteelFiber fc115s in x-stiff. I did start getting into a groove and had better swings as we went, but it wasn’t until Jake pulled out stiff SteelFiber i125s that we found something good to work with. They felt really nice to me, my delivery improved quite a bit and as a result my launch and spin was much better. At that point I felt comfortable telling Jake that I’d like to cycle through different heads with the i125s. 

I hit several different heads I would consider to be “player’s-ish” and have some quick thoughts:

• TaylorMade P770 - Sharp looks. Very familiar feeling coming from the 699 Pros. Ball speed was excellent even on mishits. Spin was “playable,” but still a little low.
• Srixon ZX7 - Incredible feeling irons. Very muted and heavy, you can tell they are definitely solid compared to what I have in the 699s or the P770s. Ball speed was excellent, right up there with all of the “techier” irons. Better spin than the P770s.
• Mizuno Pro 223 - Another excellent feeling and looking iron. But nothing about the numbers wowed us.
• PXG 0311T Gen4 - I really wanted to like these but couldn’t get a good swing on the ball. They did not feel particularly good on the mishits.
• Wilson Staff CB - Beautiful irons. But no better than the ZX7s, and a slightly less satisfying feeling on a flush hit.
• Callaway Apex Pro - Better feel than the P770 and extremely quick. Again, “playable” but not ideal spin.
• Ben Hogan PTx Pro - The shocker of them all. Nice blend between a forged-ish feel with some tech. Ball speed was near the top, spin was the most ideal of all of the heads and it was extremely accurate as a result. Only gave up a yard or two carry loft-for-loft against the other heads.

I ended up so enamored with the Hogan’s that I hit quite a few balls with them. So much that I didn’t even get a chance to hit the Cobra MIM Tours, but otherwise I covered almost all of what I wanted to hit.

My top three irons ended up being Hogan PTx Pro, Srixon ZX7 and Callaway Apex Pro.

We then moved on to lie measurement using the lie board, impact location and dynamic lie angle on Trackman. We settled on somewhere around 60 degrees in the 6 iron, which is basically two flat for most manufacturers and one degree flatter from my last fitting.

Knowing I would likely purchase new irons at some point soon based on this fitting, I then asked Jake to retrofit me into my Callaway Epic Max LS head. I bought this head last year to pair with the AutoFlex, and I really didn’t want to find a new driver head if possible.

Baselining the AutoFlex it became very apparent that my offseason workouts have increased my club head speed. I registered a few swings at 116+ MPH, which is probably 7-9 MPH faster than when I purchased the shaft last spring.

As I had assumed, the AutoFlex was a poor match for my current swing. I struggled to get spin under 3,000 RPM even on well struck balls. My “bad” swings resulted in 4,000+ spin and a high weak flight landing at about 250 yards.

I told Jake I wanted to start with the Fujikura Ventus line and work from there. We started with the Ventus TR 6X, moved to the Blue 6X and finally made it to the Black 7X. All three showed dramatic improvements in spin rate and distance, but the Black 7X was the best in my opinion.

I suggested the Fujikura Motore X F1 and Jake agreed it would likely be a good fit as well. I’m glad we tried it as I immediately reeled off a few 285+ yard carry shots. We tried a few shafts after that, from Accra, LAGP and the new Fujikura Speeder line, but came back to the Motore X F1 and found similar success. Most importantly, my “misses” were now carrying 270+ and closer to the centerline.

I already have this one en route from eBay .

I was sufficiently tired by this point. I hit my Epic Flash 4 hybrid, Cobra 4 Utility and Callaway Super Hybrid to confirm they all were decent fits for me. They are. No changes needed here for now.

We discussed wedge options and agreed something mid-bounce throughout the wedges would be ideal with my delivery and playing conditions. Jake recommended either keeping the i125s throughout the wedges or going with a stiff KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 which comes in the same 125 gram weight. I did hit the Edel wedges which looked nice, but the winner of ugliest but great feeling club goes to the MOD1 iron/wedge:

I am browsing for the PTx Pros now, and I probably will go through with a purchase if I can find the right used set. Unfortunately, Ben Hogan will not sell heads only. I’ll be trolling eBay or other used club sites unless I want to pay full retail and pull the shafts.

Mini Club Champion Review

I had a pre-existing relationship with my fitter, who I fit with before, and he also knows my instructor well. For me, being comfortable with him was a big benefit.

I clearly outlined the top priority of my fitting were my irons and then the second priority was driver shaft. Jake stuck to that script well. I also wanted to stay in graphite iron shafts, which limited my options, but also made it easier to find a shaft I really liked from what seems like an infinite selection on the wall.

I am not scared of spending money on golf, but I am also frugal. To be honest, I cringed a little when we started with the P770s because of the cost of both new and used sets. I had scoured eBay/2nd Swing/Callaway Pre-Owned over the past few days and found new sets of ZX7s and good condition Apex Pros that were more in my price range. I suspect I would have not gotten to try the Hogan’s by default, but after finding the SteelFibers I literally walked the wall of heads and grabbed everything I wanted to try.

I think it is imperative to have a basic understanding of golf equipment before going to Club Champion. I understand their business model, and I feel like I may have been steered towards certain shafts or brands had I not specifically requested things during my fitting. It helps I understand my tendencies and was able to suggest heads and shafts (especially during the driver fitting) that would jive well with my delivery.

I happily paid the $325 for the fitting as I know I would not have gotten this experience anywhere else within 30 minutes. I’d be looking at nearly 3 hours in a car to find anything similar. I did nearly purchase the Motore X F1 through Jake, but chose to instead think on it and found an excellent deal online. While I never told Jake outright that I would not be purchasing anything today, he understood what my goals and reasoning for visiting were. He did not seem too surprised when I walked out with nothing more than the fitting.

Overall, I am very pleased with my experience and will definitely consider going back to Club Champion the next time I am wanting a quality fitting.

[MattWillGolf]

23 minutes ago, edingc said:

edingc's 2022 Club Champion Full Bag Fitting Experience and Mini Review

Since this is a very long (2,000+ word) post with pictures, I’ve added my fitting results and mini review of the Club Champion fitting process right up top:

TL;DR (Fitting Results) - Dumina AutoFlex SF505X will be replaced with Fujikura Motore X F1 6X in my Callaway Epic Max LS head. Top four irons, in order, were Ben Hogan PTx Pro, Srixon ZX7, Callaway Apex Pro and TaylorMade P770. FlightScope Mevo+ doesn’t lie and is damn close to Trackman.

TL;DR (Club Champion Review) - Do your homework and be open/honest with your fitter. I would not want to go into a Club Champion without a clear purpose or understanding of how they do business. Definitely worth the trip for gearheads. I’d hesitate to recommend a fitting at CC for someone who doesn’t have either a very deep pocketbook or a good foundation of golf club fitting knowledge. 

I had the opportunity this afternoon to go for a full bag (minus putter) fitting at my local Club Champion location. While I’m mostly satisfied with my bag heading into the 2022 season, I had several reasons for my visit:

• Chance to look at and hit the full line of 2022 releases.
• Check out as many graphite iron shafts and driver shafts as possible.
• Potentially find a more “player’s style” iron that jives with my swing.

While I’ve been around the forums for a while, as a quick refresher for anyone finding this post I’m an upper single-digits handicapper. I joined the forums in late 2018 as roughly a 25-30 handicap and over the past several seasons have been working hard to improve my game through lessons and lots of practice and play. For the last two years I’ve been lucky enough to play more than 75 rounds each season.

I’m not shy about switching equipment. My dedicated WITB thread in my signature shows the evolution of my bag from the time I joined MGS until now. Between a couple of really awesome testing opportunities and long Michigan winters, I’ve turned every area of my bag over several times in the past three years.

Despite Club Champion’s somewhat spotty reputation, there is nowhere else locally with such a broad selection of equipment to try. My fitter, Jake, also previously worked for another local golf shop. He fit me for a putter in 2018 and a driver in 2019, so I had the benefit of some prior experience guiding my choice of fitters.

I’ll break this post into two pieces: my fitting experience and a small review on Club Champion. It seems everyone wants to know if they are “worth it” or not.

My Fitting Experience

I had a 1 PM appointment, so I worked a half day from home, hit a few balls to get in somewhat of a groove at home and then hopped in the car for the 20 minute ride to Club Champion.

I got to CC about 20 minutes early, my fitter Jake was ready for me at about 10 minutes early. In retrospect, I should have used this time to stretch and warm-up with my Rypstick like I do on course. Something to remember for next time.

There were really two goals of today’s fitting in my mind. One, to try the latest and greatest player’s style irons with more “traditional” lofts than my Sub70 699 Pros. Two, to evaluate the AutoFlex SF505X, which I purchased and did an unofficial review of on MGS last season. I really hit the weights hard this offseason and have noticed the AutoFlex being relatively inefficient and overly spinny when not hit perfectly. Also, while I’ve enjoyed the Sub70 699 Pros, I don’t hit the ball quite high enough or with enough spin. I have been fighting a left miss that can get pretty miserable when I’m not purposely trying to feel a “big fade” swing.

We started by baselining my 6 and 8 irons from the 699 Pros, and as I have been seeing lately, I struggled with big sweeping hooks, lack of spin and peak heights that ideally should have been 10-20 feet higher. Admittedly, I routinely deal with a bit of anxiety and the first 15-20 swings were probably less than perfect form-wise, but the pattern was there. Speed-wise I was seeing about 95 MPH out of my 6 iron, and that number stayed pretty consistent throughout my fitting, reaching somewhere around 98 MPH when I was fully warm.

From there we worked toward trying to improve upon both my left miss and the lack of height and spin. Jake started me with a TaylorMade P770 head as he said they tend to launch the ball quite high despite the lofts. I worked through the P770 for a while, trying an Accra i110 Tour shaft, an LAGP model, KBS TGI 110 and then SteelFiber fc115s in x-stiff. I did start getting into a groove and had better swings as we went, but it wasn’t until Jake pulled out stiff SteelFiber i125s that we found something good to work with. They felt really nice to me, my delivery improved quite a bit and as a result my launch and spin was much better. At that point I felt comfortable telling Jake that I’d like to cycle through different heads with the i125s. 

I hit several different heads that I would consider to be “player’s-ish” and have some quick thoughts:

• TaylorMade P770 - Sharp looks. Very familiar feeling coming from the 699 Pros. Ball speed was excellent even on mishits. Spin was “playable,” but still a little low.
• Srixon ZX7 - Incredible feeling irons. Very muted and heavy, you can tell they are definitely solid compared to what I have in the 699s or the P770s. Ball speed was excellent, right up there with all of the more “techier” irons. Better spin than the P770s.
• Mizuno Pro 223 - Another excellent feeling and looking iron. But nothing about the numbers wowed us.
• PXG 0311T Gen4 - I really wanted to like these but couldn’t get a good swing on the ball. They did not feel particularly well on the miss hits.
• Wilson Staff CB - Very nice and very beautiful irons. But no better than the ZX7s, slightly less satisfying feeling on a flush hit.
• Callaway Apex Pro - Better feel than the P770 and extremely quick. Again, “playable” but not ideal spin.
• Ben Hogan PTx Pro - The shocker of them all. Nice blend between a forged-ish feel with some tech. Ball speed was near the top, spin was the most ideal of all of the heads and it was extremely accurate as a result. Only gave up a yard or two carry loft-for-loft against the other heads.

I ended up so enamored with the Hogan’s that I hit quite a few balls with them. So much so that I didn’t even get a chance to hit the Cobra MIMs, but otherwise I covered almost all of what I wanted to hit.

My top three irons ended up being Hogan PTx Pro, Srixon ZX7 and Callaway Apex Pro.

We then moved on to lie measurement using the lie board, impact location and dynamic lie angle on Trackman and settled on somewhere around 60 degrees in the 6 iron, which is basically two flat for most manufacturers and one degree flatter from my last fitting.

Knowing I will likely purchase new irons at some point based on this fitting, I then asked Jake to retrofit me into my Callaway Epic Max LS head. I bought this head last year to pair with the Dumina AutoFlex SF505X, and I really didn’t want to find a new driver head if possible.

Baselining the AutoFlex it became very apparent that my offseason workouts have increased my club head speed. I registered a few swings at 116+ MPH which is probably 7-9 MPH faster than when I purchased the AutoFlex last spring.

As I had assumed, the AutoFlex was a poor match for my current swing. I struggled to get spin under 3,000 RPM even on well struck balls. My “bad” swings resulted in 4,000+ spin and a high weak flight landing at about 250 yards.

I told Jake I wanted to start with the Ventus line and work from there. We started with the Ventus TR 6X, moved to the Blue 6X and finally made it to the Black 7X. All three showed dramatic improvements in spin rate and distance, but the Black 7X was the best in my opinion.

I suggested the Motore X F1 and Jake agreed it would likely be a good fit as well. I’m glad we tried it as I immediately reeled off a few 285+ yard carry shots. We tried a few shafts after that, from Accra, LAGP and the new Fujikura Speeder line, but came back to the Motore X F1 and found similar success. Most importantly, my “misses” were now carrying 270+ and closer to the centerline.

I already have this one en route from eBay :-).

By this point I was sufficiently tired. I hit my Epic Flash 4 hybrid, Cobra 4 Utility and Callaway Super Hybrid to confirm they all were decent fits for me. They are, although my swing with the Super Hybrid was less than excellent after three hours of swinging. No changes needed here.

We discussed wedge options and agreed something mid-bounce throughout the wedges would be ideal with my delivery and playing conditions. Jake recommended either keeping the i125s throughout the wedges or going with a stiff KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 which comes in the same 125 gram weight. I did hit the Edel wedges which looked nice, but the winner of ugliest but great feeling club goes to the MOD1 iron/wedge:

I am browsing for the PTx Pros now and probably will go through with a purchase if I can find the right used set. Unfortunately, Ben Hogan will not sell heads only. So unless I want to pay full retail and pull the shafts I’ll be trolling eBay or other used club sites.

Mini Club Champion Review

I had a pre-existing relationship with my fitter, who I was fit for before, and he also knows my instructor well. For me, being comfortable with him was a big benefit.

I clearly outlined my top priority of my fitting were my irons and then the driver shaft. Jake stuck to that script well. I also wanted to stay in graphite iron shafts, which limited my options, but also made it easier to find a shaft I really liked.

I am not scared of spending money on golf, but I am also frugal. To be honest, I cringed a little when we started with the P770s because of the cost of both new and used sets. I had scoured eBay/2nd Swing/Callaway Pre-Owned over the past few days and found new sets of ZX7s and good condition Apex Pros that were more in my price range. I suspect I would have not gotten to try the Hogan’s by default, but after finding the SteelFibers I literally walked the wall of heads and grabbed everything I wanted to try.

I think it is imperative to have a basic understanding of golf equipment before going to Club Champion. I understand their business model, and I feel like I may have been steered towards certain shafts or brands had I not specifically requested things during my fitting. It helps that I understand my tendencies and was able to suggest heads and shafts (especially during the driver fitting) that would jive well with my delivery.

I happily paid the $325 for the fitting as I know I would not have gotten this experience anywhere else within 30 minutes. I’d be looking at nearly 3 hours in a car to find anything similar. I did nearly purchase the Motore X F1 through Jake, but chose to instead think on it and found an excellent deal online. While I never told Jake outright that I would not likely be purchasing anything today, he understood what my goals and reasoning for visiting were and did not seem too surprised when I walked out with nothing more than the fitting.

Overall, I am very pleased with my experience and will definitely consider going back to Club Champion the next time I am wanting a quality fitting.

This is great comprehensive review on all counts. I appreciate the insight on the process and the tips you offered on how to educate yourself prior to any fitting. It points to why I’m a bit apprehensive on club fittings as my knowledge of club components is rather limited, especially compared to yours. I’d call this required reading for anyone interested a fitting.

[cnosil]

Great writeup.  I think it really does show that with the right knowledge Club Champion can be a great place to go get a fitting.  

[LeftyMatt89]

Great write up. Honestly with all the different opinions on club champion I liked your perspective with goals and ideas of what you wanted to try. I think you were super successful and should be an awesome year with the new sticks. 

[edingc]

45 minutes ago, MattWillGolf said:

This is great comprehensive review on all counts. I appreciate the insight on the process and the tips you offered on how to educate yourself prior to any fitting. It points to why I’m a bit apprehensive on club fittings as my knowledge of club components is rather limited, especially compared to yours. I’d call this required reading for anyone interested a fitting.

Thanks for the comments. I don't want to scare anyone away from a fitting. I think they're a lot of fun and worth it for those of us who enjoy golf as a hobby. I could have spent all day in there hitting balls. But I think the very nature of CC can be a bit overwhelming if you don't have a good background of what you're looking for to begin with.

44 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Great writeup.  I think it really does show that with the right knowledge Club Champion can be a great place to go get a fitting.  

Certainly not many other options around this area for so many fitting options. I think if you have a solid game plan regarding what you want to spend and buy and also what your own limitations are, that's important. I wouldn't want to go into a fitting "just along for the ride."

46 minutes ago, LeftyMatt89 said:

Great write up. Honestly with all the different opinions on club champion I liked your perspective with goals and ideas of what you wanted to try. I think you were super successful and should be an awesome year with the new sticks. 

Thanks! Excited for the Motore X and am hopeful I can score a set a Hogan's here shortly.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Solid write up. Glad you were able to do what you set to do and agree, going in with knowledge is huge and an agenda doesn’t hurt either! Love the MotoreX

[GolfSpy BOS]

First, that’s awesome you seem to have had an awesome fit and great time.  I don’t think I would have ever put those Hogans up to that test!  

Second…. So we both went from Speedzone’s to Epic Max LS with Motore X shafts! But the weakling f3 for me. Haha must be a good driver.  

Cant wait for the first round updates! 

[CarlH]

This is very similar to my experience with CC.  Very solid and informative write up.

 

[ncwoz]

Very nice!! How would you compare CC to Leading Edge over in Okemos?

Also, what in the world is that wedge?!? I've never seen anything like that!

[ejgaudette]

Awesome review and great to see you were able to try and learn a lot. I wish we had a place like this close to myself. 

Its a testament to your progress and I hope you are able to find a good deal on some Hogans given how well the preformed. Looking forward to hearing about the bombs you will be hitting.

[revkev]

Nice write up - thank you! I see that you are experiencing what some others are with the auto flex.

 

When I hit it, it’s a thing of beauty but there are way too many times when it’s not.

[russtopherb]

Cody, thanks for taking the time to write all of this up in such great detail! Really informative about the fitting process and what your thoughts & goals were heading into your session. 

[bens197]

Honestly I am not surprised to read such a great review.

@edingc you’re easily in the top 5 of authors / review writers on this forum.  Not much else to say that has not already been said.  

 

The PTx heads really are something special.  Good luck in the pursuit…

[chisag]

21 hours ago, edingc said:

I ended up so enamored with the Hogan’s that I hit quite a few balls with them. So much that I didn’t even get a chance to hit the Cobra MIM Tours, but otherwise I covered almost all of what I wanted to hit.

 

... Bummer. Not that they would have beat out the Hogans but when you have an opportunity to try the best irons I have played, it would have been nice to compare even if just out of curiosity. But finding something you really love in a fitting is an awesome feeling. Great review! 

[yungkory]

Soooooooooooo you wanna let me borrow that Autoflex or wuh?

Sick write up and it's nice to see your work paying off in SPEED GAINZ

[Nolan220]

Great write up, never would of guess the Ben Hogans but thats why you get fitted !

 

I had a similar experience with CC I was pretty up front with what I was trying to get accomplished and the Fitter was great. Also used the same fitter for when I needed the specs for the T300s I told him what I needed and he even said come back when you get them so we can check them out free of charge .. he said I already paid for the fitting so just let him know when I could come in and make sure everything was good. 

 

[GaDawg]

Really loved the write up and pictures provided. The Hogan heads looked really nice, but I don't know about that MOD1 iron/wedge.

May I ask why you wanted the graphite shafts, especially with your swing speed? Not making judgement, just wondering your thoughts.

Looking forward to future post on your club changes, etc.

[edingc]

20 hours ago, Lacassem said:

Solid write up. Glad you were able to do what you set to do and agree, going in with knowledge is huge and an agenda doesn’t hurt either! Love the MotoreX

The Ventus Black 7X was a close second but the Motore really stood out. Found a picture of the best shot I hit and topped out at 171.5 MPH ball speed and just over 300 carry.

19 hours ago, GolfSpy_BOS said:

First, that’s awesome you seem to have had an awesome fit and great time.  I don’t think I would have ever put those Hogans up to that test!  

Second…. So we both went from Speedzone’s to Epic Max LS with Motore X shafts! But the weakling f3 for me. Haha must be a good driver.  

Cant wait for the first round updates! 

Jake thought the Rogue Max LS may be a bit better but they're close.

My driver swing has gotten pretty grooved at +4 to +6 AoA. The F1 fits that great, I know the F3 is a great shaft as well!

18 hours ago, CarlH said:

This is very similar to my experience with CC.  Very solid and informative write up.

I definitely can see how people can walk out with $5,000 less in their pockets. List price the Motore X F1 is $225 now. CC price was going to be closer to $350 after taxes and adapter installation, with no grip. Grips4Less will build one with a grip for $250, and since they were the stock offering in Cobra, they are plentiful on the second hand market.

11 hours ago, ncwoz said:

Very nice!! How would you compare CC to Leading Edge over in Okemos?

Apparently Leading Edge is under different owners than when I was fit for Cobra Connect. Tough to directly compare, they are very close to my recollection. I think CC has more to offer than LE in choices, cost is similar. CC was a lot closer, too!

9 hours ago, ejgaudette said:

Awesome review and great to see you were able to try and learn a lot. I wish we had a place like this close to myself. 

Its a testament to your progress and I hope you are able to find a good deal on some Hogans given how well the preformed. Looking forward to hearing about the bombs you will be hitting.

Thanks! Appreciate you reading. It was a lot of fun and certainly puts the other local fitting options to shame (at a little more expensive of a cost, of course!).

7 hours ago, revkev said:

When I hit it, it’s a thing of beauty but there are way too many times when it’s not.

I middled a few and still was seeing over 3,000 spin with a +4 AoA. As soon as he plugged in the Ventus my next shot dropped to sub 2,400. The AutoFlex is a good shaft, but as my speed has gone up my transition has gotten more violent. Not as good with the AF.

7 hours ago, russtopherb said:

Cody, thanks for taking the time to write all of this up in such great detail! Really informative about the fitting process and what your thoughts & goals were heading into your session. 

Thanks! There are so many posts about Club Champion that I wanted to go in with an open mind and see what it was all about.

5 hours ago, bens197 said:

Honestly I am not surprised to read such a great review.

@edingc you’re easily in the top 5 of authors / review writers on this forum.  Not much else to say that has not already been said.  

 

The PTx heads really are something special.  Good luck in the pursuit…

Means a lot, truly. Thank you! I enjoyed the time and even Jake mentioned how sneaky good the PTx Pros are. 

3 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... Bummer. Not that they would have beat out the Hogans but when you have an opportunity to try the best irons I have played, it would have been nice to compare even if just out of curiosity. But finding something you really love in a fitting is an awesome feeling. Great review! 

That ones on me. We spent half of the three hours on irons, and I should have made one last lap of the wall. I'm sure they are great clubs, too. Nothing I hit was horrible by any means!

3 hours ago, yungkory said:

Soooooooooooo you wanna let me borrow that Autoflex or wuh?

Sick write up and it's nice to see your work paying off in SPEED GAINZ

It's available!

2 hours ago, Nolan220 said:

I had a similar experience with CC I was pretty up front with what I was trying to get accomplished and the Fitter was great. Also used the same fitter for when I needed the specs for the T300s I told him what I needed and he even said come back when you get them so we can check them out free of charge .. he said I already paid for the fitting so just let him know when I could come in and make sure everything was good. 

I think Jake would have preferred to sell me something (that is the point of his business), but he was great about making me feel welcome and definitely offered to have me back in at anytime. 

1 hour ago, GaDawg said:

Really loved the write up and pictures provided. The Hogan heads looked really nice, but I don't know about that MOD1 iron/wedge.

May I ask why you wanted the graphite shafts, especially with your swing speed? Not making judgement, just wondering your thoughts.

Looking forward to future post on your club changes, etc.

The MOD1 was quite ugly but feel really nice. He said he's never sold a set though.

I hit a lot of balls off of mats from October to April (still too wet/cold to play routinely here). The last two years I fought shoulder, elbow and wrist pain after mat sessions. I switched to graphite and all of those aches and pains went away. I know there are some stellar steel shafts out there (some with vibration dampening), but the graphite is a nice insurance policy so to speak.

 

[sirchunksalot]

I really enjoyed the write-up Cody and it's good to hear you had a positive experience with CC. Now I'm really looking forward to seeing if you can find a good deal on a set of the Hogan's. 

It's amazing to see where you were when you joined the forum and how you've progressed in the time since. You've put in a lot of work and seeing the results is awesome! 

[Nolan220]

46 minutes ago, edingc said:

I think Jake would have preferred to sell me something (that is the point of his business), but he was great about making me feel welcome and definitely offered to have me back in at anytime. 

I agree I think the fitter I used was more like   Give the customer what he wants and he will be back .. and I did go back to him multiple times 

[edingc]

20 hours ago, sirchunksalot said:

I really enjoyed the write-up Cody and it's good to hear you had a positive experience with CC. Now I'm really looking forward to seeing if you can find a good deal on a set of the Hogan's. 

It's amazing to see where you were when you joined the forum and how you've progressed in the time since. You've put in a lot of work and seeing the results is awesome! 

Thanks, Jason! I appreciate the kind words.

I did go back in MyTrackman to look at the Epic Flash fitting I did with Jake. At that time my club speed topped out around 100 MPH with ball speeds around 140 on average. It's been a fun ride getting to this point and can't wait to try to continue to improve.

 

[sirchunksalot]

2 hours ago, edingc said:

Thanks, Jason! I appreciate the kind words.

I did go back in MyTrackman to look at the Epic Flash fitting I did with Jake. At that time my club speed topped out around 100 MPH with ball speeds around 140 on average. It's been a fun ride getting to this point and can't wait to try to continue to improve.

 

It's amazing to see a 12+ mph club head speed gain over that time span. That's a real difference maker! 

[Middler]

On 3/28/2022 at 8:15 PM, edingc said:

Do your homework and be open/honest with your fitter. I would not want to go into a Club Champion without a clear purpose, or without an understanding of how they do business. Definitely worth the trip for gearheads. I’d hesitate to recommend a fitting at CC for someone who doesn’t have either a very deep pocketbook or a good foundation of golf club fitting knowledge.

I think it is imperative to have a basic understanding of golf equipment before going to Club Champion. I understand their business model, and I feel like I may have been steered towards certain shafts or brands had I not specifically requested things during my fitting. It helps I understand my tendencies and was able to suggest heads and shafts (especially during the driver fitting) that would jive well with my delivery.

I’d advocate for fittings with the clear caveat above, way too often left out on this forum by many (not all).

The second paragraph is a little disturbing to me - how many players know enough to resist being “steered” - not many among the whole of players. My next fitting will not be with CC for this reason (probably Manufacturer or TrueSpec IMO).

Thanks for taking the time to write and share your views.

[edingc]

49 minutes ago, Middler said:

I’d advocate for fittings with the clear caveat above, way too often left out on this forum by many (not all).

The second paragraph is a little disturbing to me - how many players know enough to resist being “steered” - not many among the whole of players. My next fitting will not be with CC for this reason (probably Manufacturer or TrueSpec IMO).

Thanks for taking the time to write and share your views.

To be fair, I did classify myself as a "tinkerer," and that may have led down the road to some more exotic shaft choices. And I'm limited in graphite, so some of the options are more expensive than others naturally. But LAGP seemed to be a favorite, as well as the P770. 

It's important to advocate for yourself during a fitting. That's what I'm taking away from this experience - whether than means setting the budget upfront, brands, etc. And again, I'm definitely open to going back. For example, at no point did I get prodded to try another driver head. I could have asked and tried some, and probably should have, but that wasn't the important part of the day for me.

[MWGolf23]

@edingc Just sent you a comment on another post, checked out this and I'm guessing you are in West Michigan like me with Jake at CC and formerly MH! Nice review! I have some gift cards for CC that I need to redeem. Never have been there before and appreciate the review, nice job. Would you say Jake is the best there? Also, who's your coach and how do you like them? What have they helped with the most? I've never had lessons and am maybe testing the waters and researching some around here. Nice chatting with a fellow West Michigander.

[fixyurdivot]

Great review and write-up Cody!  I think all of the Big Name fitter options have their supporters and detractors - largely based on the fitter and how each store is managed (or mismanaged). Their really no different than so many other chains and simply reinforce the old adage "people matter".  Sounds like you found the right irons... even if they weren't the ZX7's .  Hope you can find a good used set to re-shaft.

[edingc]

1 hour ago, MWGolf23 said:

@edingc Just sent you a comment on another post, checked out this and I'm guessing you are in West Michigan like me with Jake at CC and formerly MH! Nice review! I have some gift cards for CC that I need to redeem. Never have been there before and appreciate the review, nice job. Would you say Jake is the best there? Also, who's your coach and how do you like them? What have they helped with the most? I've never had lessons and am maybe testing the waters and researching some around here. Nice chatting with a fellow West Michigander.

Jake is the store manager. I think they have three fitters in total including him, but I'm not sure on the backgrounds of the other two. I felt most comfortable going with Jake (third fitting with him now), so that's why I scheduled with him.

I'll shoot you a PM with some of the other info you asked about.

[mynerds]

This was exceptionally helpful and insightful! I want to do an iron fitting in the coming weeks and want to compare a smaller fitter with one of the larger fitters. Two questions for you:

1. Would you recommend a different large fitter (e.g. TrueSpec, GolfTec, PGA Superstore, Cool Clubs) to avoid the pushy business model of CC or is that just the nature of the beast?
2. Do you have any advice for a relatively inexperienced player on narrowing club head and shafts prior to the fitting? I expect that game improvement or super game improvement irons will work best for me so a fancy shaft seems about as helpful as a turbo on a minivan. Is that enough to keep things on track or do I need to further narrow down to specific brands to try?

[edingc]

4 hours ago, mynerds said:

• Would you recommend a different large fitter (e.g. TrueSpec, GolfTec, PGA Superstore, Cool Clubs) to avoid the pushy business model of CC or is that just the nature of the beast?

I have not used any of those other places so I cannot comment on the experience at them. I don't think Club Champion is a bad place to be fit at all, but it is clear they are making most of their money from the build process post-fitting.

4 hours ago, mynerds said:

1. Do you have any advice for a relatively inexperienced player on narrowing club head and shafts prior to the fitting? I expect that game improvement or super game improvement irons will work best for me so a fancy shaft seems about as helpful as a turbo on a minivan. Is that enough to keep things on track or do I need to further narrow down to specific brands to try?

Do you have a local golf shop that does launch monitor fittings? If you are just trying to figure out what's best for you without going off the deep end with shaft and head choices, I bet they would be a good place to start. One of our local shops has a Trackman fitting area and they are reasonably priced (something like ~$80-90 for an iron fitting). I've been through a fitting with them before. They start you on the Mizuno shaft optimizer to get a few recommendations and then go from there. 

Sounds like the biggest thing for you is just getting a chance to try a bunch of different stuff without breaking the bank. You could certainly walk into Club Champion and say I want to test stock, no upcharge shafts only, but that's not really the goal of their environment in my opinion.

[RickyBobby_PR]

6 hours ago, mynerds said:

Would you recommend a different large fitter (e.g. TrueSpec, GolfTec, PGA Superstore, Cool Clubs) to avoid the pushy business model of CC or is that just the nature of the beast?

GolfTec and PGA superstore are going to have limited options for shafts and heads, golfTec even less than PGA SS. They will have whatever shafts are offered by each company including upcharge.

TruSpec and Cool clubs are similar to Club champion in they will have a larger variety of shafts. TruSpec to my knowledge doesn’t do stock shafts, not sure about cool clubs so whatever you are fit to there you are going to pay a higher price for the clubs whether you order thru them or another club builder.

6 hours ago, mynerds said:

Do you have any advice for a relatively inexperienced player on narrowing club head and shafts prior to the fitting? I expect that game improvement or super game improvement irons will work best for me so a fancy shaft seems about as helpful as a turbo on a minivan. Is that enough to keep things on track or do I need to further narrow down to specific brands to try?

Go to pga superstore or another similar style store and demo clubs. Find what you like from a looks and feel standpoint. Then let the fitter know, but also be open minded to their suggestions