Club Champion fitting

[booyaa138]

Hello Everyone,

I've got a full bag fitting scheduled with Club Champion coming up. For other that have had a fitting with CC what was your experience? What are some of the things that I need to look out? 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Here you go! It is a whole thread on this topic... lots of insights on both sides both good and less good. I think some key takeaways are be open and honest with your fitter, let them know your budget and expectations ahead of time. If you can't afford aftermarket shafts etc then say so to have them fit you into products within your budget. 

Bring some water, have some fun and if you're not having a good day don't be afraid to pull the plug and consider going back and hopefully playing on a day where you are feeling like the shots are more representing your swing!

 

[booyaa138]

Thanks! I've got a lot of reading to do now!

[GolfSpy_APH]

1 minute ago, booyaa138 said:

Thanks! I've got a lot of reading to do now!

I did my best to give you a recap on what the thoughts for many were having read most of it... not all though!

Be sure to let us know how it goes as well. I will tag @GolfSpy_SAM as he had one recently with well an interesting result. 

[GolfSpy SAM]

Hey hey! Check this out when you have an hour to read (kidding, but it's...wordy. Like me. Which makes sense, 'cause I wrote it.)

It wasn't CC, but TrueSpec is their direct competitor, and a very similar experience. 

 

 

[Golf2Much]

I've had club fittings from Club Champion and Golftec.   As mentioned above, some good and some...ah not so good. 

Here are a couple of videos I found helpful before I went to my fittings:

 

I've been a fan of Mobile Clubmaker and his opinions. 

[Mark1971]

My recent experience with Club Champion. Let the buyer beware! Based on my experience they are not what they advertise and claim to be.

I don't disagree with the comments in this thread, but I thought I'd share my recent experience with a full bag fitting at Club Champion.  As background, I have been fit many times. I started in the mid-1980's with Henry-Griffitts, which really started retail fittings.  BTW guys, get fit, Simple things like lie angle can make it very difficult to hit it where you are aiming without serious compensations == guaranteed inconsistency. Anyway ... 

First, my fitter at Club Champion was excellent. He knows his stuff. He did not try to sell me 'extra' stuff I did not need.  For example, after I hit my gamers he told me right up front that he wasn't going to be able to give me any distance because my smash factor is consistently 4.8-5.0. After trying to improve dispersion and ball flight (higher), he said "I can sell you a driver if you want really want a new one, but you aren't going to hit it better" I appreciated that. I'm sure your mileage will vary on that.

The problems are really with CC's business model. I wanted to start by trying Ping 430's and Titleist T300s because I had already tried them at demo days. (I would really prefer the i525's or the T200s but the Trackman numbers simply don't support that. I'm nearly 70 and father time is undefeated!) The problem is that CC does not have the Ping or Titleist stock shafts. Why not? IDK. Business model? The claim is that they simply cannot get them. Or maybe they really want to charge you for upgraded shafts, after having already charged for the stock shafts, but that's been covered here. So if you don't pay for the upgrade, you can't really hit what you are buying. Hummm, that's a BIG problem IMO. We settled on the 430's after trying a lot of options, and fortunately, back to my fitter who was able to recommend shafts from the Ping stock options that closely matched the custom ones I tried. Then we discussed switching my 4 hybrid for a 7 wood. Oops, we don't have a 7 wood you can try. I understand they can't stock every head for every club, but this is where bigger is not better. I can do that with a Ping or Titleist fitter. 

So the clubs arrive and things get shaky. When I get home I discover that the tungsten toe weight (screw) on my 50* wedge is missing. I call. No problem, they don't have one available, but they can order one from Ping. Okay, I have one from Amazon in a day for about 12 bucks, but I need the gram weight of the screw. I ask CC for the gram weight. Nope they don't know. You mean no one in Chicago (where they assemble all the clubs) knows? Nope. And these are the experts in club building, including swing weighting and they can't call a contact at Ping? Then these are the guys that rigorously QA everything in Chicago - weight, swing weight, loft, lie, everything - before it is shipped. And they don't notice that the toe screw is missing? And the clubs are supposed to be QA'ed at the local store before I pick them up. Hummm, makes you wonder. It appears that may not have happened.

In the meantime, I have no toe weight. My fitter says they will get one and I can play without it. (Okay, so why all the fuss about the perfect club fit?) After about a week, I call and text my fitter. He ghosts me. I finally call Chicago and their customer service rep falls all over himself and gets me the toe weight most rickety-tick - two weeks after I discovered the weight was missing. 

My takeaways:

1. It's difficult to get fit into stock shafts at CC. That does not appear to be in their business model.

2. In my experience, their QA is not what they claim. It was not good.

3. In my experience, their support post sale lacking, at least at this store. 

I'm sure your mileage will vary based on a host of factors, but that was my experience.

P.S. They do ship the clubs (with or without toe weights) in very nice, high quality boxes.

[Sinjin Todd]

I’ve gotten fit at CC for irons, wedges, and putter. I loved every fitting that I have had with them. I’d say the most important thing is don’t be afraid to communicate, ask questions and give all your opinions and feedback on the clubs you end up hitting! Your fitter will guide you but the ultimate decision is up to you!


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[kmaren]

I went in for a full bag fitting after catching one of their flash sales.   "$0" for the fitting but you had the obligation to purchase a club.   

My fitter was great.   I truly felt he was very knowledgeable.   I on the other hand should have been more knowledgeable.   I purchased the driver.   Now, in my defense, I had no idea what shaft and head combo I would come out with.   It ended up being a combination I could have gotten from Callaway in a week.  Here I am a month later and I was told the ship date was 10 days ago.  Then it was today.   Now it's going to be in two weeks.   One driver, 6 weeks.   Of course, I paid a premium above what the club would have cost directly from Callaway.   

Here's the good.   With what I paid for the driver I am not part of their rewards program.   I did the fitting while on vacation.   And by the end of the fitting, I was tired.   They let me come in and finish the fitting back home without losing any rewards program benefits.   I was also able to double-check the first fitters work.   I loved that part.  So maybe I feel like the extra I spent on the Driver was worth it.   And, I will take advantage of the trackman time I get with the rewards program to have an idea of my yardages with the new clubs. 

Going in I had a really good idea of the clubs I liked from self-testing at other stores.   I just had no idea what I was going to end up with for shafts, club length, and lie angle. 

If I had to do it all over again, maybe I would have just bought the putter, taken my information, and got the rest of the clubs somewhere else.   I did end up getting a putter somewhere else.   Their putter selection is terrible.   

All in all I was satisfied and not disappointed in my experience.  6 weeks for the driver is obnoxious and at this point I am happy I didn't get the rest of the clubs.   For the Masters they had a gift card promo where you could get a bonus 20%.   I would have taken advantage of that had I gotten an email about it.   Somehow I got every other email.  Just not that one.     

In the end, I am satisfied, just know your overall budget needs to be huge for a full bag.   And know what manufacturers off for combos you can order direct.   

 

 

[ctg44]

I can compare my fitting with a friend of ours at Club Champion on 2022 to the fitting my wife just did at the 2nd Swing / PGA Coaching Center at PGA Frisco this past weekend.  I can't compare her clubs yet, as they're still a few weeks away from being ready, but funny enough, she ended up being fitted into Mizuno irons too...

In short, at the time I got fitted, I'd gotten hurt playing hockey the week before and should have canceled and waited a while to get fitted.  Unfortunately, I was dumb and went in and got fitted when I was overweight, suffering from a slightly torn left tricep muscle (kind of important for right-handed golfers), and fighting a hard fade because of that.  In the end, I ended up getting fitted into softer, longer shafts with upright heads that did not do well for me by the end of about 10-12 months when I was able to get my weight back down, swing speeds back up, and regain my flexibility in the arm and back.  At that point, I was up almost 10 MPH in clubhead speed and had gotten much more consistent in ball-striking.  Even still, my handicap had drifted from 3.1 or so in the middle of the summer last year to almost 8 this winter, even with a lot of practice indoors and as much course time as I could get.  I randomly hit a set of P7MC irons with X100 shafts that were +1/2" long and Standard L/L at Golf Galaxy in January when my wife was out of town at a conference and started striping the ball like never before.  I didn't buy the clubs because it was a split set with P7MBs at the bottom of the bag, but I was certainly intrigued.

 

The long version here is that most of my problems with my CC-fitted irons was my fault, and I'm pretty sure I'd have ended up with something like the P7MCs had I been in the same shape I'm in now at the time of my fitting.

 

All that said, I will say that I'll never do a fully indoor fitting again after experiencing the fitting we did for my wife this weekend.  The bonus with that fitting was that she got not only a 20' ceiling in the hitting bay at PGA Frisco (instead of a stupidly low net ceiling I always hit...when I don't hit their even more stupidly placed projector...look people, some of us are 6'4"+ with long arms and even longer legs!!!), but also the ability to take the fitted club outside and verify how it feels on real grass where you can see REAL ball flight for launch and landing angles.  Thus, if you are in the DFW area, I highly recommend Blaine Seitz and the PGA Frisco / 2nd Swing fittings.  It is TOTALLY worth the $100.  My wife was actually excited about the clubs she's going to be getting by the time the fitting was over she was hitting them so well.

Edited May 16 by ctg44

[ParGuy]

A full bag fitting is very intense You hit lots of balls, by the time you get to driver you will be very tired. These fitting sessions are always very helpful to get the right combination for you without a brand bias

[ParGuy]

I read and saw some great videos on this Be care CC prices are crazy. I have a fried a 22 hdcp fitted for a driver his end cost was $1200 just crazy they sold him a $450 shaft that cost 50% more

[Shinnman]

On 3/24/2023 at 5:41 PM, booyaa138 said:

Hello Everyone,

I've got a full bag fitting scheduled with Club Champion coming up. For other that have had a fitting with CC what was your experience? What are some of the things that I need to look out? 

Congrats.  Great decision.  Getting fit is the best decision you could do.  Keep in mind that you can just order a shaft and buy a used head if going to buy a driver.  They don’t discount not giving you the generic free shaft.  

assume it’s indoors (mine was) so also hitting off of mats rather than real grass.  So don’t expect it to be perfect.  They use Trackman.  

use your game ball. Don’t use some random ball just laying around. 

tell them about your misses (not your wife…your missed shots).  They can figure out how to work around that whether that is clubhead or shaft.

dont wed yourself to a brand.  Try them all.  Who cares if you play Titleist or Callaway.  The only thing you should care about is what works best for you that will lower your scores.  

Trust the guy, they are trained for this.  Don’t be like I always use this shaft or this stiffness.  Every brand is different.