Serious Custom Fitting

[Rickles]

About a week ago before I caught a plane out of DFW I stopped in at The Golf Station in Hurst Texas. I got to have a laid back and informative chat with the owner Tim Brantley. Tim is a former Nationwide tour player who decided he would start a business focused on providing the same level of custom fitting that he got as a tour player to the average golfer. The shop is awesome and they do everything. Compelete fitting: woods, hybrids, irons, wedges, and putter all fit with tons of options and with all the latest hi-tech stuff like launch monitor and putt lab. The can get you OEM clubs that are tour spec, or all of the super premium Japanese stuff like Miura, Epon, and the like that we all drool over around here. Or, for the budget conscious, he can build you the lesser known but still incredibly high quality brands like Wishon and KZG. They also custom grind wedges which is something I am really interested in.

 

I have never been truly custom fit for golf clubs and I have always wondered if it would really make as huge of a difference as they say it does. I'm poor so I asked him what he would recommend as an introduction. My mizzies are 7 years old and the short iron faces are starting to look rough so he suggested we start there. He said for $120 I could get an iron fitting where they check out my old clubs, then watch me swing and figure out tendancies and see how I swing my clubs. Then he would work me up a "prescription" where we would find the best heads and shaft combinations for irons and hybrids with some options to meet my budget. He said then I could either. 1. Get my perscription and do with it what I choose. 2. Have them build me a set completely custom to me. 3. Go through one of his club pro friends and custom order an OEM set to my exact specs if it's not something they carry. If I want mizzies again for an example. He also said he would throw in a wedge fitting for free as well. The whole thing will take around three hours.

 

I think I am going to do this for my father's day present. I may not be able to afford new irons but it will still be a cool experience and I might can then save up and get them later. I also want to take pictures and write a review here on the forum. Who knows maybe if enough of you are excited about this I can talk Tim into giving me a discount!

 

What do you guys think? I know there are a lot of you from Texas on the forum. Would you be interested in having me write a review on this super sweet custom fitting experience?

[Walkerjames]

That sounds like an awesome deal!! I hope you get to do that.

[whiskey golf]

That sounds like a great place to get fit, a review on this would be cool.

[Maverickping]

Sounds great! I'd like to hear about your experience.

[Rickles]

Ok guys, looks like I'm going to go Saturday. Tim says I can take pictures and do anything else I need to write my review. I am super psyched!

[Mr_Theoo]

Enjoy, cant wait to read the review

[Super Tuna]

Let me put it this way, going to the Golf Station and getting fit there is on my golf bucket list, and aside from visiting Rick/Best Grips, the only reason I'd ever go to Texas (unless Nike wanted me to come to the Oven for a fitting for which I'd drop everything and run to the nearest airport).

 

They have an excellent reputation, and one of the guys I chat with on WRX frequently is a regular customer of theirs. His reports about them are amazing.

[PlaidJacket]

I'm very interested in a "true" custom club fitting. I recently visited a fitter in Kerrville, Texas and came away being very impressed with both the owner/fitter and the process. The fitter has over 30 years experience. I have never had a true fitting. Just retail type (swing speed, lie board, impact tape, different shafts, etc. etc.) with no depth. I found out quickly how involved the process really is. (and should be) That's a good thing. Should I choose to get the fitting and buy clubs I learned that it's not cheap. On a per club basis it's about twice what you'd pay to buy clubs off the rack with a retail fitting. I was told that each club will be individually fit. I'm looking at Wishon 560MC or 771 CSI. I was given a detailed fitting information/data sheet to fill out describing various aspects of my game. Like and dislikes, shot shapes, types of clubs in my bag, etc. I was also given a small booklet where I was asked to record in detail everything from tee to green for 4-5 rounds including score. I will provide all this information to the fitter the day I arrive for my fitting along with my current bag. I was told to plan on spending 3 hours at my (initial) fitting.

I was disappointed that Rickles didn't conclude his review. However if anyone has any advice for a club fitting (I mean a true in depth fitting. Not a retail fitting) I'd like to hear it.

[RookieBlue7]

Does that fitter offer anything outside of Wishon? Just curious if they're a Wishon fitter or a fitter of all brands? Reason I ask is the margins are pretty good with Wishon clubs as I have an account with them myself.

 

If you're looking for a fitter , I'd start at the International Clubmaker's Guild to find one. Their certified fitters are the best of the best.

 

http://www.clubmakersguild.com

[PlaidJacket]

Yes he does offer others but I asked about Wishon so we focused mostly on those. Here's a link to his site. http://www.precisionfitgolf.com/index.html

The web site seems a little dated because some of the equipment he talks about on the site is older.  He showed me his Flightscope which is not mentioned on his site. I'm not committed to anything but I was impressed. And he's the closet to where I live which is still 225 miles away. Texas is a big place ya know. As for credentials... he has most if not all of them.

 

Texas
Keith Chatham - AGCP Master of Golf Club Technology
AGCP Charter Member
AGCP Lifetime Member
PrecisionFit Golf
1452 Sidney Baker
Kerrville, TX 78028

Professional Clubmakers Society:
2006 PCS International Clubmaker of the Year
2006 PCS Regional Clubmaker of the Year
2005 PCS Regional Clubmaker of the Year
PCS Professional "Class A" Clubmaker
PCS Certified Clubfitter
PCS Certified Clubmaker
Golf Clubmakers Association:
2004-2005 Texas Clubmaker of the Year
GCA Accretited Professional Clubmaker
GCA Accretited Advanced Clubmaker
2007-2008 Texas Clubmaker of the Year

http://www.agcpgolf.com/

[RookieBlue7]

The PCS is what the ICG came from. When the PCS shut down, the ICG came around. Sounds like he's got the chops, now to talk with him and see if his ideas and attitude meshes well with you. A fitter you can't get along with is just as bad as a bad fitter . As long as he's flexible and can communicate with you in ways you understand him and get along with, he should be just fine.

[Rickles]

I'm very interested in a "true" custom club fitting. I recently visited a fitter in Kerrville, Texas and came away being very impressed with both the owner/fitter and the process. The fitter has over 30 years experience. I have never had a true fitting. Just retail type (swing speed, lie board, impact tape, different shafts, etc. etc.) with no depth. I found out quickly how involved the process really is. (and should be) That's a good thing. Should I choose to get the fitting and buy clubs I learned that it's not cheap. On a per club basis it's about twice what you'd pay to buy clubs off the rack with a retail fitting. I was told that each club will be individually fit. I'm looking at Wishon 560MC or 771 CSI. I was given a detailed fitting information/data sheet to fill out describing various aspects of my game. Like and dislikes, shot shapes, types of clubs in my bag, etc. I was also given a small booklet where I was asked to record in detail everything from tee to green for 4-5 rounds including score. I will provide all this information to the fitter the day I arrive for my fitting along with my current bag. I was told to plan on spending 3 hours at my (initial) fitting.

I was disappointed that Rickles didn't conclude his review. However if anyone has any advice for a club fitting (I mean a true in depth fitting. Not a retail fitting) I'd like to hear it.

 

Sorry I didn't finish the review Plaid Jacket.

I will give you the short version. The golf station is great. The fitting was excellent. Tim took his time to answer all my questions. They use a launch monitor that gives good numbers with a tour qulity ball that is similar to what I would play. The way the fitting worked is I picked a few different iron heads that were appealing to me. We then tried those with different shaft options until we got the numbers just right. Tim was such a good fitter that the shaft he picked based on my numbers and swing with my previous irons ended up being the best shaft after trying several different options. They then did thorough measurement on myself and my old set. He then gave me a couple head options with the correct shaft and told me what my specs would be. And discussed different price options for different heads. He even told me that I was welcome to my fitting data and could even build something myself or have someone else do it. He said that If I bought Irons from him the price of the fitting would be subtracted from the price of the irons.

I did not finish my review because I could not afford to purchase irons from the golf station. I already had a set of my second choice of heads, so I found the shafts for a steal on ebay and built them myself. It was a first class fitting and a first class operation that will build and rebuild clubs for you until you are completely satisfied. I just felt guilty doing a review when I did not have them build my clubs. I do however recommend them to you and anyone else and when I get the money I will go back and get fit for and buy a driver from them. That being said I am using a head and a shaft they recommended and am having great results with them. They fit my swing perfectly. 

 

Please ask me any questions about the process and I will be more than happy to answer them.

[Rickles]

Another thing I want to mention is that the fitting has helped me when choosing other clubs for my set I have not been fit for. I learned that with my quick transition a heavier shaft and a stiff plus or extra stiff is usually the way to go even though my swing speed would typically have me in a stiff. I put stiffer heavier shafts in my driver and 3 wood and have had much better results.

[PlaidJacket]

That's an honest post Rickles. I have a good feeling about the guy I met. My initial meet and greet was only supposed be about 30 minutes. ( he was technically closed for Christmas and New Years and we were both short on time - I thought) I ended up spending 2 hours with him just talking. He didn't try to sell me nor did he put down other clubs/mfgs. I could tell he truly loved his work and is dedicated to his craft. He was a straight shooter I felt. I'm seriously moving toward going back to him. Probably won't be until perhaps March. When I do; I'll come back to this post with my results.

[Rickles]

That sounds great. Custom fitting works.

[Rickles]

Plaid Jacket lit a fire under me. Over the next couple of days I will add some posted to this thread with some observations from the fitting.

 

Here's the first one. They have everything high end shaft you can think of. There was an entire wall in the fitting room of wood shafts. Fujikura, Miyazaki, Matrix, Diamana, UST shafts from their tour department, you name it. In all weights and flexes for drivers woods and hybrids.

He had all the iron shafts too. Dynamic gold tours, Project X, KBS, Nippon, Aeorotech Steelfibers, plus all the graphite stuff. I didn't pay much attention to the graphite iron shafts because I was told I needed something heavy. There were 10's of 1000's of dollars worth of shafts on that wall. All were fitted with special tips to fit whatever Iron or wood head they had. He would have let me hit as many of them as I wanted for my iron fitting. I tried 5 different shafts and his first choice for me after I warmed up with my old clubs. Mizuno MP32's with the old project x 5.5 shafts. Those shafts were the right weight and the spin was ok but they were launching too low. I ended up getting fit to Nippon NS Pro Modus 3 120's in x flex. They were the perfect launch (medium) perfect spin (low) the right weight (heavy but not too heavy) and the smoothest feeling metal shafts I have ever felt. I was unfamiliar with Nippon before my visit and I am now a converted believer. Every other shaft feels so harsh now. I have guys swing my irons and they can't believe they are so stiff yet so smooth. The best part of these shafts is the dispersion. I have always fought a hook. These turn my worst hooks into a draw. Since then I have done a lot of reading up on them and there is no other shafts with the same characteristics. They are super stiff in the tip thinner walled in the low mid and then very stiff again at the butt. I believe that they were originally designed for and used by Vijay. The point is that I would never have found these shafts if not for this fitting.

[RoverRick]

I should have read this last week.  I went Monday for the purpose of a fitting and went to PGA Superstore.  I was sort of underwhelmed with them, but was even more underwhelmed with my swing so I did not even really bother.

 

I have some new irons coming next week, but I am going to reshaft them and then have the lies adjusted but will have that done here at my pro shop.

[Rickles]

There are two really great fitters not too far from you in Dallas. One is Tim at the Golf Station. The other is Russ Ryden at Fit 2 Score. He seems like one of the biggest equipment nerds on earth. I'm pretty sure most of his fittings are done outdoors on a flight scope. He test frequency every inch of all sorts of shafts and then creates his own bend profile graphs. He tests all sorts of club heads too for ct and such too. I'd like to give him a try too. His website is fit2score.com

[PlaidJacket]

I'm going to review those two fitters' websites. Thanks for the suggestion. Do you have any other tips/suggestions I might consider asking a fitter? Someone mentioned taking balls with me that usually play. I can't recall specifically if the fitter I met with discussed hitting outdoors in addition to inside at his shop. But I would surely expect that. Any other suggestions or tips would be appreciated.

[Rickles]

Tim's shop has a special launch monitor that has to use a golf ball that is marked because rather than using radar it has super high speed cameras that can see the ball spin and the clubface angle and such and calculates all the launch conditions so you have to use his ball. It is a tour quality ball though. Callaway Hex Black Tour I believe. His fittings are also all indoor on this super high tech simulator. That actually may be advantage Russ because flight scope is a little better than any simulator and being able to go outside and see your ballflight would be helpful.

[RookieBlue7]

Tim's shop has a special launch monitor that has to use a golf ball that is marked because rather than using radar it has super high speed cameras that can see the ball spin and the clubface angle and such and calculates all the launch conditions so you have to use his ball. It is a tour quality ball though. Callaway Hex Black Tour I believe. His fittings are also all indoor on this super high tech simulator. That actually may be advantage Russ because flight scope is a little better than any simulator and being able to go outside and see your ballflight would be helpful.

If he's using marked balls, I'm betting it's an About Golf simulator like the PGA Superstore uses. Their sims are one of the few that uses balls marked specifically.

 

I'd prefer FlightScope or TrackMan though and glad to see the OP has found a facility that has one and is outdoors. Nothing like seeing ball flight.

[Rickles]

In my last post I covered shafts, now lets talk heads. He has every high end custom club head you could think of. They specialize in all the Japanese forged stuff and Tim is on staff with Miura so They have anything and everything in Miura you could ever want. I hit the CB 501's and they felt great, but I don't have that kind of money. The also have Epon. They have everything KZG which I am a big fan of. I ended up with a set of KZG Tour evolutions. They even had a Japanese brand I had never heard of that ended up being the number one head for me. At the time he told me I couldn't take pictures or name the brand because they were going to be the first shop in the US to have an account with them. They are called Baldo and I was looking at their CB11's. Sweet irons, the only place it looks like you can get them right now is tour stage, or go to the Golf Station. Those were actually what Tim thought were the best heads.

If you are an OEM guy, they can do that too. I really like Adams and they can get and custom make you clubs with heads from their tour department. Before my current irons I bagged Mizuno MP 32's for about 6 years. He said if I wanted Mizunos they could take all the measurements from my fitting and the best shaft, etc and his friend from the local country club who has a Mizuno account would custom order them for me. This impressed me because he would not make much money and wouldn't sell me anything if we went this route. Getting me something I wanted that fit me perfectly seemed more important to him than selling me something. That, combined with his willingness to just give me all my fitting info even if I didn't buy clubs from him made me feel very comfortable. 

[Salmon]

Just need to find a place like these in Melbourne down under. Would love to have this fitting experience as im biting at the bit to get some replacement gear that I've had for years and have progressed past. Will be sitting down with my pro and having a good chat about getting some custom fitting done

[PlaidJacket]

I recently talked briefly with a gentleman at Golf Station in Hurst Texas. I've also read several reviews concerning them and all was very positive. They do indoor fitting only using the About equipment. (that's the same thing you've seen on the golf channel) The About equipment seems very sophisticated and accurate. I also think the Golf Station can and would do a first class fitting for me or anyone else. However.... the other day I was reading some discussion on Wishon's website and decided to email Tom Wishon directly. I asked him if he was familiar with Keith Chatham owner of PresionFit Golf in Kerrville, Texas. Within the hour Tom replied to me and said; he knows and had worked directly with Keith initially back in the 80's and mentored him when Keith was starting his career. I trust Tom's opinion but what he said was; Keith is probably the best fitter on the planet! His exact words. Wow. I'm quite sure there are many other fitters that are quite good. But for Tom to make that type of statement carries weight with me. I'm going to be contacting Keith again soon and schedule my initial fitting for late March or early April. If I can wait that long. I'll keep you posted...

[RookieBlue7]

In my last post I covered shafts, now lets talk heads. He has every high end custom club head you could think of. They specialize in all the Japanese forged stuff and Tim is on staff with Miura so They have anything and everything in Miura you could ever want. I hit the CB 501's and they felt great, but I don't have that kind of money. The also have Epon. They have everything KZG which I am a big fan of. I ended up with a set of KZG Tour evolutions. They even had a Japanese brand I had never heard of that ended up being the number one head for me. At the time he told me I couldn't take pictures or name the brand because they were going to be the first shop in the US to have an account with them. They are called Baldo and I was looking at their CB11's. Sweet irons, the only place it looks like you can get them right now is tour stage, or go to the Golf Station. Those were actually what Tim thought were the best heads.

If you are an OEM guy, they can do that too. I really like Adams and they can get and custom make you clubs with heads from their tour department. Before my current irons I bagged Mizuno MP 32's for about 6 years. He said if I wanted Mizunos they could take all the measurements from my fitting and the best shaft, etc and his friend from the local country club who has a Mizuno account would custom order them for me. This impressed me because he would not make much money and wouldn't sell me anything if we went this route. Getting me something I wanted that fit me perfectly seemed more important to him than selling me something. That, combined with his willingness to just give me all my fitting info even if I didn't buy clubs from him made me feel very comfortable.

I seriously doubt they're the first in the US that carry Baldos, they've been around. There's a set of Baldo heads up for sale right now on WRX. That guy is from Cali I believe.

[jaxbeachpackerfan]

You mentioned cost as a concern and reason that you did not order the custom fitted clubs through them.  Curious as to what that cost would have been, or what the range was.  When I got fit for irons 3 years ago or so at the Sawgrass Tour Academy, my cost per iron was $200 (after my member discount).  They put me in TM R9 irons with Nippon Steel shafts.  Glad I got fit, but always seemed a bit pricey.  Is that still about what one is looking at for a full custom fitting?

[PlaidJacket]

Although you are not addressing me directly; the guy I'm going to be fitting with soon will charge about $160-$165 per iron. I think he said the higher cost ($165) would be for a steel-fiber shaft. I'm looking to replace my bag. Driver, hybrids, irons, wedges and maybe even a putter if mine can't be adjusted properly. Oh... I'm considering Wishon.

[revkev]

I know that I'm late in this game. The ping irons that I recently bought have nip pons in them. Love the shafts. Light for steel but heavier than my graphite. I needed a little heavier and these fit nicely.

 

Don't forget to get fit for your putter. I thought I was a good putter before getting fit. Now the ball starts right where I want it to so long as I have time to practice.

[kbosecker]

Thanks for the information guys! Something I have been considering but slow to pull the trigger. Has anyone been fit for golf balls? With the choices - I have trouble making a good selection. Wondering if the club fitters make any recommendations on which ball to use and why. 

[Salmon]

Havnt so much been fit, but I just tended to try out each ball when I could and went for how it felt. For example I typically play the Pro V1 (thinking about picking up some sleeves of the Pro V1x for most distance and a little less spin) and typically have a couple other balls I want to try in my bag. These others come out for provisionals or when I'm not having the best day and loose a ball and decide I have nothing left to loose lol. That and practise rounds are good for trying out new balls as well.