3 Reasons Why Now Is The Best Time To Get Custom Golf Clubs

Winter is slowly starting to recede.

It might still not be tropical weather outside for most of us, but we can take heart from the mornings and nights getting lighter, giving us more time to play golf.

As we prepare for the season, important decisions will be made. Dusting our clubs down, we start to objectively consider whether changes need to be made.

Is it time for a new driver? Do the irons that have served us well for years look slightly tired? Does the current golf wedge set not offer the level of control we need?

The temptation to change is strong. In January and early February, the major manufacturers roll out their latest releases to much fanfare, enticing us to consider making a change.

If you have made the decision that you want to make a change, we’re going to provide you with three compelling benefits of early-season golf club fitting.

Our guide will also cover:

• Latest Golf Club Releases of 2025
• Best Place To Get Fitted For Golf Clubs: Why You Should Consider Nine By Nine Golf

Three Reasons Why Early Season Golf Club Fitting is Essential

If you are ready to commit to making a change, this is the right time of year to do it. Three reasons why changing now makes perfect sense are:

• It’s a Great Time To Assess What’s Working and What’s Not
• Using Technology Gives You Valuable Insight Into Your Game
• You’ll Have Time To Get Used To Your New Clubs

It’s a Great Time To Assess What’s Working and What’s Not

When it comes to our golf equipment, several triggers can create the impetus to make changes.

The first thing to consider is the age of our golf clubs.

If we start at the top end of our bag and look at the driver, we are nearly always looking for more distance, and if we can hit the ball straighter, that’s an added bonus.

Driver technology is one of the most aggressive and competitive areas for any manufacturer, and it takes a lot to earn a place at the top table of driver performance year in and year out.

Throw in the fact that the likes of Callaway, TaylorMade, and Cobra up the ante by bringing out major launches each year, and it feels like we are constantly on the merry-go-round of having to change our driver to keep pace with the technology.

This is okay for touring professionals because they don’t have to pay to use the latest driver model. However, for the rest of us, the thought of paying upwards of £500 ($630) each year for the latest and greatest isn’t going to wash.

Should you feel the need to change if you bought a Callaway Ai Smoke, Cobra Darkspeed, or TaylorMade Qi10 last year because they have been superseded by the Elyte, DS-Adapt, and Qi35 for 2025?

The answer is only yes if you weren’t properly custom-fit for any of the 2024 models and haven’t seen an improvement in your driving game.

If you were fitted for one of those 2024 models, the chances are you aren’t going to see massive differences in the 2025 releases.

The argument is much stronger if you’re playing a driver over two years old, which many of you reading this article probably are.

The technology is older, so the golf driver may not perform well on mishit shots or be as aerodynamically efficient as the class of 2025.

When it comes to irons, they tend to have a longer life in our golf bags. You only need to look at PGA Tour player Daniel Berger, who has just changed his irons after thirteen years of using the same TaylorMade model. Henrik Stenson is another high-profile player who is loathed to change his Callaway golf irons.

The problem with older irons that we have to accept is that they can rob us of distance compared to new models, but more importantly, they could rob us of forgiveness on off-centre hits, vastly reducing the chances of us hitting our intended target.

Modern golf irons can employ some of the same technologies seen in drivers to improve performance across the face regardless of the strike location.

With our wedges, the issue can be a loss of spin control. One shot can check up quickly, and another can run out, making us second-guess what will happen. Not a particularly good scenario when faced with a delicate chip to a tight pin location.

Using Technology Gives You Valuable Insight Into Your Game

When you go for a custom golf club fitting, your shot data is captured on a launch monitor. Launch monitors like GC Quad aren’t cheap. Unless you have an accommodating bank balance or a very friendly bank manager, not many of us will be purchasing one of these launch monitors anytime soon.

Professional fitters will invest in high-end launch monitors because they will give them the most comprehensive and accurate data available.

When you come in for a fitting session, you’ll hit your own clubs to provide foundation data with which the fitter can work.

The launch monitor sheds light on how you deliver the golf club into impact and what the resultant launch and spin numbers, carry distances, and shot dispersion look like.

A trained fitter will interpret that data and explain what the numbers mean. Focusing on the numbers that can be improved upon will drive the setup of the sample clubs you can then try.

Honing in on the correct head and combination will be evidenced through improvements in the numbers the fitter saw the potential to improve at the outset.

Working with a professional fitter and seeing the launch monitor data gives you further insight into how your golf game works. It can help you understand more about where your bad shots come from and how the recommended golf clubs can improve those shots.

While nearly all professional fitters will have a qualification with the Professional Golfer’s Association (PGA), they will concentrate solely on improving your golf game through custom-fitted golf clubs.

If you are working with a teaching professional on improving your golf swing mechanics, share what you’re working on with the fitter, and they can incorporate and compliment what you’re doing in the final club recommendation.

You’ll Have Time To Get Used To Your New Clubs

Having a new golf club or clubs in the golf bag is exciting, but you need time to gel with your new clubs.

If you’ve had a fitting session where you’ve come away with a new driver that adds 20 yards to your drives, you’ll need some rounds under your belt to calibrate what that gained distance means out on the course.

Your problem (if you can really call it a problem!) is that you will have to get used to hitting shorter approach shots into greens, which can take a little bit of getting used to.

Hazards that you may not have been able to clear before but can now will also be a factor. Perhaps you have to slightly change your lines off the tee to accommodate this.

It’s a nice problem to have, but it can catch you out initially, especially if you have a scorecard in your hand.

You can experience something similar if you change your irons.

It’s amazing how many par threes we play where we seem to be hitting the same club off each tee. We might have to change that strategy because your new irons are longer than your previous ones, so you have to get used to and trust hitting less club.

For longer par threes, trusting that you now have a hybrid or lofted fairway wood that can cover the specific distance takes a little adjusting.

If you have a new wedge set in your golf bag, you’ll need some course time to get used to the feel and how quickly the ball stops when playing pitch and chip shots.

A key objective of custom-fitted golf clubs is to help you manage your poor shots more effectively. If you hit a shot with your new clubs that isn’t quite right on the course, can you recover from the situation more effectively, potentially saving you shots?

Hitting shots in an indoor bay can’t replicate the conditions of a real golf course and the conditions you play the course in, so take the time to get a couple of rounds in with your new clubs to see how they perform before you put them to the test in competition.

Latest Golf Club Releases of 2025

Callaway and TaylorMade lead the headlines with the launches of the Elyte and Qi35 ranges, respectively.

The Elyte and Qi35 employ new carbon derivatives that are lighter and stronger than regular carbon fibre. Callaway and TaylorMade claim that the new materials help deliver more clubhead speed and allow more progressive internal weighting.

Cobra launched the DS-Adapt range. The DS-Adapt range benefits from aggressive aerodynamic design and extensive use of carbon fibre to create improved clubhead speeds.

The main story from Cobra is the introduction of the new FutureFit33 hosel. The clever part of the FutureFit33 system is that regardless of which one of the 33 combinations of loft and lie angle is chosen, the face will always remain square at address.

If you’re looking for optimised driver performance driven by AI design, the new Cleveland HiBore XL driver could be a match. The unconventional shaping is designed to help optimise clubhead speeds. AI has also played its part in the face design, which Cleveland claims offers one of the biggest hitting areas in the industry for improved forgiveness on off-centre hits.

Another headline-grabbing launch this year is the Ping G440 series. The Ping G440 driver earns its place at the top table of 2025 drivers with Carbonfly wrap combined with weight removed from the hosel area to allow more effective weight redistribution within the head.

Titleist has released the GT1 driver to round out the GT Series. The GT1 sits at the more user-friendly end of the spectrum and is designed to optimise speed for golfers where speed isn’t a natural resource.

Titleist achieve this by making the GT1 as light as possible through Proprietary Matrix Polymer (PMP) used in the driver's crown. The GT1’s choice of shafts and even the grip are all focused on reducing weight to help improve clubhead speeds.

Each manufacturer has released performance-orientated irons to complement the driver, fairway wood, and hybrid models we’ve already mentioned.

Elsewhere in the iron market, Srixon has launched the ZXi5 and ZXi7 irons. Both iron models are ideal for creating a combo set, with the smaller-headed ZXi7 being better suited for shorter irons.

TaylorMade has also just announced the updated P790 iron. This perennial favourite is now in its fifth generation and introduces a new 4340M forged face. TaylorMade claims the new material is stronger than previous iterations, offering more ball speed while increasing the sweet spot's size.

If you want to update your wedge set, Cleveland has created a new steel called Z-Alloy, which offers increased feel while being more robust than standard steel used in most wedges.

Mizuno has launched the Pro T-1 and Pro T-3 wedges. The Pro T-3 features a slightly larger head with a small cavity in the rear, making it more of a player’s cavity wedge.

The Pro T-1 and Pro T-3 share the same grain flow forged process, which is synonymous with creating Mizuno’s legendary feel.

Best Place To Get Fitted For Golf Clubs: Why You Should Consider Nine By Nine Golf

Nine By Nine Golf is an independent club fitting specialist. Our fitters are PGA-trained and have years of experience in custom-fitting golf clubs for every level of golfer, from elite level to beginners.

Nine By Nine Golf has invested in one of the most advanced launch monitors on the market, GC Quad, to enhance our customer’s experience during a fitting session.

GC Quad gives us a wealth of data connected to the all-important moment of impact, which we can then use to find areas where we can improve any golfer's game through optimised golf club fitting.

The union between what the data reveals on GC Quad and our fitters getting feedback from you provides an immersive experience which is exactly the same as what the best professionals in the world get to have.

The independent status of Nine by Nine Golf allows us to carry what we feel are the best clubs and components available. We stock brands such as Callaway, Titleist, PXG, and Mizuno because we believe they offer the best mix of technology and choice for every player level.

For the same reason, we stock shaft brands such as Fujikura, Mitsubishi Chemical, KBS, and True Temper, who all produce the highest quality products for every level of golfer.

An additional benefit of our independent status is that we can take on additional brands that fit the same criteria when appropriate.

Professional golf club fitting services extend beyond the fitting session. At Nine By Nine Golf, once the final specification is locked in, your club or clubs are built in-house.

With every level of golfer who comes in to have a fitting session with us, we see it as an opportunity to build a long-standing relationship.

One thing that links a 20-handicap to a plus 4 handicap golfer is the desire to improve. As you improve, you have the opportunity to have your clubs altered to tie in with the improvements that you’ve made.

In summary, you have your own personal tour truck to fall back on at any time.

We’ve shared with you three key reasons why now is a great time to change your equipment and embrace the benefits of custom golf club fitting.

We’ve put the spotlight on some of the major launches of 2025 and the benefits of using a professional custom fitter like Nine By Nine Golf. 

You can book a tailored custom fitting session through the Nine By Nine Golf website, where you can also browse all the new 2025 releases we have in-house.

We’re always available to assist if you have more questions about how custom-fitted golf clubs can help you improve your golf game.