The Common Misconceptions of Custom Golf Club Fittings

“Why do you want to waste money on getting fitted golf clubs? If you want to improve your game, spend your money on lessons instead.”

Have any of you reading this heard a line like that before when you have been talking with your golf mates?

While we are all happy with the notion that if we want to improve our golf swing, we need to seek out the advice of a qualified teaching professional, the idea of being custom-fitted for our golf clubs has taken a little longer to gain traction.

There are many reasons why this has been the case, such as:

• Marketing hype from manufacturers tells us we can hit the ball further with more control with every new launch.
• Equipment like launch monitors is expensive. Professionals or retailers must also factor in the cost of building specialised studios to house launch monitors and screens, allowing them to do fittings all year round, regardless of the weather.

Major golf retailers were early pioneers of the custom-fitting scene for all types of golfers, but now, many independent specialists provide a tour-level, unbiased custom-fitting experience with heads and shafts from all the major manufacturers. They work with every level of golfer to help them get more out of their golf games.

Let us break down some of the barriers concerning the validity of custom-fitting by tackling the main arguments you will likely come up against.

The opposition to custom-fitting tends to fall into the following areas:

• Custom-Fitting Is Expensive
• Custom-fitting is only for better players
• You Should Only Get Custom-Fitted When You Are Hitting The Ball Well
• Fittings Are Useless As Most Golfers Are Working On Their Swings

Custom-Fitting Is Expensive

Arguably, the number one reason for not going and getting custom-fitted for golf clubs.

However, let’s think about the economics here.

For argument’s sake, let’s break down the cost of descent set of golf clubs, which would look something like:

• Driver - £500
• Two fairway woods - £250 each (£500)
• Hybrid - £200
• Set of irons (5 - PW) - £1,000
• Three wedges - £120 each (£360)
• Putter - £220

That set costs £2,780. We have opted for a medium price; clubs can be more or less expensive, but we are striving for the middle ground in this example.

£2,780 is a lot of money to spend in most people’s books. So, imagine if you had spent that money on a full set of golf clubs and found that you didn’t improve as a golfer.

How would you feel?

In addition, we probably all know golfers who constantly have to have the latest gear and turn up every week with a new club or clubs in the bag as they search for the clubs that will help them play better.

Golf, in this respect, is not a cheap game.

Let’s put this another way. If you knew you would spend that money, would you not want to ensure that what you were buying came with as close to a guarantee that it would work for you as possible?

Custom-fitted golf clubs are the closest thing to guaranteeing that any club or clubs you purchase will benefit you.

That’s a bold statement, but let’s explain why.

The first thing to consider is the fitting session, and we can break this down into three areas:

• You will be working with a fitter who often has years of experience under their belt as a fitter, is a qualified PGA professional, or both.
• They are using the latest high-tech launch monitor, such as GC Quad, one of the most accurate launch monitors available to assess how you hit the ball and your shot patterns.
• The fitter will ask you questions to establish a complete picture of your game.

These parameters make it much easier to build a club or clubs that can be tested against your benchmark numbers and track improvement in distance and accuracy.

At the end of the session, you will have a detailed explanation of how the recommended clubs will benefit your game, giving you the confidence that committing to the purchase will be a valuable investment in improving your golf game.

How happy would you feel knowing that you are spending money on clubs that you know will help you improve?

Second-hand golf clubs also undergo massive depreciation. It’s a false economy to think you can continue buying new golf equipment in the search for improvement without losing money overall.

Custom-fitting Is Only For Better Players

Another favourite and common misconception.

The reality is the custom fitting is for any level of player. Better players might be able to easily convey the state of their game and what they are looking for with the fitter. They also may have launch monitor experience; therefore, they can understand the data more effectively.

However, an experienced fitter will be able to get an 18-handicapper to understand what the launch monitor does and the data it produces. The fitter can explain the launch monitor’s data in a way that a higher-handicap golfer will easily understand.

Fitters don’t just have heads and shafts designed for better players; there are just as many available for high-handicap golfers to try that will be better suited for their needs.

The fitter will be able to articulate clearly the benefits of any given combination of head and shaft and demonstrate the resultant improvements from the launch monitor.

The benefit for higher handicap players is that they gain additional insight into how their swing works. They can understand the relationship between how they deliver the clubface and its effect on the golf ball.

The benefit for the fitter is seeing the reaction of high-handicap golfers hitting shots that go consistently further and straighter than they have hit before, which makes the job highly satisfying.

You Should Only Get Custom-Fitted When You Are Hitting The Ball Well

The argument is that anything less than a perfect strike will be discounted from a data capture from the launch monitor shots you hit in your fitting session.

You are left with a neat set of shots that indicate your optimal figures, which the fitter will then work with to build up the profile of the optimal clubs you need. Any advantages you gain from your new clubs will be based on optimal ball striking.

This theory is not true.

The problem is we don’t always hit the ball perfectly. Even the best players in the world miss the sweet spot often. If you have “one of those days” where you feel like you have middled everything and your fitting recommendations are based on that data, what happens when you are out on the course? You’re under pressure with a good score on the line or the chance of winning your match.

These situations can easily lead to mishits, which means you now have no idea how far short of your intended target you might be or how inaccurate your shot will be.

Mishits are important during a fitting session because the fitter can accurately track where your mishits come from on the clubface and their impact on your shots. Modern engineering creates more friendly faces designed to maintain ball speeds across the clubface regardless of where the strike is.

Therefore, the fitter can measure any improvements gained, which narrows the margin between how far a well-hit shot goes and one that’s out the heel or toe.

Many describe golf as a game of how good your misses are. Fitted clubs give you the confidence of knowing how far and accurate you can be whether you strike the club out of the middle or anywhere else on the clubface. This, in turn, adds to your confidence in knowing how your clubs will perform out on the golf course.

Fittings are Useless as Most Golfers are Working on their Swings

Most golfers are indeed working on their swings. Even the best players in the world are constantly tinkering with aspects of their swings.

Club fitting isn’t designed purely as a transactional process. You come for a fitting, get your clubs and the relationship between you, and the fitter ends. However, the door is always open for you to come back and alter your clubs to match your game’s changed performance.

The advantage for you is that the fitters know your game. They have your data stored, so they can pull this up and measure you against where you are now. For example, alterations can be made to driver heads or adjustable hosels to improve ball flight and shape, or alternative shaft weights and flexes could be considered.

In your first session, the fitter will ask if there is anything that you are working on in your game to help build an overall picture. Understanding what you are working on with your teaching professional means that if your game improves, your fitted clubs aren’t useless because they were fitted for what your game was like six months ago.

Think of it like finding a trusted garage for your car. The mechanics get to know your car and its history, so anytime you take it in for work, they already have that understanding and can sort your car more quickly and effectively.

Club fitting is exactly the same. We understand that virtually every golfer who comes for a fitting will be striving to improve their game, which the fitting process will take into account.

Being custom-fitted for your golf clubs will help you improve your game.

Manufacturers build heads and shafts designed to make us better golfers, but getting the right combination is critical to ensuring we get the results we need.

While custom fitting had its routes in helping tour pros get the most out of their equipment, custom fitting is open and available for every level golfer because, at the end of the day, the common thread between a 16-handicapper and a tour pro is seeking improvement through the equipment we use.

At Nine By Nine Golf, our experienced fitters are here to help any golfer. We are fully independent in our choice of manufacturers we work with. We constantly undergo training and receive technical briefings from those manufacturers to ensure the knowledge we share with you is second to none.

Our objective is to ensure that any golfer who comes for a fitting walk away with the ideal club or clubs that we have demonstrated during the fitting process will benefit their game.

You can head to our website and look at the custom fitting sessions available for booking.

We’d be happy to answer any questions you have about how custom-fitted golf clubs can benefit your game.