Equipment Should I get Fitted for clubs?

[MissySki]

I've been doing private lessons with an instructor sporadically over the winter, she is the one I met in the fall originally, and now more regularly leading into golf season. I think things are coming along well in terms of figuring out how to move my body and my swing is starting to get a bit more athletic. My contact is still really inconsistent.. though seeming to get more consistently inconsistent in that my misses are more predictable. I started out having a hard time with always topping the ball, then I went back and forth between topping it and fatting it, now I'm most often just a tiny bit fat.. which is really frustrating but onward we go. I used to also have a bad slice, but with my timing getting better that seems to be much less and my current flight trajectory always seems to go just a little left and misses are most often off of the hosel. I try to practice at least a little bit most days of the week outside of weekends where I am away skiing still.

At this morning's lesson my instructor had me do some weird exaggeration where I stood far away from the ball and my focus was to keep my swing plane under where my club started, which had a lot more lean than usual with how far away I was standing and how low I had to put my arms to setup that way. For some reason the majority of swings I did in this really strange awkward position were awesome contact, not only that but standing further away made me feel like I could swing so fluidly through whereas I often feel like my arms get stuck coming through when I am as upright as my clubs would usually have me standing. She also decided to measure my wingspan, which we found is 4 inches longer than I am tall.. I know I have long arms for my height but she was saying that it was the biggest difference she's ever seen in a student. Anyway, she then said she has been thinking it for a bit now that my standard ladies clubs might be too short for me, and the lie too upright. I actually thought having longer arms might mean standard clubs being too long?? But she definitely said the other way around in my case. She also thinks my super light irons are too light and flexible for me, and that I'll likely end up more in like a senior men's flex and heavier overall.. that I am too strong for how lightweight they are.

So she said it might be time to do a fitting.. she doesn't do that herself and while the place we are at does she said she would not recommend I go there because they will want me to do a full bag whereas she thinks it'd be good for me to just do like 5 or 6 clubs for now and that I don't need to spend the money on a full bag fitting as a beginner. So she definitely wasn't trying to upsell me or anything, which I can tell wouldn't be her style to begin with. She also said that I could wait to do a fitting too of course.. and I guess I am just unsure how well a fitting can be done when my swing is currently so inconsistent to begin with. But on the other hand, it is sounding like an incorrect length and/or lie match could play into making it harder to find better contact in general and more consistency. It's starting to feel very chicken and egg, which goes first??

I'm certainly not married to my current irons.. they were a set I won for free and I'd have no problem selling them to help in funding some fitted stuff.. plus I know for sure I am sticking with golf and very committed to continuing to improve.

Just wondering what those with more experience here might think about this development and what you would do.

I definitely am not someone who is going to sit here and say my clubs are the problem or that a fitted set is going to suddenly make me into a good golfer. But is it like ski boots where a bad fit can hold you back and once you know you are in it for the long hall you should get a professional fitting and needed customizations? Would I quickly outgrow clubs I get fitted now, or should they last me a good amount of time and make the price worth it? Then of course if I start down this path the question is where the heck do I go do it??

 

[teejaywhy]

Personally, I think a full-on custom fitting may be overkill (and expensive) for a beginner. But fact is, if your body varies much from the "average," then off-the-shelf clubs may be ill-fitting and bad habits may develop to compensate. If you are close to "average," then I would think off-the shelf clubs should be ok to learn with. You can hit off of a "lie board" that will tell you if the lie is wrong.

But here's an idea: Ping offers many fitting options without upcharge, including various lie, shaft, shaft length and grips. You have to order of course, but many retailers offer free fitting! Recommend you explore this idea on the ping web site. Look toward the bottom "Find a Ping fitter near you"
https://ping.com/en-us/fitting/our-process

Good luck!

 

[raytseng]

I did not get fitted but just adjusted to hit standard set, the one small thing I could say that benefited me though is if I travel for golf I can rent a demo set and not get in my head that I need my custom set.

Certainly if your swing is inconsistent, it could be too early especially if you're in a swing change too. Maybe your path is to get a new standard set that's a closer length (standard men's or senior ?), practice more, then get fitted. At least you can try and hit some different clubs into the net if you got a big golf shop near you.

I don't know where you are in your golf journey but I spent about a year doing golf related fitness exercises outside of going to the range and that was the ticket for me to develop the core muscles/flexibility/body alignment to get the swing consistent. Still maybe my plane is too upright but that's the compensation for my lie.

 

[MissySki]

I did not get fitted but just adjusted to hit standard set, the one small thing I could say that benefited me though is if I travel for golf I can rent a demo set and not get in my head that I need my custom set.

Certainly if your swing is inconsistent, it could be too early especially if you're in a swing change too. Maybe your path is to get a new standard set that's a closer length (standard men's or senior ?), practice more, then get fitted. At least you can try and hit some different clubs into the net if you got a big golf shop near you.

I don't know where you are in your golf journey but I spent about a year doing golf related fitness exercises outside of going to the range and that was the ticket for me to develop the core muscles/flexibility/body alignment to get the swing consistent. Still maybe my plane is too upright but that's the compensation for my lie.

Curious though, why wouldn't you rather do a fitting in your case instead of compensating or adjusting accordingly for certain things as you noted?

 

[raytseng]

The time I went to a fitting event, I felt the rep was too pushy to make a sale. So sort of turned me off to the whole process

 

[Living Proof]

My body type is tall, short legs and long arms, so standard length should be a lie angle that is too upright. However, all my tests for lie angle clearly show the need for increase in lie angle, all my irons are 2 degrees up. Go figure! That's why it is somewhat confusing when you move away and get better contact. My only thought is you are changing swing plane, without any thought process, to get ball contact.
As a test, if you grip down on your irons, the effect will be to flatten the lie.

If you hit balls on a plastic mat, you should be able to see the result of lie angle by looking at the bottom of your clubs following a session. That is my on-going process to verify my lie angle. The Ping site shows how to analyze the marks on the bottom of the club to determine what your existing swing and clubs produce.

Google PING webfit and you can do a on-line fitting, you need to input your height and distance from floor to wrist, so the Ping fitting system will be customized for your body. Ping claims to be 75%% accurate with in 1 degree.

It's hard to argue with a golf pro, but, they are not alway great fitters. Do fitting in a big box shop using a Trackman type launch monitor that shows your lie angle at contact. Generally, you can do this for free as part of their club fitting process. You may be better off paying a fee for a longer session with an experience fitter. The fitter can let you can try a mens senior flex, the caveat is that the head of. the iron will be heavier.

Generally, I agree with your thinking that golfer should not blame equipment. There are not magic fixes. Keep working on your swing, golf season in cold New England approaches.

 

[BLiP]

If you have any unique fit issues, it may not be a bad idea to get a fitting. Even if you are still working on your swing. You want to commit proper swing mechanics to muscle memory as early in the process as possible. If your current clubs do not fit your anatomy properly, you’ll have to compensate by changing swing mechanics, etc. This may hurt you in the long run – the proverbial problem of learning bad habits.

That said, as you develop and fine tune your swing, you may have to get refit. Take my advice with a grain of salt, however. I’m an average golfer and also a fairly average size, so standard clubs fit me well. The most I typically do with my irons is change the grip size. I mess with my woods (under the supervision of my instructor) a bit more, but still not as much as some people.

 

[Nancy Hummel]

As a beginner who knew I liked golf, I got fitted and invested in good clubs.

I love my clubs and enjoy playing with good equipment.

Worthwhile for me.

 

[MissySki]

As a beginner who knew I liked golf, I got fitted and invested in good clubs.

I love my clubs and enjoy playing with good equipment.

Worthwhile for me.

How long have you had your clubs? Have they stayed just as good for your game as your swing has progressed further?

 

[Nancy Hummel]

How long have you had your clubs? Have they stayed just as good for your game as your swing has progressed further?

I have had them for about 10 years. I have not played as much as I would like due to family issues etc. but they are great. No regrets about time and money invested.

 

[mikes781]

I’ve been having this debate since I started golfing last summer. I spoke with an instructor about it and he suggested that I wait until I get a little more consistency in my swing. It makes sense since I really haven’t developed my swing yet. I’ve pulled together a decent set of clubs in the meantime to hold me over. I am built like @Living Proof with short legs but very long torso and arms so a fitting is probably in my future. We’ll see where I’m at towards the end of this year.

 

[pud]

Most full service golf shops will fit you for free if you buy your clubs from them.

 

[MissySki]

My body type is tall, short legs and long arms, so standard length should be a lie angle that is too upright. However, all my tests for lie angle clearly show the need for increase in lie angle, all my irons are 2 degrees up. Go figure! That's why it is somewhat confusing when you move away and get better contact. My only thought is you are changing swing plane, without any thought process, to get ball contact.
As a test, if you grip down on your irons, the effect will be to flatten the lie.

I think it was exactly that the swing plane changed, without my doing anything else different. There are cameras all over the bay we use that project onto screens you can draw on too etc., so she was showing me after each swing how my swing plane had flattened whereas I am usually much steeper.

 

[FlyingAce]

So there are two types of fittings - static and dynamic. Most people don’t know the difference and usually lump them together or considered a static fitting plus club demo as the fitting. They are 2 different things.
A static fitting uses your height and arm length/wrist to floor measurement to determine potential club length and lie angles. I have never heard of measuring one’s wing span to determine this but I am not a pro. I, too, have longer than usual arms for my height and regular length clubs were too long for me, so I was fitted into 1” short and 3* flat. Whenever you change the length of the club, you also need to adjust lie angles. These are what a static fitting will do for you. They are usually done for free and you can adjust the length and lie angles of your current clubs instead of buying new clubs.
A dynamic fitting uses ball flights and impact to determine length, lie, shaft flex, weight, loft of the golf club to your specific swing. Because it uses your ball flights, it is more beneficial if you have already developed a consistent and repeatable swing. Otherwise there is no swing to fit to. A dynamic fitting could take hours and requires you to hit with different clubs and it can get expensive. I have paid between $150/hr to $400 flat rate for a full bag fit. You would get a spec sheet at the end of the fitting and it may or may not suggest new clubs for you. The purpose of the fitting is to determine if your current clubs are working for you or if there are better options for your swing. You can take the specs to adjust your current clubs or to purchase used/older models. You are 100% not obligated to buy clubs from the fitter or store and they should not pressure you to do so.
As for going from ladies flex to seniors, it all depends on your swing speed - it is how FAST you swing, not how strong you are or how hard you swing. Shaft flexes are not standard across brands and the weight also matters, so if you are considering paying for a dynamic fitting, I’d go to a fitter who is not a specific brand’s master fitter so you can try multiple brands.
I get a fitting every year to see if my clubs are working for me. Sometimes I buy new clubs, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I change the shaft flex, sometimes length, sometimes loft. I started with ladies shaft, changed to senior, then men’s regular, then back to senior. I have a mixed bag of clubs but they didn’t get into my bag by chance, every club was fitted for a specific purpose. I do keep the shafts the same for the type of clubs (wedges, irons, hybrids, woods), so I have ladies for wedges, seniors for irons, men’s for woods and driver.

 

[Philpug]

My experience ...

Hitting the Lottery: A Hacker's Guide to Golf Club Fitting

How does a golf club fitting compare to a ski boot fitting? Read on.

www.skitalk.com

 

[MissySki]

So there are two types of fittings - static and dynamic. Most people don’t know the difference and usually lump them together or considered a static fitting plus club demo as the fitting. They are 2 different things.
A static fitting uses your height and arm length/wrist to floor measurement to determine potential club length and lie angles. I have never heard of measuring one’s wing span to determine this but I am not a pro. I, too, have longer than usual arms for my height and regular length clubs were too long for me, so I was fitted into 1” short and 3* flat. Whenever you change the length of the club, you also need to adjust lie angles. These are what a static fitting will do for you. They are usually done for free and you can adjust the length and lie angles of your current clubs instead of buying new clubs.
A dynamic fitting uses ball flights and impact to determine length, lie, shaft flex, weight, loft of the golf club to your specific swing. Because it uses your ball flights, it is more beneficial if you have already developed a consistent and repeatable swing. Otherwise there is no swing to fit to. A dynamic fitting could take hours and requires you to hit with different clubs and it can get expensive. I have paid between $150/hr to $400 flat rate for a full bag fit. You would get a spec sheet at the end of the fitting and it may or may not suggest new clubs for you. The purpose of the fitting is to determine if your current clubs are working for you or if there are better options for your swing. You can take the specs to adjust your current clubs or to purchase used/older models. You are 100% not obligated to buy clubs from the fitter or store and they should not pressure you to do so.
As for going from ladies flex to seniors, it all depends on your swing speed - it is how FAST you swing, not how strong you are or how hard you swing. Shaft flexes are not standard across brands and the weight also matters, so if you are considering paying for a dynamic fitting, I’d go to a fitter who is not a specific brand’s master fitter so you can try multiple brands.
I get a fitting every year to see if my clubs are working for me. Sometimes I buy new clubs, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I change the shaft flex, sometimes length, sometimes loft. I started with ladies shaft, changed to senior, then men’s regular, then back to senior. I have a mixed bag of clubs but they didn’t get into my bag by chance, every club was fitted for a specific purpose. I do keep the shafts the same for the type of clubs (wedges, irons, hybrids, woods), so I have ladies for wedges, seniors for irons, men’s for woods and driver.

Thank you, this is a really great synopsis! Very interesting to hear that you get fitted annually, I didn’t realize it might be so iterative. How did you first choose the fitter you would go to, and do you now go to the same one every year? I believe my instructor was intending the dynamic fitting from the description, but I plan to dig into it with her a little further when I see her next week.

 

[MissySki]

My experience ...

Hitting the Lottery: A Hacker's Guide to Golf Club Fitting

How does a golf club fitting compare to a ski boot fitting? Read on.

www.skitalk.com

Great write up!

 

[oldschoolskier]

I'm not a golfer, but I have been lucky enough that when I've played I've had a pro (cad, player or just plain pro in the group) giving me free advise and not pushing any product as no sale was involved.

Starting off, if anything length of shaft, for your build if you fall outside the norm. This helps you develop the best position and swing mechanics (lessons and practice).

The second is technique and understanding setup and technique (just a couple of simple pointers here make a vast difference).

Third going to custom to start can limit your development as you correct technique errors not physical errors. Don't forget like skiing motions are not natural (for most) and need to be learned.

Finally, good lessons are in order, the investment here can outweigh the need for custom clubs.

Once you've hit that intermediate/advanced level, at that point consider custom as now its about the final tweaks to improve and correct things.

 

[MissySki]

I'm not a golfer, but I have been lucky enough that when I've played I've had a pro (cad, player or just plain pro in the group) giving me free advise and not pushing any product as no sale was involved.

Starting off, if anything length of shaft, for your build if you fall outside the norm. This helps you develop the best position and swing mechanics (lessons and practice).

The second is technique and understanding setup and technique (just a couple of simple pointers here make a vast difference).

Third going to custom to start can limit your development as you correct technique errors not physical errors. Don't forget like skiing motions are not natural (for most) and need to be learned.

Finally, good lessons are in order, the investment here can outweigh the need for custom clubs.

Once you've hit that intermediate/advanced level, at that point consider custom as now its about the final tweaks to improve and correct things.

I am already doing private lessons with a pro.. she is the one suggesting a fitting as she doesn’t think standard female clubs are fitting my anatomy. I have also previously done lots of group lessons before finding a private instructor, as I didn’t feel I was making any progress in the group environment with the shared attention.

I am somewhat tempted to pay for a fitting with an expert who can at least tell/show me what some changes to my clubs or new clubs might be able to do for me. But I am also wary of it just being a sales pitch too.

 

[FlyingAce]

Thank you, this is a really great synopsis! Very interesting to hear that you get fitted annually, I didn’t realize it might be so iterative. How did you first choose the fitter you would go to, and do you now go to the same one every year? I believe my instructor was intending the dynamic fitting from the description, but I plan to dig into it with her a little further when I see her next week.

Most people don’t get fitted multiple times, your swing doesn’t change much once it is established and clubs are good for a long time. My husband was fitted 6 years ago and is still playing the same clubs today. I, on the other hand, am on 4th set of wedges, 3rd set of irons, 6th driver, 4th putter, but original woods. In the first few years of picking up golf, my swing speed changed rapidly so the fittings were necessary for my progress. Once I know more about golf, clubs and my swing, it is about feel and preference.
I got my first fitting from my instructor, who was a master fitter for callaway. It was out of convenience and I didn’t know much about clubs. I was still a newbie but had a very consistent miss and adjusting length and lie fixed my issue immediately. My next fitter was also my instructor at golf tec. My next fitter was recommended by another instructor and then I have a PXG fitter because I was curious about the brand.
I don’t need a fitting every year but my husband likes to send me for one just to see if there is anything out there that is better than what I already have. It’s the same with skis - I demo new skis every year and always end up with a new pair, I get new clubs every year too.