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Tom's Featured Tip: Clubfitting Q&A
For simplicity, all advice on actual swings or drills is provided from a right handed perspective.
I hope everyone had a Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Todays newsletter is in response to a question from Steve T who asked:
Hi Tom,
I hope your Christmas was filled with family and great times.
I'm seriously considering getting fitted for clubs for the 1st time in my life.
My questions for you are:
- Where do I get this done?
- What should I look for in a club fitter?
- What should I expect to pay for a full bag fitting?
These are good questions, below are the answers. After the answers, I'll tell you how I would proceed if I were anywhere between the ages of 16 to 50. Please read through to that part, I think you'll find it to be very interesting.
One more thing - your clubfitting specs will change over time, so if you got fitted at age 21 and you're now 40, you probably need to be checked out again.
Before I answer any of Steve's questions, getting fitted for clubs is a good idea. Many players could play with clubs "off the rack" (generally) if they are between 5'9" and 6' tall, and have normal arm, leg, and torso length.
One of several considerations in clubfitting is the length of the club, which is fairly straightforward. Next is usually lie angle, which is a very important - yet often overlooked - consideration.
For a player shorter than 5'9", an "off the rack" club will likely look like the image on the left above when grounded behind the ball, and the lie angle would need to be adjusted to a more flat lie to fit the player. For a player taller than 6', an "off the rack" club will likely look like the image on the right above when grounded behind the ball, and the lie angle would need to be adjusted to a more upright lie to fit the player.
Even though "off the rack clubs" may fit for length and lie angle, there still needs to be a decision made for the shaft flex.
So yes, it's a good idea to get fitted for clubs that will fit your body and your swing style.
The first question I'm answering is the one about cost: "What should I expect to pay for a full bag fitting?"
The answer depends on your wallet as much as your seriousness about your game and your desire to get fitted.
You can get fitted online or in person. In person is the best option if you can swing it (pardon the pun).
Club Champion https://clubchampiongolf.com offers over 35,000 head and shaft combinations from major brand club makers. They conduct fittings in a hitting bay using a Trackman simulator. Below are their fitting options and prices. Interestingly and unlike most custom clubmakers, their fitting price is exclusive from any purchase you may make from them. I actually think it gives their fittings a lot of credibility.
- Driver -$150, 1.5 hrs.
- Long Game Fitting (driver, fairways, hybrids) - $200, 2.5 hrs.
- Iron - $150, 1.5 hrs.
- Full Bag Fitting (all woods, irons, wedges, putter) - $350, 3.5 hrs.
- Wedge - $80, 1 hr.
- Putter - $100, 1 hr.
Many other custom clubmakers include the cost of the fitting into their price for their custom made clubs.
One of those quality clubmakers is PXG https://www.pxg.com/en-us They offer online as well as in person fitting options. I have a son that just ordered a set of their clubs. He went through their online fitting process here: https://www.pxg.com/en-us/online-fitting/configure He had some lie angle adjustments that he knew he wanted, so he also had a phone conversation with his clubmaker and got that done. They build the cost of the fitting into the purchase if you buy their clubs - irons @$155, with discounts for veterans and law enforcement, really not a bad price.
In Western New York the fitting option you see most often is at a place like Dick's Sporting Goods. It's a fairly minimal fitting procedure. You will usually hit balls with a 7 iron into a simulator hitting bay off a strike board. The strike board leaves a dark mark on the sole of the club
like the yellow marks you see in the images above. Your swing speed will also be noted.
You would swing different shaft flex and lie angle combinations until the results gave you what you wanted. The end result would be a recommendation for a lie angle and flex combination for your 7 iron swing, then the rest of your set would have the lie angle adjusted accordingly from the stock lie angle for each club. You wouldn't necessarily need to get a custom set made. Many major brand manufacturers offer lie angle options at their stock irons set price. You would need to custom order, but it might not cost you more for the clubs.
PennFair Golf http://www.pennfairgolf.com in East Rochester, NY offers fittings like these for $75, and it's probably worth the money if you come away with good lie angle information. They also will discount that $75 off the price of a set of irons if you buy them there.
You could also hunt down other professional clubfitters in your area, just google it - but check out the next answer before you invest.
"What should I look for in a clubfitter?"
The answer is "deep" experience, and that's something that you most likely won't get at a Dick's Sporting Goods store.
Being involved with a professional clubmakers organization is a good starting point for finding "deep" experience. Here are some of the best:
- The Association of Golf Clubfitting Professionals
www.agcpgolf.com .
The AGCP is one of the two trade organizations of professional custom clubmaker/clubfitters. The AGCP consists of the best of the best of the independent custom clubmakers in the world. In short, if you are fit by an AGCP Clubmaker, you most definitely will have been fit by a very good, very knowledgeable person.
- The International Clubmakers’ Guild
http://www.clubmakersguild.com
The second of the two trade organizations of professional custom clubmaker/clubfitters. Many of the ICG clubmakers came from the former Professional Clubmakers’ Society and also represent people with a lot of experience in full specifications custom Clubfitting. In addition, the ICG offers accreditation certification so when you find an accredited ICG member, you have found a very good person you can trust to fit you properly.
- Wishon Golf
http://wishongolf.com/ This is the link to Tom Wishon's website. He is one of my favorite resources for answers to questions involving clubfitting.
Here's what I would do now if I was a youthful or middle aged golfer.
First let me give you a little background. When I was in the prime time of my life for golf, I was involved with a career that didn't allow me to play very often, and most of those times were not individually competitive events.
I was in a position to practice and play more golf when I was in my fifties. I competed in some local mini tour type events with some success, but not enough to encourage me to climb the next mountain. I became a devout student of the game and decided to teach and coach golf and I think I found my niche.
Having said all of that, here's what I would do differently even at age 50.
I would travel to a Club Champion location or find a Certified Master Clubfitter and get THOROUGHLY fitted for every club in my bag.
NOW HERE'S THE KICKER - then I would purchase a set of Single Length Irons and work my butt off to be as good as I could be.
Yes, you read that right - Single Length Irons. The type of irons that Bryson DeChambeau uses.
Even at my current age (72), I may still do this. Everything about the concept makes sense to me, it's just easy to understand from a teaching point of view.
You execute the same swing circle and swing plane for every iron in your bag, because each club has the same lie angle. What's not to like there? That takes a lot of technical swing nuances off the table. Try as I may, I can't really think of any negatives to the concept. Call me nuts if you want to, but I think the popularity of this type of irons set will grow when people become open minded enough to start seriously trying them out.
For what it's worth, Greg Norman, one of my favorite golfers, loves the concept too. He actually was quoted as saying that if he were competing today, he'd use single length irons.
Here are some other famous - past and present - golfers that used single length irons:
- Bobby Jones apparently won the Grand Slam using single length irons.
- Moe Norman, a golfer who many consider one of the greatest ball strikers of all times, used single length irons.
- Jaacob Bowden, used 1Iron Golf’s single length irons to shoot his first tournament round in the 60s in 2007. He also shot the Speedgolf World Championship record for golf score at Bandon Dunes with a 72 in 55 minutes and 42 seconds using GRIA Golf’s single length hybrid irons.
- More recently, in 2015 Bryson DeChambeau used single length irons from Edel Golf to win the NCAA Championship and US Amateur.
- PGA TOUR player Matt Dobyns also plays single length irons.
Here are some of the current manufacturers, check out their websites if this concept intrigues you as much as it does me:
- Sterling Irons
http://sterlingirons.com I would lean towards these irons because the project is a collaboration between Jacob Bowden, a golf pro I've followed for awhile, and Tom Wishon - master clubmaker. I've followed them for many years and they have my confidence.
- Cobra Golf
https://www.cobragolf.com/king-f8-one-length-irons-custom King F8 One Length Irons
- One Iron Golf
https://www.1irongolf.com/ I believe that this company was the first one to re-invigorate the idea. Single length irons have been around before, but they weren't comparable to todays renditions because of the advances made in manufacturing. That's a long story involving head weight construction.
- Edel Golf
https://edelgolf.com/pages/single-length-sls-01-irons SLS-01 single length iron system
If anyone reading this has had experience with single length irons, I'd love to hear about it: ttucker@rochester.rr.com
Comments: ttucker@rochester.rr.com
Love your practice, own your swing, own your health,
Tom
Golf Lessons
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Lessons are available for all ages and skill levels, please contact
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All the best,
Tom Tucker
Teaching Pro, Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility
WGTF ' "Top 100 Golf Teacher"
USGTF Class "A" Teaching Professional
IGPA Certified Golf Psychology Coach
Cell: (716) 474-3005
Email: ttucker@rochester.rr.com
http://www.TomTuckerGolf.com
"There are no substitutes in the quest for perfection!"
~ Ben Hogan