It cost me £40 and I was there maybe 45 mins and used a few different clubs on the computer laser reader program, hit about 30 balls in all. My swing is not consistent enough to recommend any adjustment and I was told that nobody over 5ft tall should need their club length shortened.
The conclusion was buy an off the shelf set and come back in 6 months when I'm a bit more consistent.
Was it a club pro or a golf store you got fitted at? Also what club? Being inconsistent might make things harder, but would think a good fitter could take an average of your good swings and fit you correctly for now. In 6 months, if your swing changes then might need it rechecking though. What handicap are you and how long have you been playing? A friend who is a 20hcp and played for many years was consistent enough to get enough good shots for a fitting.The fitter just ignored the bad shots.
What exactly did they do? Just hit balls on the laser launch monitor? On the range? Did they take any measurements. Not just height, but also wrist-to-floor distance as that can be important. Two golfers could be both 5'8" but one could have longer arms than the other. If irons, hit shots off a lie board to measure lie angle? Impact tape on the face to see where you are hitting? If a driver, did you get to try different lofts and shafts? Did they mention swing speed, ball speed, launch angle and spin rate? All important factors in driver fitting to get the best ball flight for your current swing. Most modern drivers use longer shafts now, 45-46". Not everyone can control such a long shaft, so some get better and more consistent results with a shorter shaft. Can improve hitting closer to the centre and thus distance. Normally checked with impact tape on the face. If they didn't have shorter shafts to try, could of just gripped down on the club an inch or two.
Think Ping would argue that anyone over 5" doesn't need shorter clubs. Using their WebFit system they recommend a 5'2" with 34" wrist-to-floor should have it 0.5" shorter on their driver and 0.75" shorter on their irons. Recommended iron Lie angle also changes depending on the measurements. Although that is double-checked with the results of the lie board.
I can understand that it is difficult to determine correct shafts if you do not swing the club consitently but for length and lie as long as you have an established setup then these can be made to suit and this would help your game.
The shop should not have charged you if they were unable to give you proper advice.
I'm 5'6" and I had a couple of fittings that came out 1" short, 2* flat (Taylor Made) and 0.5" short, 1* flat (Ping).
The Ping fitting in particular involved going for one fitting, getting good swing advice in what was effectively a video lesson, being sent away to practice that at the range, and coming back a fortnight later for a lot more than 30 balls, trying half-a-dozen different setups, all the steps Mike talks about above, probably an hour and a half in all - and would have been £25, but was free because I bought the clubs.
I went to Strikeright golf near Northampton. Spent 2 and a half hours there having my fitting done. This was free with no obligation to have anything done.
I got fitted for a driver at the Belfry on TaylorMade's fancy computer system, it captures data such as angle of attack, path of clubhead, angle of clubhead, amount of back/sidespin, loads of other stuff too. Very impressive computer model.
Then it told me I needed a 7 degree driver. Errrr, I don't think so
I ended up just hitting a selection into the range and picking the one that felt best.
The irons fitting, wasn't much more than length and lie based on a 6 iron, then picking a model by hitting into the range and seeing what felt best again.
I'm 36. I used to play maybe 20 times a year when i was about 18 and was approx a 16-18 handicap. Play much less often know but I want to get back into it now I've given up football. Still about 22ish handicap now.
I only wanted a fitting for irons. I turned up at 5.30pm and he wanted to be done by 6pm as the shop closed. It took about 40 mins. I hit 3 balls with 3 different 6 irons (so 9 in total). He asked what felt best and looked at club speed, direction, ball speed. Then I hit about another 5 balls with each club from the final two and picked the one I liked best. Then I hit 3 balls with that tape stuff on the bottom of the club. The most significant marks were around +2 but also marks down to -1
he asked how tall I was, I'm 5 7. No other measurements were taken.
all of this was done in the shop on the laser machine. It is at a golf club but he was not the top man.
I've not paid the £40 yet as they are costing up some clubs. If I don't buy any clubs then I need to pay the £40.
the more i think about it the more I think (as you all seem to be saying) that I've been done
(Originally posted by wriskit) I'm 36. I used to play maybe 20 times a year when i was about 18 and was approx a 16-18 handicap. Play much less often know but I want to get back into it now I've given up football. Still about 22ish handicap now.
I only wanted a fitting for irons. I turned up at 5.30pm and he wanted to be done by 6pm as the shop closed. It took about 40 mins. I hit 3 balls with 3 different 6 irons (so 9 in total). He asked what felt best and looked at club speed, direction, ball speed. Then I hit about another 5 balls with each club from the final two and picked the one I liked best. Then I hit 3 balls with that tape stuff on the bottom of the club. The most significant marks were around +2 but also marks down to -1
He asked how tall I was, I'm 5 7. No other measurements were taken. All of this was done in the shop on the laser machine. It is at a golf club but he was not the top man. I've not paid the £40 yet as they are costing up some clubs. If I don't buy any clubs then I need to pay the £40.
Hmmm - this doesn't sound too bad: I went for a similar fitting which lasted just under an hour, and I only tested two sets of irons - Callaway X-20s and Mizuno MX-19s - being as these were the two within my initial price-range, I stuck with that and picked the Mizunos. In all, I hit maybe, 15-20 balls with a 6 and 9-iron, checked with the tee-camera, fed to the ball path/flight/spin/swing-speed computer. However, as I'm 6'3" tall, he noticed I stooped slightly when using off-the-shelf clubs so, I did my hitting with an extra 1" on the shaft, so he also checked for lie of the clubs to see where I was hitting the mat - I had an extra 1degree upright on my irons. I havent looked back really - I'm glad I went for the fitting and made that choice.
However, my Dad recently bought a new set of irons - he's about 5'7" - 5'8" and he got his new irons off-the-shelf....and didnt even go for a custom-fit to check swing, etc, and these work great for him.
This just doesn't sound right to me, usually shops and pro's put a stupid cost on fittings just to discourage people wasting there time, thats why they never charge when you actually buy something. As for testing with stock six irons from stock sets, thats rubbish, any fitter with half a chance would have a bag full of clubs of varying lie and length that you could have had a few shots with? You say most of your impact marks came +2? Surley you should have been given a shot with a club with that spec!! I'd definately take it up with them when you get your quotes back, Just let them know you've no confidence in the fitting stats they gave you, and would like a second opinion (enter shop manager/pro). If you get the same treatment just refuse to pay and laugh in there faces as you walk out of the shop.
It's worth going along fore armed with the kind of thing they should be looking for! Ping has a great webfit on there site that you should look at (irons, woods, putters, grips). It should give you some info on the things they should be doing and would give you what to expect.
I've had similar experiences when i've asked questions like "Don't we start with a static fit for a stake in the ground?" when they look back blankly, walk away!
If they have a launch monitor (laser machine) they should be able to play all sort of tunes with shaft flex from stats like spin rate, and launch angle that i find effects ball flight alot more than swing speed. It's even worth describing what you might want. Some people (usually better players but whatever suits your eye) like low launch high spin for control others high launch low spin for consistancy and distance. Let the fitter know all this and make sure they deliver!!
Just having the discussion makes the difference because it will force the fitter to show you the difference between the differing flights you can manage. If you go in and ask for clubs the perfect fit then i can do that from here, there those ones on the stand beside you. If you go in and ask "i'd like fitted for some irons, i want to hit is higher and have been told that my shaft might be too heavy for me to do this? I'm also wondering if changing the thickness of my grip will help with my slice? My bad miss is usually off the toe of the club, what could solve that? I know this might be my swing but i don't have the time to commit to lessons so i'm looking to get fitted for how i'm swinging at the moment..." That should scare them into doing a proper job?
