I heard a very interesting PGA of America professional talk about his custom fitting and teaching experiences. He made a point of how important it was for golfers who were being properly fitted for their clubs should not concern themselves with swinging well during the session.
I found his talk made sense and that there is a belief among golfers that they must be swinging well and show signs of consistency before fitted clubs would be of any benefit. There is also a belief that fitting only really benefits the lower handicap or more established golfer. This could not be any further from the truth. In order to improve a golfers clubs they have to be built around the problem or flaw in the golfer albeit slicing or inconsistency or whatever the “weakness” is. Essentially the golfer must come to the session and do exactly what they don’t want to do. The club is then built around the bad shot or problem.
The whole point of the fitting session is to be able to identify the swing characteristics and then align the clubs to the part of the swing that creates a poor shot. It is actually much easier to fit a normal golfer as where there is less skill the club must bolster the swing flaw and correct the problem through the head design and shaft choice. It is actually harder in some respects to fit the lower handicapper or professional golfer as where there is a lot of skill it can become harder to identify the swing problems as the player will almost self adjust to the club even if it isn’t quite right.
Custom fitting and the use of technology is there to aid the game and it will always benefit the golfer when applied correctly to each individual. I believe that fitting is for everyone but I also believe that it helps the higher handicapper more. It makes perfect sense when you think about it; the professional golfer or lower handicapper who has the skill to shape the ball and has a very high skill level could essentially hit any type of club with any shaft. The higher handicapper or less skilled player needs the club to assist and aid him as he does not have the skill to be able to hit any club.
There is also the question of lessons or “am I good enough to come for the fitting” or the question of “should I get some lessons before I come to see you”. Generally what we say is whatever makes sense to you but a “perfect” swing is not what we are looking for. We need to see the bad shot, we just need to see you and what happens when it all goes wrong. Custom fitting works to fix the bad shots, if you hit less bad shots and keep the ball in play you get better and enjoy the game more, that’s what it’s all about.
– Derek Murray
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