Golf Club Fitting Guide: What You Need to Know
by Bradley Turner, Keiser University College of Golf Director of Online Golf Instruction – PGA, MBA
Another golf season has begun, and with it comes the excitement of new and improved equipment from club manufacturers. For most fanatical golfers, the idea of a new driver or sand wedge brings on heightened expectations and a renewed level of confidence. Listening to the commercials during golf telecasts, it would seem that the latest golf technology will shave many strokes off your game. To temper the unrealistic expectations of advertisements created by marketing experts, this article will give you the essentials of what you need to know before you spend thousands of dollars on new equipment that does not fit your unique golf swing.
Why Club Fitting is Important to You
With almost 40 years of coaching experience, I am very confident that most golfers are playing with equipment that is not fit for their golf swing. A decade ago, industry experts estimated that 90% of golfers were playing with the wrong golf equipment, which amounts to over 22 million golfers in America who are candidates for new golf clubs! The new equipment will not make you a scratch golfer, but poorly fitted equipment will certainly create obstacles to your improvement.
I have rarely met a golfer that did not want to play better. I think it is part of the addiction to the game. Passionate golfers have an almost endless supply of hope and optimism that the next lesson or a new putter will unveil the secret to a better game. Unfortunately, the secret to the game is a long list of variables with a massive amount of work needed to eventually get to the point of making the game look easy. One of the easiest steps for golfers to take in their game improvement journey is to play with fitted equipment. If you are going to invest in new golf equipment, spend a few more dollars and find a club-fitting expert to ensure that the new clubs you bring home can actually help improve your game.
Important Variables in Driver Fitting
Is there anything better in the game of golf than smashing a drive down the middle of the fairway and past your playing partners? Finding the right driver can make a big difference in your performance off the tee. You can get some amazing results by the use of a launch monitor along with some good coaching from your club fitter. In fact, 92% of golfers who were fit using a launch monitor experienced a positive difference with the driver. That is a powerful testament to the potential of a properly fit driver.
The best driver fit for you will be determined by your clubhead speed, angle of attack, launch angle, and spin rates. This information only comes with the use of a launch monitor. With this information, an experienced fitter will select a shaft, loft, grip size, and head design that maximizes your distance and accuracy. I had a student recently get fit at GolfTec, and he gained 40 yards in distance by the end of the session!
Important Variables in Iron Fitting
Club brand and iron head design are often a personal preference, but you want to ensure that the clubs you want are good for your game. A good fitter will use launch monitor data to help determine the ideal head design and shaft type to maximize your performance.
The most important variable in iron fitting is to find the right shaft length and lie angle. Most players are unaware of the influence of incorrect lie angles. The wrong lie angles will make it impossible to create a consistent ball flight pattern. You literally need a slightly different swing for every iron club in the bag! The correct lie angle is determined by impact conditions when the sole of the club is flat to the ground at impact. If the toe of the club touches the ground first, the ball will tend to start right of the target (for right-handed golfers). If the heel of the club touches the ground first, then the ball will start to the left. It is shocking how influential the lie angle of the club is on ball flight, so you must make sure and get this correct in your fitting.
Wedge Fitting
The same variables above in iron fitting are applicable to wedge fitting, but we must also factor in three additional variables when selecting a set of wedges that match your individual needs. The preference of club loft, degrees of bounce, and flange design depend on the skill of the golfer, the playing conditions of the home course, and the golfer’s wedge technique.
Which wedge lofts are best for you? I would advise you to keep at least 4 or 5 degrees of loft between your wedges, so you might start the process of wedge selection by identifying the loft of your pitching wedge. The loft of a pitching wedge is not standard across club brands and will range from 43 degrees for the new Stealth irons up to 47 degrees for P7TW irons (Tiger Woods specifications). You will need a club with loft that fits the gap between your pitching wedge and sand wedge. This is appropriately called a gap wedge or approach wedge, depending on the equipment manufacturer. The Stealth approach wedge is 49 degrees of loft, and Tiger’s approach wedge loft is 51 degrees. The remaining two clubs are the sand wedge and lob wedge, with the loft of these ranging from 54 to 60 degrees of loft. I do not recommend putting a club with more than 60 degrees of loft in your bag!
Which bounce is best for you? Bounce is the angle of the trailing edge of the sole of the club to the leading edge of the club. This is especially important in selecting the sand wedge. A sand wedge is made with bounce to help prevent the club from digging too much into the sand. The trail edge of the club will contact the sand first before the leading edge of the club has a chance to dig into the sand. Bounce is measured in degrees with the range of about 10 to 16 degrees on most sand wedges. The higher the degrees of bounce in the wedge, the more the club will bounce. If you play out of firm sand bunkers or firm fairway turf, you want a lower degree of bounce. If you play in softer turf conditions or the bunkers on your course have soft sand, then a higher bounce is to your advantage. Golfers with slow swing speeds and steep vertical swing planes will benefit from more bounce on the sand wedge. Golfers with flatter vertical swing planes with good clubhead speed can use a lower bounce sand wedge.
Which flange/grind is best for you? The bottom of a golf club is referred to as the sole of the club. Because sand wedges are shaped differently, the term flange is used in replacement of the sole. The flange of a sand wedge can have unique characteristics all on its own. There are various “grinds” that change the performance of the sand wedge. These grinds are designed to make the sand wedge perform better under certain golf course conditions. Some sand wedges have a wide flange, while others will be narrower. A wider flange is excellent out of bunkers but may limit its versatility around the greens. I would recommend this for the higher handicap golfer with a steep vertical swing plane and those who suffer from the big slice. A narrow flange is desired by many low handicap golfers as it expands the versatility of the club. A traditional grind is the basic sand wedge that has been around since the 1930s when Gene Sarazen discovered the importance of the flange and bounce of the club. The traditional flange changed history because it made it easier for all golfers to get out of the bunker.
Where to Go for Club Fitting Session
With a renewed emphasis on club fitting by industry experts like Club Champion, True Spec, and GolfTec, more golfers than ever have opportunities to play with tour-level equipment with a tour-level fitting process. There are plenty of quality club fitting operations outside the big brand names mentioned above. However, I would only recommend that you work with club fitters who are also teachers and coaches. An experienced golf coach can blend the science of the golf swing with the innovative technology in the golf equipment.
Quality launch monitors are a must in fitting, so make sure you choose a fitter with a launch monitor that measures clubhead speed, launch angle, and spin rates. The better the launch monitor capabilities, the more likely you will find the right clubs for you.
At the end of the day, you are the person swinging the golf club. It is to your advantage to eliminate as many variables as possible that inhibit high performance. You don’t want to be included in the 90% of golfers that can legitimately blame their equipment for poor play. The only negative to properly fit equipment is you can’t blame your clubs anymore!
If you’d like to study with Bradley Turner and other PGA Master Professionals, contact the College of Golf today.
