What Happens During a Club Fitting?

Here’s what a club fitting at SMART Golf & Fitness Instruction looks like and what you can expect!

Let’s pull back the curtains and cover what goes on during a club fitting here at SMART Golf and Fitness.  

I know many people who are apprehensive to play golf on a course with other people. This is typically due to feeling insecure about their performance. If you want to improve your performance on the course, getting a club fitting could be the answer. Going through the process and having an experienced club fitting watch your swing and analyze your golf play can take your game to a whole new level. However, having a good fitter, knowing how much you stand to benefit, and understanding the process will hopefully alleviate any pressure you may feel. I can also promise you that I don’t care if you think you’re a “bad golfer”.

With a club fitting, there is nothing to be anxious or nervous about. Generally speaking, the higher your scores are the more you stand to benefit from a club fitting, as well. That’s why it’s important to stop trying to play the hardest game there is with clubs that are made for someone else. Come on in to SMART Golf & Fitness and get fit!

With that being said, let’s dive in to the club fitting process.

There are many steps in a fitting. Depending on where you go, certain places will slightly alter, eliminate, or expand certain processes. This article aims to give you a high-level look at the steps involved in a fitting at SMART Golf & Fitness Instruction.

1. Interview – I need to know what you do and what you’re looking for to properly deliver what you seek
2. Measuring and Recording – We’ll take a look at what you are playing with now and evaluate the current fit based upon the interview and your warm-up
3. Baseline Data collection – Let’s see how the numbers with your current clubs stack up against what is efficient and ideal
4. Testing different configurations – Putting clubs together, trying them, and seeing how they perform
5. Narrowing down – Keep the best ones and narrow down the options
6. Finishing touches – grip, swing weight, loft, and lie adjustments, etc.
7. Review the data – how did the end product compare to what you walked in the door with that day?

Step 1: Interview

The first thing any good club fitter will do is conduct an interview. There are a variety of questions that you could be asked, but I will share the list that I use.

• What clubs do you want to be fit for?
• Have you been fit for clubs before?
• If you have been fit before, do you recall any of your specs or products you liked?
• What type of experience do you want? Immersive and detailed or high-level and basic?
• What’s your skill level?
• What is your goal with this fitting?
• What is your current equipment doing that we could improve upon?
• On a sliding scale select your preference for distance vs. accuracy

Accuracy – – – – – Distance

• What type of height are you looking for?

Low – – – – – High

• What type of curve do you want to fit for?

Draw – – straight – – Fade

• Do you have a big miss we want to cover?
• Are you more budget-conscious or performance-conscious?

Budget – – – – – Performance

• Do you have any brand preferences?
• Have you already hit something that you liked or disliked?

As you can tell, many things are important for a fitter to consider during the process. The more they know ahead of time the better.

It doesn’t matter when or if the questions are asked along the way. Having a thorough understanding of what your situation is laying the foundation for a good fit.

In addition to providing more information to the fitter, a good interview will also save you time and valuable swings. If you know ahead of time that you want to lower your ball flight, you can toss out a ton of different options which will no longer apply. Any golfer also has a finite number of swings in them so it is important not to waste them on combinations that aren’t applicable.

Step 2: Measuring & Recording

This step is all about establishing a baseline and collecting information. In the next step, you’ll start hitting clubs, so the fitter needs to know what you are swinging. All of the equipment they are going to give you should already be labeled and measured to some degree, but the equipment you own won’t be. We look at your equipment and record the most important factors. This is so we can reference those factors later on during the fitting.

These measurements could include:

• Clubhead model
• Shaft model
• Grip model
• Length
• Swing weight
• Loft
• Lie angle
• Grip size

Again, knowing this information is a crucial step. It can not only save time in the long run, but also improves the quality of the fitting.  

If for example, you come in for a driver fitting. Your main complaint was not hitting the center of the face enough, measuring the length of the golf club could give the fitter a major clue as to why that may happen. If the driver is 46” long (which is long), that should indicate rather quickly that something shorter should be tested and would most likely be helpful.

Step 3: Warm-Up & Baseline Data Collection

This step is all about getting loose and preparing for the rest of the fitting. You’ll always start with your current gamer club and begin recording shots with that club.

Once you have a decent sample size, the fitter will pull all your numbers. We not only explain what each metric is, but also what your specific numbers mean. We also look at how they compare to what the target for the day will be.  

This step is really important, because it highlights where the gains can be made. It’s also where the interview questions start to come into play. And it’s also when the fitter starts building a mental plan of attack. This is probably the best point to get all of your questions out of the way. If you don’t understand what the launch angle is, please ask. A club fitting is meant to be a fun and rewarding experience. Which is why understanding what the fitter is talking about is pretty important to making that happen!

Step 4: Testing Different Configurations

It is at this point that you will begin hitting new options. With the answers to your interview questions again taken into consideration, new combinations of heads and shafts will be given to you to try out. Some fitters will start differently, but I always start with new head and shaft combinations. They have the largest influence on performance, so getting those nailed down first is crucial.

Identifying what head model, shaft model, loft, hosel setting, shaft flex, shaft weight, and a few other things is my goal when going through this process.

Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), club fitting is not at all a math problem or getting measured for a new pair of pants. There are no foolproof rules or concrete answers. To me, this is what makes club fitting interesting and fun. However, it also means that just because I am really knowledgeable about fitting, it doesn’t mean I can accurately predict what clubs you should play over the phone.

The only way to know what clubs are best for you is to try them.

There are so many factors at play that are impossible to predict, which makes the statement above true. If you have a brand preference, you’ll almost always hit that club better than the one you don’t like. Even if you have a particular preference for the color of a shaft, you’ll probably hit that one better than a pink one for example, if you don’t like pink. If a club has a weird or slick grip on it, that can make it impossible to hit. You are going to load a shaft in a way that is unique and unpredictable and feel is something that you cannot predict. But feel has a huge influence on the purchasing decision.

Fitting is not an exact science, but can be better described as a process of ‘guess and check’ with a lot of predictive analysis going on.

As you can see, “predictive fitting” is not at all something that I would ever want to rely upon. This explains why it could take trying upwards of 8 or 10 head and shaft combinations before you find the one. It’s not that the fitter doesn’t know what they are doing, they just can’t predict the unpredictable. A great fitter will save you a lot of swings and will be able to narrow you into a smaller pool of options without having to try literally everything that is hanging on the wall.

Step 5: Narrowing It Down

Once several different combinations have been tested, the fitter will begin narrowing down the list. This is done, in part with your help. It is essential to provide qualitative feedback to your fitter during the process. A trained ear can hear if something is being struck solid, but no one can tell you if something feels good or not or if you like the way it looks. The launch monitor numbers will also help eliminate combinations, as well.

A good fitter will review everything, at this point, and walk you through to show you how everything is stacking up. Once you have narrowed down the selection, hitting a few more balls and picking a single combination of head and shaft is what we do.

Step 6: Finishing Touches

Once the head and shaft combination is chosen, the small tweaks begin to happen. This is generally when experimentation in length, swing weight, grip size, hosel sleeve adjustments, lie angle, and set makeup is tested and considered.  

Since you only have one combination to work off of, this process is usually quicker than step 4 or step 5. However, that does not mean it is not important. While the big pieces were already sorted out, many different things can be adjusted and customized, at this point, and they have a big influence on overall performance and feel.

To sort out these things, you’ll be taking a few more swings and adjustments will be made to your single head and shaft combination. Some specialized tools like face tape, lead tape, torque wrenches, and loft lie machines will be used to aid in finding out which metrics are best.

Step 7: Review the Data

At this point, you should have the final spec of the winner sorted out.  

One last comparison should be done between the winning golf club and the original gamer you walked in with. During this step, you should already have a decent idea of the comparative performances. Going over everything one last time is helpful to not only eliminate any confusion, but also solidify the benefits of the fitting. This makes the purchasing decision easier to digest and evaluate.

Once you are done hitting and everything has been reviewed, the fitter will go over some last-minute details. This could include how many clubs to purchase, how long they should take to arrive, etc.  

A Few Final Notes

It is important to note that due to how clubs are fitted and the sheer number of components necessary, you will most likely not be holding an exact replica of the finished and final club in your hands. Certain things like grip model and length are difficult to adjust. So it’s likely that the club that you are swinging may not be a perfect representation of what you are going to order.

Unfortunately, this is just a reality of the industry. It is not ideal for anyone and it leaves some level of ambiguity, but it is what it is. To have every combination necessary, most club fitters would probably need 10 times the number of components they have.

The final step is the fitter asking you for the sale. We usually don’t have to do too much selling here. It should already be very clear what the exact performance benefits of the new equipment are over the old stuff. We always try to be open and honest with you. I will be sure to tell you not to buy something if they don’t think it’s worth it.  

Once you’ve decided to order the clubs or make whatever changes, you’ll pay and be on your way. The clubs will be ordered, and we’ll discuss potential delivery timetables. A more accurate delivery date will be provided once the custom order has been placed.

If you’re interested in getting started with a club fitting at SMART Golf & Fitness Instruction, click here

About the Author

Ben is a PGA Professional who has a passion for teaching and is a specialist with golf equipment and club fitting.

Ben’s help fit PGA Tour players, taught over 600 lessons utilizing specialized motion tracking, performed over 400 tests on a golf robot, designed and strategized the development of golf equipment, conducted player equipment testing utilizing launch monitors, and honed his skills fitting and building equipment at a top custom retailer.

Ben began playing from a very young age and is a very competitive golfer with a scratch handicap. He graduated from North Carolina State University in 2015 with degrees in both PGA Golf Management and Finance. At NC State, he was a member of the 2011 Jones Cup championship team, was a player development instructor, and also PGM Club President.

Click here to learn more about Ben.