Club fitting

Ahh that's disappointing to hear they're doing that. I need to get irons this year and was going to go to them for a fit, but no way I'll do it if there's an effective commitment to buy.

As an aside, anyone know of a fitter near-ish to Dublin with a decent selection of lefty fitting heads ?

Is the deposit mandatory, or is that not something package deal they offer as a gift?

Carton academy also do fittings and should have a decent selection in there I reckon

Yes i believe so, i messaged them on it in December and asked. They said there was lots ordering clubs but then not paying so they introduced this to deter that but its a bit unfair. Maybe if it was put to them that i have no interest in buying that its just the fitting they would drop it. But then they might not hand over the specs. Its a shame because they are very good.

I found the attached interesting with regard to Club Fitting. Like all data, you can get any set of statistics to fit any story that the owner wishes to tell.

Do Foregolf get a large set of initial shots before starting to explore alternatives?

Really interesting video. I had seen it pop up on my YT feed but didn't bother watching it til now. While I wouldn't dismiss custom fitting by any means, that vid certainly does throw some questions up. Kinda reinforces the view that as long as your clubs are in the right ballpark and aren't just completely wrong for you, you'll be fine. Strike is king and you can't buy a game. Food for thought.

Not to dis fitters though because I had a great experience with the TM tour truck about 6 years ago - I was convinced my TM fairway woods weren't right for me and I wanted to get a proper fitting shaft bla, bla. After hitting a bunch of shots, the fitter got some yellow electrical tape, wrapped one layer around the butt end of the grip and told me to make sure I grip below that - what a difference it made, it was night and day. Shorter shaft or just grip down was all I needed when he could have tried to sell me something exotic.

How much did that cost .

Yeah I think this is their rationale. I was committed to changing irons having never been fit for them before so the €200 deposit didn’t bother me but I think if you are doing the full fitting I think you get value even if you only order a driver or a hybrid off them. I didn’t ask for the specs when I was leaving, slipped my mind but it’s not on the sheet they give you and I’d have to assume this is so you don’t get the fitting and then go order elsewhere. I emailed them after and they gave me the shafts for what I’d ordered, lies etc. were standard for me.

I can see why people would like to just get fit and buy the clubs elsewhere but I have to think that isn’t their model. I think even McGuirks have a charge for fitting if you don’t order which is only fair. I’m not aware of anyone doing trackman fittings to provide you with specs to order somewhere else but there’s probably a market for it going by comments here, wonder is €100 for an hour fit enough to cover the costs? How would you get access to club heads and shafts for example if nobody buys off you?

I think the problem there is the person doing the fitting needs to have every big brands clubs and shaft options available for you to try out. They would have to be a retailer to get that is my understanding as the likes of Callaway, TM, Titleist etc. have strict rules about who can and can't sell their stuff. They aren't going to provide stock to a guy who basically allows people to try their gear and then buy it somewhere else or second hand in the same spec as that just isn't their business model. They want you fitting their clubs and the person buying there and then not going off to try find the same specs somewhere else. I'm not sure what the fitter would get enough out of it for that to be a viable business either, I would say there's a reason nobody is doing it.

It would be a good service I agree I just don't think its that realistic.

Yeah I can see the reasoning behind it, but I'm still not fully convinced tbh. I mean what's the mark up or margin on new clubs ? My understanding (which could be completely wrong) is that its pretty small. I agree they'll make the bulk of it through the premium extras etc. and I get that shops have greater overheads and investment in facilities etc., but I'm not sure it wouldn't work. You can walk into a store and pay X amount for a fit. OK its debatable if its as "good" as with other fitters.

Meh, maybe I'm just a bit cynical about some fitters / fitting models 😀.

Got fitted a while back at a club fitting day, 30 minutes, bash the 7 iron, then the driver, I felt it was a bit rushed. It was an upgrade from ~20 year old entry level clubs, there seems to be a bit of an improvement over the old clubs alright.

The guy was telling me the new clubs send the ball further but really for me its just a case of hitting me old 6 iron or my new 7 iron.

They helped my game in terms of forgiveness on mishits but I've gone from 20 yo entry level to 2022 higher end so I'd say if a person has premium clubs from 10 years ago they would not see much difference.

If people don't have the money then a second hand set are probably as good, without fitting.

Its not just about the mark up on clubs, it's the deals they would have with the manufactures would be the problem with that model. I doubt Titleist, Ping etc would be too happy if there was an independent fitter taking bookings for a small fee so people could get their specs on certain clubs so they can then go and buy them 2nd hand on golf bidder or the likes! Don't get me wrong, I would love if there was a service like this but we wont be seeing it anytime soon...

It devalues their brand, all of the big brands advocate getting fit and have made that a massive part of their marketing and promotion of their clubs. They don’t want people buying their clubs off the shelf anymore, that’s why physical stock in stores is so low these days. Think about it like this, let’s say you get fit by joe into a shaft, you could easily buy what you think is the same shaft online (Ventus velocore for example versus the ventus that comes in some stock TM drivers). So the club turns up and you can’t hit it, who are you going to blame? It’s in the brands interests to make sure you get the right clubs and fit so that you think their clubs are the best. That’s why they do all the certified fitting stuff, the independent guy wouldn’t fit that model.

Im not saying the brands are right by any means but that is the industry now.

That sounds like a bit of a nonsense. Considering these folks are about the only people with proper data tracking and accuracy, and obligation to buy is pretty sketchy for me. I've done fittings now in Halpenny, McGuirks and Concept golf, that were all just paying for the session. If you then go buy there is some discounts worked in. I only made a purchase from one of those sessions. Although Concept Golf is probably where I'm going to keep returning to. A little more expensive, but then it's with one of the best fitters going.

Say this video a while ago and while it makes sense and I wouldn't say misleading, I don't think it's an example of some scam or misleading stuff going on. I watched it again there, and noticed (like I did first time) Mark doesn't share any information on the player in terms of handicap or ability.

But you can tell from the drives he is hitting he is probably a mid handicapper. There is inconsistency, slices, shots low of the face. Can you really blame a fitter when they are looking at a data range that is pretty sparse, to try pick the best ones? Like fittings are an hour, or in some cases 30 mins. And the idea is getting a baseline as best you can from the player. Can't be there for 20 minutes waiting for a player to hit five good shots. But thats also part of the point of fitting. What happens, to your bad shots.

Like recent fittings I've been in, sure I'm interested in seeing what is happening with my good strikes, but I'm more interested in the bad ones or misses and what a club is doing.

You also see halfway through he starts getting a lesson. Which is cool, and I've heard of folks getting that a bit during a fitting which I think is great. And that is kind of what fittings allow too. 'Sure we can find something here that is going to work, but there is any underlying problem you need to address that a club won't fix'

I don't know what the current consensus on fittings are. It's so accessible now which is great. Beforehand it was very much you didn't go near fitting until you were like a HC or like 11 and below. Because you had (in theory) consistency on your ball striking and a repeatable swing.

In reality the player in that video will benefit more from a lesson (like the intervention he got during) than slightly different shafts or a different clubhead. Need to appreciate as well though we are grown adults, so if you go for a fitting looking to buy a club, your going to be sold a club in most situations :D

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Hard to say why this might have happened without more details. I have heard of people getting clubs they were fitted for and not working for them but typically that’s the result of a bad fitter or the person not taking the right approach to the fitting, not saying either applies to you though. Can you tell us what you were fit for and why?

I said the same thing until very recently but a couple of lessons and a tidy up with a pro has me back hitting it better than ever. I was the problem, not the club

What did you get out of interest?

I had a driver fitting recently and while I didn’t buy I found everything performing around the same. Reason I didn’t buy is I’m just crushing mine. Buts it’s 10 years old and there is definitely a bit more distance to be had in something new.

Were you proper happy in the fitting or? I bought a 5 wood recently in a fitting and couldn’t hit it out of my way on the course. But I got a lesson after buying it thinking there wouldn’t be any major changes and it ended up being s full grip change.

I bought it to gap 200 yards carry which in the fitting it achieved. It’s carrying 215-220 now :D

but in fairness the fitter specifically said he wasn’t going to move away from standard lies etc for me as I was getting back into play and he did say id only hit it further and gave me some advice on the adjustments if I want to manage carry on it which has been great.

That was McGuirks airside btw. Think his name was Carl. Thought he was great and I’d happily go back and trust his instincts again

That’s interesting. Did you sell the M2 or can you hit them side by side to ensure it’s the club and not you? As amateurs I think we all go through ups and downs in form with certain areas of the bag. For me my driving is a strength in that I’m typically longer than most and keep it on the planet. I’ve had a bad stretch the last couple of weeks but I know from my fitting (which ended with me keeping my current driver as not much to be gained from changing and trackman confirmed it) that the issue is me and not the club. Same with the irons I got, for me getting fit and seeing and feeling how the clubs performed confirms that any issue I have is almost certainly down to me.

like you I’d have been wary of switching out the driver but it doesn’t sound to me like you were convinced the fitted driver was better? I think if that’s the case then you might have been better off saying that and sticking to your guns. I certainly wouldn’t be relying on the fitter to make your decision for you. On you can say if a club feels right, stats on the trackman are one thing but if you don’t like it then there’s no point. Did you change any other clubs and see an improvement?

Some very interesting anecdotes about fitting and the pros and cons. The M2 is a bit of a cult classic though, I'm still using mine but might see if there's anything to be gained by upgrading this year (definitely won't be selling or trading it though !).

TBH I'm constantly back and forth on the real world benefits of fitting. I definitely think its a good thing, but for every "Joe was off 15 and got new irons properly fitted to his specs and now he's off 6..." type anecdote, there seems to be a matching one of "..I got fitted and can't hit my new driver at all....."

Personally I've had quick 20 minute fits work brilliantly and hour long sessions where I've felt a bit "meh" afterwards. I think I got completely lucky with my M2, I was at one of those driving range TM Tour Van fittings back in 2016 to get my fairway woods checked out, the guy was brilliant and solved my problem by getting me to go down an inch on the grip rather than advising a new club or shaft. I was the last customer and they were packing up the gear to head off when the fitter, who I loosely knew well enough to say hello to, asked me did I want to hit a few drivers when they were tidying up. I was hitting my own fine and getting a good smash of 1.45 but, for whatever reason, when I hit the M2 I picked up about 10/12 yards of carry. He paused what he was doing and we spent a few minutes looking at the data and tried a different shaft or two, but it was definitely better than my own. I still have and love that driver. Was I lucky or was the fitter that good ? who knows.

Conversely a couple of years earlier I got the full bag fit with one of the well known places, bought an expensive new driver and could never hit it properly. Obviously its 99% the Indian not the arrow, but after about 3 months I traded it in with a pro I know. He asked me where I got it and when I told him he chuckled and said "oh right, what's this year's shaft then ?". Possibly a b1tchy throwaway remark, but it kinda stuck with me and always makes me wonder do we really need any more than light Vs heavy, and regular Vs stiff when it comes to shafts.

Used to be, but not anymore. They've expanded to include all the big manufacturers.

Haven't had a fit with Kenny, but had a lesson with him and he knows his stuff