First off, Happy 2022!
I hope Santa was good to you and wrapped the clubs that you wanted. I also hope that he knew what length, lie angle, loft, and swing weight was needed in order for you to play your best golf in the new year.
Getting perfectly fitted clubs may seem like a costly waste, especially for those who don’t play much golf throughout the year. I totally get it, BUT on the days that you do play golf, whether it’s a company golf outing or a casual round with friends, wouldn’t you much rather be able to hit it straighter, further, and not feel tired during the round?
That’s only a fraction of what club fitting can do for your game. The nice thing about having a boyfriend working as a club fitter and builder is that I get to learn a lot about the technical side of golf and hear stories about his customers that we can all relate to and learn from.
Here are five reasons why having custom-built clubs is a good investment for your game.
#1 – You won’t get into bad habits
Kam once had a customer who swung his 6-iron at 95 mph (42.5 m/s) with a regular flex. He was constantly fighting a hook with a super high and spiny ball flight and therefore, tended to ease into the ball at impact which would lead into a habit of not releasing the club. It turns out that he had shafts that were too flexible of a shaft.
The problem with having shafts that are too flimsy for you is that it makes it that much harder to get the timing right and hit the ball consistently well—especially under pressure. The same could be said for too stiff of a shaft which can cause the person to struggle with timing it right and can lead them to overswing and in the process, get exhausted faster during the round.
When the customer had the new, better suited shafts in his irons, he was able to gain distance with a lower ball flight and a much smaller dispersion.
Sometimes, just having the right clubs in your hands makes all the difference.
#2 – Less likely to get injured
Going back to the last point about getting into bad habits, when you try to change something in your swing in order to match the clubs, you may be doing something that will lead to injury such as overswinging or compensating for the weight of the club especially if it is too heavy and stiff.
People tend to have this image that graphite or carbon shafts are whippy, or not stable enough to control the irons like steel. This may have been the case back in the late 90s or early 2000s, but the new graphite shafts are more stable than steel shafts and sometimes even a little more stiffer depending on the profile of the shaft.
Let’s not forget, the hardest swinger on the PGA Tour, Bryson DeChambeau, plays graphite shafts in his whole bag!
The beauty of graphite shafts is that they offer a little kick to them that helps those in need of more ball speed.
A lot of golfers as they age lose club head speed and we as humans lose muscle mass and flexibility overtime making it harder to swing a 120g-130g steel shaft that may end up feeling like swinging a two-by-four. As a result, some people try to make this work and end up overswinging or end up creating:
a.) Bad habits
b.) Hurting their body
Either one of these is no fun and could lead to the game not being enjoyable. One of the greatest quotes I heard from a tour rep was, “make the club work for you; not you make the club work.” This is very true in the sense that if you can make the club work for you, you just need to swing your swing.
#3 – Enjoy the game more
For Christmas, my dad received a Callaway Epic Max driver that Kam custom fit for him (we sneakily got him to use the TrackMan one day and that’s how we knew his numbers).
My dad is one of those who doesn’t see the need for new clubs and has been using his clubs for 15+ years but when he tried his new driver the day after Christmas, he was shocked by how effortlessly it took for him to hit it further and straighter. He didn’t do anything different. My dad even said afterwards that he wants to look into changing his irons as well.
He was one happy kid that day and I think we can all get that way with clubs that are fit to our swing.
#4 – Newer technology makes it easier to hit
Remember the Persimmon clubs? Pros played with the wooden driver heads until metal woods became available in the mid-90s. Metal woods were considered more forgiving and much easier to hit and of course, the ball goes a lot further than with a wooden head.
I personally never tried hitting a persimmon club (or maybe I don’t remember) but I love how they look. I don’t mind getting one so that I can put it in my house as decoration. 😂
Another big change was steel shafts and the advancements in graphite or carbon shafts.
I used to play with steel-shaft irons in college and now graphite shafts have taken over because of how much easier they are to swing and because they feel so much more stable as mentioned before.
That being said, I am not saying that everyone should go get graphite shafts in their clubs because some people may find that they are okay with steel shafts and like the feeling of steel shafts better. The shaft is the most important component of the club, it is like the engine in the car, and so it’s important to find that optimal level in distance, spin rate, launch, and ball speed.
It goes to show you that golf manufacturers are always trying to find the next big thing in golf technology and that will benefit all of us. Unless, of course, if the USGA decides to ban the new equipment, then we are all disadvantaged.
#5 – Fewer club purchases and trade-ins
I’ve heard of way too many horror stories of people buying what they thought was a steal on golf clubs online and realized afterwards that they were fake and worthless.
Or people constantly trading in clubs and never being satisfied with their performance.
By taking the time to go through the club fitting process, you’ll be amazed by how less likely you’ll have the urge to want to keep buying or trying different clubs. You don’t even need to purchase clubs from the club fitter, as long as you understand the data being presented to you, you’ll be able to make an educated purchase on clubs in the future and not just buy clubs because they “look cool”.
I hope this post helped you! Let me know in the comments below.
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