Custom Fitting Cost - worth travelling for?

I've gone through fittings for irons and then later I did the driver, and I found the process very educational and interesting, and the results were noticeable.    With my driver, I picked up about 15 yards and better dispersion compared to my previous club, and my iron play increased significantly, with a much more predictable shot shape and dispersion.    And it has been proven in my scores as well; my index has dropped about 4-5 strokes with the fitted equipment.  

Based on my experience, though, I would have serious doubts about someone who claims to go through an extensive fitting with every club in the bag in 1 hour.     My irons-only fitting took almost 2 hours, and my driver fitting alone was about an hour, with about another 1/2 hour for the fairway woods.   Each of the fittings involved getting a baseline with my current equipment, trying out different head types, then trying different shafts on the short list of finalists with the heads and going back and forth enough times between all of them to make sure we were seeing repeatable results and not just a quick snapshot.    Then it took time to tweak in the lie angle, and finally to tweak the lofts as needed to even out the gaps.     I don't know how one could really do a comprehensive fitting for new clubs in only an hour.    

Also, I feel if someone is doing such a comprehensive fitting of every club, doing them in one looooong session could be very counterproductive.   I was pretty tired at the end of each of those sessions, and if I had just spent a couple hours hitting irons I would highly question the accuracy of jumping right into the driver.

At this point having a comprehensive fitting is probably not a good investment, unless you're exceptionally short or tall.  Your swing is going to change quite a bit quickly if you're serious about getting better and coming from never breaking 100.  

Use that money to get a few lessons instead of the custom fitting until your swing is more consistent.  

I agree with Bullitt, get your swing down first, most likely by taking lessons. Then go for a fitting. I purchased Ping G15 a number of years ago and the fitting was free (if you purchased the clubs). You work on a launch monitor and they select the best shaft for you, I needed graphite because I'm an old fart with slow swing speed. Then you hit on a strike board and they determine what lie works best, I'm a blue dot. You are measured and they determine shaft length and grip size. Again the fitting was free and I got my clubs in two weeks.

Now, I'm not pushing Pings, although I really like my irons, but a fitting is definetly worth it. I'm not sure a trip to the States is worth it unless of course you just want a great holiday. Let us know your plans.

a few things of note since I was in a very similar position a few years ago.

#1 - If you have a decent swing but struggle to break 100, it might be other things that are contributing to the score.  Things like short game, putting, and course management will likely relieve you more strokes than a properly fit set of clubs. 

To the point in this month's issue of Golf Digest they had an article about managing misses and thinking one shot ahead.  In the article the player was sitting in the rough a wedge away from the green with a low hanging tree and a bunker between him and the green.  It would take a miracle to get on the green so a layup was in order, the article went on to say that chipping it directly to the hole (conventional wisdom) was not the smart play that instead you would be better suited to chip sideways into the short stuff leaving yourself a full wedge into the green. 

#2 - Lessons (at least in my experience) isn't something you do for 2-3 months and then stop.  To be honest, I enjoy my lessons, my golf instructor and I spend some of the time just talking about life, tour golf, etc.  It is very therapeutic.  So find an instructor that you can communicate with, and you will likely really enjoy the experience.  Also, if you are considering spending the kind of money you are on golf clubs, it sounds like you are ready to take the game seriously, which means lessons and practice are the keys to getting those better scores that it sounds like you are capable of. 

#3 - When you do take lessons, don't forget to focus on those other things, my first set of lessons that I took focused on three things in my game, the first focused on the driver, the second on putting and the third on short game.  These were the 3 things that I identified were the cause of my high scores.  If you have a score card where you have measured GIR's, putts, tee shot (fairway vs. rough) to ask an instructor to analyze that quickly and he might be able to tell you where you need to focus if lower scores is the driving factor.   That being said, hitting pure irons all day on a golf course is a fun experience, and if having fun is the goal and scores are secondary than by all means continue on. 

a few metaphors that I have borrowed / stolen from other people's signatures on this board...

"It is likely not the arrow but the Indian." 

"A great player is one who spends alot of time fixing small things, and a poor player is one who spends little time fixing big things"  I am paraphrasing but the jist is there. 

I do not have any personal experience with custom fitting (I am too cheap) but one hour seems quite short. One of the bigger golf shops in Michigan which uses Trackman and does complete fittings says that a driver fitting is an hour by itself and a full bag session takes two, hour and a half sessions. Granted a long time doesn't necessarily mean a good fitting but I would think that no matter how good a fitter is, one hour would be quite rushed. In either case good luck with your decision and I am very jealous. 

go see james whittaker @ moor allerton golf club leeds he uses trackman and would do all your fitting for free if you bought your clubs from him

i have never been charged for fitting no matter how long if i bought the equipment