Driver Fitting

Good Morning!

About 3 months ago I had my first lessons (2 lessons to be exact) followed by a club fitting.  I had been playing all very cheap clubs up until that point and focusing on learning the game and a decent swing before upgrading.  I ended up getting some fitted Ping G20 irons which I am very happy with.

I could easily arrange another appointment with the guy who did the club fitting and sold me the Pings - this time for a driver.  I'm curious... how much do you guys think having a driver fitting matters compared to an iron fitting?  He ended up waiving the $150 fitting fee because I paid for the clubs that same day, which he is likely to do again if I go in and buy a driver.  Currently I am using a Cobra Amp driver, 9.5 degrees, stiff shaft, etc that I bought at Sports Authority.

Very important. Having the wrong shaft/head/loft combination could cost you significant distance and/or accuracy.

How do you hit it? If you're happy with it, then it might not be worth the $300-$400 to get a new driver. However, since you started this thread, it's probably safe to assume that you're not 100% satisfied.

Like a lot of people have said before - my driver is usually either my best club or my worst club.  My best rounds have been when I felt like I couldn't miss a fairway but I definitely don't have that confidence every time.  Some days I can't seem to hit a fairway.  My distance is probably in the 250-275 range.  I feel like I should be getting more distance off the tee but that probably has to do with my swing, not the Cobra driver.

Only the newest drivers go for $300-400 don't they?  I might only have to spend like $200

Without seeing your swing or knowing your metrics (swing speed, ball speed, launch angle, and spin rate), it's hard to know if that's reasonable. However, I'm fairly certain that you won't pick up much yardage if you're already hitting drives out to 250-275. It's possible though.

That all depends on what the fitter's recommendation is, and whether or not he waives the fitting fee. You could be looking at 75 bucks (Aldila NV and install in same driver) or over $500 for a new head and higher-end shaft, plus the fitting fee if he's not in a giving mood.

Yardage is not my concern, although being 6'2" and about 190 pounds I feel like the more I develop my swing I might be able to get a little extra distance.  I'm more concerned with accuracy.  I get great distance on my irons, so an average driving distance isn't a problem.

The club fitter waived my fitting fee on the irons, and I'm sure he would do so again if I made a purchase.

Since accuracy is your concern, a fitting may be very beneficial.

Cobra Amp driver with a stiff shaft sounds like a good starting point. Not the most expensive driver, but a lot of people are playing well with it.

As for accuracy problems on not-so-good driver days, do you have a trend, a common pattern? Do you tend to have hook misses, push misses, etc.? Or, does it vary on the not-so-good days?

• If you have some constant bad pattern, a fitting and equipment tweak (maybe a reshaft) might work.
• If you have different problems on different not-so-good days, chances are you need to work on your set-up, just getting used to your driver.  It takes awhile to fully learn a driver.

It is the second bullet point.  Sometimes what will happen is I will slice one and then the next time up I will hook it to correct for my fear of slicing.  What I do when I'm not having a good feeling with my driver is either choke up on it a few inches or just hit a 5 iron.

I actually had a lesson today (my 3rd lesson) and the instructor talked to me about my driver issues.  He simply said that the reason I have trouble with it is because it's the longest club in the bag.  The longer the club, the more it brings out your swing faults.  We analyzed my swing on a slow motion computer screen and he said he loves my backswing.  Right up until the point of impact he says I don't have much to improve upon at all.  My problem comes right at impact when I tend to let my right arm dominate a little too much, resulting a bend in my left arm.  I noticed the best players really carry that Y shape made with their forearms well into the follow through but mine disappears at impact and i'm left without full extension of my arms.

He said that what I need to work on is strengthening my left arm and making it more coordinated.  He suggested hitting some balls with only my left arm every time I went to the range.  Got off on a little side note there...

Just bumping this thread to say I am getting a driver fitting this weekend!  Very excited.  I talked to the guy who did my iron fitting because I wanted to know what clubs they were going to let me test.  I know some places will only let you test the latest and greatest $400 drivers they have in stock.  He assured me that he would be showing me everything from $150 drivers to $400 drivers and that a lot of people who come in for driver fittings end up spending less than $200 on a club.

Anyone want to share their experience with a driver fitting?

When I went in for my iron fitting I found myself a little biased toward certain brands.  I kinda wanted some Cobra irons but when I hit the Pings best I was ok with getting those.  Now it's pretty funny because I'm finding myself a little biased toward getting a ping driver.  That G20 would be cool since it's only $200 and it would match my irons... but i've never hit it. Who knows?

Ignore the brand of the head and pay attention to the shaft...at least at the beginning of the fitting.  Once you find the shaft that you hit the most consistently, even with different heads, then focus on which head you like the look/feel/performance of.

I will be testing everything and most likely getting the one that gives me the best results with all the data (distance, spin, whatever else the machine measures)

I've heard that higher lofts are more forgiving and that a lot of amateur players will even play an 11.5* driver?

This is somewhat true, since (other things being equal) the lower the loft the more the ball will curve. It's certainly fair to say that most average players actually need more loft on their drivers than they think. This is why most manufacturers deliberately mislabel their higher-lofted heads. If you buy a 10.5 degree driver off the rack, chances are it's actually designed to be closer to 12 degrees -- which is what your lower-swing-speed, negative-angle-of-attack player really needs to get a decent launch. But would never buy if it said 12 degrees on it because of his ego.

Hearing this makes me think the 9.5* driver I've been playing might not be the ideal fit.  Really excited to go in and get the fitting.  Swing speed was recently measured at 110-115 with my driver while I was testing a couple clubs at the store for fun, but that was with my trying to kill it.  I would guess my actual speed on the course is 10mph less.