{"id":1475,"date":"2006-08-21T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-21T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/uncategorized\/fit_factors_club_fitting_part_two\/"},"modified":"2006-08-21T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-21T15:00:00","slug":"fit_factors_club_fitting_part_two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/bag_drop\/fit_factors_club_fitting_part_two","title":{"rendered":"Fit Factors: Club Fitting, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BagI once scripted a video we shot with Tom Watson at his home course in Kansas City. After the shoot, the crew was invited to play a few holes. Not having clubs with me, I was loaned a bag of Watson’s spares.<\/p>\n

The shafts weren’t just stiff, they’d been tipped to make them even firmer. They felt so heavy I couldn’t even get the ball in the air and ended up playing out of someone else’s bag.<\/p>\n

Golf clubs that don’t fit make an already hard game impossibly hard. In part one<\/a> of our discussion we covered the basics. This week we take a look at some of the finer points of club fitting that new technology has made possible.
\n<\/p>\n

Matching Clubs to Your Swing (continued)<\/h3>\n

Shaft Bend Point and Torque<\/strong>
\nWhy it’s important:<\/em> Different model shafts with the same flex designation often deliver markedly different performance. Why? Because the place where the shaft bends as it’s loaded and released bears significantly on how it feels and how it impacts ball flight and distance.<\/p>\n

For instance, many touring pros and exceptionally strong amateurs use a shaft with a bend point so high it’s virtually under the grip. Players with slower swing speeds need a shaft that bends more towards the tip to help them get the ball in the air.<\/p>\n

Torque, or how much the shaft twists during the swing, is another measure of feel and performance. Less torque results in a stiffer-feeling club and helps faster swings deliver the club head more consistently to the ball.<\/p>\n

How to check it:<\/em> Now we’re getting into factors where professional help and a session with a launch monitor may be required. Perhaps nothing else in club fitting is as much a black art as fitting a shaft to a player. Shafts can be tipped (the tip end trimmed to achieve a stiffer tip), shortened from the butt, and manipulated in many ways to achieve different feel and performance.<\/p>\n

To me, the ideal situation is to be fitted on a launch monitor by an experienced club fitter who has a good supply of different clubs or has shafts they can swap them out on the spot with your club heads. Trial and error validated by the results on a launch monitor is really the only way to accurately be fitted for a shaft and to determine the following three fit factors:<\/p>\n

Launch Angle<\/strong>
\nWhy it’s important:<\/em> A high launch angle with the driver relative to a player’s swing speed is critical to distance. It’s also an important determinant in judging shaft performance in a set or irons. Both driver loft and shaft flex and bend become variables in achieving the ideal launch angle.<\/p>\n

Frank Thomas’ website has a chart<\/a> showing optimum speed\/launch angle that’s illustrative of what we’re talking about here.<\/p>\n

Ball Speed<\/strong>
\nWhy it’s important:<\/em> It’s not just the speed you swing the clubhead, but the contact you make with the ball that determines ball speed. And that, in the end, is the critical measure of how far you can expect to carry the ball on the fly. That’s why different shafts and club heads can yield different ball speeds with the same swing speed.<\/p>\n

Spin Rate<\/strong>
\nWhy it’s important:<\/em> Players with high ball speeds want high launch and low spin rates (the RPMs achieved as the ball leaves the club face) for maximum carry and roll. But players with slower ball speeds need more RPMs to help them achieve a higher launch angle and get more carry.<\/p>\n

Matching Clubs to Your Course<\/h3>\n

Bermuda versus Bent Fairways<\/strong>
\nWhy it’s important:<\/em> OK… maybe I’m getting carried away here, but the kind of course you play on can impact your choice of club specifications. For instance if you play firm, tightly mown bent-grass fairways, you’ll probably be more of a “digger” who’ll want irons with less bounce, narrower soles and a sharper leading edge.<\/p>\n

Playing off Bermuda grass? Those fluffier lies often are best played with a shallower “sweeping” stroke aided by wider soles and a little more bounce.<\/p>\n

By the way, “bounce” is a measure of how much lower the trailing edge of the sole is than the leading edge. It’s measured in degrees with more degrees equaling more bounce.<\/p>\n

Hard Sand versus Soft Sand<\/strong>
\nWhy it’s important:<\/em> Hard packed sand offers a lot of resistance. A wedge with too much bounce runs the risk of bouncing the flange off the sand and into the ball. And that gets ugly. Conversely, playing in soft, powdery sand with not enough bounce means the club will want to bury itself behind the ball. That’s not pretty either. The rule of thumb is hard sand, low bounce… soft sand more bounce.<\/p>\n

In the End…<\/strong>
\nWhile you can check and change a lot of the fitting factors we’ve covered the past two weeks on your own, nothing can replace the eye and experience of a qualified PGA Pro or knowledgeable club fitter. They’ll even take factors into account that we haven’t here… things like overall club weight, swing weight, offset, face angle, and your tempo, strength, and flexibility.<\/p>\n

Before you buy another club, promise yourself you’ll get fit for it first. It’s that important. And, while you’re at it, ask around to find the best club fitter in your area. Not everyone with a launch monitor knows how to use it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It used to be the only variables to consider were grip size, shaft flex, length, and lie. Now technology has pushed fitting into whole new realms. If you’re serious about golf, it’s time to get serious about getting fit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bag_drop"],"yoast_head":"\nFit Factors: Club Fitting, Part Two (Bag Drop) - The Sand Trap .com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/bag_drop\/fit_factors_club_fitting_part_two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Fit Factors: Club Fitting, Part Two (Bag Drop) - The Sand Trap .com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"It used to be the only variables to consider were grip size, shaft flex, length, and lie. 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