My stepson and I went to two fitting sessions recently. The first was irons, and the second was driver/3-wood/hybrid. Each was two hours. I hit somewhere around 125-150 balls each time. I have never been a range rat and hitting 100+ balls was a chore.  Fortunately for me, the fitter had to swap shafts and heads which allowed me rest periods.

Being a low-tech senior citizen, I had never hit balls in a simulator or been measured by a Trackman. Frankly, I did not want to know how slow my swing was, and I have never been comfortable hitting balls off Astroturf. I also do not like being under assessment by some golf geek. The fact that the sessions were a gift from my family (Father's Day) was the only reason I was willing to get dragged into this cyber golf experience.

We may as well get right to the punch line so everyone can move on; my driver swing speed is 81.5 mph. On the plus side, my slow-motion swing is very efficient. The geek felt I needed more height to maximize my distance. In the end we settled on a Callaway Rogue ST Max head (10.5 degree) and a Mitsubishi Diamana ZF-Series 40 R-Flex shaft (all this stuff is pretty much blah, blah, blah to me). 3-wood similarly Callaway. Hybrid Ping G425 3-19 Degree.

Irons are Cobra King Forged Tex X with Aldila NV Iron 45 A shafts (shit, I may as well be trying to write this in Greek for all I understand).  Wedges are Cleveland.  My putter, for now, remains a 2-ball Odyssey.

The new clubs will be built in 4-5 weeks, just in time for our first snow fall. Naturally, this coincides with playing my best golf in the past 5 years, using my beat up, mismatched set of 20-year old clubs. A final battle for my golf loyalty seems in the offing. 

Positives:

·         I now know the grim reality about my ancient swing and no longer need to worry, just accept the truth.

·         The geek was very good at putting me at ease and the fitting was fun ... sort of.

·         This likely will translate into better golf. There may be a breaking-in period but I am confident the new sticks will be an improvement.

Negatives:

·         I don't like hitting off carpet into a screen. I prefer to see the real result, not what some computer tells me.

·         My pocketbook is a lot lighter. But as the saying goes, “you can’t take it with you”. Hmmm, do you think there will be room in the casket for my clubs?