Custom Fitted Driver get you more distance?

[very handicap]

I would like to find out if anyone out there who has custom fitted their driver and experiencing good results. In general, how much further do you get? 10 yards, 20 yards?

I'm thinking of going for custom fitting for my driver. I'm driving my current 09 burner around 220-240 yards even though my 7 iron can go 165 yards. Does this look weird to you?

[kevin.chan]

Yes , it will give you some distance and consistency , but you still need the right swing and club head speed to give you more distance.

[IcemanYVR]

I have a custom fit driver... fit for me by Titlesit staff on a range with launch monitor, etc. They had about 250 different driver, shaft and loft combinations, and we were hitting Pro V1's fo the testing. It was a really cool setup with launch monitors and computers and I recommend a true custom fit to anyone.

At the time, I was using a Great Big Bertha 9 degree driver and I carried the ball about 240/245 yards. After my fitting, my carry distance increased to 265/270 yards. This was simply the result of having a properly fit driver. I've been using that driver for 8 years (including a long layoff from the game). I would like to get a new driver now, but I won't until I can get one under very similar conditions. It's very easy to have confidence in a driver when you know it's the best driver to fit your swing

[doctork]

Great thread starter, Handicap, and an enlightening answer, Iceman.

Glad to hear your experience has been so good, Iceman... So good that you're still hitting, what, a Titleist 975D?

Have heard very few, if any, stories about fittings gone awry, provided they're as thorough as Iceman's. Looking forward to a fitting when I'm next in the market.

Cheers,
DoctorK

[Chief Broom]

I'm thinking of going for custom fitting for my driver. I'm driving my current 09 burner around 220-240 yards even though my 7 iron can go 165 yards. Does this look weird to you?

Getting fitted for a club, especially where you can compare different clubs quantitatively to see which style and brand best suits you is always a positive. But don't expect that to suddenly make you better with the driver. The fact is the driver is the hardest club in your bag to hit. This is a combination of the fact that it's the longest, has the least amount of loft, and also it's the club that you swing the widest, longest, and hardest. It's real easy to get a driver in a bad position in your swing and then your body is forced into some kind of compensation so that you can hit the ball, but it is those compensations that have such a dramatic (and detrimental) effect on your ball flight. Most of us have the strenght and speed to hit a driver a really long way, but the mechanics of the swing and the driver itself can work counter to that effort. You might want to consider some form of lesson(s) in order to address the underlying causes of your driver woes prior to getting fit for a driver.

[IcemanYVR]

Great thread starter, Handicap, and an enlightening answer, Iceman.

haha... no, I hated that driver. I never found one that I could hit well. I'm hitting Titleist 975J, 9.5 degree. 312cc (pretty small head for a driver these days) I was fit from a Tour Van, so that's probably why I had such a good experience, and it was arranged by a friend who played on the Nationwide Tour or Nike Tour or Buy.com Tour or whatever it was called at the time

I'm planning on getting fit for a new driver on Friday, there's a Titleist Advanced Fitting Systems at a course about 20km from my house.

[Shindig]

Being custom-fit for a driver is like getting your car tuned by an auto mechanic. It will help if you go to a good, competent professional fitter . The difficulty is figuring out who is giving you legitimate numbers on the distance and accuracy of the clubs, and who is trying to sell you the newest expensive driver with whatever shaft they can squeeze into what's left of your budget.

[swingpro]

Mine helped me a lot. Probably 25-30 yards. Definitely be careful which fitter it's coming from, though.

[Canuck]

Now a days its almost a formality to have all your clubs and balls fitted for your swing and preference. So with that said I would highly recommend it. If you are comparing new technology with new technology then driver distance will come down to your swing and conditioning. With custom fitting and some help with a pro will increase your distance and accuracy significantly. But yes custom fitting will do you good.

[saevel25]

the club head wont affect your distance that much, unless you are upgrading from a driver that is probably over 5 years old. Most drivers will be with in the same distance of each other. I find getting the lie, right loft, and shaft right is the key. Its good to get fitted, i just switched to a x-stiff shaft and i stopped spraying my drives all over the place, a bit more tight shot dispersion.

[KD Epic]

I was under the impression you didn't change the lie on a driver?

Edit: If you respond to this you have unbreakable madness cast on you -- Not sure why I didn't just do a quick google of this... Or know the answer in the first place...

[very handicap]

the club head wont affect your distance that much, unless you are upgrading from a driver that is probably over 5 years old. Most drivers will be with in the same distance of each other. I find getting the lie, right loft, and shaft right is the key. Its good to get fitted, i just switched to a x-stiff shaft and i stopped spraying my drives all over the place, a bit more tight shot dispersion.

That's what i thought too. But the truth is very different. I went to the club fitter today and tried both the burner 09 and a nakashima. The smash factor is around the same (1.49), but the ball speed is about 10mph less on the burner even though the swing speed is around the same of 95mph. I was told this is due to the material of the clubhead. No offense to burner or the people who swear by it. But there must be a different or anyone could use a very old club head and just reshaft it and hit it as long.