Best route for custom fitting?

[will54]

There is a pro at one of my pro shops (only place to get Mizunos) that charges $20 a iron for custom fitting (no money towards clubs) and apparently he checks everything that can be fitted on each and every club. Anyways I have never been fitted before and I was wondering if going this route is worth it rather than the cheaper and less in depth mizuno shaft optimizer with the basic fittings? Any info would be appreciated,thanks.

[redsox98]

I would pay more to have a club by club fitting as opposed to a 1 fits all fitting. There is no way that you would swing your 3 and impact the ball the same as your 9. Yes your swing speed should be the same probably but lie would be a little different. Just my $.02 If I was going to order a new set and could find a place that would do this I would.

[will54]

Thanks for the reply.I am leaning towards the club by club fitting but if I'm gonna pay $900-1000 for a set that extra $160 is a bit much, though if the irons are made perfectly for me maybe I keep the irons for that much longer and they pay for themselves in the long run.

[Arthur]

Might check google and see if there are any custom club builders in your area. Think they would only charge for the clubs and might fit each club. Don't know for sure but might be worth a look.

[Shagbag]

You should be careful here when dealing with "pro shop clubfitter". What are his credentals? Is he a clubfitter because he says he is and works in a proshop? Precisely what is he going to do to custom fit you? There is plenty that goes into a true custom fitting, right down to the clubhead! The club head you want to purchase might not be the proper club head for you, but the pro shop guy isn't going to tell you that if you are inclined to purchase what they are selling. Might want to do some research with respect to what really constitutes a custom fitting. The Search for the Perfect Golf Club by Tom Wishon would be a good place to start....290 pages of why you should be custom fit and what exactly constitutes a custom fitting. It's worth cost of the book to know what you should be getting, how all the components of a golf club work, and exactly what questions to ask. Wishon does a great job explaining the more complex aspects of custom fitting in a way that's easy to understand.

[will54]

Thanks for the replys and I do plan on asking around about fitting but that shop offers the most thorough fitting so far. Most in my area are just the basic fitting and I guess this other guy takes a monitor and has you hit at least a dozen balls per club and shaft combo and than he goes from there.It seems like he custom fits every aspect of every club rather than as a one size fits all set.Anyways I'm gonna hold off on buying a set because its not only gonna be winter here but I would like to see what is offered next year,that should give me plenty of time to fully research the subject.

[Blades4me]

I agree with shagbag. Also and with all due respect, until you have a fairly repeatable swing, which usually happens at 12 hc and less it is pointless to spend that much. All of that stuff pretty much depends on a repeatable swing to really have it be effective. Yes get fitted for lie angle and the Mizuno shaft optimizer is very useful. If nothing else it will give you a place to start. What feels good to you now will most likely change as your hc goes down. So, yes you could spend that much money on basically "blue printing" your clubs, but I don't think you would get that much out until you have a pretty repeatable swing.

At this point, IMO, concentrate you efforts on developing a good golf swing and ball striking b/c w/o those you will just be floging instead of golfing.

When I get a new set of clubs the first thing I do is take them apart and weigh the heads. I like my 3-5i's to be 6 grams apart and 6i-pw 8 grams apart. I also spine my shafts. That has worked out fine for a small amount of money. It isn't that hard to work on your own equipment.

[will54]

  Blades4me said:

I agree with shagbag. Also and with all due respect, until you have a fairly repeatable swing, which usually happens at 12 hc and less it is pointless to spend that much. All of that stuff pretty much depends on a repeatable swing to really have it be effective. Yes get fitted for lie angle and the Mizuno shaft optimizer is very useful. If nothing else it will give you a place to start. What feels good to you now will most likely change as your hc goes down. So, yes you could spend that much money on basically "blue printing" your clubs, but I don't think you would get that much out until you have a pretty repeatable swing.

Yeah this is the first year I've had time to practice and though my swing isn't quite there I'm getting really good with my irons. Now I just need to keep the ol driver in the fairway. Though I think you're right about spending that much money on clubs right now especially since my 755's are good irons in good shape.I'm hoping to get a set of Mizunos sometime next year maybe in the fall when there new ones come out. I love there clubs since they seem to be easier to hit than most blades and half cb's,for me anyways.

[montru]

I had a clubfittimg a few months back, it was a mobile clubfitter that came to our club, I paid $200 for a full fitting (excluding putter), he had the launch monitor etc and it turned out that my woods were all prety much spot for me, but my irons (Cobra's) were way off. He got me hitting some balls with some of his clubs we found a shaft that felt like nothing I had ever felt before, and I just couldn't miss with it, I told him I had a set of r7's in the garage that I just couldn't hit, he told me to go get them (I live on the course), we decided, rather than pull my Cobra's apart, we would put the r7 heads onto his shafts.
He garunteeed that all the clubs would be "swing weighted" and all the shafts would be "spined". I must say that since I had the fitting my ballstriking has improved tenfold, which in turn boosted my confidence.
My first rounds with the new clubs was unbelievable, I shot back to back 79's in the first week then 80 and 81 the following week, my hndcp dropped from 16 to 12 in the space of eight weeks.
I haven't played a great deal this summer apart from my trip to AZ, and I managed to keep to my 12 hndcp, my plan was/is to get some practice in on my short game and get down to a single digit by Jan 1st.