Your fitting experience

[goblue107501]

Call this just a general curiosity...

For those that have gone through a full club fitting (launch monitor, several clubs and shafts, ball fitting, etc.) how much did the results show up on the course after you had 'gotten used' to the new clubs or set up?  Also, were you able to hit balls outside on a range, or just indoors into a net?

I have never been on a launch monitor, and won't unless I want to travel about 3 hours, so I am always curious about the results.  When someone says they tried a X driver with Y shaft they had a carry of AAA with an overall distance of BBB, I wonder if that is accurate on the course?  I am not doubting the accuracy of the machine so much as wondering if it is similar to the actual results.  There are so many factors to consider, temperature, ground conditions, elevation, heck, even the type of grass on the course.  I would hate to get a new driver or iron set thinking that it would outperform what I have, only to find out the computer results didn't mirror what I did on the course under real conditions.

I would love to go through the process with my own clubs.  I am in pretty good tune with what I can do with each club so I would have a good idea how accurate the findings were.  I guess I am just skeptical about the process and wonder how accurate it has been for those that have gone through it.  For example, if you got fitted for a new driver (or golf ball) and the machine said you hit it 15 yards further with less side spin, did that translate to the course?  Were you in fact 15 yards closer and more in the middle than you had ever been on the same hole?

[tweaky]

having run my own clubfitting biz and used three different launch monitors i would say that it was worth the endeavor to get the data.  what i saw on the monitors is what i saw on the course. knowing what i know now i wouldn't put the money into another one.  it would take too long to recoup the money invested.

the unfortunate thing for most golfers who go to a retail golf store that has one is that you don't know if the machine has been calibrated correctly; you don't know if the person operating it knows how to properly interpret the data; and if they don't measure the club your using for the ACTUAL loft at the point of ball contact on the face you don't know what actually just happened nor what to do about it.  just saying that you hit that shot at a launch angle of "LA" degrees and with "S" rpm of spin isn't enough info.  Launch monitors also don't read the actual spin of the ball, they use an algorithm to deduce it (yes, even Trackman).