Club Champion - Half off Fittings
1. Doing a full bag fitting is a lot of fun!
2. I've done fittings at two different Club Champion locations (Feb 2018-Hackensack, Feb 2019-Cherry Hill) and felt that I got something different out of each of them. I found a new driver and got a few putters bent to my specs in 2018 and new irons in 2019.
If the fitting is in your budget, go do it! You can validate the clubs that you have or find out that you can make changes to your setup. Ask for your specs and there is zero pressure to get your new clubs there.
2. I've done fittings at two different Club Champion locations (Feb 2018-Hackensack, Feb 2019-Cherry Hill) and felt that I got something different out of each of them. I found a new driver and got a few putters bent to my specs in 2018 and new irons in 2019.
If the fitting is in your budget, go do it! You can validate the clubs that you have or find out that you can make changes to your setup. Ask for your specs and there is zero pressure to get your new clubs there.
Do the full bag. Totally worth the $175. Did mine last weekend and ended up changing to new iron shafts ( Oban CT125's ). Also confirmed that the shafts in my EF SZ and EF 5-wood are about perfect. One shaft had slightly better numbers but not enough to warrant switching at this time. Might switch later in the season as I work more on getting my swing speed up on my driver.
The wedges we spent well over an hour on alone because I asked for it up front as part of the interview. He had me hit a lot of different makes ( SM7's, MD5's, Ping, RTX, etc. ) and lots of lofts and grinds. I currently play 3 vokey SM6's so we worked on looking at what would keep my play style. When all was said and done, I had hit over 40 full wedge shots and 40 half wedge shots in about 80 minutes. Ended up deciding to switch to Tour Grey MD5's in 52, 56, and 60 to replace my SM6's in the same lofts.
Even spent 40 minutes on the putter. The putter I have now is about perfect ( explains my putting hot streak the 2nd half of the year ). Just needed another 1 degree loft.
ALthough I walked out significantly poorer ( 11 Oban shafts, 3 MD5's, and a bunch of grips later ), the trusted info I gathered is huge. I have never wanted to jump on a course more and go hit balls. Anywhere. Frigin snow. 3 more days and I will be in SC a week and playing again.
The wedges we spent well over an hour on alone because I asked for it up front as part of the interview. He had me hit a lot of different makes ( SM7's, MD5's, Ping, RTX, etc. ) and lots of lofts and grinds. I currently play 3 vokey SM6's so we worked on looking at what would keep my play style. When all was said and done, I had hit over 40 full wedge shots and 40 half wedge shots in about 80 minutes. Ended up deciding to switch to Tour Grey MD5's in 52, 56, and 60 to replace my SM6's in the same lofts.
Even spent 40 minutes on the putter. The putter I have now is about perfect ( explains my putting hot streak the 2nd half of the year ). Just needed another 1 degree loft.
ALthough I walked out significantly poorer ( 11 Oban shafts, 3 MD5's, and a bunch of grips later ), the trusted info I gathered is huge. I have never wanted to jump on a course more and go hit balls. Anywhere. Frigin snow. 3 more days and I will be in SC a week and playing again.
I am going to book a putter fitting when I get back, I love the Toulon I have but have thought from the 1st time I used it the lie was off for me. It looks a bit toe up to me.
Since it was built for a pro (allegedly) it well could be off a bit to what is better for me.
Since it was built for a pro (allegedly) it well could be off a bit to what is better for me.
I booked an iron fitting for tomorrow at $100...for the extra $75 ill probably ask tomorrow if we can schedule another day for the rest of the bag if possible. I mainly want to get a real putter fitting since ive never done that before. Im very confident nothing will be better than the woods and shafts I have now
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That is exactly what I did - Paid the extra and got the full bag.
I booked a full bag fitting and will be doing it over 2 sessions on Monday/Friday this week. Initially only interested in the iron fitting, but the offer to do it over 2 sessions and going through my first putter fitting made switching to the full bag fitting really enticing.
My thoughts going in:
Irons - I am buying into the thought of playing the “most forgiving irons I can stand to look at.” Let’s see where that leads. Also will be open to and want to try some graphite iron shafts.
Putter - very excited about this. Normal putter buying process has been probably like most - sink 5 in a row on a funnel in a big box store and head to the register. I have no idea if I am straight back-straight through vs arc - I think I will learn a lot about how much of an idiot I have been.
Driver - interested to see if The Attas shaft stands up as the best fit for me. It’s been great for me on course.
Fairways/Hybrids - not expecting drastic changes here. Maybe I will be surprised.
Wedges - pessimistic about what can be done indoors. Hoping I am wrong and get blown away with some knowledge.
My thoughts going in:
Irons - I am buying into the thought of playing the “most forgiving irons I can stand to look at.” Let’s see where that leads. Also will be open to and want to try some graphite iron shafts.
Putter - very excited about this. Normal putter buying process has been probably like most - sink 5 in a row on a funnel in a big box store and head to the register. I have no idea if I am straight back-straight through vs arc - I think I will learn a lot about how much of an idiot I have been.
Driver - interested to see if The Attas shaft stands up as the best fit for me. It’s been great for me on course.
Fairways/Hybrids - not expecting drastic changes here. Maybe I will be surprised.
Wedges - pessimistic about what can be done indoors. Hoping I am wrong and get blown away with some knowledge.
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How did it go with your fitting and Alex?
Unfortunately, something came up at the last minute and I had to reschedule my Club Champions fitting. I'm now set for December 15th. Hopefully, this time RL won't pop up and interfere.
went in for an iron fitting Saturday and after thinking about it I figured for the extra $75 ($175 total for whole bag) ill do everything. Irons went really well, putter was very eye opening and probably my favorite/most helpful fitting, and hit about 40 drives. Im going in this week to finish driver, woods, and wedges
This is the 2nd time ive tried a driver fitting at Club Champion and im not too happy about it. The people and fitters are always very nice and knowledgable... Ive just had terrible experiences with Trackman both times. 75% of the drives ive hit both times have the spin number italicized which means its estimating b/c it doesnt pick it up. A few times im getting 162+ ball speed, high toe strike and im getting 4000+ spin. What ive seen on course and from GC Quad monitors im averaging just under 2300 spin and 289 total distance. At the fitting I hit 3 balls with under 2600 spin and 2 drives out of about 40 that went over 280 total. Ball speed was where im used to seeing, but everything else seems way out of whack. I dont strike it like a pro I know that, but I hit more than half of my drives either middle face and higher and routinely saw spin over 3400 with a draw. Also there are times ill catch one on the heel and know darn well the face is open. Ball starts left and draws 40 yards left when really it should be a big left to right slice
overall so far the fitting was great b/c I realistically only truly needed an iron and putter fitting. both of those got answered and im very confident in the selections
This is the 2nd time ive tried a driver fitting at Club Champion and im not too happy about it. The people and fitters are always very nice and knowledgable... Ive just had terrible experiences with Trackman both times. 75% of the drives ive hit both times have the spin number italicized which means its estimating b/c it doesnt pick it up. A few times im getting 162+ ball speed, high toe strike and im getting 4000+ spin. What ive seen on course and from GC Quad monitors im averaging just under 2300 spin and 289 total distance. At the fitting I hit 3 balls with under 2600 spin and 2 drives out of about 40 that went over 280 total. Ball speed was where im used to seeing, but everything else seems way out of whack. I dont strike it like a pro I know that, but I hit more than half of my drives either middle face and higher and routinely saw spin over 3400 with a draw. Also there are times ill catch one on the heel and know darn well the face is open. Ball starts left and draws 40 yards left when really it should be a big left to right slice
overall so far the fitting was great b/c I realistically only truly needed an iron and putter fitting. both of those got answered and im very confident in the selections
Today I did the first of 2 sessions, focusing on irons and wedges. Will do the rest of the bag on Friday.
Irons - focused on shaft using TaylorMade P790 6i as the baseline. My swing speed was averaging 85mph, which the fitter advised was right on the borderline between stiff and regular, and I tested both depending on the brand. Mostly steel, but he threw in one composite since I had initially expressed an interest to try out graphite. The clear winner was an Oban CT100 shaft. That was producing a smash factor of 139, while the others were in the 135-136 range. Not sure if that was an R, R+, or an S. Will confirm that when I go back on Friday for the second session.
On to the heads. I had told him I am not afraid of hitting larger profile game improvement irons. My most important feature is forgiveness. We tried a mix of game improvement and players distance irons. I was getting much better consistency, and ball speeds, from the players distance category irons. 2 heads separated themselves from the pack - TaylorMade P790 and Cobra Forged Tec. Both had smash factors of 139 with the tightest dispersion. Both were consistently right of the center line, which the fitter attributed to the neutral lie angle, and I required 2 upright. He was convinced that once he adjusted the lie angle, I would have my choice between the 2 finalists. He went to adjust the lie angles, and I paused for a few minutes. During the pause, I noticed a bunch of blisters starting to redden. When we restarted, my swing was gone. We thought it best to pick it up from here when I go back on Friday. Looking forward to the final battle between these 2 heads on Friday. The ones that didn’t make the cut were Apex Forged, Mizuno HMP, Ping G410, and Callaway Big Bertha.
Wedges - focus was on 3/4 swings with a 54 degree, looking for tightest dispersion and highest spin. My current gamer won out - TaylorMade HiToe 54. Next best was the Mizuno T20 - I really liked the way it framed the ball at address. The rest of the pack tested weren’t as consistent for me.
I am sore... I am not one to bang balls on a range for hours on end. Give me 20-30 balls and I am more than good. Today’s 100 or so in somewhat rapid succession have left me wanting for some Advil. i probably should have taken a few more breaks, which were offered, throughout.
Looking forward to Friday for part 2.
Irons - focused on shaft using TaylorMade P790 6i as the baseline. My swing speed was averaging 85mph, which the fitter advised was right on the borderline between stiff and regular, and I tested both depending on the brand. Mostly steel, but he threw in one composite since I had initially expressed an interest to try out graphite. The clear winner was an Oban CT100 shaft. That was producing a smash factor of 139, while the others were in the 135-136 range. Not sure if that was an R, R+, or an S. Will confirm that when I go back on Friday for the second session.
On to the heads. I had told him I am not afraid of hitting larger profile game improvement irons. My most important feature is forgiveness. We tried a mix of game improvement and players distance irons. I was getting much better consistency, and ball speeds, from the players distance category irons. 2 heads separated themselves from the pack - TaylorMade P790 and Cobra Forged Tec. Both had smash factors of 139 with the tightest dispersion. Both were consistently right of the center line, which the fitter attributed to the neutral lie angle, and I required 2 upright. He was convinced that once he adjusted the lie angle, I would have my choice between the 2 finalists. He went to adjust the lie angles, and I paused for a few minutes. During the pause, I noticed a bunch of blisters starting to redden. When we restarted, my swing was gone. We thought it best to pick it up from here when I go back on Friday. Looking forward to the final battle between these 2 heads on Friday. The ones that didn’t make the cut were Apex Forged, Mizuno HMP, Ping G410, and Callaway Big Bertha.
Wedges - focus was on 3/4 swings with a 54 degree, looking for tightest dispersion and highest spin. My current gamer won out - TaylorMade HiToe 54. Next best was the Mizuno T20 - I really liked the way it framed the ball at address. The rest of the pack tested weren’t as consistent for me.
I am sore... I am not one to bang balls on a range for hours on end. Give me 20-30 balls and I am more than good. Today’s 100 or so in somewhat rapid succession have left me wanting for some Advil. i probably should have taken a few more breaks, which were offered, throughout.
Looking forward to Friday for part 2.
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Did my wedge and Putter fitting. Thought I’d post my SAM PuttLab Report. Turns out my Toulon Atlanta is a perfect fit. Just adjust the lie angle.
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For a half off fitting, id say the results are certainly worth it. Ive always believed everyone can improve from a fitting and it just depends if youre willing to spend the money for it. The hard part is deciding to buy through the fitter for double the price assuming tolerance and quality control will be tighter. Or build and piece yourself. Both New Level and Mizuno have C-Taper Lite for no upcharge which was the 2nd best shaft. I could play either shaft and it would be a huge improvement to what I have now. Through CC either setup will run me over $2000. Through NL or Mizuno will be about $1100 (plus NL has 15% off right now so closer to $900+)..... I think im gonna take the plunge and buy straight from CC. These results cant be argued with
Light blue is my current gamer. Red, Orange, the darker blue and purple are 3 different heads and the Aerotech Steelfiber FC 115 shaft. The royal blue was C-Taper Lite with Mizuno MMC
Obviously dispersion is insane with this setup, but I even picked up 6mph ball speed, 1.4 club head speed, and increased spin!
Light blue is my current gamer. Red, Orange, the darker blue and purple are 3 different heads and the Aerotech Steelfiber FC 115 shaft. The royal blue was C-Taper Lite with Mizuno MMC
Obviously dispersion is insane with this setup, but I even picked up 6mph ball speed, 1.4 club head speed, and increased spin!
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Went for my fitting this morning in Cincinnati. Jeff was great and it was an eye opening experience. The good news for my wallet is the only thing that got beat were my irons. And they got b*tch slapped.
He made a loft & lie adjustment on my putter and all of the sudden I was making everything. Who knew 2* would’ve made that big of a difference.
My driver, fw’s, and wedges are all good. I was kinda bummed that we couldn’t find anything to beat them but I’m happy to say he didn’t try to sell me on replacing anything. As a matter of fact he said I’d be stupid to replace my driver and wedges. We did find some gains with some fw’s but not enough to justify the cost of replacing them.
I also found out I hate every hybrid on the face of the earth. I will be purchasing a 9w sometime in the near future.
Irons were a different story. My swing was crap today. But I did hit enough good ones to make apples to apples comparisons. The numbers looked kinda funky to me but he said I’d see a little loss of distance and spin because of the mat so we were going to concentrate on ball speed, height, and dispersion.
I hit my gamer and saw the loss of distance like he said but it gave us a base line. We started with the UHX because I had mentioned being interested in it. I probably hit 15 different shafts in it trying to find the one. Some were ok, some werea no-go from the first swing.
He thought we found it in the new MMT so we changed club heads to the Callaway Apex. Nope. Ol’ LLIB ain’t got the game for those. Moved to the Rogue X. Nope. Too much offset, everything is going left.
On a whim he grabbed a Forged Tec and an Accra 80icw to try to get a little more height. I need the height. The first swing yielded a 13mph ball speed increase, 40 more feet of height, and dead straight. We hit some more and then hit my gamer to make sure I just wasn’t in a groove. Nope. The Forged Tec/Accra combo averaged 10mph more ball speed, 35ft more height, and 30yds more carry. ?
I should have them towards the end of next week ?
He made a loft & lie adjustment on my putter and all of the sudden I was making everything. Who knew 2* would’ve made that big of a difference.
My driver, fw’s, and wedges are all good. I was kinda bummed that we couldn’t find anything to beat them but I’m happy to say he didn’t try to sell me on replacing anything. As a matter of fact he said I’d be stupid to replace my driver and wedges. We did find some gains with some fw’s but not enough to justify the cost of replacing them.
I also found out I hate every hybrid on the face of the earth. I will be purchasing a 9w sometime in the near future.
Irons were a different story. My swing was crap today. But I did hit enough good ones to make apples to apples comparisons. The numbers looked kinda funky to me but he said I’d see a little loss of distance and spin because of the mat so we were going to concentrate on ball speed, height, and dispersion.
I hit my gamer and saw the loss of distance like he said but it gave us a base line. We started with the UHX because I had mentioned being interested in it. I probably hit 15 different shafts in it trying to find the one. Some were ok, some werea no-go from the first swing.
He thought we found it in the new MMT so we changed club heads to the Callaway Apex. Nope. Ol’ LLIB ain’t got the game for those. Moved to the Rogue X. Nope. Too much offset, everything is going left.
On a whim he grabbed a Forged Tec and an Accra 80icw to try to get a little more height. I need the height. The first swing yielded a 13mph ball speed increase, 40 more feet of height, and dead straight. We hit some more and then hit my gamer to make sure I just wasn’t in a groove. Nope. The Forged Tec/Accra combo averaged 10mph more ball speed, 35ft more height, and 30yds more carry. ?
I should have them towards the end of next week ?
Congrats on the new irons and glad to you enjoyed the experience. I am going to see Jeff at the end of the month.Went for my fitting this morning in Cincinnati. Jeff was great and it was an eye opening experience. The good news for my wallet is the only thing that got beat were my irons. And they got b*tch slapped.
He made a loft & lie adjustment on my putter and all of the sudden I was making everything. Who knew 2* would’ve made that big of a difference.
My driver, fw’s, and wedges are all good. I was kinda bummed that we couldn’t find anything to beat them but I’m happy to say he didn’t try to sell me on replacing anything. As a matter of fact he said I’d be stupid to replace my driver and wedges. We did find some gains with some fw’s but not enough to justify the cost of replacing them.
I also found out I hate every hybrid on the face of the earth. I will be purchasing a 9w sometime in the near future.
Irons were a different story. My swing was crap today. But I did hit enough good ones to make apples to apples comparisons. The numbers looked kinda funky to me but he said I’d see a little loss of distance and spin because of the mat so we were going to concentrate on ball speed, height, and dispersion.
I hit my gamer and saw the loss of distance like he said but it gave us a base line. We started with the UHX because I had mentioned being interested in it. I probably hit 15 different shafts in it trying to find the one. Some were ok, some werea no-go from the first swing.
He thought we found it in the new MMT so we changed club heads to the Callaway Apex. Nope. Ol’ LLIB ain’t got the game for those. Moved to the Rogue X. Nope. Too much offset, everything is going left.
On a whim he grabbed a Forged Tec and an Accra 80icw to try to get a little more height. I need the height. The first swing yielded a 13mph ball speed increase, 40 more feet of height, and dead straight. We hit some more and then hit my gamer to make sure I just wasn’t in a groove. Nope. The Forged Tec/Accra combo averaged 10mph more ball speed, 35ft more height, and 30yds more carry.
I should have them towards the end of next week
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Thanks! He was great. He could definitely be a THPer in the sense that he didn’t care about what my swing looked like or how good I was, he just wanted to get me the best results.
Am appreciating all the feedback you gents are providing. The more I hear the more I'm looking forward to my full bag fitting coming up in the middle of December.
A few thoughts from my experience today - I did a full bag fitting, split into 2 sessions. A full fitting is supposed to take 3.5 hours. Well, in my 2 sessions, I had the full attention of the fitter for 5.5 hours! 2 hours on Monday, and 3.5 today. He told me today that 3 people must have overloaded on turkey as they had 3 cancellations, so we can take as long as we needed. That in and of itself was really cool. Great customer service.
The bad news - my ideal set up for the full bag would cost... $6,005.00. He couldn’t even make it $5,999 - had to be $6,005. Holy smokes. He said something about 10% off for the heads but not the shafts, but the sticker shock had already settled in at that point. I didn’t purchase anything through them - walked out the door just short $175 for the fitting but armed with a much better idea of what will work better for me. More in separate posts as I digest the numbers over the next few days. There will be a new driver, and already took steps to make that happen with some deals going on - thank you callaway pre-owned. More on that later. Need to think about the rest of the bag.
The bad news - my ideal set up for the full bag would cost... $6,005.00. He couldn’t even make it $5,999 - had to be $6,005. Holy smokes. He said something about 10% off for the heads but not the shafts, but the sticker shock had already settled in at that point. I didn’t purchase anything through them - walked out the door just short $175 for the fitting but armed with a much better idea of what will work better for me. More in separate posts as I digest the numbers over the next few days. There will be a new driver, and already took steps to make that happen with some deals going on - thank you callaway pre-owned. More on that later. Need to think about the rest of the bag.
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With this $175 deal, will they let you schedule the fitting out past Jan 31 as long as you purchase prior to that?
The promo on the site says “booked and completed between” so I think the only way you would be able to arrange that is trying to swing a deal by phone. They are pretty accommodating so definitely give them a call.
A full bag fitting on a trackman, real numbers with every OEM possible all for $175 is such a great deal.
It’s funny when I have friends who will pick up a new club off the shelf for $300+ on a whim but can’t be convinced of $175 full bag fitting ??
It’s funny when I have friends who will pick up a new club off the shelf for $300+ on a whim but can’t be convinced of $175 full bag fitting ??
Good stuff Brian. They’re definitely expensive and my only problem with them is that they use strictly exotic or aftermarket shafts, rarely stock shafts. Check out fairway jockey for the shafts you’re looking for as I’ve found better deals there.
Hah - Already purchased from fairway jockey last night! I found good deals can be found on thepeoplesclubs too.
For driver, Epic Flash with Fujikura Speeder VI 661 Stiff was the best combo. From the numbers below, I improved ball speed, higher launch, lower spin (marginal), + 12 yards in carry and total distance, and better dispersion too. The biggest thing that jumped out for me was that the shortest with the Epic Flash was longer than my longest with the G400. When I got home last night, I purchased the Epic Flash driver and 3 wood (that was also a hands down winner over my Cobra F7) from Callawaypreowned. After the discounts and trade ins, it was a wash, so didn't have to go out of pocket there. Headed over to fairwayjockey and purchased the shaft for the driver. As of now, I don't think I am going to upgrade the 3W shaft just yet. Will give the Tensei Blue that is coming from Callaway in the 3W a go first.
new set up - Epic Flash, Fujikura Speeder VI 661 stiff.
current gamer - Ping G400 SFT, Attas 6S
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I figured as much. They're close to me. I'll probably stop in to talk to them. I would hesitate to go in now, but I'd like a chance to get the new swing where it needs to be.
Very similar results for me. Awesome experience but when the guy gave me the bill I about sh*t my pants. Took all the numbers home and did my research. Went from about $2500 through them to roughly $300 doing it myself. Issue is they price everything individually which makes it really add up.
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