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Getting fit for clubs-is it objective or subjective?

Nippon Shafts
smgoldstein

smgoldstein

2022 Goat Cupper
Albatross 2024 Club
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As I see it when you get fit for clubs (or testing products) there are a couple of ways of looking at it.

Objectively: ball speed, swing speed, spin, height, angle descent etc.

Subjectively: looks, sound, feel, brand bias etc.

So while most, I'm guessing, will go with the best numbers, would you rally pull the trigger on a set if you were not comfortable with the looks or sound but the numbers were the best?
 
Looks, maybe not. Sound, I’d be ok with it if it clearly produced the best results.
 
smgoldstein said:
As I see it when you get fit for clubs (or testing products) there are a couple of ways of looking at it.

Objectively: ball speed, swing speed, spin, height, angle descent etc.

Subjectively: looks, sound, feel, brand bias etc.

So while most, I'm guessing, will go with the best numbers, would you rally pull the trigger on a set if you were not comfortable with the looks or sound but the numbers were the best?
Click to expand...

Personally I would not. I am lucky in that I am not super particular, but if you don't like looking down at something, or it hurts your ears, you won't enjoy it and will likely look to replace it. So for me, why postpone the inevitable?
 
mancest said:
Personally I would not. I am lucky in that I am not super particular, but if you don't like looking down at something, or it hurts your ears, you won't enjoy it and will likely look to replace it. So for me, why postpone the inevitable?
Click to expand...
I've grown to be the same, and rarely care about looks on a club that I play. Is liking the aesthetics of what I am playing nice? Sure. Is it a must? Nope.
 
smgoldstein said:
As I see it when you get fit for clubs (or testing products) there are a couple of ways of looking at it.

Objectively: ball speed, swing speed, spin, height, angle descent etc.

Subjectively: looks, sound, feel, brand bias etc.

So while most, I'm guessing, will go with the best numbers, would you rally pull the trigger on a set if you were not comfortable with the looks or sound but the numbers were the best?
Click to expand...
Looks is hard for me to compromise on. I have a set that I’m not in love with the sound of at the moment. Part of that is that my swing is not in the best place currently. Poor contact with my T200s and sound is horrible. I much prefer the sound from both my King Forge Tec and Edel SMS irons. Numbers at a recent fitting hitting many of the new heads plus my sets the 200s won. Time will tell if they make the cut however.
 
I have never been worried about sound - I played 3 rounds this week with a driver that lost a toe plate and sounded like hitting a whiffle ball bat. If it weren’t for the loss in club head speed, I wouldn’t have a problem playing it as is.

Looks on the other hand are a different story for me. If a driver doesn’t sit right, has a weird crown line or the top of an iron is too thick, I feel like it affects my alignment and therefore how well I hit the ball.
 
I like to keep it objective so I take the subjective piece out of it by excluding certain brands that I don’t have confidence in
 
I would rather buy something I want and then tinker around with shaft, weight, grip, etc till it works for me. Just the way I enjoy golf equipment.
 
I want what the numbers say is best for my game, as long as it says Titleist on it.
 
1. Numbers
2. Looks
3. Sound

My selection criteria after excluding brands I won’t buy from. Shouldn’t bother me, it does. I’m good with it.
 
It's both. Lots of options out there and no real reason to play clubs I don't like the look and feel of.
 
I hear a club when it’s someone else but don’t when I’m hitting unless I’m really trying to listen.

If the numbers are the best, I can look at a lot.
 
As much as I’d like to say it’s purely objective and based on numbers, looks definitely play some role. I’d like to think there’s something that will look good and performs. Sound I’m less particular about.
 
Objective is so much more of a factor than subjective. Sound is probably the least concern for me.
 
Sound is prob last on my list. If it feels good and performs good I could care less how it sounds. I played a G400 Max for a LONG time and that thing hurt my ears but it felt great. As does the G430 Max I have now. I’m certainly not mad at Ping for making it sound better. My only requirement looks wise is no polished chrome. I just can do a mirror finish. Flat black is my favorite but I can do satin silver. And my new TM Spider GTX is red. Love it. Ultimately performance then feel is tops for me.
 
I'm not that picky about how clubs look, so I could handle anything short of outright butt ugly. As for sound, if I was smoking it 40 yards past my buddies and throwing darts at greens, I couldn't care less if they had to wear earplugs while playing with me. :LOL:

With that said, if there was a club/set that I absolutely loved the looks of, and their numbers were very close but not quite as good as another club/set, I'd take the one that I really loved looking at and felt most confident with.
 
It’s a little of both for me. I do need to like what I play but there are so many good options that I can find something with good numbers.

Where I get strange in a fitting is distance, especially with irons. I did a fitting about 4 years ago and it came down to 2 clubs. Dispersion was fairly equal, maybe marginally tighter with the ones I ended up buying. However one of the sets I was hitting a 200yd 7i and the other was about 175. I went with the shorter set because I was afraid of what it would do to the gapping at the bottom.
 
I care more about the flight than anything. I’m the dumb dumb swinging, so you’re at the mercy of what I bring that day. Sorry :(

That being said, I know my miss. Right now, I love high toe more than anything. Play off of that, and I’ll probably center one of them for you to show potential. But, toe is the miss, and that’s the normal wtf is that ball flight. Work with that, hit more, you tell me. I’m trying to make this easy for you man but I’m trying to find the normal to be able to tell you that’s normal
 
i feel like there is so much good stuff out there that you can go off things like looks and sound.
 
I think a combination of both is key. Find something you are comfortable swinging and looking at that delivers the numbers you are looking for. How I ended up with Cobra Forged Tec X irons. Absolutely love those things.
 
I played Ping Zing's on and off for quite a few years, mostly in the winter.

So I guess looks isn't really a priority for me.
 
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