I received an email confirming my fitting next week. No mention of bringing my whole bag, just driver and 6 iron.
NEWS Win a Free Fitting - Equipment and Fitting Survey
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He only had me hit the 6 and driver.
I don't carry a 6 iron, hope this won't mess up my fitting.
Do you have a 6 hybrid?
My brother-in-law participated and had his fitting yesterday. His clubs were pretty old, he was playing a TaylorMade R11S with a stock shaft, and TaylorMade Burner irons. He was fit into a Callaway Paradym driver, and gained 22 yards in carry and total distance, along with a much tighter lateral dispersion.
For irons, he was fit into Stealth irons, gaining 10 yards in carry and total, with higher launch, despite the stronger lofts. *old man shakes hand at clouds*
Sounds like the fitting was a success for him.
For irons, he was fit into Stealth irons, gaining 10 yards in carry and total, with higher launch, despite the stronger lofts. *old man shakes hand at clouds*
Sounds like the fitting was a success for him.
No I carry a 9 wood in it's place.
Well, hopefully they can still fit you just without a baseline of your own 6 iron. They have to use 6iron to do the fitting as that is what the fitting heads are. The originally survey did say having a driver and 6i/6h were one of the three requirements.
I will have my 6iron and driver in hand tomorrow.
Had my fitting today at the Scottsdale AZ location with fitter Seth Farmer. It was pretty eye opening, I was impressed.
The overall experience was smooth, in part because Seth reached out in advance to ask some questions about what I wanted to learn. My emphasis was on irons and especially consistency. I got an email invitation to set up a My Trackman account 30 minutes before the fitting, and the data showed up about 30 minutes after I got home.
They do focus on 6 iron and driver, even though they advise bringing the whole bag. In part this is because bag setup, gapping and preferences around transitions are all part of the discussion along the way. It was very thorough and even though I'm not a big equipment geek, I appreciated the time spent to explain things.
I picked up a set of Cleveland Launcher XL Halo irons on eBay over the summer after the retail price dropped, thinking I needed help getting the ball in the air since I am a sweeper and my miss is low on the face. I haven't used them much, however, because I spent most of this year dealing with my mother's health issues.
I hit 8-10 shots with the Halo 6-iron to set a baseline, and in talking through history I mentioned having used the 2017 Launcher irons for a couple years (after getting them from the THP event that year in SoCal). He saw room for improvement with dispersion and spin rate, and maybe a bit more ball speed to improve smash factor.
He put the current Launcher XL on a Fujikura Vista Pro 70 regular shaft, and there was an immediate difference. Shaft is more active at the tip and it felt much more responsive at impact. Tried 3 other shafts, but none were better.
Then moved through Srixon ZX4 and ZX5, and Callaway Paradym. Nothing really improved on the Launcher XL. Then we tried Mizuno JPX-923 Hot Metal, and it was a winner. Better spin, much tighter dispersion, better feel through impact, and a little bit more ball speed. He also noted that the Halo set looked to be 1/2" long, which isn't helping with consistency. Average carry for the shots I hit was 13 yards more in the Hot Metals, with 800 rpm more spin. Shot chart tells the tale:
I don't know if I'll be investing in a new set until I am sure I am going to play more, but it definitely sold me on the benefits of getting fit. In general, I actually made more consistent swings than I expected. At the end when he showed the face impact pattern to see whether lie adjustment was needed, it looked pretty close to center face, which was reassuring.
We then looked at driver, but after about 6 shots he basically said there wasn't much room for improvement other than adjusting the settings to not promote a draw. I hit a couple around 230 total straight down the middle, which is about as much as I'm going to get at 85mph swing speed.
We talked through grip options, shaft puring and getting wedges with the same shafts down the road. He came up with a price and I said I'd chew on it. We also talked about shortening the current set and adding new grips to perhaps help with things as I hopefully ramp up and play more, rather than committing to a full iron set at my current rate of playing 1-2 times a month. I appreciated that.
All in all, the experience was well worth the time and I commend Club Champion for targeting folks like me. I didn't expect to see much difference, but it's hard to argue with the numbers - both shaft and head changes showed improvements, and the combination felt great.
The overall experience was smooth, in part because Seth reached out in advance to ask some questions about what I wanted to learn. My emphasis was on irons and especially consistency. I got an email invitation to set up a My Trackman account 30 minutes before the fitting, and the data showed up about 30 minutes after I got home.
They do focus on 6 iron and driver, even though they advise bringing the whole bag. In part this is because bag setup, gapping and preferences around transitions are all part of the discussion along the way. It was very thorough and even though I'm not a big equipment geek, I appreciated the time spent to explain things.
I picked up a set of Cleveland Launcher XL Halo irons on eBay over the summer after the retail price dropped, thinking I needed help getting the ball in the air since I am a sweeper and my miss is low on the face. I haven't used them much, however, because I spent most of this year dealing with my mother's health issues.
I hit 8-10 shots with the Halo 6-iron to set a baseline, and in talking through history I mentioned having used the 2017 Launcher irons for a couple years (after getting them from the THP event that year in SoCal). He saw room for improvement with dispersion and spin rate, and maybe a bit more ball speed to improve smash factor.
He put the current Launcher XL on a Fujikura Vista Pro 70 regular shaft, and there was an immediate difference. Shaft is more active at the tip and it felt much more responsive at impact. Tried 3 other shafts, but none were better.
Then moved through Srixon ZX4 and ZX5, and Callaway Paradym. Nothing really improved on the Launcher XL. Then we tried Mizuno JPX-923 Hot Metal, and it was a winner. Better spin, much tighter dispersion, better feel through impact, and a little bit more ball speed. He also noted that the Halo set looked to be 1/2" long, which isn't helping with consistency. Average carry for the shots I hit was 13 yards more in the Hot Metals, with 800 rpm more spin. Shot chart tells the tale:
I don't know if I'll be investing in a new set until I am sure I am going to play more, but it definitely sold me on the benefits of getting fit. In general, I actually made more consistent swings than I expected. At the end when he showed the face impact pattern to see whether lie adjustment was needed, it looked pretty close to center face, which was reassuring.
We then looked at driver, but after about 6 shots he basically said there wasn't much room for improvement other than adjusting the settings to not promote a draw. I hit a couple around 230 total straight down the middle, which is about as much as I'm going to get at 85mph swing speed.
We talked through grip options, shaft puring and getting wedges with the same shafts down the road. He came up with a price and I said I'd chew on it. We also talked about shortening the current set and adding new grips to perhaps help with things as I hopefully ramp up and play more, rather than committing to a full iron set at my current rate of playing 1-2 times a month. I appreciated that.
All in all, the experience was well worth the time and I commend Club Champion for targeting folks like me. I didn't expect to see much difference, but it's hard to argue with the numbers - both shaft and head changes showed improvements, and the combination felt great.
Sounds great. I am similar to you. About 90 mph with driver and use the Launcher HB's(old version of the Halos) because I am a sweeper. I've tried almost every iron and the Halos being a hybrid style iron are easily the most forgiving and easiest to hit vs any traditional iron. Did they have the Halos to try with other shafts? Which Hot Metals did you try?
You know, I didn't think to ask. They had a lot of heads on the wall so I would be surprised if they didn't have the Halos.
I hit the plain JPX923 Hot Metals, didn't try anything else in the time window we had. They were already high launching I think - ball speed around 100, launch angle at 22, spin at 4500RPM, so trying HL probably didn't make sense.
gonyr
Well-known member
My experience was very similar to this. I ended up with the Hot Metal HL because low ball flight was one of my main issues. But no way am I spending almost $2000 for a set. I'll just pick up a used set on eBay for 1/3 the cost. Even if I end up reshafting and regripping them, the total is still way cheaper.
Had my fitting today in Overland Park, Matt Moore was my fitter. And he did a fantastic job, asked a few questions before I got there. What was I looking for and what was my main objective at the fitting. I told him I was distance challenged and also wanted more accuracy. Concentrated mostly on Irons, must have hit 80 balls, trying different shafts and different heads. KBS 95 with a Ping I525 head was the best fit, worked on those things and my swing. Had the ball to far back in my stance and was swaying instead of rotating my body. He also gave me a list of instructors for additional help.
Solid gains and the 923 are great irons.
My fitting is tomorrow hopefully it's a good one. Brand new driver head never hit going to see how it goes 
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Fujikura Vista Pro 70 regular shaft
That is the shaft that worked best for me also. He wanted $150 a shaft but I saw they are $45 at Golfworks.
That's interesting. I was quoted $95 a shaft.
I do think this is the problem with targeting high handicappers like me with a marketing campaign like this. We are sometimes not frequent players, more casual hobbyists. I know that's true for me. The cost of this stuff is pretty high, so making a sale is going to be tough. I would need to both be really committed to getting better and pretty confident that I could devote the time needed to do so to buy fitted clubs. It's cool to know that there is something better out there, but we are talking about a $400 eBay purchase of a stock set (which itself was kind of a high bar for me) vs. a $2,000 all-out fitted, pured, custom built set of 7 golf clubs. That's just a hard no for the way I approach golf. It's all for fun at the end of the day and I can think of lots of better ways to spend $2k. For me.
I also discovered after checking that the Halos I have are standard length for Cleveland's build, they are just spec'd longer by design. I'll choke down for now.
gonyr
Well-known member
Totally agree with everything you said. Quoted $91 per shaft + $40 for puring when I can get the same exact shaft brand new online for $32 + $25. Club heads were regular retail price, but they're readily available way cheaper in good used condition, and it's not like irons wear out in a year or two. I have zero complaints about the fitting process - I thought my fitter did a great job walking me through and explaining everything. But I don't feel like I'm in the target market for fully custom assembled clubs when I can get something really, really close for 1/3 to 1/2 the price.That's interesting. I was quoted $95 a shaft.
I do think this is the problem with targeting high handicappers like me with a marketing campaign like this. We are sometimes not frequent players, more casual hobbyists. I know that's true for me. The cost of this stuff is pretty high, so making a sale is going to be tough. I would need to both be really committed to getting better and pretty confident that I could devote the time needed to do so to buy fitted clubs. It's cool to know that there is something better out there, but we are talking about a $400 eBay purchase of a stock set (which itself was kind of a high bar for me) vs. a $2,000 all-out fitted, pured, custom built set of 7 golf clubs. That's just a hard no for the way I approach golf. It's all for fun at the end of the day and I can think of lots of better ways to spend $2k. For me.
I also discovered after checking that the Halos I have are standard length for Cleveland's build, they are just spec'd longer by design. I'll choke down for now.
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That's so funny the fitter said my Halo irons was 3/4" over standard. When I got home I measured them and they're standard by Cleveland's website at 6 iron 37.875"That's interesting. I was quoted $95 a shaft.
I do think this is the problem with targeting high handicappers like me with a marketing campaign like this. We are sometimes not frequent players, more casual hobbyists. I know that's true for me. The cost of this stuff is pretty high, so making a sale is going to be tough. I would need to both be really committed to getting better and pretty confident that I could devote the time needed to do so to buy fitted clubs. It's cool to know that there is something better out there, but we are talking about a $400 eBay purchase of a stock set (which itself was kind of a high bar for me) vs. a $2,000 all-out fitted, pured, custom built set of 7 golf clubs. That's just a hard no for the way I approach golf. It's all for fun at the end of the day and I can think of lots of better ways to spend $2k. For me.
I also discovered after checking that the Halos I have are standard length for Cleveland's build, they are just spec'd longer by design. I'll choke down for now.
He told me for my height I should be playing standard yet he handed me a +5 iron shaft.
Honestly I think they meant well but between the time constraints and knowing the fitting was free I doubt I got the same fitting as a paying customer.
But like you said a higher handicapped and inconsistent players is rarely going to pay that type of money for custom shafts.
It was still interesting though.
Had my fitting today. Josh was awesome. I didn't have my best swing today due to getting over a shoulder injury. Didn't see any huge gains but did see shot height and smash factor go up.
I finally got the report from my fitting and was able to dive into the numbers a bit. It's interesting to see what my fitter prioritized vs what the numbers show. My recommended driver from the fitting was a G430 LST with a Ventus Red TR, and that gave me better launch and I was turning it over which is something I struggle with. But I also hit a few shots with that Red TR in my gamer Sim 2 Max head and had better distance and dispersion with that club over the LST but the flight was lower and the spin was a tad higher, which were things my fitter was prioritizing. Now, I also know I wasn't swinging as fast as I normally do with any of the drivers, and that's probably because of both being indoors and doing the 6 iron first.
But the numbers confirmed my decision to upgrade my shaft in my gamer as opposed to going whole new driver (which I can't really afford right now if I hope to change the irons in the next year), and yesterday at the range confirmed that, both with what I was seeing and what my Garmin was saying. It's just interesting how there are different ways to read the data when given as much as the Trackman at CC gives you. I have no doubt the recommended club head would be great for me, but getting to hit a bunch of different shafts was way more valuable.
But the numbers confirmed my decision to upgrade my shaft in my gamer as opposed to going whole new driver (which I can't really afford right now if I hope to change the irons in the next year), and yesterday at the range confirmed that, both with what I was seeing and what my Garmin was saying. It's just interesting how there are different ways to read the data when given as much as the Trackman at CC gives you. I have no doubt the recommended club head would be great for me, but getting to hit a bunch of different shafts was way more valuable.
Got an email today for a short follow up survey and it seems there will also be another follow up in 6 months (though, I suspect not much will change over the cold dark winter...)
Unfortunately, due to my recent surgical procedure I had to cxl my fitting. I emailed Club Champion and asked them to please offer my fitting to another THP'er. Surgery went well and now it's recovery time.
I had my free Club Champion fitting last Saturday. I got there about 30 minutes early and the fitter was working with someone, so I walked around the studio a little and checked out all the golf equipment. I tried out some putters and the LAB golf revealer. I was very impressed by the LAB DF2.1 and the Blād models. Michael, the store manager, finished up with his client, who was fit into Mizuno Hot Metal HL irons with Nippon Modus 120 shafts, and it was my turn.
He asked me some basic questions; How much do you play? Why do I use the clubs that I do? What do I want to get out of the fitting? Etc. I explained that I like my equipment, but I am super inconsistent and want help with repeatability, trying to find a one was miss, and improving my overall dispersion.
I hit 10 or so warm up shots with my 9 iron while Michael measured my 6 iron. He had me hit some baseline shots with my 6 iron, which is a stock Cleveland Launcher XL Halo with a Cypher 60g Stiff CB shaft. My six iron is my 185 club. Since Club Champion uses Trackman, I used the Titleist RCT Pro-V1 golf ball. These were the results.
Pretty typical results. The fitter pointed out that for my swing speed, ball speed and efficiency(smash factor) were really low. He equated it to a drag car. Lots of horsepower that just spins the tires. The power isn’t transferred to the road.
His first recommendation was heavier shaft. I told him I wanted to stay with graphite if possible. The closest club head he had to my Halo irons was the Cobra T-Rail. We started with a T-Rail Accra i80 stiff shaft. It was ok. Ball speed increased but dispersion was still pretty wide. We tried a few more shaft combinations all incrementally heavier. Then, I finally tried the Fujikura Axiom 105 S. Ball speed was up, dispersion was better, carry was 190. All positive improvements.
Michael believed we were still leaving some performance on the table. He watched me swing a couple times, noted how I had a decent swing, but an “aggressive” transition. He said we should go a little heavier and stiffer. So, now we tried the T-Rail with a UST Mamiya Dart V 120 F5. This really helped my dispersion. Club head speed dropped about 1 mph, but I gained everywhere else. The negative now was spin was low 3k with a six iron.
He asked if there was any iron I wanted to try, I said I was open to anything. I tried the Stealth HD and that was an unmitigated disaster. Without flat out crapping on a club, I will just say that it wasn’t for me. Michael then grabbed the Wilson DYNAPWR iron. He told me these have continually showed the highest carry of any iron in the store. And, he wasn’t lying. That iron is ridiculous. High ball speed, smash factor of 1.40, 90+ peak height, 46-47 decent angle, mid 4000s spin and 204 yards total!
I thought they looked great and felt great. The sound was of a powerful snap, like breaking a thick branch in half. Even my terrible miss hits were in the 190s. It was forgiving too. Two draw backs… 1- dispersion widened back up some. 2- Do I need a 200+ 6 iron? Gapping might be a concern.
So, now we’re getting up into the swing count(100) and he says let’s try one more. He hands me the new Callaway Big Bertha iron. I hit a couple and he takes it from me and says try this. Don’t look at it. These were those results.
Callaway Big Bertha with Mitsubishi Chemical MMT 125 TX. This gave me the most consistent numbers with the tightest dispersion. MMT and Dart V were very similar. Dart might have a little me rigid feel. I didn’t care much for Axiom.
So the final consensus was I definitely needed heavier shafts in my irons.
I had him give me a quote and this was for them to re-shaft my Halos.
Now, Michael asked me if I wanted to hit some drivers. Sure, why not!
Driver fitting didn’t go too well. I think I was tired. I was pushing 130-150 swings at this point. My club head speed barely hit 100 mph, when it was averaging 107 3 months ago. After a few head/shaft combos, the best I got was with a Paradym 12° turned down to 11° with a Ventus Black TR 80X at 44”. Further proving I need heavier and stiffer shafts with more launch.
He asked me some basic questions; How much do you play? Why do I use the clubs that I do? What do I want to get out of the fitting? Etc. I explained that I like my equipment, but I am super inconsistent and want help with repeatability, trying to find a one was miss, and improving my overall dispersion.
I hit 10 or so warm up shots with my 9 iron while Michael measured my 6 iron. He had me hit some baseline shots with my 6 iron, which is a stock Cleveland Launcher XL Halo with a Cypher 60g Stiff CB shaft. My six iron is my 185 club. Since Club Champion uses Trackman, I used the Titleist RCT Pro-V1 golf ball. These were the results.
Pretty typical results. The fitter pointed out that for my swing speed, ball speed and efficiency(smash factor) were really low. He equated it to a drag car. Lots of horsepower that just spins the tires. The power isn’t transferred to the road.
His first recommendation was heavier shaft. I told him I wanted to stay with graphite if possible. The closest club head he had to my Halo irons was the Cobra T-Rail. We started with a T-Rail Accra i80 stiff shaft. It was ok. Ball speed increased but dispersion was still pretty wide. We tried a few more shaft combinations all incrementally heavier. Then, I finally tried the Fujikura Axiom 105 S. Ball speed was up, dispersion was better, carry was 190. All positive improvements.
Michael believed we were still leaving some performance on the table. He watched me swing a couple times, noted how I had a decent swing, but an “aggressive” transition. He said we should go a little heavier and stiffer. So, now we tried the T-Rail with a UST Mamiya Dart V 120 F5. This really helped my dispersion. Club head speed dropped about 1 mph, but I gained everywhere else. The negative now was spin was low 3k with a six iron.
He asked if there was any iron I wanted to try, I said I was open to anything. I tried the Stealth HD and that was an unmitigated disaster. Without flat out crapping on a club, I will just say that it wasn’t for me. Michael then grabbed the Wilson DYNAPWR iron. He told me these have continually showed the highest carry of any iron in the store. And, he wasn’t lying. That iron is ridiculous. High ball speed, smash factor of 1.40, 90+ peak height, 46-47 decent angle, mid 4000s spin and 204 yards total!
I thought they looked great and felt great. The sound was of a powerful snap, like breaking a thick branch in half. Even my terrible miss hits were in the 190s. It was forgiving too. Two draw backs… 1- dispersion widened back up some. 2- Do I need a 200+ 6 iron? Gapping might be a concern.So, now we’re getting up into the swing count(100) and he says let’s try one more. He hands me the new Callaway Big Bertha iron. I hit a couple and he takes it from me and says try this. Don’t look at it. These were those results.
Callaway Big Bertha with Mitsubishi Chemical MMT 125 TX. This gave me the most consistent numbers with the tightest dispersion. MMT and Dart V were very similar. Dart might have a little me rigid feel. I didn’t care much for Axiom.
So the final consensus was I definitely needed heavier shafts in my irons.
I had him give me a quote and this was for them to re-shaft my Halos.
Now, Michael asked me if I wanted to hit some drivers. Sure, why not!
Driver fitting didn’t go too well. I think I was tired. I was pushing 130-150 swings at this point. My club head speed barely hit 100 mph, when it was averaging 107 3 months ago. After a few head/shaft combos, the best I got was with a Paradym 12° turned down to 11° with a Ventus Black TR 80X at 44”. Further proving I need heavier and stiffer shafts with more launch.