Do I really need a club fitting?
Golfmechanix 150210 I think I picked it up for $250 as part of a package deal with shaft extractor and bending bar. If it's for personal use and you're not doing woods and hybrids this is about all you need. Golfworks has something comparable as well that is a good deal when on sale and free shipping.
With a better fitting driver you won't necessarily have to 'back off' so much to keep it in play.
TripleF
Member
- Thread starter
- #29
These thoughts and suggestions are really helpful and the resulting discussion is helping me solidify my thoughts some.
By the way . . . I'm 68 years old.
I have been getting a lesson every 2 months or so and they do tend to keep me on track. My PGA pro tells me he feels like I hit my irons like a 10-12 handicap player and doesn't want me to monkey with my swing too much. He has recently been focusing on my driver distance but my draw turns into a fade/slice. He tells me it's my release . . . of lack of a good release! Hahaha!
And we plan to move to my short game soon!! I personally believe this is my BIG OPPORTUNITY area!
Thank you all so much for all these thoughts!!!
By the way . . . I'm 68 years old.
I have been getting a lesson every 2 months or so and they do tend to keep me on track. My PGA pro tells me he feels like I hit my irons like a 10-12 handicap player and doesn't want me to monkey with my swing too much. He has recently been focusing on my driver distance but my draw turns into a fade/slice. He tells me it's my release . . . of lack of a good release! Hahaha!
And we plan to move to my short game soon!! I personally believe this is my BIG OPPORTUNITY area!
Thank you all so much for all these thoughts!!!
Driving and short game/putting is where you can shave the most strokes quickly. I am fully in favor of getting a fitting, and you don't need to spend the money at the fitter as others have said. In all of mine (I did 3 this year for full swing, driver, Fw woods and irons) I was emailed all the information from the fitting after the fact with the data on all the clubs/shafts we tried. I then took the specs from some of those shafts to find other shafts with similar profiles and possibly previous years heads to put them in. There is a way to save some money and still get custom fit for it.
You're correct here but I wouldn't say correct for every golfer.
I've seen your game and you are a better athlete with athletic build so you can probably shoot the same scores with your partners bag or any bag for that matter. Your body will find a way to make the ball go straight as this is a skill you posses.
I've found over the years, fitting others, that not everyone can do this. In an extreme case I cut 1.5" off a guys irons, flattened the lie 3° and just added some lead tape to the bottom and he went from hitting his 7i 120 yard weak fade to a 160 yard high draw. It was night and day. For his woods, I ended up making them all longer and lighter and that got him hitting them much tighter dispersion wise and with more controllable distance. And for the wedges, I ended up doing 6° gapping since, for some reason, that was the only way I could make them go different distances with his "wedge" swing =).
Club fitting, even for good players, can make a difference. Maybe not always in score, but in consistency in other non tangible area's like a more comfortable feel at setup, shot shape with less effort, or like in my case, going to 95g shaft, more consistent iron play late in the round when playing 36 holes.
Go4it
No layin' up!
This is a very good point....
I do get confused when you say that "Club Fitting, even for good players, can make a difference. Maybe not in score, but in consistency in other non tangible area's like a more comfortable feel at setup, shot shape with less effort...etc.."
Why wouldn't all of those benefits transfer to better scoring?
CM5150
Member
We mid-handicappers are the most interesting of all! I play in a fun league with players of all ages, handicaps, and skill. The low handicappers (10 and under) are often, but not always, the most talented swingers but they're consistent, avoid big mistakes, and get it in the hole on and around the green. The high handicappers usually just plain have bad swings and could never improve to a low and rarely even to a mid-cap game. The mid-cap players in my group almost all have the swinging ability to be a 10 but we kill ourselves with wild tee shots, dumb mistakes, and too many poor efforts on and around the green.
So I guess it all comes down to what makes you happy. For me, if I hit the ball well then I have fun and leave the course happy even if I wish I scored better. If that's the case for you then go for it with your equipment. If however what you're really after is a lower handicap then that's going to only happen by spending time around the practice greens. At 68 and hitting from the senior tees I presume, you have plenty of distance.
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Do I really need a club fitting?
Get some cbx wedges and it will shave strokes off your short game , guaranteed.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Get some cbx wedges and it will shave strokes off your short game , guaranteed.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
ntanygd760
Well-known member
Someone hopefully has already said you need a driver fitting or a swing tweak if you are hitting way down on it. You should be carrying it like 240-250 if you carry a 3 iron 200
Think about it like this, at some point it comes down to making the right shot decision, executing, and getting the right amount of calculated luck when the ball lands. At the point when you're a better player (0-5) you've already learned to master most of your bag through trial and error so you should be smart enough already to not bag a club you can't score with. Normally at this point all 14 clubs are ones that you like.
So for that player, if you fit them, they will normally fit into something very similar to what they are already comfortable with since they've grooved their game around that equipment. It will be a better match, their bodies mAy feel better after the round, and gapping may be more consistent through the set, but that doesn't always translate to better scores as they, as better players, already know how to score.
It's like when I set my 2i-4i 1.5° more upright to get a ball flight my eye wanted to see. It didn't translate to better scores, it just translated to not having to aim as far left =). Maybe once every couple rounds that translates to better proximity to a tucked pin, but overall, it just makes my approach with those clubs more of what my mind sees, not the results though.
TripleF
Member
- Thread starter
- #37
Guess I owe all you all my plan (which I now reserve the right to change my mind several more times!!).
I'm now planning to wait until the New Year and then finds a set of used PING G400 irons . . . +1/2 to 1", blue or yellow dot with regular shafts (hopefully graphite!) Plus, I will be looking for a used Ping or Calloway driver but will have to hit it to finally decide.
I just can't bring myself to spending the extra money for a fitting even though I do believe fittings are good and would help me. Just not enough to justify the extra cost.
It sucks to be on a tight fixed income!!
I'm now planning to wait until the New Year and then finds a set of used PING G400 irons . . . +1/2 to 1", blue or yellow dot with regular shafts (hopefully graphite!) Plus, I will be looking for a used Ping or Calloway driver but will have to hit it to finally decide.
I just can't bring myself to spending the extra money for a fitting even though I do believe fittings are good and would help me. Just not enough to justify the extra cost.
It sucks to be on a tight fixed income!!
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That helps. Based on this additional information, improving your short game skill level holds the biggest opportunity to improve your handicap. That's pretty typical for someone at your current handicap. Here are some goals to consider. Reach these at your short game will be pretty good and your handicap will drop by quite a bit.
Up and Downs - Making an up and down from the rough or fairway around the green 50% of the time or better.
Sand Saves - Getting out and in from the sand 33% of the time or better.
3-Putt Avoidance - No more than one 3-putt every two rounds on average.
Putts per Round - Average of 32 putts per round or less.
These goals are interrelated. When you start chipping and pitching closer to the hole, your putts per round will go down, even if your putting hasn't improved. Conversely, if you improve your skill as a putter, you'll improve your up and down and sand save percentage too.
I still think you are ill-fitted for your current driver and that club is where you would benefit the most from a fitting.
Finally, I still don't know enough to advise you on irons. I know you said, your irons are your strength. But I don't know what that means. One person will say that and what it means is they can get the ball airborne one out of three times. Another person will use those words and mean they can hit and hold a green from 175-225 yards 50% of the time and get the ball inside of 20 feet from the hole 75% of the time from 150 yards. So, I still don't have a good sense of the status of your iron game.
TripleF
Member
- Thread starter
- #39
First . . . Thank you for you thoughts and suggestions!! I love your goals . . . though I may need to set the bar a little lower to start with!! Hahahaha!!
Regarding the strength of my irons. I rarely get on the green from outside of 150 yards . . . maybe 25% of the time I get on the green when I'm between 150 - 175 yards. But I usually get solid hits with my irons . . . while I may miss short, right or left and I'm rarely long! I probably thin or chunk 5 iron shots per round. From 150 - 100 I probably get on the green 50%. Inside 100 the percentage is closer to 80%.
I rarely chip / pitch to inside 10'. And I probably have three 3-putts every round.
From a greenside bunker I "get out" probably 50% of the time and the remaining times I either thin it over the green orchunk it and leave it in the bunker. Our bunkers are fairly poor . . . maybe 3/4" of loose sand or less. And a lot of the time there is only hard-packed sand.
And I usually have at least one penalty stroke per round.
That about sums up my game!
I'm hoping new clubs will help with accuracy. Both irons and new driver. Especially inside 130 yards.
CM5150
Member
Keep an eye out on Mr. Topes golf site...just google it. They have great prices on used stuff and periodically run big sales, right now they're doing 25% off all iron sets until the end of the year.
It's not worth getting fitted imo. I've been as low as a 7 handicap. I did get fitted once for the ping G15 irons and driver when they first came out. I ended up switching to the i15 set which I currently still use. But in reality, I've played just as well with an old set of DCIs, Berthas and Burners (just sets friends had). You really just need to find something that feels good to you and projects confidence. Hit the fairways and practice the short game, eliminate ALL 3 putts. You'll shave off 4-5 strokes a round. I can vouch for that.
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let us know how it works for you!