Custom fitting help or hinder?

[golfchat1]

My mate went to the Titleist fitting centre at Kings Acre and says it boosted his confidence because he has know doubt on his equipment because it has all been custom fitted for him they have used all the state of the art equipment and measured him for all his equipment.

I spoke to the assistant at my course and he was at the belfry a few weeks ago doing some of his PGA training and he said the PGA feel all players at all levels should be fitted from driver to putter.

The Taylor made fitting van was at my local driving range and they had hundreds of different shafts and head combinations it looked pretty cool watching the guys getting there swing speeds tested.

On the other side of the coin if you start looking into all the technical stuff too much you can go nuts changing your equipment every week.

 

[USER1999]

I was c/f for my irons by Titleist, fine, get on great (Beau excepted). C/f by Titleist for my driver, no, not a good idea.

It all depends......

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I agree with you (see I can play nicely). I think a lot of players would benefit from a C/F session and strangely enough think a fitted putter would be more valuable than a C/F driver. A lot of the guys on here have been to the Belfry, Mizuno at New Malden, Ping, and the Titleist factory and most have said how much benefit they have gotten.

 

[sev112]

Custom fitting was teh best thing since sliced bread 20 years ago

They knew relatively nothing then compared to now

We know relatively nothing about custom fitting now compared to 20 years from now.

What do you fit ? - swing weight, total weight, moment of inertia, shaft length, static measurements, dynamic measurements, there are all sorts of measurements that you can use to "fit".

An awful lot of golfers over the last century played an awful lot of good golf without custom fitting, with very thin blades and with rubbish shafts, poor quality balls, thin blade putters and relatively poor mowers and greens etc.

Custom fitting is OK but it aint teh answer to everyones' prayers.

 

[golfchat1]

Cheers,

I should have mentioned I am looking tom purchase a set of Ap2's and wondering if it was worthwhile going to get fitted.

 

[Losttheplot]

I believe that if you have a fairly consistent swing so you replicate it often with not too much change then regardless of standard a custom fit is worth it.

A guy 6'2" and a guy 5'6" can buy the same clubs off the shelf with the same shaft lengths and same tilt angle of the clubhead but more than likely they won't be perfectly suited to both players and their swings.

If both guys went to buy a suit they wouldn't buy the same size would they??

 

[kid2]

Custom fitting was teh best thing since sliced bread 20 years ago

They knew relatively nothing then compared to now

We know relatively nothing about custom fitting now compared to 20 years from now.

What do you fit ? - swing weight, total weight, moment of inertia, shaft length, static measurements, dynamic measurements, there are all sorts of measurements that you can use to "fit".

An awful lot of golfers over the last century played an awful lot of good golf without custom fitting, with very thin blades and with rubbish shafts, poor quality balls, thin blade putters and relatively poor mowers and greens etc.

Custom fitting is OK but it aint teh answer to everyones' prayers.

I agree with the above completely 100%

 

[Region3]

I was c/f for my irons by Titleist, fine, get on great (Beau excepted). C/f by Titleist for my driver, no, not a good idea.

It all depends......

What made them decide an 8.5 was best for you, and how did you hit it while you were there?

Do you think it's a case of by the time you've found the right one you've already hit 50 balls so are swinging well?

 

[madandra]

Until they do custom fitting on grass technical areas I am gonna give it a miss. I know a guy who is a really good player who went to the Mizuno centre and was given the wrong set up because he couldnt get through the ball.

 

[Losttheplot]

Custom fitting is OK but it aint teh answer to everyones' prayers.

Totally agree. Even though C/F helps it's is not the be all and end all of how to play good golf.
C/F helps and gives you every chance to eliminate the problems a badly suited set of clubs gives you but there's more to it than purely a C/F set of clubs making you a good golfer.

 

[Region3]

My mate went to the Titleist fitting centre at Kings Acre and says it boosted his confidence because he has know doubt on his equipment because it has all been custom fitted for him they have used all the state of the art equipment and measured him for all his equipment.

I spoke to the assistant at my course and he was at the belfry a few weeks ago doing some of his PGA training and he said the PGA feel all players at all levels should be fitted from driver to putter.

The Taylor made fitting van was at my local driving range and they had hundreds of different shafts and head combinations it looked pretty cool watching the guys getting there swing speeds tested.

On the other side of the coin if you start looking into all the technical stuff too much you can go nuts changing your equipment every week.

Since you seem to have a little more inside knowledge than most of us, is the tracking equipment ramped up at all to massage ego's?

It's been said on here that retail shops do tweak the figures a little.

I can believe it of a store, but not at a manufacturers c/f facility as it would reflect badly on them if a fitting was false.

I've been measured in a store, and at Brampton, and they read the same.

 

[Region3]

Cheers,

I should have mentioned I am looking tom purchase a set of Ap2's and wondering if it was worthwhile going to get fitted.

Since you already know what heads you want, it's just about the shaft, grip size, length and lie.

Since you played to a decent standard a few years ago I'd imagine you know 3 of those, and just need the shaft fitting to you, unless you already know what shaft suits you as well.

Still, it costs nothing extra so might as well go and have a play if it's not too far away from you.

 

[USER1999]

I was interested in the iron fitting, as I went from DGR300 shafted Cleveland CBs to MacGregor 1025M blades, DGS300s and still played off 12. I found after 2 years that the 3, 4 and 5 irons were trouble. I never thought the shafts were the issue.

Went to Titleist, and they decided I was between R300, and S300 (disregarded other shafts as being worse than useless), but the strike was marginally more consistent with the R300s.

Result. I can't hit bladed 3, 4 and 5 irons. Fact.

My issues with the driver is that according to the stats, I hit it on the down stroke. The only way to fix that, without changing the swing, is to lower the loft and go for a higher lanch shaft. This worked fine, for two months. Then I changed to S and T. No more downward strike. 8.5 degrees, you are having a laugh.

My fault, they can only c/f you for what you have, but £275 down on that one. £97 driver off the web, love it.

 

[golfchat1]

I don't know to be honest then stuff at brampton and Kings Acre is the same as what tour players use at carlsbad where Acushnet is based.

I do agree it would be better if there was an independent PGA centre doing the tests.

The guy at Titleist isn't going to send me to the Ping shop on the other hand is there a difference between cleveland, ping, titleist, Mizuno or Taylormade irons?

If a tour pro signs with another brand he doesn't become worse. Tiger won his 3rd US amateur with Mizuno's then turned pro as a Titleist staff player and now uses Nike so it doesn't bother him he can win with anything.