Driver Fitting / Demo Day

[jonny1409]

Going to a Demo Day tomorrow to hopefully get fitted for a new Driver.

My current Driver is a Ping G25 which was just bought second hand from Gumtree.
I hit it ok, but not very far as I feel like I get a lot of spin and have a high ball flight (No data for this, just anecdotal from my rounds)

Whilst I accept that this will mainly be swing related, and lessons would be the best course of action, at this moment in time I don't have the time / inclination to grind and hit the number of balls required to implement a heavy swing change.
Therefore I'm looking for a bit of help from the technology in terms of a bit extra distance and better dispersion.

One worry is I feel my swing is very inconsistent and differs shot to shot, never mind day to day.
With this in mind - Is this a fools errand, or am I likely to see the improvements I want with a combination of newer technology and actually being fitted against my current swing?

 

[patricks148]

I would just explain what you want to the fitter, if he's a good one he wont just try and sell you something that's no better than what you have.

 

[Neilds]

I suspect most fitters at a demo day will expect most people to just try a few clubs, with no expectation that they will be making a sale. As previously said, just tell the fitter about your swing/game and take it from there.

 

[jonny1409]

The thing is, I'm an easy customer - I'm happy for him to sell me anything he's got that will give me what I need!

Let's see what he says.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

make sure you are fully warmed up & loose before the fitting. You don't want to be comparing your stiff/slow swings at the beginning of the fitting (using your own driver), with the nice loose ones in the middle to end (when using their clubs).

 

[chrisd]

I suspect most fitters at a demo day will expect most people to just try a few clubs, with no expectation that they will be making a sale. As previously said, just tell the fitter about your swing/game and take it from there.

Sorry to disagree but most fitters I've been to on demo days would sell you their grandmother if they could.

I absolutely agree with JamesR - they will prove you're hitting further when you've hit 6 shots with your driver, when cold, against then their new model when warmed up. Generally, I've found, is a fitting lasts half an hour with the manufacturers rep, when I bought my current driver the club pro i went to gave me 5 different makes of driver, the shaft that gave best results, a play off between the 2 clubs showing the best results (all on the launch monitor) then a chance to hit some shots off their 1st tee to see if it went well in real conditions.

All in all nearly a 90 minute fit.

 

[Neilds]

Sorry to disagree but most fitters I've been to on demo days would sell you their grandmother if they could.

I absolutely agree with JamesR - they will prove you're hitting further when you've hit 6 shots with your driver, when cold, against then their new model when warmed up. Generally, I've found, is a fitting lasts half an hour with the manufacturers rep, when I bought my current driver the club pro i went to gave me 5 different makes of driver, the shaft that gave best results, a play off between the 2 clubs showing the best results (all on the launch monitor) then a chance to hit some shots off their 1st tee to see if it went well in real conditions.

All in all nearly a 90 minute fit.

I must come across as a tight git who won't part with money easily as this hasn't been my experience They have always been happy to let me try various models but never any real hard sell

 

[Deleted member 1147]

In recent times I've done the fittings with the manufacturers, found the best set up for my game from each one, and then done a test (with the club pro) at the club to find the best of those.

 

[chrisd]

I must come across as a tight git who won't part with money easily as this hasn't been my experience They have always been happy to let me try various models but never any real hard sell

Not at all, its just that I've done quite a few fittings and a lot were inferior to those I've had from club pros.

 

[jonny1409]

Sorry to disagree but most fitters I've been to on demo days would sell you their grandmother if they could.

I absolutely agree with JamesR - they will prove you're hitting further when you've hit 6 shots with your driver, when cold, against then their new model when warmed up. Generally, I've found, is a fitting lasts half an hour with the manufacturers rep, when I bought my current driver the club pro i went to gave me 5 different makes of driver, the shaft that gave best results, a play off between the 2 clubs showing the best results (all on the launch monitor) then a chance to hit some shots off their 1st tee to see if it went well in real conditions.

All in all nearly a 90 minute fit.

I honestly hope this isn't the case, as what I want is something like your session with the Club Pro.
I want them to try a few different shaft / head combinations to try and find the combo that suits my swing the best.

If they do this, I'll hand the cash over there and then.
However, if it's some half arsed attempt at selling the latest model, then I'll go elsewhere for a proper fitting.

 

[Backsticks]

Have many been to a demo where they do their bit of testing but the fitter advises that an older model suits them best - and so best is to pick up old-model-X on ebay or golfbidder ? That would be very impressive analysis.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Have many been to a demo where they do their bit of testing but the fitter advises that an older model suits them best - and so best is to pick up old-model-X on ebay or golfbidder ? That would be very impressive analysis.

Not me, but when I change clubs they tend to be pretty old anyway.
I know of someone who went for a driver fitting, and rather than suggest a different club, the fitter changed the weights/set up and it provided the change required. But it wasn't a very old club.

 

[jonny1409]

make sure you are fully warmed up & loose before the fitting. You don't want to be comparing your stiff/slow swings at the beginning of the fitting (using your own driver), with the nice loose ones in the middle to end (when using their clubs).

Really good shout this - I'll go to the range for half an hour beforehand.

 

[chrisd]

Generally my fittings by the touring fitters have been:

You hit a few warm up shots with your driver, then he records the data for an x number of shots. He is only fitting for the latest club type release so he'll (probably) put a similar shaft to yours in the standard head, record the shots, maybe change to other head variants, loft and lies, then change to a different shaft if he feels you'd get better results. He probably will delete the very worst duff shots (if there are any) and will present data as dispersion, carry distance etc etc hoping that the new club improves on the old one data wise.

My club, and I think many others can fit up a demo driver for you to try on the course, or possibly, take to a range and try over a longer test which is better than the half hour the manufacturer's fitter is going to do - imo