Fitting frustrations. Anyone had similar?

[HomerJSimpson]

My recent fittings had the best of both worlds - inside and out.

In a 'fitting studio' with all the gear, albeit hitting onto a range, with markers etc. Only difference to outside was the mat.

Once the fitting was advanced enough, simply step outside and hit off turf, to ensure all the key metrics worked in real life.

No fitting gets you out on a proper course, which is when everything can change - that would work, but after club choice, some will work with you to fine tune, even swap things over.

I am due back in a couple of weeks post fitting for a gapping session, as I still have a few options at the top and bottom of my bag.

Wouldn't that be good. A fitting trolley and an empty golf course. Do an initial fit indoors and out and then onto the course the same time with the ability to tweak as you play off the trolley.

 

[nickjdavis]

Wouldn't that be good. A fitting trolley and an empty golf course. Do an initial fit indoors and out and then onto the course the same time with the ability to tweak as you play off the trolley.

The best you will likely get is to have a single club made up for you (if being fit for a set of irons) which you can then use out on the course, alongside your normal set, for two or three weeks and then report back to the fitter with your practical observations....at which point some tweaking might be done and away you go for another week or so, or, the specs are settled on and the full set of clubs are then built for you.

Top fitters will then give you two or three months to play with your built set and within that time offer further tweaking.

But I'd say that there are only a handful of top independent fitters who offer such bespoke services.

 

[jim8flog]

I remember going for an iron fitting on a range.

The fitter was obsessed by what his tracking machine was telling him whereas I was more interested in where the ball was going.
The two were quite different.
Ended up sticking with my existing irons.

 

[jim8flog]

Don't you do indoor sim fitting in the UK?
I'm sure that you must to some extent.

That very much depends on the club and your location.

We have a fitting room which the pro will use followed by hitting on the range with the suggested club fit but some manufacturers on demo days prefer to use the rang and tracking kit.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I remember going for an iron fitting on a range.

The fitter was obsessed by what his tracking machine was telling him whereas I was more interested in where the ball was going.
The two were quite different.
Ended up sticking with my existing irons.

Which is why I ask to do my fitting without seeing the data. I'll hit it and see how it flies and how the shaft feels in terms of weight etc and then get the guy to give me his take on the numbers until we can get a match

 

[evemccc]

Yeah exactly this. I have to go for it now anyway, and when I look back at the optimiser numbers, it really seems like ball striking and therefore smash factor is the bit I was losing out on. Close club face, more toe strike is going to result in more ball speed and a straighter shot, both things I was lacking.

I'll give it 4/6 weeks and make the trip back


This is also a good point. I suppose it's a possibility I'll bear it in mind next time

Your ‘on the plus side’ points in the OP are all v good. Not a pushy salesman and the fitting became more of a (dare I say it) much needed lesson on a day when you weren’t at your best…..you now know what to work on etc.

The 2 hour drive is your choice and I get it’s frustrating to make the time commitment but to not be at your best. I think it’s better to first get a better swing and then get fit…
If I were you I’d definitely spend the next 4 weeks getting a lesson or two and practicing and then going again and getting fit for what you have embedded

You don’t need to swing like Scotty before getting fit, but it’s preferable to make easy ‘gains’ where you can IMO

Hope it works out

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Your ‘on the plus side’ points in the OP are all v good. Not a pushy salesman and the fitting became more of a (dare I say it) much needed lesson on a day when you weren’t at your best…..you now know what to work on etc.

The 2 hour drive is your choice and I get it’s frustrating to make the time commitment but to not be at your best. I think it’s better to first get a better swing and then get fit…
If I were you I’d definitely spend the next 4 weeks getting a lesson or two and practicing and then going again and getting fit for what you have embedded

You don’t need to swing like Scotty before getting fit, but it’s preferable to make easy ‘gains’ where you can IMO

Hope it works out

Just needs to be vaguely repeatable in the same part of the face. hard to fit if one is a hell strike and the next way off the toe. Think the OP knows what he needs to do and once his driver is back in a good place can sum it up again. Think I'd be going back just to enjoy a fitting process

 

[sjw]

Your ‘on the plus side’ points in the OP are all v good. Not a pushy salesman and the fitting became more of a (dare I say it) much needed lesson on a day when you weren’t at your best…..you now know what to work on etc.

The 2 hour drive is your choice and I get it’s frustrating to make the time commitment but to not be at your best. I think it’s better to first get a better swing and then get fit…
If I were you I’d definitely spend the next 4 weeks getting a lesson or two and practicing and then going again and getting fit for what you have embedded

You don’t need to swing like Scotty before getting fit, but it’s preferable to make easy ‘gains’ where you can IMO

Hope it works out

I have a more general update but I'll post it as a reply to this, because yes, I agree to an extent. The advice from the fitter gave me something to look at when I got back to the range, which I did last night.

I spent a little while yesterday watching drills for keeping the rear heel on the ground (mine comes up insanely early a la JT) and getting the hips moving and working properly, mainly Padraig Harrington's video. This gave me a better idea of what to try and feel on the range. The fitter had advised me that my hips were firing too early, but a) I hadn't thought before it would be affecting strike, maybe that it was just losing me power and b) his wording just wasn't getting through to me, I didn't know what he meant.

The second thing I realised was just how open I set up to target, particularly my shoulders. It's no wonder I either pull it a mile or get stuck and fire a massive block. The fitter had tried to correct me on this, but because being square feels really closed to me, I just thought he was deliberately putting me too far the other way just to see me hit one left. Last night at the range, I managed to get a bay in front of a mirror, and get my alignment sticks out, and now I realise that he was actually trying to get me neutral and not going too far.

The outcome of the range is that while I did still hit some blocks/slices - it's obviously not going to be forever fixed in one evening - I did get a better feel for how I can improve and what a good strike should feel like. The frustrating thing is I had good results swinging like this, with a more upright and closed-feeling stance, a few weeks ago but I thought the ball was launching too low and I got myself out of it. Now I'm trying to get back to where I was before. At least I now know it's "right" and can persevere with it.

It's only Toptracer and not Trackman but on the ones I creamed, I saw a big boost in ball speed and carry, which allowed me to trust that this swing works, because at setup it doesn't feel very athletic. It was VERY windy though and I'm not sure in what direction so as always I take the numbers with a pinch of salt. Things could be looking up though.

PS I'd rather not swing like Scotty!


I forgot to mention in the OP - because it's not strictly relevant - the other way in which the fitter helped, with my irons. He took a look at my irons and had a chat about them - he apparently used to be a Nike athlete for a few years. Anyway, he had a look at my 7i and found that it's about 4 degrees upright! This is obviously quite a lot anyway but if anything, I think I need them to be slightly flat - that's how I was fitted for my previous set. That might go some way to explain why I am a bit inconsistent with them. He would have bent them for me but his bending bar had broken the day before, typically. I had been meaning to get them sorted sometime soon anyway, but that might need to be sooner rather than later!

 

[sjw]

Just needs to be vaguely repeatable in the same part of the face. hard to fit if one is a hell strike and the next way off the toe. Think the OP knows what he needs to do and once his driver is back in a good place can sum it up again. Think I'd be going back just to enjoy a fitting process

That's the one way the "part-fitted" clubs, as I'll call them, helped. The strike points were way more consistent with a stiffer shaft. Still out of the heel, but much more tightly grouped.