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I
can’t tell you the number of people who come to our golf school with
improperly fitted clubs. Imagine a man who is five foot six inches tall
and hits the ball 200 yards, maximum. He arrives at the golf school with
two degree upright lites, an extra stiff shaft, and says, “I always slice
it to the right”! That’s because he’s using clubs built for Davis Love
Ill, who is six foot four inches and hits the ball 300 yards.
In order to help this golfer we would have to manufacture a swing to fit
the clubs he is using. After testing, we discovered he needed a regular
shaft with a 280 degree frequency and the lie of the club needed to be two
degrees fiat after our golfer got the right clubs in his hands; he hit 90%
of his shots solidly with a five yard draw on almost every iron. His
handicap has dropped from a 24 to 11. I am always slightly hesitant about
telling someone that their clubs are wrong for them. We don’t want to push
clubs on people or give the impression that having a proper fit will solve
all their problems, but it’s a waste of time to take lessons if you don’t
have the right tools to do the job.
Bobby Jones’ clubs were tested a few years ago. They were hickory shafted
clubs which had been picked up by Jones individually. They were not a
matched set. He had tested them by touch and feel. When these clubs were
put on a modem day frequency analyzer, they all tested to the same
frequency and swing weight it’s the rare golfer who could choose a matched
set of clubs by feel.
Every club manufacturer today sends out a set of clubs that are made on an
assembly line. The heads are assembled that way and the shafts are cut
from bundles which are usually numbered in the hundreds. No time is taken
to test each shaft to see is it’s the same on each club in a set of eight
or nine irons. They don’t take the time to do this. Some of the lies come
in regular, some upright, some flat. They look like a matched set of
clubs, but what you end up with is a mixed bag. Can you imagine what would
happen if tour pros played with a set of clubs like this?
Tour pros’ clubs are made to very tight specifications and then tested and
re-tested before they’re even sent back for further “tinkering”. When all
is said and done, you’re not playing with anything that even resembles
what the tour player is using. They are playing with a manufacturer’s
highly customized set of perfectly matched clubs. (We personally tested 40
sets from different manufacturers, not one of the sets tested out the same
for all the clubs in shaft flex, frequency or lie).
You can have the same advantages, if you take the time to see someone who
truly knows how to fit clubs. There are many people, even pros, who say
they can fit anyone, but they really can’t. I’ve been in the business 30+
years, and I wouldn’t even presume to pass myself off as a master club
fitter. I do work with people who are experts in this field. An expert
will test you for an hour or so with different shaft frequencies and lies.
When they find the right one, they build a set to the individual’s
specifications. When the set is made, it truly fits.
If you are interested in having a set of clubs that suits you best, look
around and investigate. You wouldn’t but a car without driving it, and you
wouldn’t have open heart surgery from the mechanic who services your car.
Don’t buy a set of clubs that do not fit you.
If you have questions, call us. We work with Doug Smith, who has achieved
the status of Master Clubfitter.
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There
has been a vast amount written on the golf grip. There are two reasons for
all this attention. The first reason is because your grip is your only
connection to the club. The second reason is that, even with pictures,
drawings, and extensive verbiage, it is almost impossible to convey a
description of the grip that a reader can comprehend. We have found that
the easiest, and best, way to learn the proper grip, outside of personal
instruction, is to use a pro-formed molded grip that is available at all
custom and golf repair shops. We recommend that this grip be put on a
weighted wood club or on the Matzie trainer.
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