Should beginners get fit for clubs? This experience says yes

Too often I have heard people say that they are not good enough for a custom club fitting.

I’m calling BS

Recently I took my soon-to-be father-in-law, Sam, to a club fit to dispel this myth once and for all.

Sam has been an on-and-off golfer over the years, but recently decided to get more serious about it this year because my fiancé and I moved back to the Boston area this fall, where her parents live.

He would constantly belittle his own play to me before we even set foot on a course for the first time, but it didn’t take long for me to realize why.

Sam has only owned one set of golf clubs, and he still used a set of Ping Zing irons, originally released in 1992. Although the Zings were revolutionary at the time for their wild, oversized shape and extreme perimeter weighting, modern golf club technology has come a long way.

Over the summer he started taking lessons for the first time in his life and began to see improvements in his ball striking, but it was still clear that his equipment was limiting him.

He was long overdue for an upgrade, but Sam also wondered what the purpose of purchasing a club fitting was for a golfer who was essentially a beginner. Should he continue to work on training his golf swing to achieve more consistent results before getting a fitting?

Luckily, Boston has a True Spec Golf location in Waltham, Massachusetts, about 25 minutes outside of the city, so I thought it would be a nice case study to see how much a beginner could really gain from a custom adjustment.

The fitting

We decided to take it easy at first and only worked on Sam’s irons and wedges as he has a TaylorMade R580 driver – modern technology compared to the rest of his bag! – that he doesn’t have much trouble keeping the ball in play.

True Spec Master Fitter Brian Gulino had Sam warm up first and get a feel for his tendencies. Sure, Sam had trouble with contact, but with the balls he found the face with, he hit high, short and to the right. The impact locations were high and outside the toe.

Brian quickly put together a few different heads for testing and started considering whether Sam should use steel or graphite shafts. It didn’t take long before he decided that Sam could generate and launch much more speed with lighter graphite shafts. He quickly found success with the UST Quantum speed shaft.

This was the big “Aha!” moment. Sam struggled with a few other shafts and then started grooving with the UST shaft. He asked Brian how that could happen despite his “shitty” (his words, not mine!) swing.

“That’s the craziest thing when people come in here and think, ‘Oh, my swing sucks,’” Brian said. “It’s not the swing that sucks. The swing is the most consistent part of your game. It’s the contact. It’s not that good.”

Sam has trouble with a big cut because his swing always comes about five to eight degrees over the top (from outside to inside). What changes is whether or not he lets go of the club and straightens the club face.

“If you look at a golfer with a handicap over 20 compared to a scratch golfer, one of the biggest things they have in common is that their swing is the most consistent part, regardless of your handicap,” Brian said. “The most inconsistent part of the 15-, 20-, 25-handicapper is the contact. So when you look at someone’s swing and you look at these pros and you look at the average golfer, the biggest difference is how they actually make contact with the golf ball.”

“So now by getting you into something that takes the time off your swing, allows you to release it, gives you more control of the clubface, your contact is now going to be better, then you’re going to see your shots decrease and, you know, all the better things in golf.”

That’s why it’s so important to recognize the shaft as a timing mechanism. Getting one that keeps time with your unique swing will make it so much easier to square the clubface and hit it straight.

With his previous irons, the shaft didn’t kick, so he swung an open face to the left and cut it to the right. Now he gets a shaft that kicks.

The final challenge was finding the right head for him. Brian and Sam chose TaylorMade’s Qi iron because it has a similar long head length that Sam prefers after years of playing the Zings. He also used the same shaft, just a little heavier in two wedges, to round out the bottom of the bag.

The results

The improvements were actually quite astonishing.

With his 6 iron, Sam achieved an astonishing ball speed of 9.4 mph. Some of that is due to an increase in clubhead speed of almost 4 mph due to the lighter shaft, but its efficiency (ball speed divided by clubhead speed) also improved from 1.30 to 1.36. We also found that the large grips made Sam feel like he had more control over the club, which reduced his grip pressure and allowed him to swing faster.

His launch and spin go down, but due to the higher ball speeds he still reaches almost the same peak heights and Sam will happily trade a few meters of peak height for a carry distance of 15 meters. At his level, he’s not about to throw darts at pins behind bunkers. He just wants to roll the ball onto the green.

TaylorMade Qi custom irons

It’s no surprise that golfers tend to miss to the right. That’s why the Qi irons are designed to be the straightest distance irons in golf. Unlike other game improvement irons that favor a right miss, Qi irons are carefully designed for precision and control. INTEGRATED DESIGN SYSTEM This range of technologies allows us to optimize each individual iron head. Driven by organic face geometries, Cap Back Design™ and the Speed ​​Pocket™, this comprehensive approach tunes the performance of each clubhead to promote ideal gapping, exemplary ball speeds and consistently straighter shots throughout the set. DESIGNED WITH CAP BACK™ DESIGN This innovative construction combines the benefits of a hollow body iron with those of a traditional cavity back. In addition to optimizing mass properties, it works with the HYBRAR Echo® dampers to reduce unwanted vibrations and deliver a satisfying sound and feel.

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UST Mamiya Quantum Speed ​​TSPX Iron Axle

The new Quantum Speed ​​is the perfect combination of ultralight performance with precise control and feel. Manufactured using an exclusive blend of high modulus carbon fibers and hardened resin systems to achieve optimal performance in an ultra-lightweight golf shaft. Weight, Flex and Flex Profile all optimized for increased clubhead speed and consistency from driver to wedge. Progressive Weight Technology – weights that perfectly match your playing Driver to Wedge Revolutionary Feather-lite design Constant taper for improved feel and ultimate playability Reinforced with aerospace-grade T1100G for a stabilized launch and optimal feel Patented ion-plating finish

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But what’s more important to us is the fact that Sam’s average club face angle went from 2.2 degrees open to 3.5 degrees closed. That’s enough to start the ball to the left and neutralize some of the cut-off spin caused by its path from outside to inside, resulting in straight shots.

“Generally speaking, we lighten the shaft. The clubhead will feel a little bit lighter, and it will be a lot easier on you,” Brian said. “So how you can now maintain clubhead speed and distance will be so much easier throughout the entire round of golf.”

Brian also put Sam in a set of Vokey SM10 Wedges with the S-Grind to lower his hitting point on the face, helping him produce more speed and spin, not only for a more controlled and longer ball flight, but also for a more consistent ball flight.

In short

True Spec Golf Club Fitting

With over 70,000 club head and shaft combinations, True Spec Golf custom fits and builds a precise set of clubs.

One thing Sam really struggles with is holding onto the clubface and not letting go through the swing, which causes his weak right-to-right miss.

Now that he has a shaft that suits him, he gets a better feeling in practice when releasing the clubhead. What we saw in the editing room was just the beginning of what he might see when he starts practicing and playing with these new clubs.

Of course, the timing is difficult if you want to recruit new clubs in New England in November when most courses are closed for the winter, but Sam is excited to get them up and running next spring. It will make the start of next season so much more enjoyable for him and help him improve quickly once the season starts.

Obviously, someone shouldn’t set foot in a fitting for their first golf experience, but once you’ve played enough to develop some swing tendencies, a fitting can help you progress quickly.

Ready to buy the right clubs to improve your golf game? Find a club fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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