OFF THE RACK? THINK AGAIN

        

            You buy a house, you update it—Jacuzzi tub, surround sound, speakers in every room; even outside. You buy a car—you get the leather seats, the fancy rims, raise the car, lower the car, and you put video players in the seat backs. Custom suits? You bet, but most don’t do this when they buy golf equipment. Customizing has been the buzz at this year’s PGA Merchandize Show, but it’s been around for quite a while now; even longer for the professionals. It’s insane that people are willing to spend as much money as they do on golf and not get their equipment tailored to their needs. Technology in golf equipment is off the charts and the amateur stands to benefit the most from these developments. Think of like this—the greatest amount of growth will occur when lowering a golfer’s handicap from eighteen to twelve then it will be going from a two to a scratch. Once you’ve become a serious single digit handicap, the rest is all about refinement.

            Pick a club, any club. It doesn’t matter what you club you pick, you can customize it. I don’t recommend you do that but the point is, is that you can. I do recommend however, that you customize your woods, hybrids, and irons. What seems to be a millennia ago, the only options you had were shaft, lie, loft, and to a lesser extent, grip size. Today, customization has grown exponentially. In the shaft alone, you can dial in your swing speed down to a specific frequency—seriously. Customizing is all about fitting you with the proper equipment that benefits your golf game. Off the rack equipment can easily hurt you as much as it can help you. Club fitting is never going to hurt you.

            The rub of this is that you need to remember that your golf equipment provider in most cases is not your golf instructor.  Your club fitter is only fitting clubs for you to minimize your inefficiencies and maximize your attributes at a particular time. In time, those will change, and thus, so will your equipment. How much time is up to you, but for the average weekend warrior, he or she could probably play with same set of clubs for twenty years and not miss a beat.

Suggestions:

• Beginners should start with a “starter” set and groove a swing. Do worry if you think it’s a “good” or “bad” swing. You have to start with “your” swing to make progress. This way, when you take lessons, it’s easier for your pro to help you if your swing is repeating as opposed to doing something different each time.
• Once you find your groove, find a quality club fitter. This may or may not be your local super chain golf store. If you are serious about your game, then treat this like your looking for a new general practitioner.

• Check in with your club fitter, once a year or once every two years if you like just to see if anything has changed in your swing. For the most part; for the average golfer, the only thing that is going to change is most likely your lie angle on your clubs. No need to break out serious plastic for the change.

Now go get fitted!