The last few weeks we talked about loft and spin, heads and shafts. On a related note, the question that often arises is “what happens with slower swing speeds?” Let’s focus on fitting women and we can apply these same principles to other groups (Juniors and Seniors) as well.

First, fitting women is often more about set makeup than anything else. A quick length and lie check and it becomes all about club preference. We will typically run a woman through a gamut of clubs to find out if she likes irons and/or hybrids. How does she handle fairway woods? Which ones does she use and can we eliminate any clubs. We use Trackman to dial in distance gaps.

Weight is super important to these groups. Playing something too long and too heavy can have lasting detrimental effects on the golf swing. A husbands hand me down clubs to his wife, or cut down clubs for a junior are bad news. Look for golf swings that are in balance. A club that is too heavy will make the player look like the club is swinging them rather than the other way around.

I often start by stating that just because the USGA says you can carry 14 clubs doesn’t mean you have to. If a male player hits a driver 250 yards, he has 14 clubs to fill the gaps between 250 and, say 50 yards. 200 yards divided by 13 clubs (no putter) is roughly 15 yards. For a woman, oftentimes, the driver goes 150 yards, and a 7 iron goes 100 yards. 100 (150 to 50), by 13 clubs is 7 yards per club – assuming they are gapped perfectly. Personally, I think this is too close and does not provide an appreciable difference in distance between clubs – especially when you consider that there will be a 20-25 yard gap between driver and FW Wood. Consider a 7-8 piece set and add as necessary. We frequently use odds or evens (depends if a player has a favorite club). For example, If she loves her 7 iron, we’ll use odds.

Like a regular fitting, we don’t ask how far she hits her clubs, we use Trackman to tell us how far she hits them. LOFT and LENGTH are your friend when working with slower swing speeds. We care most about CARRY distance. Then we look at how quickly do they stop once they hit the ground. Look for clubs that roll out by no more than 10 yards. If you have Apex height measured, we look for about 80% of the driver height for driver swing speeds under 70 MPH. This means we’d like to see an apex of 56 feet with ALL clubs. If she can’t hit a certain club 56 feet high, it will not stop and she should try a different option to get that yardage. Most women are OK from 7 iron down, but there is often a discussion about a 7 hybrid or 7 iron due to forgiveness concerns. Many women do not hit a 5 hybrid high enough, so we often have a discussion about transitioning to higher lofted FW Woods (length and loft are your friend). 

Many women need a driver with as much loft as we can give them. Let’s say we take a 12 degree head and add 2 degrees of loft to it, making it 14 degrees. Why would we even consider a 3 wood?? Possibly a 5 wood, but more likely a Heavenwood (with 20 degrees of loft and a longer shaft). If this is the option selected, look at 9 woods and 11 woods instead of 3, 4 and even 5 hybrids. 

It’s pretty typical that we will use a set makeup of Driver, Heavenwood, 9 wood, 6 hybrid, 7 iron, 9 iron, PW, SW and putter. This is a 9 piece set. If we take our earlier yardage example of 150 – 50, but then factor in Heavenwood at 130 yards to 50 yards (80 yards) divided by 6 clubs is roughly 13 yards. 

A few speedbumps to overcome. You may see a strong lofted iron in her bag for chipping out. Teach her how to do it with a hybrid – it won’t dig because of the larger sole, and a little more loft will get it over the high grass in front of her. Also, many women do not know how to use a sand wedge for chipping. Spend a few minutes showing her how the sole interacts with the ground. She’ll get rid of that chipper once and for all!!

Most women will hit driver, then Heavenwood until they are too close to the green to hit it again, then pick one of the remaining 6 clubs. Impact consistency tends to be not consistent, so having clubs that are easy to launch (and stop) will make the game more fun. 

Hope this helps. Until next time – happy fitting!!