Last week I had the pleasure of sitting through a product and fitting training with one of our trainers from HQ. He’s a very good trainer, and he spends some time with the tour team working with and fitting tour players when he’s not on the road training. He mentioned two things that I thought required more thought. First, He mentioned “hedging” your fitting recommendation based on the players hit location. I’d like to talk about that this week.

He also mentioned the impact that the shaft has on a players shot. I’d like to talk about that next week. This was a very technical discussion and something that is worth discussing.

So let’s talk about “hedging”. Essentially, what this means is that you look at a shot, see where it was struck on the face, then look at the specs of the shot. You can then interpret the data and establish what the shot’s specs would have looked like IF he hit it in the center of the face. Re-read that one… Look at the shot, look at where it was struck on the face, look at the specs, and then make a very educated prediction of what the specs would have looked like IF the shot was hit in the center of the face.

There is a LOT to unpack here. First off, this player he was fitting was a very good player, and hit 5 shots in the exact same place on the face, with the exact same path and face at impact. Fitting a player of this caliber is a luxury that I don’t get that often. This fitting was substantially easier because of that. Second, since we generally work with players who aren’t this consistent, There are a LOT of other variables that can influence the shot and it’s data. Third, almost any player will give you different swings on different days. In this instance, I fit this player several times, and came up with a different head and loft. He was able to fit him in 5 swings (yes, seriously), but he did start with the shaft that I fit him to in December. And, finally, this is essentially fitting a player for his BEST shots. Golf is a game of mistakes, so fitting to minimize the damage the bad ones cause tends to help players shoot better scores. 

This fitting had 5 swings that were the same. The initial head was Triple Diamond in a 10.5*. The fitter was able to look at hit location (slightly low on the toe), and infer that the low impact would make the spin reading slightly higher, and the toe side miss would make the spin slightly lower. His overall spin was 2800, but the shot had a little bit of a fade to it, which should add some additional spin. The fitter went to 9* of lofted head. Same hit, same flight, spin was a few hundred RPM lower, launch angle was .4* lower. Next he went to a Paradym head and slid the slider all the way to Draw. This is something I never do. Change the head first, them make setting changes. Spin stayed the same, still a fade. Next swing – Paradym X. Spin went up slightly, but the shot was more of a pull. The Paradym X head is 3* more upright than the STD head and the Triple Diamond. For me, this was easy to understand. His final move was to make the head 1* stronger (setting change to N/-1). The spin dropped, the shot went straight, and the launch angle dropped below 8*, but carried 260+ and rolled to 302. 

Here’s my question. Even with a good player, how often do you fit a player into an 8* head? For me it’s almost never. That low loft will produce more side spin – even with a forgiving driver head. Yes, the low loft got the spin down to a perfect place, but just because you CAN get it there, should you??

Next question. How do other swing tendencies/ faults influence the data you see? For instance, a player give an attack angle of -3* with a driver, then -5*, then -1.5*. What does this do to launch and spin? How about ball speed? What if a player has a face that is 5* open, then 2* open, then 2* closed. What does this do to the direction and curvature of the shots? What head do you pick? Can shaft cause this??

I think the point here is this… This was a good player. This “fitting” was very simplified. You don’t often find that each swing produces the desired result with the new equipment you put in his hands. Can we extrapolate data from each swing and convert in in our heads to an ideal scenario? YES, and I think we should on every shot. If you can see similarities with extrapolated data you are narrowing in on a good fit. Can the shaft improve face and path numbers? YES, and you should look at that. With each change in spec, head or shaft, there is a new batch of specs to look at. Essentially, you are starting over with each new combination. The blueprint changes with each new combination. 

Final thought. If a player hits a shot 265 and rolls with to 302 with a 1.50 smash factor and perfect spin rate, but he hits the next one left and the third one right – is this the best fit? If he hits good ones and bad ones, we’re not done unless it’s a couple bad out of ten. For the most part, we are looking to minimize the damage on the bad ones. When a player hits a good one, this tells us what he’s capable of. We need to file that away and remember that that is our ceiling. Can we get that same ceiling, but with a club that doesn’t miss as bad?? Or, should we settle for something a little less than perfect in one area (spin, for example), to optimize the others? That is your job to figure it out with the player… 

I hope this helps!! Happy Fitting