Driver fitting… ’tis the season. You can use this for irons too. I want to impress upon several things. This may be the most important Fitters Corner you read – maybe ever…

You may have demo clubs. Maybe a fitting cart. I did a 6 piece driver fitting pack for many for this season. You can, and you should do this test. This will open your eyes to club fitting in a way you never thought. The test is at the end.

Lets tackle the elephant in the room. Head or shaft? Which is more important? We’ve had this discussion before. The answer is Head. Yes, I work for a clubhead manufacturer. Answer me this… What actually makes contact with the golf ball? The club face or the shaft? If you have a player who hits the ball with the shaft of the golf club, they should be exploring other summertime sports. The club head has a much bigger influence on the shot than the shaft does. You’ll see why shortly.

Here is your protocol. Step 1 is to talk to the player. Determine what he wants to accomplish. Why is he there? Step 2. Have a look at some shots with his current club. You need this baseline to figure out what you are up against. Step 3. Select a new club head for him. I generally start with a 10.5* Max. This allows me to add loft, reduce loft, go to a draw biased head or a fade biased head, plus I have a slider to play with. The 10.5* Max will give you the most flexibility as your starting point. Step 4 is select a shaft. Step 5 is fine tune the shaft. Step 6 is fine tune the ball flight (with the settings on the club).

Why would shaft come after head? Yes, the head you select is more important. The head is more predictable. It will do the same thing for everyone, and the results will demonstrate bigger differences. The shaft is more variable – you don’t know what it is going to do, AND, it will have a smaller effect on the overall shot.

I decided to put this protocol to the test. I started with my driver that I play golf with. I use a Max 9* with a Graphite Design Tour AD-CQ 60 gram stiff flex shaft set to N/S. I hit one shot. 100 MPH Club head speed, 150 Ball speed (1.50 Smash Factor). 2300 spin, launch angle of 11.4*, Attack angle was 1.2* Up. Carry was 255. 279 Total distance. This shot was good for me, and just about perfect for a player with my golf swing/ club head speed. This swing gives you a feel for the player you’re working with.

Step One. I changed to a 10.5* Max Head. All other settings were the same. 1 Swing. Solid strike. 101 Club head speed, 148 ball speed. Spin increased to 2740. Carry dropped to 241. Total Distance was 259. Attack Angle was closer to 2* UP. Launch angle was 11.8*. Hmmm. Golf swing was basically the same. I added 1.5* of loft to the head, but my launch angle only went up .4*. This is typical. Typically, by adding 1.5* of loft, launch angle will jump up by .3*. The spin… The spin increased by about 400 RPM. Can that cost me 15 yards of Carry??? And why would the ball speed be lower… Was it a miss hit? No. The higher loft generates a more glancing blow, so the ball speed drops. 2 MPH is about right. 2 MPH in ball speed = about 6 yards of carry. can 400 RPM of spin = 9 yards. probably. Let’s go further.

Step Two. I changed the head to a 12* Max Head. All other settings were still the same. 1 swing and another solid strike. 101 Club head speed and 147 ball speed. Spin increased to almost 3100. Carry dropped to 227. Total Distance was 240. Attack angle was 1.8* UP. Launch angle increased to 12.2*.

I haven’t touched the shaft yet, but between the 3 different driver heads, I see a 30 yard variance in Carry Distance, and a almost 40 yards in the total distance. Amazing, considering that all three shots were struck solidly.

It’s pretty clear that the 9* head is the best for me. These three shots were all pretty straight, but what might happen if I try different heads? What if I try a 9* Triple Diamond? The Triple Diamond is a lower spinning head that is fade biased. I tried a 9* head with the same shaft and settings. 1 swing and a solid strike. 103 club head speed, 149 Ball speed. Attack Angle was 1.5* UP. My straight shot turned into a pretty hard fade. My LOW spinning head had spin numbers of 2700. It ended up going 248 carry and 264 total. Interesting how the lower spin head produced more spin due to the fade flight. No Good. How about the Max D? I thought I might hit this one really good. If I could get 150 ball speed and turn it over… 102 Club Head Speed, 150 Ball speed, with a pretty hard hook. 240 Carry with 262 total. Spin was 2500. Higher spin with a hook? Yep. The head is higher spinning. Crazy the differences between the heads and lofts, right?

Let’s move on to shafts. I went back to my Max 9* with all STD settings. I changed the shaft to a Ventus blue with VeloCore in a 6S. I’ve played this shaft before. I hit a couple shots with this. Pretty straight, to a slight fade. 2300 spin, 11.4* launch angle. It felt firmer. Weird. That’s basically what I saw with the Graphite Design shaft I use. Hmm… Lets try the new Project X Denali 60 gram Stiff. I hit this one good. 2300 spin, 11.3* Launch, same carry and total. I thought it would go right, but it didn’t. The same results… Weird. Let’s go the other way. I put a Hrzdus Silver 50 gram Stiff flex in there. This shaft is pretty soft. 2300 Spin. 11.5* Launch. 104 Club Head speed. 153 Ball Speed. Carried 260 for 282 total and was dead straight. This felt very soft, but was the only shaft that made any difference, and it was less than 3 yards total.

I tried X-flex and Regular flex. Same deal. The shafts FELT different, but didn’t perform any different. I got a delta of 30 yards in carry and 40 yards of total distance by changing the head. The shots were all pretty straight, and the specs of the shots were similar – except for the spin. The spin killed the distance, and that was caused by the HEAD. The shaft changes had very little to do with the performance of the club, but each FELT different.

The shafts job is to return the club head to square at impact. This will have an effect on direction. I hit it pretty straight to begin with, so I didn’t see a lot of variance. You may. You will, however, find much greater improvements in distance with the proper head selection.

Here’s your test. Hopefully you are right handed. Take all 6 Demo Drivers plus your gamer driver and your launch monitor to the range. Do what I did. Start with your gamer. Pick a shaft and move to a 10.5* in the Max head. Drop to the 9* and then the 12*. Move to the Max D and the Triple Diamond. Note the differences in spin, launch angle carry distance and total distance. Find your best match, then tinker with shafts to find the best performing one for you. You’ll be surprised at the difference in performance between the different heads, and the relative little change in performance between the different shafts.

PSSST… This is how you fit someone for a driver. 😉

This test works well for a good player with a repeatable swing. It takes a lot of other variables out of the equation. If you can do that, you can see how each change really influences the resulting shots. With less skilled players, the variance in the golf swing will clutter these results. If you know what SHOULD happen, it’s easier to isolate which part was influenced by the club and which part was influenced by the golf swing.

Bottom line – Use the Head to dial in optimal performance and to optimize directional control, use the shaft to optimize feel and fine tune directional control.

I hope this helps. Happy Fitting. Adapt, Learn, and Grow.