The last few weeks, we spent some time on driver fittings. We said first things first – you have to find a head that compliments the players ball flight – in English, get him a head he can hit straight. If he doesn’t hit it straight (enough), none of the other specs matter. Fit the head first because you KNOW what that is going to do. You CAN adjust settings (like the sliding rear weight) at this point if you need to. Progress to shaft next. You can’t predict what’s going to happen here, but it’s worth walking a player down this road to find out what he likes best. You will find small changes here, so this IS important.

We’re good here, right? So how do you fit irons?? The. Exact. Same. Way!!

The pre fit interview will tell you a lot about a player – IF you ask the right questions. This is the only place to start. You should be able to narrow your focus to 2 or 3 heads just by talking to the player. Be sure to ask if there is anything the player wants to hit – right or wrong, let him hit it. If it’s not in the mix, he’ll wonder about the quality of the fit.

Part of your pre-fit interview should include measuring for length. Whenever possible, use the correct length iron for all fitting for a player. If he’s +1/2″, why make him struggle with STD length if you can help it? Select a shaft based on the data and swings that you see as he’s warming up. Consider this… Your player has never been fit before. He has a stiff steel shaft in his current irons. If he swings it at 75 MPH with a 7 iron, WHY would you start with a Stiff shaft in the fitting process? You may not know what shaft he’ll fit into, but you can make a pretty good prediction of what he won’t fit into. It makes no sense to start a player in something you know you’re going to have to move him out of.

Remember, how many good swings does a player have? 30, right? That’s TEN combinations of three swings each. Choose your ten combinations wisely!!

On to the actual fitting process. Start with the head and dial that in. Have him try different ones. Factors that you should discuss together are distance and direction, shot shape, and look and feel. Consider this – I had a player who came to a fitting and he was dead set on Apex Pro. He read everything, and that’s what he wanted. He told me that my job was only to find him the right shaft. Simple. I watched him warm up with his Rogue ST Max. He hit the 7 iron 150 yards. Pretty straight, but with a slight fade. It was very playable. As I was building him an Apex Pro 7 iron with the same shaft he had in his irons, I asked him if distance was at all important. He said “Nope. It doesn’t matter.” OK, great. Here you go.

His first swing went 130 yards with a Smash factor of 1.36. He hit it on the button. Next one was 132 yards. Then 133 yards. As he set up another ball, I stepped in and asked “How does it feel?” He said “Great”. I asked “How does it look? Is it what you were hoping to see?”. He said yes. I said, “OK, let’s tinker with some shafts.” As I was removing the original shaft, I said “Are you OK with the distance loss?”. He said “Those numbers aren’t legit, are they?”. It was more of a statement than a question. I asked “Is the 150 I saw with your current club legit?”. As he started to see where I was going, he said, well normally I hit it further. I said “OK, but it’s going to be proportionate.” “You are getting 109 MPH ball speed with your current 7 iron and 102 with the Apex Pro. Those shots are all hit solid. This is real world. It will be a club and a half to two clubs shorter with the Apex Pro. If you miss hit one, it will be more than that.” He asked “Why is that?” I responded “It’s a combination of everything, from 6 degrees weaker lofts to a face that isn’t as hot to less of a hollow design. All of those things aren’t trying to hit the ball far. It’s a trade off of distance for look, forgiveness and feel.” “But you can make it go further with the shaft, right?” “I can’t find 7 MPH in ball speed with the same club head speed. Maybe a couple.” “I don’t understand why the head matters so much for distance. I thought it’s all about the shaft.” “Haha. Most people do. Here, let’s try this. This is a Paradym Smoke 7 iron with the same shaft. Try this one.” His ball speed jumped to 112MPH. He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t believe that the head had that much influence on the ball speed. We moved to a bunch of different heads – Apex, Apex DCB, Smoke. We tried Apex Pro again. All were different. I obliged and put different shafts in the Apex Pro. The difference was slight, but there was some. About 3 shafts in, he remarked “That Smoke head doesn’t look that bad.” Haha.

The moral of the story is two fold…

Distance doesn’t matter until the player doesn’t have it any more. And, the head will get the performance – THAT is what actually hits the golf ball. The shaft makes a little difference, but not anywhere near as much as the head. For the fitting to be right, BOTH have to be right. Truth be told, you MIGHT be able to find more distance in a ball fitting that you will tinkering with iron shafts.

I’ll leave you with this. A couple years ago, I hit every head we had in the line – Apex MB to Rogue Max OS. All with the same shaft. I was 25 yards different in carry distance between Rogue Max and Apex MB with the same shaft and the same swing speed. Ball speeds were 13 mph apart.

Head matters. Start where you can make the biggest difference right away!!

When you find a head the player likes, move to shaft. Fine tune your results with the shaft selection. Next week I’ll share an interesting test I did with iron shafts. It’s going to be a super cool read.

Until then, happy Fitting!!