I had an interesting discussion with one of the fitters on my fitting team earlier this week. He asked “If adjusting Loft is such a bad idea, why does Callaway offer it as a part of the new fitting system?” GREAT question.

If you don’t have the new fitting system, you can skip this one. If you do have it, you should read this three times.

By switching to the 2 cog system, loft AND lie are BOTH affected. In the 2 cog system, if both the plus signs are aligned under the LIE setting, the loft setting has TWO blank cogs. Same thing with the two minus signs. IN that system, if you go 2* UP or 2* FLAT, the lie is unaffected. The lie gets affected when you go to 1*.

If you have 1 minus sign and a blank on the lie, you have to have EITHER a PLUS or a MINUS on the loft side. The COGS FORCE YOU to change loft if you you want to only go 1* UP or FLAT. This makes LOFT and LIE interdependent on one another in this type of fitting system.

In my opinion (and no one asked for it, hahaha), we would have been better off keeping the old system, and adding the heads we need. If we can go 3* UP in a particular model, send a 1*UP and a 3* UP in addition to the 2* UP, STD and 2* FLAT. This eliminates the ability to change loft on irons, and we can dial in a player to exactly where he should be. It also lets a fitter continue to use their existing fitting shafts.

In our case, we don’t even use any of the 1* combinations because you have to change the loft too. We use the new system wo the same specs as what we had before – 2*UP, STF, 2*FLAT. Period.. I might suggest you do the same.

Like I said, no one asked, and we are all in on the new system, so, if you are using it, please be familiar with it.

LIE changes within a set?

Yep, you read that right… Let’s just start with wedges, but this can apply to anything in the bag.

Ever fit a player for lie? Of course you have. When he is getting 5-PW, a 50*, 54*, and 58*, how often do you just use the same lie for the wedges too? If you’re like most fitters, it’s probably always.

Here’s a case to consider not doing that. This won’t work for everyone, or even a lot of players, but it’s worth looking at. Consider the basic properties of a golf club – the more loft you add, the more the ball flight direction will be influenced by the loft of the golf club. This means that if a players 7 iron is too upright for him, you may marginally notice a slight flight to the left, but it will get more pronounced as you add loft. A 56* wedge in this example will go significantly left if it’s too upright. So, should you consider going flatter with the wedges in this case?

I say maybe. Tour players do it. Tour players ball striking is obviously in a different stratosphere than the players we fit, but is it valid? Watch the ball flight. If the alignment is good, the divot of online, but not shaped the same as the iron you fit him too, it may be worth tinkering.

I can tell you that I tried it. Now that we have wedge fitting clubs where I can fit for loft and lie, I was eager to give it a try. I hit a bunch of 50 yard pitch shots with a STD Lie 54-12S and all looked OK, but they were trending left. I was using alignment sticks to be sure I was set up correctly. Face and path were both pretty close to zeros, but the shots were going a little left. I had to aim right to get them to go to the target. I’ll be damned…. I never really noticed this before. I wonder if… going flatter will correct this? I adjusted the wedge to 2* flat. They were dead online with no adjustment. Then I went 2* UP. The ball went way left. It was shocking how much a couple degrees influenced the start line of the shot.

When playing, this is something to consider for sure. Ball above your feet? The lie is upright. The ball will really go left. I knew that, but when I hit shots with my wedge of that type of lie, it was more than I expected, and I knew to look for it. The difference was much more than with a 7 iron.

The rub… The divots were now toe deep. what to do? What to do? Ultimately, I didn’t change mine. Take the same test if you can. I’m curious what you’d do.

Happy Fitting!!!

Jim Yeager, PGA