Club Fitting - General

[Maverick]

General discussions on club fitting.

[mayassa]

Has anyone fitted themselves, and of course how is it done?

[fhann]

Yes, I have fit myself. But, to be quite honest, I cannot see myself hitting the ball and that is important when being perfectly fitted. What I think I am doing in my golf swing is not always what is happening. That is why a well trained eye and mind along with a thorough understanding of the golf swing, causes and effects of the golf setup, moves and equipment can produce a highly successful set of fitted clubs and putter.

Here are a few URL links to read and watch a video that outline the science and art of clubfitting and clubmaking.

http://engineeredgolf.ca/philosophy-and-procedure/

http://engineeredgolf.ca/clubfitting/

Best regards,

Frank Hann
Engineered Golf

[Maverick]

Excellent info Frank.

A few of years ago I used a club fitter for my irons. He had to adjust both loft and lie for every iron. I used those same specs when I bought new irons last year. I probably should have taken those new clubs to fitter to make sure they were actually built to my specs, but the clubs do work fine.

I've been doing the driver fitting myself using the GC2 and SkyTrak along with various flight modeling software such as Optimal Flight. It's been a lot of trial and error and I've collected quite a few types of shafts and heads over the years. I've settled on a Jetspeed 10.5 with an Excaliber Tour SL stiff flex. This combo feels good and works well on the course. 9 Handicap.

LM data:
BS = 140-150
LA = 9-11
Spin = 1800-2400
Carry = 220-240
Ball flight = straight to slight fade

I've been thinking about trying an SLDR S 12 degree head with the same Excaliber shaft or anything else that will get me a higher launch and hopefully more carry.

[Throttle]

Curious if anyone has seen Mark Crossfield's videos on shaft flex and have some opinions. Seems like he upset a few folks but it also is an interesting find.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-yMxw6TSwy5iSa8-NN1Khev2upJdSr8C

[fhann]

He is very correct, that the shaft flex, (which is based on the butt section stiffness), does not make much of a difference in the launch angle. The greatest contributor to launch angle, is the physical loft of the club combined with the angle of attack.

In later video's, Mark Crossfield neglected to highlight the dispersion aspect and only focused on carry length. He also assumed that each shaft that the OEM manufacturer supplied are identical, and that is far from the truth.

If we were robots, then we would not have a thing called "feel". The shaft's feel will make a golfer do some compensations, either good but more likely bad. The more compensations one has in their swing, the more chance for a mishit.

Exceptionally good golfers, i.e. far better than scratch players, can adapt to a club within 4 swings. That is okay on the driving range, but not when you are under the gun during a competitive round and have to be 100 percent confident that the shaft will perform as you wish. Different performing shafts in a multiple amount of clubs will require different swings; again hardly an ideal situation when we are playing golf and only have one chance to hit each shot.

Best regards,

Frank Hann
Engineered Golf

[fhann]

Excellent info Frank.

A few of years ago I used a club fitter for my irons. He had to adjust both loft and lie for every iron. I used those same specs when I bought new irons last year. I probably should have taken those new clubs to fitter to make sure they were actually built to my specs, but the clubs do work fine.

I've been doing the driver fitting myself using the GC2 and SkyTrak along with various flight modeling software such as Optimal Flight. It's been a lot of trial and error and I've collected quite a few types of shafts and heads over the years. I've settled on a Jetspeed 10.5 with an Excaliber Tour SL stiff flex. This combo feels good and works well on the course. 9 Handicap.

LM data:
BS = 140-150
LA = 9-11
Spin = 1800-2400
Carry = 220-240
Ball flight = straight to slight fade

I've been thinking about trying an SLDR S 12 degree head with the same Excaliber shaft or anything else that will get me a higher launch and hopefully more carry.

The SLDR head is a low launch head in relation to the stated loft because the head's COG is much nearer the face of the club. You might actually find that the JetSpeed 10.5 degree head is a higher launching head as compared to the SLDR in it's neutral position/condition. That is when it is nice to have a loft, lie and face angle gauge to be able to do a direct comparison of each.

On your irons, you might now have the same loft and lie angles as your previous set. Are they the same length, total weight, balance point, swing weight or MOI. shaft flex profile, head design and material, FLO aligned shafts, grip size and weight? Do they perfrom better, and if so, why?

I look at trying to obtain the best fit on 24 different aspects of the golf club. By Blueprinting your existing clubs, one can then make very informed decisions about changing the specifications to dial in a better performing set of clubs.

If you are interested in knowing more about the 24 different aspects/effect of golf club specification on game improvement fitting factors then you might want to refer to Tom Wishon's Common Sense Clubfitting - The Wishon Method.

Frank Hann
Engineered Golf

[Maverick]

Thanks for the info Frank. I did not know the SLDR S head was low launching head. As for my new irons, they don't weight the same nor feel the same as my old ones but they launch higher and carry a little farther, which was what I needed. I'm guessing the tech in the RocketBlaze heads had something to do with that. And I do like how they feel.

[fhann]

The Rocketbladze heads are very strongly lofted. They have a very low center of gravity when you compare them to something like Titleist DCI irons, Ping I3 and I5 irons, or Mizuno MP series irons.

They are also very, very difficult to bend for loft and lie. Maximum bends cannot exceed +/- 2 degrees from the original specifications without breakage. Just bending more upright for the lie angle is nearly impossible.


Frank Hann
Engineered Golf

[SFR]

I am glad you are over here now Frank as your input is going to be valuable info for all of us.

[fhann]

I am glad you are over here now Frank as your input is going to be valuable info for all of us.

That is very kind of you. Thank you.

Frank Hann
Engineered Golf

[Bubba22]

Yep, SLDR is low launching for sure. The recommend lofting up.