Q – I’m interested in fitting my clubs but I’m not sure if my swing is consistent enough. How do I know if my swing is stable enough for club fitting?

A – Club fitting is about engineering a set of clubs or a single club relative to your physique and individual swing. For newer golfers it is more about getting the correct club length and lie angle to allow you set up in an athletic stance and matching a shaft flex, and weight and a clubhead design and loft to aid getting the ball airborne. Further characteristics such as grip size will aid in improved control of the golf club. For intermediate or advanced golfers it’s more about dialing in on characteristics such as shaft deflection point and spin rates particularly in the woods and driver club to maximize carry distance and incremental difference in distance between clubs.

 Most people believe that club fitting is for those low handicap players and professionals and hope that one day that they will be good enough for club fitting. Let me tell you once and for all that club fitting is for everybody regardless of age, gender or ability. Everyone can benefit from customizing their equipment. Whether it is as simple as customizing your grip size or setting the loft angle and shaft profile of your driver club to maximize your driving distance, club fitting has distinct advantages over buying clubs off the rack. Think of buying golf clubs off the rack as walking into a shoe shop and buying a pair of men’s or lady’s shoes. Let’s take an average and expect everybody to wear this size of shoe. For some it will fit and for most it will not. Let’s say the average is size 8 but your shoe size is a 5 then you can be assured that you will not enjoy walking let alone running in that shoe and expect blisters sore feet with muscle aches and pains. As much I hate to think about – this is how most people play golf when they play off the shelf equipment.

 Your golf swing will inevitably change over time. Typically as your swing improves you should expect greater clubhead speed which will affect the deflection of the club shaft and the way the golf club lands on the ground at ball impact (lie angle). It is important that you see your club fitter periodically to check the way that your clubs are performing and make necessary changes. Typical changes include: increase or decrease in shaft flex and weight, swing weight and total weight, club lie and loft angle.