Chris Embardino started swinging a golf club when he was just four years old. His grandfather was left handed and taught him in a mirrored version. Embardino’s first golf club was a sawed off persimmon 5-wood that his grandfather lightened and shortened.
“I hit a ton of balls in the yard and have been chasing the best score I can ever since,” he says. “I think it was my love of the game and a little madness that took me this far.”
Embardino helped start a golf team at his high school, but decided not to play in college. He still played the game, but tired of the same old situation every time he went to a golf shop or had his clubs worked on. He says that things were never done right, and information wasn't explained in a plain, sensible manner. It all seemed to him like everyone was “regurgitating rules of thumb that they got out of books or heard someone say.” He considered golf very elitist at that time, and he admits that he really didn't like it.
As the game changed, or his opinion of it evolved, he found his niche in club fitting.
“I hooked up with White Rose Golf & Training Centers in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area after starting and growing my own business,” he explains. “There we use the Foresight GC Quad for our custom club fittings — but I have also used FlightScope, Trackman and Uneekor simulators to fit with in the past. I believe I'm about as well-rounded as they come in technology after spending 20 years as an IT professional, while also having my own club fitting and club building business. I think the two worlds cross over a lot. I use the numbers derived from the technology, but also implement some old-school tactics. I use a lie board and impact tape, in addition to the monitor, but mostly watch the golfer and listen to the club at impact. I can tell where on the face it was struck just by the sound. Watching the player shows me how the club is reacting to the golf swing…and the other way around.”
Embardino fits golfers for individual clubs like drivers and putters and conducts full bag fittings that he splits into two days due to the number of swings taken during the sessions.
Embardino sees a lot more golfers relying on AI and pushing fittings to an automated style process.
“There are a few things out now that claim to fit you in three swings or via algorithms, and even simply based on your height and weight,” he says. “I think that could work for a few situations, but it's never going to replace someone physically being there who can talk and understand what the golfer’s wants and needs really are.