We’ve all gone to the doctor, gotten our annual physicals or something more specific, then waited for that moment when the test results are in.
What do the numbers say?
Are they good or bad? Or both?
It’s much the same when you are going through a club fitting.
The life and death quotient is minimized, of course, but wondering what the numbers – and the fitting expert – say can be uncomfortable.
Now, getting new clubs, whether it’s wedges, irons or a driver, means letting the Trackman go full Jack Nicholson on the witness stand. The question is – can you handle the truth?
It’s like a test and there is some math involved.
“It’s kind of like every shot is on the first tee,” is how Garrett Todd, a fitting professional for Titleist, described it to me during a recent session intended to find just the right prescription within Titleist’s T-Series irons for my past-its-prime game.
Bedside manner goes a long way and Todd had just the right reassuring tone.
There was a time when buying golf clubs meant going to a pro shop or a department store, deciding which ones you liked and coming home with them – the ultimate off-the-rack experience.
Maybe you really don’t hit your 7-iron 170 yards or your driver 260.
It’s like when the doctor asks how many drinks you have on average each week. The answer may or may not be “fewer than my best friend.”
“A colleague of mine tells people not to worry about their numbers. He says he’s fit everyone from tour players to beginners and (you) are somewhere in between,” Todd said.
The last time I was fit for new irons, I did a passable job of hiding my bruised pride when I realized the clubs that worked best for me had regular shafts, not stiff. It’s the kind of thing I hoped to keep between me and my fitter but pretty soon I realized we all make accommodations for age.
It’s fascinating to see and feel what a little tweak here and a little adjustment there can do. Two degrees weaker loft means a higher ball flight but with no loss of distance – at least it did on fitting day. That’s what Tiger has done through the years so there must be something to it.
Having swung various clubs – mixing and matching heads and shafts to find what might make the maddening game just a little bit easier for me – Todd and the Titleist team landed on some clubs that fit me like a tuxedo fits George Clooney.
The clubs will come with one simple promise:
Whatever happens, it won’t be their fault.
Ron Green Jr.
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