Do beginners need to be club fit? This experience says yes

Too often, I’ve heard people tell me they’re not good enough for a custom club fitting.

I call BS

I recently took my father-in-law, Sam, to a fitting club to put this myth to bed once and for all.

Sam has been an off and on golfer over the years, but recently decided to get a little more serious about it this year after my fiancee and I moved back to the Boston area this fall where her parents live.

He constantly belittled my game before we even set foot on a course for the first time, but it didn’t take long for me to see why.

Sam has only ever owned one set of golf clubs, and he still uses a set of Ping Zing irons, originally released in 1992. While the Zings were revolutionary at the time for their wild, oversized shape and extreme girth weight, modern golf club technology has come a long way.

Over the summer, he began taking lessons for the first time in his life and began to see improvements in his batting, but it was still clear that his equipment was limiting him.

He was long overdue for an upgrade, but Sam also wondered what the point of clubbing was for a golfer who was essentially a beginner. Should he continue to work on training his golf swing to produce more consistent results before getting an appliance?

Fortunately, Boston has one True Spec Golf location in Waltham, Massachusettsonly about 25 minutes outside of town so I thought it would make a nice case study to see how much a beginner could really do profit from a custom assembly.

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We decided to take it slow at first, just working on Sam’s irons and wedges, as he has a TaylorMade R580 driver — state of the art compared to the rest of his bag! — that he doesn’t have much trouble keeping the ball in play.

True Spec Master Fitter Brian Gulino first it made Sam warm to and understand his tendencies. Sure, Sam was struggling with contact, but the balls he did hit the face, he hit high, short and to the right. The impact sites were high and outside the finger.

Brian quickly gathered a few different heads to test and began considering whether Sam should use steel or graphite shafts. It wasn’t long before he decided that Sam could generate much more speed and launch with lighter weight graphite shafts. He quickly found success with the UST Quantum speed shaft.

That was the big “Aha”! moment. Sam wrestled with a few more shafts and then started scraping it with the UST shaft. He asked Brian how this could be despite his “dirty” swing (his words, not mine!).

“It’s the craziest thing when people come in here and think, ‘Oh, my swing is bad,'” Brian Siad. “It’s not the swing that chokes. The swing is the most consistent part of your game. It’s the contact. It’s not that good.”

Sam struggles in large part because his swing always goes over the top (from-to-in) by about five to eight degrees. What changes is whether or not he releases the club and returns the club face to square.

“When you look at a golfer who has a handicap over 20 compared to a golfer with a scratch, one of the biggest things they have in common is that their swing is the most consistent part, regardless of your handicap,” Brian said. “The most inconsistent part of the 15-, 20-, 25-handicapper is going to be contact. So when you look at somebody’s swing and you look at these pros and you look at the average golfer, the biggest difference is how they actually make contact with the golf ball.”

“So by getting you into something now as far as your swing, it allows you to release it, it allows you to have more control over the clubface, now you’re going to improve your contact, then you’re going to start seeing your shots drop and, you know, all the best things in golf.”

This is why it is so important to know the axis as a timing mechanism. When you get one that goes with your unique swing, this makes setting the club face much easier and hit him straight.

With his previous irons, the shaft wasn’t hitting, so he would swing left with an open face with the club and slice it right. Now he gets a shaft that hits.

The final challenge was finding the right head for it. Brian and Sam were chosen TaylorMade’s Qi Iron because it has a similar long blade length that Sam prefers after years of playing Zings. He also used the same axle, just a little heavier on two wedges to round out the bottom of the bag.

The results

The improvements were actually quite surprising.

With his 6-iron, Sam got an amazing 9.4 mph ball speed. Part of that is due to a nearly 4 mph increase in clubhead speed due to the lighter shaft, but his efficiency (ball speed divided by clubhead speed) also improved from 1.30 to 1.36. We also found that the oversized grips allowed Sam to feel like he has more control over the club, which actually relieves his grip pressure and makes him swing faster.

His launch and spin go down, but because of the faster ball speeds, he still reaches about the same tip heights, and Sam will happily trade a few feet of tip height for 15 yards of carry distance. At his level, he’s not looking to shoot darts at the pins behind the bunkers. He’s just looking to get the ball on the green.

TaylorMade Qi Custom Irons

It’s no wonder golfers tend to miss to the right. That’s why Qi irons are designed to be the fairest distance irons in golf. Unlike other game improvement irons that actually favor the correct error, the Qi irons are meticulously designed for accuracy and control. INTEGRATED DESIGN SYSTEM This suite of technologies allows us to optimize each individual iron head. Driven by organic face geometries, Cap Back Design™ and Speed ​​Pocket™, this comprehensive approach tunes the performance of each head to promote ideal opening, exemplary ball speed and consistently straighter shots throughout the set. ENGINEERED WITH HAT BACK™ DESIGN This innovative construction combines the advantages of a hollow body iron with those of a traditional hollow back. In addition to optimizing mass properties, it works in unison with HYBRAR Echo® Dampers to reduce unwanted vibrations and deliver a satisfying sound and feel.

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ALSO ALSO WE: PGA Tour Superstore, Taylor Made

UST Mamiya TSPX Quantum Speed ​​iron shaft

The new Quantum Speed ​​is the perfect combination of ultra-lightweight performance with precise control and feel. Manufactured using an exclusive blend of high modulus carbon fiber and hard resin systems to achieve optimum performance in an ultra-lightweight golf shaft. Weight, Flex and Flex profile all optimized for increased clubhead speed and stability from driver to wedge. Progressive weight technology – weights perfectly designed to fit your game driver Revolutionary constant wedge fin design for improved feel and ultimate playability enhanced with T1100G aerospace grade for a stabilized launch and optimal feel ion owner trim

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But what’s more important to us is the fact that Sam’s average clubface angle went from 2.2 degrees open to 3.5 degrees closed. This is enough to launch the ball left and neutralize some of the spin caused by its out-to-in path, resulting in a straight shot.

“Overall, we’re making the shaft lighter. The head will feel a little lighter and it’ll be a lot easier on you,” Brian said. “So the way you actually maintain clubhead speed now and the distance is going to be a lot easier during the round of golf.”

Brian also fitted Sam to a set of Vokey SM10 Wedges with S-Grind lowers his hit point to the face, which helps it produce more speed and spin not only for a more controlled and longer ball flight, but also for a more consistent flight.

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True Spec Golf Club Mount

With over 70,000 head and shaft combinations, True Spec Golf will custom fit and create an exact set of clubs for you.

One thing Sam really struggles with is holding the clubface and not letting it go through the swing, causing his poor miss from right to right.

Now with a shaft that has run its course, he’ll have a better feel for freeing the clubhead in practice. What we saw in the fitting bay was just the beginning of what he might see when he starts practicing and playing with these new clubs.

Of course, timing is tough with getting new clubs in New England in November when most courses close for the winter, but Sam is excited to put these in play next spring. It will make the start of next season much more enjoyable for him and help him improve rapidly once the season starts.

Of course, one shouldn’t set foot on a tee for their first golf experience, but once you play enough to develop some swing tendencies, a piece of equipment can help you improve rapidly.

Ready to get the right clubs to improve your golf game? Find a convenient club location near you at True Spec Golf.

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