A month (maybe two) ago, we asked you to tell us about your biggest story with custom club fairings and your most recent fairing experience.
Rather than rehashing each Q&A, we thought it might be better to share the most interesting findings from the survey, and so here you go.
These are the 10 biggest insights from our handy poll of 2024. And just like YouTube, if you stick around until the end, I’ll give you a special bonus insight.
1. Golfers THINK assembly is expensive
Before we talk about what happens when golfers adjust, I wanted to start with the reasons why golfers don’t adjust.
More than 40 percent of players who have never been equipped say it costs too much. Another 30 percent say they are not good enough.
We addressed the latter in our last episode of No shots are awarded with Ian Fraser of TXG (see below).
As for the cost…
2. You are NOT spending big bucks on equipment
Of the more than 80 percent of respondents who said they had been fitted at least once, 35 percent were fitted for free, while for another 30 percent, the cost of fitting was included in the purchase of the clubs. Effectively, this meant that more than 65 per cent of golfers were fitted for free.
Another 10 percent paid less than $100 while only two percent paid more than $500.
Getting food? While club fitting can be expensive, it doesn’t have to be.
3. Golfers don’t travel for equipment
We’ve talked before about the idea that club fitting can be an experience, not unlike playing a bucket list course. That said, very few golfers travel for equipment.
Forty-five percent of golfers who said they were fitted traveled less than 10 miles for their most recent fitting. Another 33 percent traveled between 11 and 25 miles. In fact, more than 86 percent of your latest gadgets are made within 50 miles of home.
Just over five percent said they traveled more than 100 miles for a device. What we can take from this is that most golfers are not looking for the best fit possible, but the best of what’s around.
With this, it is not surprising that “It was close to my house” was cited 30 percent of the time as the reason for choosing a suitable location. Brands of socks that golfers are interested in were mentioned most often (38%). Fiter’s reputation (35%) was next.
4. Most golfers get fitted at off-course pro shops
Analyzing the responses for those of you who chose professional off-course shops from the options and those of you who chose to write on behalf of your local shop, we’re confident that the local off-course is where most of the fits happen.
Among custom fitment chains, Club Champion is a dominant no. 1 with more than 14% percent of all devices occurring in its locations.
Across all big box stores, Golf Galaxy (except DICK’s) leads with five percent of reported fixtures occurring in its stores. The PGA TOUR Superstore isn’t far behind.
5. Assemblers sometimes miss an important part of appropriate conversation
A strong majority of fitters discuss both your performance goals and your current equipment before the fit itself. It certainly makes sense to start the right conversation with what’s already in your bag and how you hope to improve.
However, only 25 percent of you said the installer asked about your budget before the installation began. I suppose there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it runs the risk of putting golfers in a perfect setup only to find it’s way out of their price range.
This is something that was discussed in a recent episode of No shots are awarded with Ian Fraser of TXG.
With where and why is out of the way, let’s look at the equipment itself.
6. Putters are the least bagged club*
Irons are the most fitted clubs in the bag with nearly 92 percent of you reporting having them fitted to your irons at least once. This makes sense since very few retail locations carry stock off the shelf the irons. The driver (80%) is not far behind.
The least commonly bagged clubs are, by numbers, utility irons (less than 6.5%) and hybrids (31%), but the star in these numbers is that not everyone carries a hybrid or utility iron.
Of the clubs that we can reasonably assume are in every golfer’s bag, clubs (35%) are placed slightly less often than wedges (37%).
I would suggest that, when done properly, both clubs require specialist fitting. However, it is not uncommon for a wedge to be wedged in an iron fitting, so there is likely to be quite a bit of nuance between fitting wedges and wedges and really being fitted for wedges.
However, your answers indicate that the shortest sticks in the bag are the most neglected from a proper standpoint.
7. Assemblers still rely on conventional metrics
Not surprisingly, distance is the most discussed metric during mounts. It was part of the conversation 78 percent of the time. Other tried-and-true metrics like ball speed, launch angle, spin rate and distribution showed up on the device between 67 and 72 percent of the time.
Perhaps most interesting is what is rarely discussed. Despite being where the golf stats world has come to, Strokes Gained was discussed just 1.4 percent of the time, while peak height (36%) and descent angle (30%) were not discussed as often as the other key metrics. .
The latter is arguably one of the most underrated metrics in the fit world, as it’s generally a great indicator when one or more other things aren’t where they should be.
8) Too much pressure to buy can be overrated
One of the most common complaints we hear is that modders sometimes pressure players into buying expensive and sometimes unnecessary upgrades. As we touched on, the best way to avoid this is to make sure the budget is part of the initial conversation before the fit begins.
That said, on our scale of 1-10 with 1 meaning no pressure, the average pressure score was just a 2. This suggests that while arm rotation for improvements certainly happens, it’s not as common as you might think. .
9) Most golfers buy the clubs they are fitted for
Are you surprised to learn that 85 percent of players said they bought the clubs they were fitted for? Personally, while surprised may be a little overrated, it’s higher i would have thought.
Among golfers who didn’t buy what they were fitted for, a fairly high number said they wanted a brand-agnostic fit before purchasing. The bottom line there is that most of these devices are made by the manufacturers’ assembly representatives or in facilities owned by the OEM.
Thirty-three percent said what they were equipped for was too expensive (or they could get it elsewhere for less). Less than 13 percent said they didn’t buy because they didn’t trust the recommendation or had a bad experience.
10) Golfers feel there is room for improvement in custom fit
While more than a few commented that they felt their fitting experience was perfect, the most cited area for improvement (33%) was the ability to hit more than one club from a set.
Also commonly mentioned (30%) was a different fitting environment, with the most common comments including a preference for hitting the actual (not range) golf ball off the grass.
Twenty-eight percent would have preferred more head and shaft combinations.
Returning by bike to point no. 8, only six percent said they would have liked less pressure to buy.
BONUS – The fitting room needs work
We just touched on how golfers believe their fitting experience could have been better, but your responses to a trio of questions helped identify additional deficiencies found in many fitting environments.
Sixty percent of you reported being housed indoors. Forty-nine percent of those putts were made using a Trackman or FlightScope launch monitor, but nearly 60 percent were made without using Titleist RCT (radar capture technology) golf balls. Without RCT, radar-based launch monitors struggle to accurately capture spin speed, which is obviously an important detail in club fitting.
Good fitters will tell you they know when the spin rates are wrong and will eliminate those shots from the consideration set. With fatigue a real factor, no swing should be wasted. The best fitters should use the best technology available.
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