The Importance of Club Fitting

What Is a Club Fitting: Is It Important?

Have you wondered whether club fitting is important? One trend I've noticed in the last 10-15 years in the golf business is fewer people buying clubs off the rack and more opting for custom fittings. Many people mistakenly believe that custom clubs are more expensive, but that's not the case. Club fitting involves tailoring the golf clubs to match your unique swing and body measurements, which can significantly improve your game. I usually insist on a full fitting with all of my students within the first 3 or 4 sessions. Understanding what club fitting entails and recognizing its importance can make a substantial difference in your performance on the course.

The reason being that poor equipment can really hurt your golf game.

When I do a fitting, I try to think about everything happening with that current student… are they changing their ball flight, swing, body limitations, amount of practice time, skill level etc.

For the purposes of this post I am going to focus on how having the correct lie angle on your irons and wedges can really improve your ball flight. Generally speaking, if an iron is too flat that will

cause the toe of the club to dig into the ground more than the heel. This will twist the face making it more open at impact and making the ball go the right for a right-handed player. Vice versa, if an iron is too upright that can create heel dig causing the club face to close at impact making the ball go to the left.

The correct lie angle on your irons

Here is an example. I am 6 foot 5 inches and because of my body and swinging style, I tend to hit down a bit steeper on the ball than shorter, shallower swinging golfers. This creates the need for me to have clubs that are more upright than normal.

As you can see the markings on the sole of the club favor the toe which as stated earlier will make the face twist open. Now, check out the corresponding ball flight for this shot.