Has anyone ever gotten custom made or custom fitted golf clubs? I’ve began looking for a new set of clubs as mine are a few years old and showing their age. I’ve been thinking about a set of Taylor Made 200s that can now be gotten for ~$400.
Recently I saw a comercial for fitted clubs and have been looking on the net and it seems that they cost about the same, but they do not list how much it costs to do the fitting. I figure that if it doesn’t cost me more then ~600 I can afford it and if I’m going to spend the money I might as well spend it right.
So has anyone gotten new clubs from the fitters, or even taken clubs in and had them redone?
I have several friends who play with custom-fitted knock-offs, including one guy who makes clubs. They are all very pleased with their clubs.
I’m considering being in the market for a new set of clubs myself this year, and am uncertain which way I’ll go. One of my fears with custom fitting is that if you went to 5 different fitters, you would get 5 different opinions.
I also am not certain how much of it is the clubs, and how much is the person swinging them. At least for most of us mediocre players.
Right now I have standard length shafts. I am wondering whether I could use some extra length. Just signed up for some lessons. Figure I’ll try to get my swing set, and then discuss club options with my pro (and probably everyone else I can corner!)
Let you know what? oh my god what happened to Dinsdale? :eek:
I also thought that going to a fitter might be a waste of time but if it doesn’t cost too much then it really can’t hurt. Right now I’ve got an old set of knock offs that are ok but are starting to get dull and I have a problem feeling how I’m hitting.
FTR I have no handicap but I usually play around 108 with little to no cheating, usually my cheating comes from a lost ball that lands in the rough and is to hard to find so I just drop one. I have also taken lessons but that was a few years ago but I can feel that now is the time to really get my game on as a bit of work around the greens would really help.
I also just bought a Taylor Made 3 wood, I’ve been playing with only a 5 wood and got a really good deal. I’ve been hitting it 250-270!
In reference to the OP, I bought a set of custom fitted clubs last June. I hit balls on a machine setup that measures impact angle, launch angle, flex point, kick point, etc. The fitting was $75 but included in the cost of the clubs if I bought them there. I didn’t buy knock off heads, since their reliability is somewhat suspect, however the club builder basically said it really doesn’t matter what kind of head, it’s all in the shaft (no pun intended ). My swing speed was close to the high end, but not quite, so he cut the shafts 1/2 inch over standard and used a lighter shaft.
To make a long story short, I love 'em. I was a fourteen last June, I’m playing to an 11 now. I broke 80 more times last year than in the previous five years combined.
My recommendation? If you’ve never broken a hundred, I’d spend the money right now on lessons. Play enough so you can comfortably shoot high 80’s, low 90’s regularly. Then I’d think about getting a custom set and reaping the benefits of a half-way decent swing with a good set of clubs built for you. (Which is basically what I did)
I’ll second BF’s suggestion that, unless your current clubs are incredibly bad, lessons should be your first expense given your current handicap. New clubs should come in a distant second.
If you’re hitting your five-wood 250-270 yards and still shooting 108 then I’m going to suggest that you need to concentrate on your control (220 yards down the fairway is a lot better than 270 yards into the trees) and short game.
Think of it this way: 200 yards down the fairway on the first shot on a 400 yard par 4, then 170 yards down the fairway on the second shot, pitch/chip it onto the middle of the green on your third shot and then two-putt and you walk away with a bogie. Bogie 18 holes and you walk away with a 90 score. Mess up one shot badly every other hole and you still walk away with a 99. 99 is a good score!
Having said that, I don’t think that custom clubs are going to cost you much more than a name-brand store-bought set and they’ll probably fit your game a lot better. Your clubfitter will be able to select from a number of solid (but not necessarily name brand) components and put together a set based on your size, strength, swing speed, and tempo.
(Disclaimer: I build my own clubs, so I’m biased. I use Dynacraft and Golfsmith for my components.)
I have had lessons, though not for a few years, I am hitting my irons pretty consitanty, ie very few slices mostly pulls. While I’m sure I could continue to play with my current clubs they are old, need new grips, have lots of chips etc.
Did I say 5 wod 250? I meant I was hitting my 3 wood that far. My shots like I said are not that far off, I do not hit many, as in 1 or 2 a round, into the woods, they may not land on the fairway every time of course but they are not too far off. Right now it’s my short game that really needs to improve to really drop shots, there is no good place to chip/putt except in the house.
This I understand, I don’t try and play par golf, I try and play bogie golf. This is one thing I really took away from my lessons. Here’s the thing, the 108 is a real score, except for the lost ball type thing, I don’t take mulligans, if it goes in the water, under the trees etc I play it. I might even play better now because the majority of last summer we played on a shorter course, a par 70 that is around 5200-5300 yards. There I was playing under 100, my best was a 90 and two weeks ago we played for the first time this year and I was at a 94 but they had closed a par 3 so I should have been under 100 again.
Maybe I should just have you help me with a set! I have looked around me and there are two fitters in my area and they seemed to have a good price, around $400-500 which is ok for me. Though I did see that there was one who would take your clubs and fit them for you, but I saw it on TV and don’t remember the company. Well I can not afford new clubs for another month or so but I thought I would look around now.
My father had his clubs made, and his game stayed about the same (85 to 90). I snagged his old clubs (Taylor Made irons and Bertha woods) and my game got much better (90’s). My advice: Only get the customs if you trust the person doing the job.
And WillGolfForFood … I know I would play better golf if I stopped hitting 320 yard slices, but how much fun would that be?
As a high handicapper myself, I always think of my tee shot as having been a good one if it went a decent distance and there aren’t any tree branches in the way afterwards. Note, though, that I play on public golf courses where being the rough isn’t all that punishing.
I’ll second that advice - and add that the same advice applies when taking lessons. There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad “golf pros” out there. Ask your friends who they liked and who they didn’t like.
Nope, sorry, no way. While I don’t mind screwing up my own game with a bad set of my own clubs, I don’t want screwing up someone else’s game that way on my conscience. Have a person who does it for a living make you up a set.
It belatedly occurs to me that I should have distingulshed between clubmaking, which is a fairly mechanical process that even hackers such as myself can accomplish without messing things up too badly and clubfitting, which is much more complex. The clubfitting process is where the pro determines what club characteristics - club mix, loft, lie, shaft flex, etc - best fit your skill and swing style.
I was being a bit sarcastic about you helping me make a set of clubs. On another note after the suggestions of taking lessons I went looking for my old teacher and found him, about 10 mintues away! I moved 20 miles south and the last I heard he had moved more east so I thought he would be an hour away, turns out he’s at the local range. I think that it’s a sign that I should go take lessons again.
To some extent, you can also have your present clubs refit. They can be reshafted if you need/desire a different flex, regripped, the shafts can be extended, and the lie angle (?) can be adjusted somewhat. Might be worth messing with your current clubs a bit (with expert guidance, of course), before springing for a new set.
When I recently signed up for lessons, my local course had about 6 pros. I simply went with the head pro - whose name I had heard before as a player and teaching pro. Lessons from him were only $5-10 more per half hour than with anyone else.
Everyone is eager to play me early, cause they figure he’ll really screw up my game before I make any progress!
Lots of good advice out here, so here’s the name of the folks I went to: Warrior Custom Golf.
Give’em a look, they did right by me- I snapped two drivers (graphite) and they replaced them, then sent a steel shaft, too.
In fact, when I first ordered my woods for trial, I was considering sending back the 2 and 4 (I have 1-5 right now) and they sent out a full set of irons in exchange for my keeping the woods.
How do you snap a driver, especially graphite? I have broken clubs in the past, but that’s cause I wanted to, I’ve only had one break on me and that was a wedge that broke on the first hit.
So how much were your clubs and how did you get them fitted?
You can get the lie and the loft adjusted only if the heads are forged. Cast clubs are too brittle and will not bend.
As for snapping the head off the club, it’s actually pretty easy to do since the weakest part of the shaft is where it goes into the clubhead. I’ve seen clubheads flying down the fairway after a decent tee shot. Most of the big guys have some kind of replacement warranty for their graphite shafted woods.
