Post-fitting

Yes.  Having a club fitting is both fun and informative.  Quite informative, actually.  I learned a good bit about my tendencies and swing pattern, as well as got a glimpse of things to come.

For the first time ever, I swung a driver.

For the first time ever, I swung a hybrid.

For the first time ever, I shanked a ball.

Ok, well, that last one isn’t exactly true, but the first two are.  After building a swing profile with the 6-iron and finding the right type of shaft for my irons, we went to a 3-hybrid and hit a handful of shots with that stick.  As anyone who’s ever hit a golf club knows, the longer the club the more room for error.  It took a little while to get it down and I was putting a good bit of cut spin on them, but the ball speed was roughly where it needs to be and when I did manage to get my hands around and hit a draw the shot went pretty well.  There’s definitely plenty to improve, (I’m thinking about 4 years of work worth) but I’m happy with where the swing is right now and can’t wait until the next fitting 6 months or so from now.  We’ll see how much my accuracy improves over these coming months, as well as the flight path.

The new shafts for my irons are going to be much stiffer than the ones I’ve hit thus far.  Turns out that the more flexible shafts are to help generate club head velocity, but the stiffer shafts keep the club face more square.  Looking at the ball velocity, it seems I have enough club head speed to move up to a stiffer shaft which will in theory help me control the ball.

About my tendencies:  I have a little problem with not getting the club face back to square at impact.  This throws the ball off left (I’m a lefty) and generates cut spin.  If I focus on having a more square takeaway I can correct for this swing flaw, so this is what the next few days on the range will be.  I’ve been working on it for a while actually, but it’s going to take a bit longer as the swing is so fast any fault is exaggerated the longer the club.  So, learning on a PW there was not nearly as much need to get your hands back on top as there is with a 6-iron or 3 hybrid, not to mention a driver..   I also tend to over-rotate which can cause my hands to push out from my body and then the hosel to lead the charge.  Both of these things came out during the fitting and are top on my deliberate practice list.

That’s about it.  It was an amazing time spent down at Nike’s Tigard facility and I cannot thank those guys enough for helping me out!  If there are any golfers out there who have never had a club fitting, you are doing yourself a disservice.  There is so much to learn from these guys and I can almost guarantee it will improve your game.