Get Your Equipment Dialed In for the Season – Club Fitting Tips (Ep.94)

Hey everybody I’m heading to a club

fitting in a couple weeks and just

wanted to share some thoughts as I enter

into that realm of getting some new

sticks I’m getting hooked up with all

Strix on Cleveland stuff getting a staff

deal so that’s gonna be really fun get

some gear and just got some thoughts on

what club fittings are all about and you

know some of some of you may think that

there’s some snake oil salesmen ship

going on but there used to be some of

that but nowadays most of it is really

scientific and really grounded in data

so hopefully you find this conversation

beneficial and I know a lot of you are

probably going to get into some

equipment heading into the season this

spring and if I can help at all with

that just please let me know enjoy it

guys this is the golf essentials podcast

with Casey Borras

so, I’m gonna be on staff with Srixon

and Cleveland it turns out so our

management company KPI golf is signing

an agreement with Srixon

Cleveland to be one of our equipment

providers range balls gloves hats

certain amount a certain

equipment that will have it at our

facilities will have other companies too

but that’ll be one of our primaries and

you know because of that we get we get

spiffed up with you know some new sticks

and bags and stuff like that so really

cool good to be back on a staff deal

haven’t been on a staff deal for a while

so the interesting thing is I’m gonna be

going out to the Ocean Club in Ormond

Beach for of Club fitting and I pretty

much know my specs

you know Club shafts lie angles lengths

grips all the different things and

pretty much know what I want but there

are a few things where there’s some real

value in my opinion with a club fitting

and some people just sort of

believe the club fitting club fittings

come a long way I should say used to be

just sort of a scheme to get you in the

room so that they could upsell you on a

bunch of stuff and they didn’t really

necessarily know what was gonna be best

suited for your game but nowadays it’s

it’s much more scientific than launch

monitors you can see the numbers you

could see the results you can compare to

your current sticks you can get ball

flight patterns things like that so you

you can truly change the game by a good

good Club fitting and so I’m looking

forward to that but the big areas

with Club fitting for me are a few

things so the launch monitor is gonna be

super helpful because one of the

big things are basically your set and

makeup so obviously you don’t want clubs

that go the same distance

right so you know you don’t need a

3-iron if you have a hybrid that goes

the same distance so you want to space

out your yardages but you also want to

space out your trajectories as well

so, you know for me I go down to a 4-iron

and then I usually kick into a hybrid

because I want to have the ability to

hit the high soft one from you know to

ten or whatever whereas a 3-iron would

probably go the same distance but it

would come in low and hot and wouldn’t

hold any greens so it’s really cool to

get the carry yardages get the run out

yardages to observe the trajectories on

the long end the spectrum on the short

end of the spectrum it’s important

to gauge that as well because clubs have

changed over the years

equipment companies the trend in the

last 15 years or so has been to

straight-up make clubs stronger so what

what used to be an 8-iron is now a

9-iron

so everybody who likes to so the club

club companies win right they make you

feel like you’re hitting the ball

further but they’re just stamping a

seven on a 6-iron more or less it’s more

complicated than that but you know you

get the idea club companies want to be

able to say that you know people are

hitting the ball farther and that’s one

way to do it so the thing that happens

at the short end of the set when you

when you have stronger lofts is your

pitching wedge where it used to go you

know 130 yards is now going 140 yards or

something like that so it creates a much

bigger gap so if you if you have a

pitching wedge and then you have a

56-degree for your sand wedge it used to

be cool to do that the pitching wedge

would basically run into your sand wedge

and everything was cool

because the pitching wedge used to be 50

degrees of loft

okay and a 56 is 56 and then you got the

60 you can do 55 60 if you like even

numbers whatever but now pitching wedges

have moved to 46 degrees of lofts so

they’re they literally are like what

used to be a 9-iron so but your pitching

wedge is there and now you’ve got this

huge gap between your pitching wedge and

your sand wedge so you need a gap wedge

so, they’re not only capitalized on

people feeling like they’re hitting the

ball farther but they’re able to sell

you an extra wedge at the short end of

the spectrum it is what it is but you

got it you got to sort of test that out

and last thing you want is a you know a

20 yard or 25-yard gap at the short end

of your set you can deal with those gaps

at the long end you’re not gonna be that

precise anyway but at the short end

where you’re scoring don’t have these

huge gaps between your clubs is just bad

practice is bad for your scoring so the

the other thing there are a couple more

things about the club fitting that I

think are really important so for me

I’ve been playing a long time so I know

what shafts I like in my irons I I’ve

always played the dynamic gold s-300s

that’s sort of what I’ve always done

that’s what my swing is used to

that’s what I’ll probably go with but

with the woods shafts are improving and

changing all the time and rather than

getting psyched up over whatever the

next sexy shaft is and you know hundred

all or 200 all our upgrades for these

shafts I would highly suggest just

hitting a bunch of shafts a bunch of

clubs with a bunch of different shafts

and if you know you’re having a good a

good swing day new playing at a decent

place with some decent balls to hit

you’re gonna really sort of feel the

differences in those shafts I never got

much into shafts as far as the technical

aspects kick points and torques and

weights and all that I just hit them and

said I like this one you know and that’s

that’s what I look forward to in the

long end of the spectrum because

ultimately, I don’t care what color

shaft is what labels on the shaft I just

want to be able to hit the shots that

I’m intending to with those particular

clubs so like for example for a hybrid I

want to be able to hit the low hard one

that’s running out maybe turning

right-to-left I want it you know and

then I also want to be able to hit those

sort of the baby cut into the hole

that’s going to be like 20 yards shorter

than the hard one so I’ve got that

versatility with that particular Club

with a 3-wood I kind of want to a lesser

degree but I kind of want a similar

thing I want to be able to pound it off

the tee and hit that you know solid

running shot but as a second shot into a

par 5 I want to have the option if I get

a good lie or something to be able to

carry that thing and have a chance to

hold a green so I just hit the shots and

whichever ones feel good that’s the one

I get same thing with the driver I don’t

fall in love I’m not romantic about

labels on the shafts I just get the ones

that I think are gonna make some

sense and gonna help me pull off the

shots so the last part of the club

fitting that is really important

for all of us is lie angle and lie angle

is for those of you that don’t know as

you’re setting up to the to the club

it’s whether the toe is tipped up in the

air or down to the ground like how flat

the club is soling on the ground and

it’s one thing to have the club flat on

the ground as you’re set up to it but as

you’re swinging it’s got to be a dynamic

fit so a static fit would be to just set

the club on the ground okay my arms are

a certain length I stand here yeah that

looks about right

and that’s the fit that’s not the

same as a dynamic fit so a dynamic fit

is you’ll actually hit shots and they’ll

put a little board underneath where

you’re hitting the ball and they’ll have

some tape on the bottom of the club and

they’ll figure out whether your divots

are toe heavy like the toe is digging

into the dirt

/ that would mean that your lie angle is

too flat so the toe is sort of hanging

downward and they would need to bend it

up if it’s too upright than your divots

to be heeled heavy so you can look at

your divots on a day-to-day basis like

what part are they do they look like

dollar bills or is that sort of entry

exit of this the turf is it at an angle

you know is it consistently where the

toe is digging in first or the heel is

digging in first versus the other way

around and so that’s really important

especially at the short end of the

spectrum so if you can picture this and

you may you know as you’re hearing this

try to visualize it so if if you’re

holding a driver or a 1-iron right

mostly you’ve probably never held a wine

iron but so a driver or one iron that

has very little loft, say like nine

degrees of loft right so as it’s set on

the ground you could just see a little

sliver of that clubface and if you take

the club up and you pick it up where the

shaft is horizontal to the ground in

front of you can visualize that even

though you’re still basically Square to

your target line the club right the club

you haven’t turned the clubface opened

or closed

it’s still square but because of the

loft on that clubface the actual

face itself would now be pointing 9

degrees to the left of your target line

okay so that’s  a big deal it’s

not much of a big deal with a driver

number one because we don’t hold the

club we don’t hit shots with the shaft

out horizontally we hit it you know on

the ground and with a driver it’s really

not that big of a deal if the toe is up

in the air or the heels up in the air

just a little bit you know same thing

with a putter I would I would

look at lie angle but it’s not as big of

a deal because it’s not much loft but

now if you do that same thing with a

a lob wedge or a sand wedge right so

you’re setting it down on the ground

you’re Square to your target line and

then you pick the shaft up so that the

shaft is horizontal to the ground right

in front of you haven’t rotated the

clubface and now if you imagine where

that clubface is looking that cliff it’s

a sand wedge and you’re holding it

horizontally

it’s literally looking fifty-six degrees

to the left of your target so if you hit

a shot that was like waist high right

with a swing that’s sort of on a

horizontal plane and you and you hit

that shot the ball would go way to the

left and that’s because the toe of the

club is up in the air so that’s an

exaggerated perspective but that’s also

the reason why if the ball is above your

feet you hook the ball to the left

if the ball is below your feet you don’t

slice the ball to the right because you

never setup with the toe of the club you

know with the shaft vertical and the

toe just pointed straight down into the

dirt anyway

that’s a different topic but you can see

you can visualize especially if you use

a lofted Club you can visualize that if

you rest that Club flat on the ground

the sole is flat on the ground the

grooves are parallel to the ground the

club will point in the direction where

the club whether with a leading edges

pointing right so it’s it’s

perpendicular to the leading edge but if

you if you rest that Club and you lower

the shaft a little bit so that the toe

raises up off the ground now that

clubface itself if you imagine a 90

degree angle off that the face itself

where it’s impacting the ball as you

raise that toe off the ground you’re now

hitting the face is now looking further

and further left the more that toe comes

off the ground so that’s the importance

of lie angle if you’ve got divots that

are really tow heavy that that clubface

itself is looking to the right of the

target even though you think your setup

square

the clubface itself is looking to the

right of the target you’re gonna tend to

miss shots to the right and conversely

if your heel heavy or the club is too

upright you’re gonna hook shots a lot so

good club fitters can investigate that

they can figure out what you tend to do

and you know most of the time you want

to shoot for a good flat lie angle at

impact and then make your swing changes

independent of that but you know in some

circumstances if you’re just an extreme

slicer for instance and you’re just

tired of missing to the right you can

talk to them and say hey I just wanted I

want to bend my clubs I want them a

little bit more upright so I don’t lose

everything out to the right all the time

I don’t have time to work on my game and

practice and you know grind it out and

fix my grip and all that I just

want to bend them a couple degrees

upright and you’ll notice a huge

difference it’ll be super easy to

keep it on line and avoid that slice

problem is when you need a slice it’ll

be harder to pull that off but so if you

want to you can go into your golf shop

and if that’s intriguing to you go into

your golf shop and most shops will have

demo clubs that you can try out and talk

to the pro and say hey you know give me

something just to try on the range give

me something with like four degrees

upright standard and then four degrees

flat you know so those are sort of the

extremes and just let them let them you

know have you take those three clubs out

on the range they’re probably like six

irons or seven irons and hit a few balls

with each of them and you’ll notice like

the flat one you’re gonna be hitting to

the right the upright one you’re gonna

hook and hopefully the you know the

middle ones gonna be some board

somewhere in between so anyway that’s my

sort of spiel on Club fitting so I look

for my set make up both distances and

trajectory shafts I know what my irons

can handle but for woods I just want to

be able to have some versatility to hit

the shots that I know I

to be able to hit and lie angle I want

to make sure that I dial in the lie

angle exactly right because if it’s toe

up or toe down at impact that’s gonna

really affect the shape of my shots and

I personally like to be able to work the

ball both ways I usually play a pretty

straight shot but if I need to I want to

be able to hit a cut or a hook into

something so hope that helps I hope that

clarifies if you have any questions

about your sticks you’re not sure if the

stuff you’ve gotten is right or you know

you just need an independent person to

ask questions and figure out what stuff

you should buy I don’t give a crap what

stuff you buy I don’t have a dog in the

fight I’m not trying to sell you

anything so feel free to just hit me up

on social or DM me or whatever and

I’ll be glad to offer my two cents and

you know let you know what I think

about your equipment and I know a lot of

you are gearing up for the start of the

season you’re gonna be excited and you

know maybe getting some new gear stuff

like that the masters usually brings

that stuff out and everybody gets

inspired and gets fired up for

spring so if I can help in that way

please don’t hesitate and I’m looking

forward to my fitting here in a week and

a half or so and I’ll let you guys know

how it is but the Srixon stuff is

super cool it’s some of the best

stuff that I hit at the show and in

Cleveland wedges of course their new

wedges are just so good so really

excited about some new gear it’s gonna

be fun and looking forward to playing in

some events this summer too so it’s

gonna be pretty good pretty good stuff

guys have a great night