Thanks for the recommendations, I figured it'd be hit or miss, and it doesn't seem like quality necessarily scales up if you pay more.

It looks like there are some locations of both of those companies in Chicago which isn't too far from my parents. I haven't been back to the states since the pandemic, but perhaps over the winter I'll check them out (it almost seems better to get fit over the winter if there are deals on previous years' models or just because they're in a slower season?)

i'm holding out hope for Aaron to make a trip down to Texas to be fitted by Chris and post a trip report.

ae, are you still in Calgary?

Clue me in on the backstory?

Canmore

ntnBO manages one of the top club fitting places in the country.

I actually don’t any more. I decided to give Champions Tour a full time effort. I would however still recommend my former facility to any golfer with no questions whatsoever. Am still friends with the staff and have referred many there for fittings since I left. And of course that’s where I have work done on my sticks.

Of course I still retain significant fitting and equipment knowledge.

9/30: Shot 83 for my best round ever by 2 strokes at my home course I've been playing (par 71, 71.7/134)

10/2: Shot 86 at a course that's a bit tougher, only my second time playing there this year (par 71, 72.5/139) [five 3 putts, 10 GIRs]

I hit some rockets off the tee, but am still pretty bad at long clubs. I'm a legit ball striker and wedge player though. Hopefully will setup somewhere to hit balls into a net in the winter and keep the momentum going. I put my last 20 rounds (18 at the same course) into a handicap calculator w/ slope adjustment and it says I'm a 13.4

keep grinding Aaron...looking forward to the updates

What if I told you that today I hit 10/18 GIR, 43% of fairways, and shot 96 thanks to 44 putts? And that I didn't even putt *that* badly? (Surely 1 standard deviation bad, but not like 2+ SD bad)

Yuck

I'd say shut the front door.

Had to get some quick revenge-- 8/18 GIR, 43% of fairways, and only 34 putts this time = 83 on the same course, tied for my best round this year (71.5/140)

Mother of god. If you took 44 putts you putted badly, I don't care how you look at it.

Just a suggestion that might help you improve both over the winter:



Those old, non-offset, long-iron forged blades provide feedback on a level most golfers have never felt... once you find the pin-size sweet spot, Mr. Legit Ball Striker

Gonna book a fitting for next week in Vegas at Club Champion, no advice on specific fitters to get/avoid from anyone in this thread? Or any other fitting advice? I was gonna try to avoid doing it all in one 3.5 hour block just so I'm not tired from swinging

Club Champion has all the necessary product as far as heads and shafts go, the unknown is the knowledge of the fitter you’ll be getting. At any chain there will be excellent fitters and not very good fitters.

Good luck and enjoy the process.

Thanks, had a wedge fitting today, turnaround time is 2 months (I should have expected this, but was hoping for 2 weeks).

Anyone in Vegas want to lend me a set of clubs until then ?

Specs please. Also current hdcp and 7-iron carry distance.

2 months is frustrating. I might have to check to see if it’s due to delay from the club company or backlog in CC’s build. Pretty sure they do all building in Chicago.

BO, based on your response it reads like CC builds the clubs they fit after ordering the head and shaft separately and don't get them built that way from the head manufacturer? please forgive the naive question, but is this the way it's typically done? when you were fitting clubs you (or your place of employment) were building the clubs to order?

He had mentioned that they do it all through a third party, and there wasn't much he could do about the wait times, golf is popular at the moment.

My current hdcp is 13.4, I'm good with wedges, decent with irons, and bad with some other stuff. My 7i carry is probably 160?

I left a fair bit of my data on an ipad that I don't have access to, but here's a pic of PW from 2 months ago (47d)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GLjTxgJa3cjmSyhq7

I went with a pretty standard 52-56-60 (8/10/12 bounce, also probably pretty standard?) Vokey setup and he said he was gonna flatten it by 2

The other contender was taylor made milled grind, which I also really liked and hit well, but I think the stock shafts being ~6g lighter in the Vokeys made it feel like the head was a bit heavier and I had a bit more control

My fitter said that I might get them a week earlier if I ordered a custom shaft, bc if I ordered a custom shaft they'd make them in house. If not, assembled somewhere else and shipped in

I would say overall my fitting was a bit underwhelming. I mean, it was certainly fine, but I could have guessed I'd end up getting Vokey's by googling "most popular wedges." Flattening them a bit ought to be useful, but I don't think I really learned too much. Also, I exclusively hit wedges inside, so how good can that really be?

Due to the length of this post, I was forced to walk all the way into my office to retrieve my laptop so it doesn't take me 12 hours to peck it out on my phone. Old people don't text quickly, but this geezer can still type.

If you look at different club manufacturers websites, you will see that they typically offer an in house iron shaft, a couple of True Temper selections, and maybe a couple of options from another shaft manufacturer. Some club companies have started to offer custom shafts for an upcharge, Titleist currently has a pretty good selection with several more shaft companies represented.

When I was fitting we offered shafts from 10 different shaft manufacturers and Club Champion is similar. We had roughly 120 different iron shafts in our fitting matrix. One excellent shaft company that I didn't see on anybody's iron list is Accra.

So let's say you get fit for a Ping iron with an Oban iron shaft. Well, Ping doesn't offer Oban shafts, so they aren't going to be able to build that.

So a top of the line fitter not only has to be able to fit, but also be able to build. Most club manufacturers will have an agreement with their best customers to ship their clubs head only, no shaft. (Ping is the only company that does not, by rule they only ship clubs with shaft attached. Ping also does several other interesting things that other companies do not, but they also do things the absolute right way. This is one of the reasons I am more than happy to represent them.)

So a builder can then take the head, shaft, and grip and properly assemble the club to precise specs. In this way the builder controls all aspects of the process in order to get everything just so. If you buy clubs off the rack and go check the swing weights, they typically vary a couple of points rather than being the same throughout the set.

On demo days at a course, you'll see the different club companies have their product out there but they only have a few different shafts to try. While this is better than nothing, it severely hamstrings the process.

There are some fitters across the country that do not build clubs, they only fit from each club manufacturers fitting cart and then have the club company build the club. Pretty weak if you ask me. At least one of those companies was on the latest top 100 fitters list which is beyond laughable.

And then there's the SST Pure process. This process is done with shaft only in order to find the hard spot. Once that is found the builder knows how to properly orient the shaft in the club hosel. That process can't be done if the club manufacturer builds the club.

When I was in the business I fit and could also SST Pure shafts if the builders were behind. But I certainly did not build even though I know the basics. Of course I taught also. When I was there we had two builders, both of whom built clubs for players on both PGA and Korn Ferry Tours.

In my experience, maybe 5% of fittings could be made whole by a club manufacturer. Even still, we would get all the pieces through them (which was cheaper for the customer) but still build them ourselves in order to totally control every aspect.

Not a naive question in the least.

Inside is actually better than you think with wedges. When I was doing a wedge fitting I would listen for a certain sound at impact which would indicate proper interaction with the turf. Numbers could be similar with different combinations, but that sound was always the most important thing.

Did you try any custom wedge specific shafts such as Nippon Modus? Nothing wrong with the standard True Temper, but just wanted to make sure you got the full experience.

Hopefully you also tried Callaway, Ping, and Cleveland heads as well.

I definitely hit Mizuno (was just not my thing right away, not sure why) and Cleveland (not bad, I have previous generation currently). I don't think I did try the others but I honestly can't remember, which seems kind of crazy, but I definitely hit no more than 5 different heads. Also he decided on shaft pretty quickly. It felt like a little bit of a rushed experience, but truthfully at 6' 170 with avg arm length, I think I'm probably pretty close to stock and there's no reason to think wedges as popular as Vokey aren't ~fine for me. I do wish I had someone that I trusted a bit more with the experience instead of random guy, but maybe next time

edit: He said I didn't swing particularly hard so he didn't want too heavy of a shaft

edit: The more I think about it, most likely this fitter just kinda sucked. Already have something booked with him on Friday, just gonna stick it out bc I need some clubs. Maybe in a year or two I'll try again!