Quote:
Originally Posted by REDeYeS00
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?
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.