Make Sure What You Hit Is What You Get!
Know the driver loft and face angle that gives you the best club performance.
There is a blog called MyGolfSpy that from time to time publishes some very interesting evaluations of the golf clubs that you can purchase in golf stores. Well worth subscribing to this blog. Last week they published one that had the most comments I think I have ever seen – "The Worst Kept Secret in Golf." Here is the link to this post:
http://www.mygolfspy.com/mygolfspy-labs-the-worst-kept-secret-in-golf/
The major point of the post was that for many of the drivers that you can purchase in a store, the noted driver loft is not what is marked on the club – sometimes off by as much as 2 degrees. Much of the discussion focused on the fact that many of the new drivers allow you to adjust driver lofts by a few degrees, and so you "should" be able to tune your driver to give you a loft that will give you optimum performance. I hope you take the time to read the article and all of the comments.
There are some points that are definitely important for you to remember if you are being fit for a driver, some noted in the comments but some not….
1. Many players think they need a driver with a low loft but can definitely get better driving results with a higher loft.
2. If you hit a driver during a fitting in a golf store, and it works well, you should make sure that you Buy The Driver that you hit. Because you have no idea that if you either purchase the "same" driver by ordering it from the store, or if you decide to go on line and buy that driver yourself, that you will be getting the same driver. Not only might the lofts and face angles not be the same, but you do not know if you will really be getting the same shaft that you hit.
3. At a minimum, if you hit a driver in a golf store and it works, make sure that you get someone who knows how to measure driver loft, face angle, and lie angle to measure these for you. Then you will – if you cannot keep the one that you hit – what the right head specs are for the test performance you achieved.
4. Adjustable face drivers can be great. But you need to understand what happens when you adjust the loft of these drivers. For many of them, if you adjust loft you also adjust face angle. And face angle is a very important element of driver fitting. Again, be sure you know what gives you good performance.
5. Finally, know that when you are fit for a driver by a true custom club fitter you will get Exactly the head specifications that helped you to achieve optimum performance – he has access to heads that have "precise not close" loft and face angle specifications.
ASK THE CLUB FITTER! – If you have a question on custom club fitting, please provide it in the Comment section of this post – and we answer it either directly or in a future blog post.
The Fit Is IT!!
Tony
