The PGA Tour’s longest driver will add Club Champion’s logo to his bag on the PGA Tour.
PGA Tour distance-leader Bryson DeChambeau has signed a contract to become a brand ambassador for Club Champion, the Illinois-based club-fitting company with more than 85 studios around the United States.
Club Champion can analyze the swings and shot patterns of amateur golfers to suggest best-fitting clubs, with thousands of combinations of shafts and clubheads. The company, founded in 2010, also can build clubs to match a player’s specs.
DeChambeau is known to tinker with his clubs, especially his single-length Cobra irons. His quest for distance on Tour has been fueled by the same kind of data that Club Champion uses to fit amateurs.
Bryson DeChambeau has signed a contract with Club Champion and has added the company’s logo to his golf bag. (Courtesy of Club Champion)
“Adding Bryson to our team just makes sense,” Club Champion CEO Adam Levy said. “He’s a science guy, and he understands cause and effect in a way that we admire. His desire to push the limits of his equipment and to create new combinations to further his goals is incredible, and we’re excited to work alongside him in our mission to help golfers lower their scores.”
Club Champion already had several touring professionals on its roster, including Jim Furyk and Lexi Thompson.
“I’m excited to partner with Club Champion,” said DeChambeau, who will add a Club Champion logo to his Tour bag. “I know they share my passion for data and pushing boundaries to find the best performing equipment.”
If you were to define a “golf club fitting”, your definition would likely vary from that of your playing partner, your father or even the local pro you use for lessons. You may have been fitted at your club a decade ago for your current set, while …
If you were to define a “golf club fitting”, your definition would likely vary from that of your playing partner, your father or even the local pro you use for lessons. You may have been fitted at your club a decade ago for your current set, while your playing partner might swear by their futuristic swing analysis session. In an industry with simultaneously so many innovations and so many traditions, it can be hard to know when modernization is truly the best option for your game.
Take golf equipment, for example. Each year, manufacturers release a new model touting faster ball speeds, longer carries, more accurate shots. From a sales perspective, this makes complete sense but from a practical standpoint, is there evidence to support the claim that new equals better?
“In short, the answer is yes,” said Nick Sherburne, master fitter and founder of Club Champion, the nation’s #1 custom club fitter. “We’re in a unique position since we see every model from every brand. Independent club tests back the claims and so do our informal findings.”
The principle is the same with club fitting: if your father’s iteration of a fitting found better equipment options, does that mean a modern version of Dad’s fitting can really give you an even greater competitive advantage?
Sherburne is so sure that the answer is yes that his brand is offering 50% off their custom club fittings to prove it. This winter special — 50% off all fitting types with a $500 equipment purchase — is active from November 1, 2020 – January 31, 2021. Those seeking out a putter fitting are only required to purchase a new putter for the 50% fitting discount to apply.
(courtesy of Club Champion)
At any price, the insight and edge a golfer gains after a fitting is priceless. Club Champion uses technology every step of the way, from TrackMan swing analysis during a club fitting, Science & Motion’s PuttLab to optimize the putter, to PUREing machines that orient each shaft optimally into each clubhead during the build process. The mentality is show-not-tell: let the golfer see the improvement in real-time because the data doesn’t lie.
A Golf Digest study found that eight out of nine custom-fit golfers lowered their scores by as much as six strokes per round and added an average of 21 yards off the tee. That same study found over 13 yards extra distance with fitted irons. And that doesn’t even address the improvement in control and overall accuracy found with a fitted set.
“What we do is both an art and a science,” said Sherburne. “Every level of golfer can see massive improvement with a club fitting when they’re willing to embrace a modern fitting process — even if it looks a little different than it did back in the day.”
In short, this is not your father’s club fitting, and thank goodness for that.
For more information or to book your Club Champion fitting, call (888) 340-7820 or visit clubchampiongolf.com/golfweek.
The Fitting Files share the basics of custom fitting to show how golfers can improve with professionally fit golf equipment.
The Fitting Files, which debuted in Golfweek’s first issue of 2020, shares the basics of custom fitting and how golfers just like you were able to improve with professionally fit golf equipment that matches their swings and bodies.
In part two of the series, we focus on a player looking for more yards and straighter tee shots.
Bryan Ptak
To help, we enlisted Club Champion, one of the leaders in custom fitting with 74 locations throughout the United States. The company’s fitters have a brand agnostic philosophy with a focus on matching players to their best gear, regardless of the name on the club. Using their universal hosel mechanism, Club Champion fitters can attach any head to any shaft, so golfers can test countless combinations of gear using TrackMan launch monitors and SAM PuttLab systems.
The golfer featured this month came to a Club Champion store near Chicago on a snowy January day. The model of clubs he used before the fitting isn’t listed here, because it isn’t inherently important – his swing is his alone, and the results of his fitting almost certainly would be different for another player.
Player: Bryan Ptak
Age: 46
Handicap: 13.1
Before: Ptak, who runs sales operations for an information technology company, plays golf at least once a week when the weather allows around Chicago. He bought his driver about five years ago when a national golf equipment chain shut down a store in his area. Ptak got a rudimentary fitting for the club, but he arrived at Club Champion looking for more distance and a driver that could reduce the severity of his slice.
“I rebuilt my swing with the help of my club’s pro about two years ago, and that’s helped to correct it,” he said. “I also have a new grip, but now if I pull the ball, it really goes left.”
As he warmed up, Ptak’s numbers appeared decent to the watchful eyes of Andrew Moores, his fitter. His clubhead speed was just under 99 mph, and he generated a ball speed of about 142 mph. Ptak’s average carry distance was 218 yards with an 11.4-degree launch angle and 2,723 rpm of spin. Still, Moores knew Ptak could do better with the right gear.
To generate more distance, Moores needed to increase Ptak’s ball speed numbers while helping him deliver the clubface square to the target line more consistently to reduce sidespin.
The fitting: Before testing various heads, Moores tried to find a shaft that could boost Ptak’s clubhead speed. Most people might think an ultra-light shaft of less than 60 grams would be the way to go, but after testing three models, the fourth, a 60-gram Mitsubishi C6 Blue, turned out to be ideal. Surprisingly, that shaft was 10 grams heavier than the shaft in Ptak’s old driver.
“Brian came in with a 50-gram shaft and he was a little out of control, hitting the ball all over the face,” Moores said. “The heavier weight actually helped to slow him down. It made him a little smoother and helped him hit it in the center of the face more often.”
The TrackMan launch monitor system used during the fitting measured almost no change in Ptak’s swing speed, but Ptak said, “It felt a lot more solid every time.”
Moores and Ptak then worked to find a head that optimized the shaft and helped him square the face more consistently. After trying several models, a 9.5-degree Callaway Mavrik gave Ptak the best performance.
Final impressions: Ptak created the same amount of clubhead speed with his new driver, but the combination of the Mitsubishi shaft and Callaway head made him more efficient and he gained 3 mph in ball speed. His launch angle dipped by about 1 degree, but he generated nearly identical backspin. As a result, Ptak increased his average carry distance by a little more than 10 yards.
Equally as important, his dispersion pattern was significantly tighter and his miss to the right vanished.
By allowing Club Champion fitters to see a player’s on-course Arccos data, the fitting process can improve.
Working with a well-qualified custom fitter is the best way to ensure that the golf equipment you buy is ideally suited to your swing and the needs of your game.
Golfweek has been hammering that point home for years, and more and more golfers are listening. While most players immediately see the rewards of custom-fit clubs when they play, there can be an adjustment period and questions for others. Will a slice-fighting driver work on the course? Is the lie of a new set of irons just right? Does a player’s sand wedge have enough bounce?
Arccos and Club Champion announced a unique partnership on Monday, and it could make questions like those a thing of the past.
Arccos, based in Stamford, Connecticut, makes tiny sensors that screw into the grip of your clubs. The company also offers grips that already hold the sensors. Once the sensors are linked to Arccos’s smartphone app, the system can use the GPS feature in your phone to track every shot you hit using every club in your bag. Overlaying that data on maps of the holes and courses you play, Arccos creates data-rich stats that can reveal things like your average distance with each club, where you tend to miss and which aspects of your game are strong and which need some work.
Based on your tendencies, weather, elevations changes on the hole and how other golfers with similar abilities have played the hole, Arccos Caddie 2.0 makes real-time club recommendations.
Club Champion, based in Chicago, is one of the biggest and most reputable club fitting companies in the United States. It has 74 stores around the country and is brand agnostic, carrying equipment from every major company and several smaller manufacturers too. Thanks to a unique hosel system, Club Champion fitters can attach any shaft to any club head, allowing golfers and fitters to try scores of combinations. Using TrackMan launch monitors, Club Champion fitters can show clients exactly how different combinations of components work with the player’s swing.
Now, thanks to the partnership, Club Champion will not only sell Arccos sensors and Arccos-enabled grips, but the company’s fitters will also be able to track and see how a client’s gear performs on the course.
Club Champion allows golfers and fitters to try any combination of head and shaft.
After golfers give permission for their Club Champion fitter to monitor their play, Arccos will provide data that lets fitters better understand the player’s game and track their performance after the fitting. The fitters have all trained and certified as experts in the Arccos Caddie platform and the Arccos Dashboard. The dashboard lets fitters see insights, visualizations and shot-by-shot history of a player’s round. They can also see club distance averages, gapping, clubs used, dispersion patterns, miss tendencies and more.
“Having access to our clients’ Arccos on-course shot data allows us to fully understand each player’s unique golf DNA,” said Nick Sherburne, the founder of Club Champion and one of the company’s master fitters. “The data is golden. It helps golfers and our fitters better track performance while gaining an unbiased understanding of where they excel and what they need to improve.”
While some golfers may see an element of Big Brother in this, golfers who get an Arccos system at Club Champion are not obligated to take part in the program. However, the benefits to the player could make it worthwhile.
After completing an indoor fitting, players can now allow their Club Champion fitters to see their on-course Arccos data.
For example, if a player who used to slice is now hooking the ball using his new driver, the fitter will be able to see the issue, reach out to the player and make suggestions that could solve the problem. Some players also hit shots differently in an indoor fitting studio than they do on the course. Allowing a Club Champion fitter to access Across data could reveal those differences too.
“With Arccos Caddie, every Club Champion fitter can get a contextualized picture of their clients’ games,” said Sal Syed, the CEO and co-founder of Arccos. “This can be a huge positive for the fitter-client relationship before, during and after each studio session.”
