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.
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.
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