Getting fitted poll

[Chieflongtee]

The way I look at it, getting fitted is the easy way out. No doubt, when you have a solid swing it will be beneficial to get fitted. No doubt it will "help" (at least as far as scores go) to get fitted if you do not have a solid swing. But, as semperfi45 has said, changing the loft or closing the face on a driver will not fix the root problem, which is a bad swing. Yes, some might have bad swings because their clubs are not fitted properly, but most have bad swings because they have bad swings. People have been able to swing golf clubs properly for years, without the benefit of a fitting. It's about having the time and patience and dedication to fix the problems with your swing. That's the entire point of this game - improving your play, not your clubs. If you want a quick fix, by all means, go and get a closed face driver. Personally, I'd much rather improve my golf swing. Its a lot more rewarding to hit the centre of the fairway because of my own skill and hard work than it is to take a shortcut and rely on the clubs to do the work for me.

True in a way providing your driver and fairway wood faces are square to begin with. Also true if the stamped lofts are also what they are supposed to be. Wrong if you have the wrong lies. Also wrong if you are playing with the wrong flex. And at last do not believe that Joe on the pro tour does not get fitted.(They go through more changes than you are lead to believe yet they have very sound swings)

[jonf]

True in a way providing your driver and fairway wood faces are square to begin with. Also true if the stamped lofts are also what they are supposed to be. Wrong if you have the wrong lies. Also wrong if you are playing with the wrong flex. And at last do not believe that Joe on the pro tour does not get fitted.(They go through more changes than you are lead to believe yet they have very sound swings)

This is an honest question, because I do not know. Did Snead and Hogan and Nicklaus and Palmer etc. have the benefit of fittings, different shafts etc?

No doubt people with good swings can benefit from fittings, I just think there is a danger that amateurs will expect their clubs to fix their problems for them,when they should really be relying on fixing their swing flaws.

[Chieflongtee]

This is an honest question, because I do not know. Did Snead and Hogan and Nicklaus and Palmer etc. have the benefit of fittings, different shafts etc?

No doubt people with good swings can benefit from fittings, I just think there is a danger that amateurs will expect their clubs to fix their problems for them,when they should really be relying on fixing their swing flaws.

Back in 1940 Bobby Jones had some work done by spalding with the help of John Baymiller.(
These photos were taken inthe 1940's.
http://www.clubmaker-online.com/bj01.html

Quote from Bernie Baymiller:

Spalding was the largest manufacturer of golf clubs and other sports equipment in the world at that time and had some of the best technical people in the country for assistance when they needed them. For instance, Edgerton of MIT (later, President of EG&G) and his staff worked with Spalding to do the first ultra high speed photography (to 1/600,000th of a second) of the golf swing. (About 1938-1939.) If you check the Clubmaker Online Resource page, you'll see some of that photography in the pics of Bobby Jones's swing. Check the last photo, which is 8 shots of ball impact in four thousandths of a second. Bobby Jones worked with John Baymiller developing a full line of irons and woods for Spalding at the time Edgerton was doing the experimental photography. Spalding also developed a machine to convert the photo information to graphs of acceleration and speed. End of quote.



But that is not the point. This article sums it up best:


FIT THE CLUBS…OR FIX THE SWING?
At Larry Gibson's shop in Texas, instruction and club fitting go hand-in-hand

By JIM HARDY, PGA
DIRECTOR OF INSTRUCTION,
CUSTOM CLUBS BY LARRY GIBSON

"Should I get fitted for clubs or just take a lesson?" It's a question Master Club Fitter Larry Gibson and I hear a lot from golfers looking to turn their games around. Our typical answer is, "both."

It's not an upselling technique. I believe one reason Larry was named one of the World's Top 100 Club Fitters is his philosophy of looking at the golfer and his equipment as a whole: Clubs that don't fit are just as damaging as a swing flaw, and very often, one is caused by the other. So a typical fitting will usually involve some instruction, and vice-versa. Sometimes, of course, that's impossible. If somebody comes in who can't make contact with the ball, we won't fit them. Delivering the clubhead to the ball has to be a given before custom fitted clubs are relevant.

The most common scenario, however, is that a customer comes in for a fitting with a couple of swing glitches that prevent him from getting optimal results. In that case, we fix the fault, then fit the clubs based on the corrected swing. That way, the new clubs reinforce good habits instead of bad.

A good example is an overly steep angle of attack. We see it frequently: the golfer delivers the club to the ball with a choppy motion that sticks the toe of the club in the ground and leaves the heel in the air. The end result: a lot of fat shots and slices.

Put that same golfer on a lie board, and the impact marks would tell us to build his clubs an extra few degrees upright. But we wouldn't be doing him any favors. His swing flaw would still have him struggling to make solid contact, not to mention fighting for distance and accuracy.

The good news is, it's a relatively simple fix. By focusing on the action of the right palm during the swing, we can get the golfer to swing more around his body and deliver the club to the ball on a shallower, inside path. (see the photos below for a detailed explanation).

For most golfers, it takes a few swings to get a feel for this new move. Then we can fit them, knowing their new clubs will be built to help them play better, not cover up their mistakes. And in our minds, that's what custom fitting is all about.

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