JTCLUBS CUSTOM CLUB FITTING
We think of what we do as performance based fitting. We analyze how a club performs when you swing it, the stability of the shaft in your hands at impact, and whether you generate the ball flight, club face angle, and club path you seek. The most effective combination of shaft and club head is optimized according to your swing biomechanics, launch monitor data, your sense of feel, and the feedback you provide during the fitting. We select from an extensive collection of test shafts and club heads to find what's best for you.
Why get custom fit clubs? Because each of us has unique swing mechanics and different swing styles. The proof can be found by watching players at any driving range. You'll find some swings only a mother can love. It's safe to conclude the closer the fit of the clubs to the player, the easier it will be to get the desired performance.
Clubs professionally fit to your individual capabilities give the best chance to learn and enjoy the game. And that's the whole point of playing golf -- to enjoy it, to get the satisfaction of playing the course as the architect envisioned it. There is no more rewarding feeling in sports. Other than winning a tournament, or the club championship.
We like to fit beginners with basic sets having just the right clubs to enjoy the game and get the most from lessons: beginners have special needs that are not found in discard barrels or online auctions. We think it’s a huge mistake to use someone else’s hand-me-downs. Play your own customized clubs to give yourself the best chance to learn.
DRIVER. We determine length and weight for consistent ball contact at the center of the club face; fit loft to the right launch angle and backspin for your swing speed and angle of attack; select a head design to optimize performance, find the shaft stiffness profile to match your swing speed, tempo, acceleration, and release. We align the most stable bending plane of the shaft in your club for optimum performance. Your new driver will fit your swing and enhance your ability to hit the ball where you want it: long and in the fairway.
FAIRWAY WOODS. We find the right match of loft, head design, shaft bending profile, and club length to give you a fairway wood that becomes a “go-to” club when you need it. Your swing with a fairway wood is not the same as your swing with a driver: the right fairway shaft is usually a different flex, weight, and performance design than your driver shaft. We like Tom Wishon’s advice for fitting fairway woods: find the “second longest hitting wood” that you can hit best off turf and tee. Isn’t that why you play a fairway wood?
SHAFTS. Finding the right shaft involves more than matching flex to swing speed. Modern shafts are designed with varying (non-linear) levels of stiffness along their length as illustrated by the EI profiles shown above. It enables the shaft to be fully responsive to the complex bending forces generated during the swing: differences in our swing styles and range of motion affect the way we transfer rotational energy to the shaft.
Finding a shaft with a stiffness profile matched to your swing mechanics can improve distance and accuracy by 10 - 20%. Our fitting methods help us select a shaft with a flex profile, torque properties, length, and weight to give the performance you seek and the feel you prefer.
IRONS. We find the optimum shaft flex, length, MOI, and clubhead design for best performance through the set. Iron sets are MOI-matched to promote swing consistency. Lie angles are adjusted to match your swing and achieve the optimum impact of the ball off turf. The fitting process identifies the shaft with a stiffness profile that's optimal for your swing.
The shaft in your irons works best when it matches the way you transfer energy to the club during your swing. EI stiffness profiles can vary significantly between different designs, as shown in the right panel below for several models of steel shafts (for a 6-iron) -- each has distinct performance qualities. For the ultimate in shaft set matching, we offer certification of shaft stiffness profiles as an option (left panel below -- high performance graphite shaft set 3-PW).
WEDGES. A reliable short game depends on having wedges with the right loft, lie, sole design, length, weight, flex, and feel to get the ball close to the hole -- and get out of trouble when necessary. We'll fit you with smooth-feeling responsive shafts to replace stock factory "wedge shafts" that perform like rebar. We'll identify the head design and sole grind that's best for your playing style and the courses you play. If you think hitting the ball close to the hole matters, you need custom fit wedges optimized for today's short game techniques. SEE OUR WEDGE FITTING PAGE FOR DETAILS.
PUTTER. If you believe 40 % of your game is important, then you may want to start with a putter fitting. We test for optimum lie, loft, length, balance, weight, and the effect of clubhead design on your address setup and stroke mechanics. And then we go a big step further: vision testing -- just some basics like how you see the target line, depth perception, distance estimation, aiming, and more.
Vision testing yields critical information for understanding your putting tendencies, yet we've never met any amateur golfer who's been properly tested for it. Remarkable. Before you spend time learning how to get into a mental zone for putting, we think you should start by learning how you see the target zone. SEE OUR PUTTER FITTING PAGE FOR DETAILS.
GAPPING. Our FlightScope X2 launch monitor measures key shotmaking parameters of every club in your bag yielding accurate data for ball trajectory, carry distance, and shot dispersion. Distance gaps and landing cluster for each club are graphed, as in the full bag evaluation shown below. It enables us to optimize set makeup. Everyone, yes everyone, we've tested needed adjustments to fill in missing distance gaps or eliminate clubs that duplicated distances -- here's an example below. If you play serious golf, this service is a must.
ADJUSTMENTS TO YOUR CURRENT CLUBS. Simple changes often can be made to enhance the performance of the clubs you currently have in play. While not as detailed as blueprinting nor as beneficial as full custom fitting, we recommend a detailed analysis of your current clubs and a session on our launch monitor to determine what changes can be made that will improve performance. We bring the full extent of our professional equipment and clubfitting expertise to the fine tuning process, and you’ll gain valuable knowledge about your clubs that will help you decide on the next step to enhance your game. Just about every factory-built set we've measured benefitted from adjustment. You should know exactly what’s in your hand when you address the ball.
BLUEPRINTING. It’s an aftermarket service that corrects for out-of-tolerance variations found in many factory-built clubs and adds improvements that will benefit your game. We begin by measuring every important specification of your clubs, then shafts are pulled, grips are stripped, and adjustments made to club heads and shafts as needed. Loft and lie angles are adjusted on forged or soft cast heads. New grips are weight sorted and sized correctly to your hand.
The stiffness profile, deflection, torque, and stable plane of vibration is determined for each shaft. We may suggest replacing a shaft if it’s too far out of spec to include in the reassembled set. We can rebuild to MOI-match your irons and optimize length/lie angle relationships to improve consistency and feel. Our goal is to give you a set of clubs capable of giving the performance that’s hidden inside. Golf is challenging enough without making it tougher by struggling with out-of-spec clubs that don’t fit your swing or a shaft that doesn’t work for you.
TRUE LENGTH TECHNOLOGY. Developed by Dan Connelly, we use it to find the optimum length and lie angle for all clubs in your set. TLT-fit clubs place your hands in the same ideal setup position every time you address the ball with each of your clubs to promote a consistent swing throughout your set. TLT overcomes subtle setup deficiencies fostered by factory-built sets having half-inch length differences and overly compressed lie angles. We’ve never seen factory built irons with the correct length/lie angle relationship through the set for anyone. We can show you how TLT corrects the problem.