We get asked all the time what does an iron fitting entail so I am going to give you a detailed walkthrough of what happens during one. This should hopefully give you a good idea of what to expect if your booked in or thinking of booking in.
The Beginning-
When you have booked in with us, you will be allocated a 1 hour slot with a time buffer in case we were to run over so you get a relaxed and detailed experience. We will also ask you a few brief questions at this time regarding your golf, and why you would like a fitting. This allows your fitter to gain a bit of knowledge
First of all, you will arrive into the shop to inform us you are here and will be offered a hot or cold drink, this is where one of our 5 fitting staff who will be leading the fitting will introduce themselves before they get started.
They will then lead you into our Trackman fitting bay where we have 7 different manufacturers that we are able to try. They will then ask you to hit some balls to warm up before they start tracking any of the shots on Trackman, this is a great chance for the fitter to start to get a deep understanding of your current ball flight, your traits and lots of information about you and your golf. You will be asked a few questions such as where do you play, your handicap, any brands you are particularly interested in, you may even be asked to rate your shots out of 5 too. All of this will help and enable the fitter to gain a great relationship and understanding with you regarding your golf and what we are looking to improve.
Furthermore they will then introduce you to Trackman on our 75” tv, how it works and how they are going to use it to fit you for the set of clubs that are best for you. This is where you will be asked to then hit a further 6/7 shots where Trackman will be tracking them so that they can start to gain an even deeper understanding of how your own clubs are performing. By gaining this information it already enables the fitter to start to think about the type of head design that would suit your game from what information you have given them and from the data which has been tracked.
This is the point where they can then start to evaluate what are good about your own and what could be improved to perform how you would like them too using the nine Trackman parameters. These are: clubhead speed, ball speed, smash factor, launch angle, spin, height, land angle, carry and total. The three that we get asked the most what is the ideal is launch angle, spin and land angle. As you can see from the image below, Thorbjørn Oleson’s launch angle is 17.4* with his spin at 7180rpm and a land angle of 49.5*. There is really no ideal number for all of these as they will differ person to person, if you launch it pretty low at 15* then you are most likely going to spin it more in the 7000’s however if you would like to stop the ball on the green land angle does need to be 45* or above. This is why a fitting is so important because no one knows these numbers until they track them. This is where your fitter will talk you through all of these numbers and explain why you currently aren’t getting what you want out of your clubs and what we can look into with new clubs to achieve this.
The Middle
Once this has been achieved and the fitter has a great understanding of what parameters need improving it is then down to how are they going to achieve this. They will firstly start off with what type of head design is going to suit you the most as if you are wanting forgiveness they are unlikely going to give you a blade and more likely a going to give you a cavity back which is more forgiving as the weight is distributed into different area’s of the club with a wider sole to give the club more bounce and therefore more forgiveness.
Secondly they will then look at shaft type which will include flex and weight, to do this they will most likely use our Mizuno shaft optimiser which will recommend their top three shafts along with 8 others after you have hit three shots. This will then calculate your club head speed, tempo, toe down, kick angle and release factor to make these recommendations, this is only a recommendation and one of the top three does not always come out the best but it will give your fitter a great idea in terms of what weight will suit you the best so they can work with that.
The End
They would then check to see where strike is coming from either using trackman or strike tape to see if it is central, heel or toe. When looking at length it not necessarily about how tall you are but more about at what length can you strike it the most consistent. Every ½” longer a club is made the lie angle will change by 1*, this is why length will always be done first rather than lie.
Lie angle will be the next thing that is checked using lie tape either on the face of the club or on the sole using a lie board. Lie is super important as if the club is too upright it will have a tendency to go to the left of the target, and if it is too flat it will have a tendency to go to the right. Lie is about how the club comes into contact with the turf and the ball at impact not at set up which is another misconception. (CLICK HERE TO READ SONNY’S BLOG- WHY IS LOFT AND LIE IMPORTANT IN A FITTING to find out more about this)
Once lie angle is complete, you will then have your custom iron which is best suited for you. This is then where the fitter will talk to you regarding your set make-up, what clubs you currently have in your bag, your favourite club and your longest iron you currently have. Plus having a conversation regarding whether or not you should have a 4/5 iron and possibly a hybrid or wood. For example this chart below gives you a good idea of what the longest iron in your bag should be from your carry distance and your landing angle.
They will then take you back into the shop and talk to you regarding grip size and grip type, as this is important for not only how they feel but if the grip is too small it will allow the hands and wrists to work quicker through he ball and release quicker. This is why it is important for you to get the correct size grip in a material that feels good to you.
The fitter will then go and work out the best price they can do for you for a fully custom set of irons. This will always be as competitive with online prices as possible as we are well aware that there are always deals happening online. If you are happy with this price and decide to go ahead we will then order them for you and you will be given a lead time for your order.
I hope this has given you a better insight and understanding into what you would experience during an iron fitting with us at Peter Field Golf.
Jasmine Campbell
Assistant PGA Professional
@jcgolfcoaching
