Tonight I was talking with a friend who reminded me of the first person who ever did a "club fitting" for me. It was the start of my journey to become a clubfitter...............
I went to a club demo day and a club OEM rep fitted me for a driver. This was about 10 years ago. A 7 degree driver that when I hit it "right" I could hit it pretty well but had to really hit it perfectly.
I had known about a great local clubfitter and clubbuilder in Oak Ridge - Richard Hess (a great person and clubfitter, who died a few years ago) - and I thought what the heck why not take the club to him and see what he says the flex of the shaft is. I thought that I was playing with a Stiff Shaft - but he told me it was actually an XX Stiff shaft based on his PCS standard for shaft flex. Internally I hit the roof and said can you build me a driver that fits me which he did - and I sold the OEM driver on eBay. A few years later I also had him build me a set of irons and they worked well for me for a number of years.
The truth is though that if this had never happened I would never have known what it was like to have clubs that REALLY fit me and my game. And would have never become interested in clubfitting as a second career.
The other interesting thing is that this same story keeps repeating itself in my efforts to create great golf clubs for players. Tonight I did specs on a driver shaft - after doing a driver fitting this weekend - and the shaft butt flex was at least 2 flexes too stiff for the player. See some similarity to what happened with me? It is a great feeling to be able to help people get clubs that truly fit their games and their golf swings. So thank you Mr. OEM fitter for teaching me where I ultimately needed to go!
Tony
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