The Fitting Process

Fitting for Lie
There are some mechanical inventions that will recommend a lie angle, but the most effective is to simply put some tape on the bottom of an iron and hit a ball off of a hard surface. The mark on the tape will reveal whether the bottom of the club is striking the surface in the center of the sole, a pretty foolproof way to make sure that the lie is correct.

Lie is very important, particularly in the short irons. A few degrees too upright or too flat can easily cause shots to fly several yards off line, even with a good swing. After you get your clubs tested and adjusted, it is still important to keep a watchful eye on the divots that you take on the course. That is the best test of all. If you cut your divots "toe heavy" your clubs are too flat. If you cut your divots "heel heavy" your clubs are too upright. As is always the case, whatever you do indoors, should be checked on the course.

There usually isn't too much you can do with lie in woods. Ping has come closest to trying to fit woods with different lies and face angles in addition to lofts. The theory is that drivers especially are teed up so the concept of fitting for lie is much less important. We still like the idea of fitting lie for drivers as well, but today the only company that offers that service is Ping. You might also check the specifications on a driver you are thinking about buying. There can be several degrees of variance in lie angle, not to mention differences in "manufacturing anomalies". We have seen lie angle variations of up to five degrees in the same model of driver head.