Fitting Methodology: Dynamic v. Static

One of the innovations that has been widely accepted among custom club makers over the last few years is that the best results in fitting clubs are obtained from hitting balls. That sounds obvious, but it was not that many years ago that professionals used a ruler and measured "wrist to floor" or "second knuckle to floor" and determined the right clubs from that "static" measurement.

Today, it is common to employ "computerized" analysis of a player's swing to determine swing speed, tempo, ball speed, carry distance per club and in more advanced systems, the launch angle and ball spin rate. It is a reasonable question to ask your club fitter the computerized system he utilizes in fitting. At CalGolfTech, we employ the Distance Caddy that is also employed by Callaway in their new electronic fitting system.

Computers are usually combined with more traditional methods in dynamic fitting such as impact labels on a clubface to determine the club length that gives the most consistent striking pattern or tape on the sole to determine the proper lie angle.

Many fitters work exclusively indoors, hitting into a net. That method can give good results and is certainly easier and less expensive for the fitter. However, we believe that "fine tuning" a fitting requires hitting balls outdoors and watching the ball flight.