What is REAL Custom Fitting? By Tom Wishon

A colleague of mine in the custom clubmaking industry once made an analogy between custom clubfitting and washing your car that I believe to be very appropriate.

If your car is dirty and trashed out, you can pull it into the driveway, hook up the hose and spray off most of the surface dirt and grime. On the other hand, you can do a better job in washing your car by filling a bucket with soapy water and scrub off all of the dirt with a sponge and a little ‘elbow grease.’ Or, you can pull out all of the stops and not only scrub the outside of the car, but wash, wipe, vacuum and detail the inside as well and finish with a wax and buff job.

Custom clubfitting is very much the same way. If you realize that you simply bought your golf clubs in standard form, off the rack from a golf retailer or pro shop and you are curious as to whether your game may benefit from being custom fit, there are many different options available in the golf business, all which are termed by some to be a ‘custom fitting.’ The problem is, since 98% of all golfers really don’t know what constitutes a real custom fitting, it’s easy to think you’re getting the ‘full detail job’ when you’re really ending up with only a ‘hose job.’

Real Custom Fitting is not answering five or six questions on a web site to be ‘fit’ into a driver or a set of irons.

Real Custom Fitting is not a cart with wheels filled with different golf clubs and sitting in a pro shop or on the practice range.

Real Custom Fitting is not attending a Demo Day at your local driving range and hitting clubs until you find something you like.

Real Custom Fitting is not something that can be accomplished from start to finish in 20 minutes or less, regardless if you are hitting balls on a launch monitor.

Real Custom Fitting is not done by altering some aspects of an existing standard made set of golf clubs.

Real Custom Fitting IS working one on one with a trained custom clubmaker over a period of at least 45 minutes or more, and frequently over the course of 2 or more visits to the clubmakers shop.

Real Custom Fitting IS being fit from scratch, in the same manner as a tailor making a custom suit, with the right clubheads, shafts, and grips being recommended by the custom clubmaker from a wide variety of different models, designs and performance factors.

Real Custom Fitting IS the domain of the serious, professional clubmaker who ‘lives, eats and breathes’ all of the information available which will allow him or her to accurately match each golfer’s swing to the best fit set of golf clubs.