LALI STANDER: On buying new golf clubs that have a personal touch

Golfers typically replace their drivers every four to five years, their irons a little less frequently. Wedges have a shorter shelf life, while woods or hybrids tend to stick around longer. Some guys hold on to putters for a lifetime, but I know more than a few pros who may be on their second or third putter just this month.

At some point, it all needs replacing. If you are in the market for new clubs, do you revert to what you know or randomly pick a set? Do you let the salesman convince you to go for the latest in-thing on the market, is your choice price motivated, or do you opt for custom fitting?

Professional golfers would unequivocally tell you to get custom fitted, but the majority of amateurs claim they are not good enough to warrant customised clubs. But let’s get real, it adds to the dent in your bank account. New clubs undoubtedly inflict some serious financial damage, so is all that schlepp and additional cost really worth your while?

Ask beginners about the fundamentals of golf and they will rattle them off: keep your head down, keep your left arm straight and make sure your swing is on a plane.

And yes, those are the building blocks of a good game, but the pros will tell you that the most important aspect of a game takes place before you even step up to the first tee.

I remember that buying my first set of clubs was a nerve-wracking experience and I don’t think much has changed in the past 20 years.

There you are, standing in front of this vast sea of silver clubs. To a beginner, they all look the same. They don’t even see the markings, loft and lie angles, because they don’t have a first idea what it’s about. It’s hugely intimidating, so little wonder beginners treat club buying like a visit to a McDonald’s  drive-through — walk in, grab the cheapest set quick as you can, tap your card and get the hell out before some salesman traps you in a web of techno-garbage speak.

Yet, beginners are precisely the golfers who should get custom-fitted first, because the higher the handicap, the more important it is to have clubs that fit the framework of your body and swing.

Using a club without a properly matched shaft, with the wrong weight or length, or the wrong loft or lie causes you to overcompensate. Ultimately, it prevents you from properly developing your game.

About the time you decide to actively start working on lowering your handicap to add some prizes to the clubs in your car’s boot, you’ve already muscle-memorised all the bad habits.

But, luckily in golf, it’s never too late. Just ask all the pros who have gone through the agony of swing changes but came out coining it on the other side.

The key benefit to getting a set of clubs custom-fitted is to give you a better overall swing experience. It leaves you with a set of clubs that not only fits your physical dimensions, but matches your strength, your stance and the way you swing.

Put simply, your clubs won’t go into the ground before getting to the ball. By making better contact and tightening your shot dispersion, your accuracy improves, you’ll find more fairways, hit the ball a helluva lot straighter and stay out of trouble.

And all this will lead to better scores. Don’t we all want clubs that help us to hit it further, straighter and closer to the pin?

Club-fitting dates back decades and having clubs expertly fitted to your swing and body used to be an extravagance reserved for the best players in the world, but with the rapid evolution of tools such as launch monitors, and with the market flush with adjustable clubheads, good club-fitting is available to all.

In fact, according to a study done in the US in 2021, no other category in the golf industry has changed as dramatically over the past three decades.

In the “dark ages” of club-fitting, individual clubs fitted to the individual’s physical stature.

Then came dynamic fitting, which explored the unique swing characteristics of each individual golfer, working with devices like masking tape and pieces of plywood. It took a big step towards actually engaging with the golfer, but it still seriously lacked hard data.

Enter the era of computer simulators that moved custom-fitting from a purely manual interpretation to a more scientific exercise. And since the R&A and USPGA announced a rules change in 2004 that allowed adjustability in golf equipment — as long as it’s not done during a round — and manufacturers began rolling out adjustable woods and hybrids, the custom-fitting industry has revolutionised. 

Today you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your couch to get a custom-fitted set of clubs delivered to your house.

Virtual club-fitting took off like a rocket during the Covid-19 pandemic and shows absolutely no decline. In  fact, it’s popularity continued on an upward trajectory in 2022 and will most likely stay on trend as more and more manufacturers and club-fitters get on this gravy train.

I started my golf journey of more than 20 years in the pro ranks, and I’m a huge advocate for custom club-fitting, but irrespective of all the advances, I still believe in the personal touch. That little computer can analyse every nook and cranny of your swing and your body, but ultimately it’s still a person hitting that club. And that will always require the personal touch.