Increasing Driving Distance with a Driver Club Fitting
It may be that hearing, “don’t change your swing, I’ll adjust the clubs,” is one of the best things that a golfer can hear. I had chosen Harmon Golf & Fitness for my fitting because fitter, John Almeida came highly recommended from my coach, Brian, as well as Golf.com and Golf Digest. I’ve been a “member” at Harmon for 2 years now, but you do not need to be a member to access their facilities and you especially don’t need to be a member to get a fitting or lessons from one of their pros.
I had been skeptical that club fitting could actually make a difference, but with a 101 swing speed, a driver that I had bought off the rack at dicks for $150 three seasons ago, and a friend who swore by his driver fitting, I figured it was worth a try. Traditionally, the driver had been the worst club in my bag. It was the source of 4-6 penalty strokes per round, but when I hit it well, I was still lagging behind the other people in my group most of the time.
I am cheap by nature. I’m always interested in learning how to do things myself but had never actually had the skills to make adjustments and improvements to my own clubs. Club fitting seems to be part art and part science. It’s fun to watch on Youtube as the guys at TXG are able to come up with infinite creative solutions for something that seemed to me that it should be so finite.
“Do you have any preference of what company to work with?” John asked me as we started. “No, whatever works best,” I replied. John responded with a simple, “Good.” From reading the folks at MyGolfSpy you would expect there to be tremendous differences in clubs. It’s important to remind myself that while they claim not to advertise, they want people to pay attention to every detail because that is how they make money off of affiliate links. Everyone has an agenda and, though I am a fan, MyGolfSpy is no different.
As I warm up before I even get to my driver, John can already tell something is wrong with my irons. He kindly plants the seed for my need to get fitted for new irons given the fact that my shafts don’t match my swing. After pointing this out, let me just say, a key part of any club fitters’ job is to make the player feel comfortable. John does this. And you don’t feel like you’re being sold to. Pricing in golf is simple, the manufacturers have tight control over your pricing, and so John feels no need to upsell. You can also tell he has confidence in what he does, which is another reason he doesn’t feel he needs to sell.
I have Regular Flex on my irons and on my (now former) driver. Immediately, John was aware of that and told me that I should be thinking stiff flex. On that day, I was actually hitting my driver pretty well, but he quickly saw my miss, which was a slice. After 5 swings with my driver, he started putting other stuff together. Before handing me a new club he mentioned he wouldn’t be able to add distance to my swing, but he could add consistency.
Throughout the session, I tried a couple of the Callaway Mavrik options, a TaylorMade Sim (Max, I believe), Titleist TS2, and the Cobra SpeedZone. They were all great clubs. Once the correct shaft was put on them, they all felt great and performed great. On average, it seemed like I was hitting it about 265 yards - I forget what the carry was.
I was looking for consistency so what John had said really hit home. This is a club that has never gone far for me and has only caused me to lose strokes by going OB. If I’m honest, yes, I wanted more distance, but most important to me was getting 220 carry, forgiveness, and more consistency. The three biggest differences I felt throughout the fitting were the control I felt with the stiff shaft, the adjustments he was able to make to lie angle and draw/fade bias, and the weight of the shaft. I should mention, I was told I have low spin off my driver so that ruled out the need to make other adjustments on my club.
Despite what John said about not adding distance, he did. I wasn’t able to hit my driver more than 250 total and on that day, in sub-50 degree weather, I was hitting 265 regularly and 275 once I got a hang of the stiff shaft and let myself swing harder. Over the course of an hour, I saw my swing get more consistent. I think I will end up picking up an extra 15 to 25 yards on my drives. That means, on a 400 yard par 4, I’ll be hitting a pitching/gap wedge versus an 8-iron into the green.
What I tested, and how I felt about them:
I didn’t like TaylorMade Sim - possibly subconsciously because I don’t like the brand. I didn’t like looking down at it; and, it wasn’t the feel I liked.
The Cobra was great. It feels like you're holding a ferrari. But, I pulled a couple of shots and the weight felt a little bit off.
The Titleist TS2 was great, but I really liked the Cobra, and the Callaway’s outline on the outside.
I felt the Callaway to be most forgiving. I hit the ball and would say, “uh, I missed that one”, and it would go further than the others and still go straight. I liked looking down at the club.
Here are the specs I got:
Head: Callaway Mavrik Max 10.5
Shaft: Tensei Blue 65, Stiff and Standard Length
Grip: Golf Price MCC MidSize
Draw bias and +2 degree (so 12.5 degree lie angle total)
In the end it came down to what I had the most confidence in. All of the drivers tested felt great, and performed well. A big shout out to John Almeida and Harmon Golf & Fitness for a great experience.