Green Grass Golf Shop

This is certainly a question I am asked a lot, how often should you get fit for new golf clubs? Working primarily with Titleist over the last half-decade, that answer is pretty simple. Titleist is the only major manufacturer that, in my opinion, currently releases things on a proper schedule. If they release a new driver, a new set of irons, there is a minimum 2 years before they will drop a replacement for that design. When you go out and buy their newest GT2 driver, you can guarantee there won’t be another “GT2” type model for at least 2 years. Now thankfully the days of Mark King over at Taylormade with new golf clubs every 3 months are over. That uber-accelerated schedule nearly sunk the entire golf equipment industry, put a lot of club manufacturers completely out of business and turned a lot of people off from the game during a time it should have been growing at its fastest. Those lessons have been learned and now at least it’s only once every year that most reputable manufacturers are putting out new clubs, but that still begs the question, do you need to get fit every year if you upgrade to those new clubs? The short answer is you need to get fit every time you buy new clubs, and over the next few paragraphs we’ll get into the details of why.

The first and most glaring reason is the equipment itself. Taking Titleist for example again, though they are no different than most manufacturers these days, the drivers they put out are named differently for a reason. The GT2 flies higher with generally a little more forgiveness and consistent ball speeds all across the face than the other two new models they recently released, they are all made for different players, and other companies follow similar patterns. They don’t put out just one driver for everyone, they drop 3-4 at a time that perform differently to one another as far as launch, spin and forgiveness. However, as the years have gone on the models that offer less forgiveness than others in the line have been getting more and more forgiving in comparison. This year’s GT3 is probably more forgiving than the TS2 you’ve had in your bag for 6 years at this point, it could even be higher launching with less spin. That’s something else that’s been happening to all drivers over the past decade, the designs are getting so advanced that with each new model typically every driver will be designed to have a higher launch and lower spin than the club it replaced. So your perfect shaft might not fit exactly the same in that new driver that launches and spins differently than your old driver. Or you could even get a better launch and spin from a “less forgiving” model on paper than the one you were fit for even last year or the year before. Not to mention most of our bodies are constantly changing, and some more than even the clubs can change…

Most of us have ever changing swings as well, in my experience there are very, very few players out there that that maintain the exact same swing mechanics for years at a time. People get lessons, or someone in their sweeps group gets lessons and shares that with the foursome, swings get micro adjusted. Our bodies are also ever-changing, even through your 20’s and 30’s when they tend to change the least, they are still changing shapes. We are constantly gaining or losing flexibility, growing and shrinking (both up/down and in/out you little chocolate addict, you) getting lessons and working out. Most of us are watching the Tour on Sundays for Faldo to break down the super slow-mo of Joel Dahmen’s swing for the move that he thinks we all need to work into our own mechanics, everything in our every day lives has an impact over how we try to swing the golf club. That means your club heads and shafts you were fit for even a year ago could be outrageously too flexible or not flexible enough for your current game, too forgiving or not enough, too much distance or not enough. Combine that with the fact the clubs are changing just as much, that is always going to be a recipe for needing to get fit as often as possible. Please, as always for the love of all that you believe in, schedule a fitting with your nearest golf professional the next time you need new golf clubs!