Choosing a professional Clubmaker / Clubfitter:
The Science is in The Fitting; The Craft is in The Construction
First and foremost, lets answer the question, who qualifies as a "Professional Clubmaker". A professional Clubmaker fits a golfer for clubs that will ensure playability and maximize their potential for distance and accuracy. Your clubs will be built using only the highest quality original clubhead, shaft and grip designs. Not to be confused with people who assemble golf clubs as a hobby from poor quality components, which are clones or imitations of brand name golf clubs. The professional clubmaker must also be an experienced trained clubfitter to properly assemble golf clubs to exact specifications for optimum performance. Be assured, there is much more to clubmaking than gluing heads to shafts.
The community of independent professional clubmakers take pride in their ability to properly fit and build custom made golf clubs. The professional clubmaker also takes pride in achieving the highest level of expertise available in his field. These true professionals stand out as a result of their training, experience and attention to every detail in the fitting process and the final assembly of golf clubs. An expert fitting will result in golf clubs that truly match the physical characteristics and swing mechanics of golfers of all abilities from the recreational golfer to the professional.
A professional clubmaker guides the golfer through an extensive fitting session which lasts from 2-3 hours, to analyze all aspects of their physical attributes, present equipment, swing movements, playing strengths and weaknesses. This is the only way to be able to recommend the proper and correct individual specifications for clubheads, shafts and grips.
True custom fitting cannot be achieved through a trial and error hitting session of golf clubs from a rack or cart with limited options in their model of clubheads, shafts or grips. A professional clubmaker takes into consideration all of the more than 20 different specifications that make up a golf club. He/she will then select from hundreds of different possible combinations of shafts, grips and clubheads.
Just as you would carry out due diligence when you make any major purchase such as a house or car, here are a few things to look for and questions to ask when seeking out a professional clubmaker:
- What is your training and what are your clubmaking credentials? Have you been trained, tested and certified by the PCS (Professional Clubmakers Society) or the GCA (Golf Clubmakers Association). These are the two largest international testing centers available worldwide.
- Do you the knowledge and equipment to measure lofts, lie angels, shaft frequency, tempo, swing speeds, rate of acceleration, grip size and lengths.
- How long have you been in business?
- What is your guarantee and do you warranty your product?
- Can you provide testimonials or references?
- Can you fit a player with disabilities, or physical limitations?
These professional clubmakers must have all of these attributes and provide you with this information so you can be assured that your golf clubs will perform when you do and enhance your enjoyment of the game of golf.
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