A Coach’s Perspective on Club Fitting
Walk into any modern golf retailer and you’ll see the tech: high-speed cameras, launch monitors, racks of interchangeable shafts and clubheads. Club fitting is everywhere—and for good reason. When timed right, a proper fitting can refine launch conditions, tighten dispersion, and add distance.
But as coaches, we’ve seen the other side of the coin: players investing thousands in a fitted setup before ever building a consistent, repeatable swing. It’s like designing a race car around an unfinished engine.
Our goal isn’t to discredit club fitting—it’s to help players use it more effectively. And that starts by understanding what it really is, how it works, and when it's most useful.
What Happens in a Club Fitting?
A professional fitting is more than just trying out a few clubs. It’s a structured process that evaluates your swing characteristics and matches equipment to optimize your numbers. Here's what gets tested:
Shaft Characteristics
Flex (stiff, regular, etc.) matches swing speed and tempo.
Bend profile determines where the shaft flexes—tip, mid, or butt—and affects launch and feel.
Weight and material (graphite vs. steel) influence swing speed, load, and fatigue.
Clubhead Variables
Loft and lie angle change launch direction, spin rate, and turf interaction.
Face design (forgiveness, offset, bulge/roll) influences mishit correction and shot shape bias.
Center of gravity (CG) placement alters launch and spin—low and back launches higher, forward CG reduces spin for a more penetrating flight.
Moment of inertia (MOI) reflects forgiveness on off-center hits.
Grip
Size and texture affect grip pressure and wrist mobility.
Improper grip size can cause unintentional face rotation or tension.
Length
Influences posture, tempo, and strike location (toe vs heel bias).
Launch Monitor Data
Fitters will track:
Ball speed
Clubhead speed
Smash factor
Launch angle
Spin rate
Descent angle
Carry and total distance
Face/path data
In short: club fitting is highly detailed. But here’s the key—those details only serve you well if your swing is stable.
Why Lessons Come First
Most golfers seeking lessons are still refining movement patterns: over-the-top transitions, inconsistent low points, early extension, face control issues. These technical flaws change the way you deliver the club to the ball—day by day, even swing by swing.
If your swing is evolving, any fitted club becomes a moving target. You might match a club to your current steep angle of attack, only to shallow it six lessons later. You might adjust for a slice with offset or a heel-biased weight, only to fix your clubface mechanics in training.
Better to build the swing, then build the toolbox to match it.
When a Fitting Still Makes Sense
That said, we’re not anti-fitting. There are cases where it’s worth it—even early on:
If you’re unusually tall, short, or strong relative to standard specs
If your clubs are 10+ years old with outdated grooves, loft gaps, or no adjustability
If you’re experiencing equipment-induced swing compensations (e.g., toe strikes from shafts that are too long or flat)
If you're gearing up for tournament play and want every variable dialed in
We’ll always support a fitting that’s done in conjunction with coaching goals—not as a substitute for them.
The Role of Your Coach
Great coaching makes club fitting even more effective.
As your mechanics stabilize, we can help identify when your delivery is repeatable enough for a fitting to add value. We’ll even communicate with your fitter to ensure the equipment choices match what we’re building—rather than working against it.
In fact, many of the best fitters prefer working with coached players because their swing data is more predictable.
Final Thought
At ATX Golf Performance, we believe that technology should support skill—not replace it. That’s why our Austin golf lessons prioritize body awareness, sequencing, and impact fundamentals first.
Our goal is to help you become the kind of golfer who benefits from a fitting—because your swing deserves to be optimized, not patched.
If you're looking for elite golf instruction in Austin, we’re here to guide your progression step by step, from movement to measurement. And when the time is right, we’ll help you make informed, data-backed equipment decisions that reflect the golfer you’ve become—not the one you were trying to fix.