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Cool Clubs – An Introduction to Club Fitting

–by Michael Bartlett

Golfers serious about their game need to discover the 21st-century way of buying the right club–custom fitting using computers and cameras.
 
As Cool Clubs founder Mark Timms points out, only a small segment of the golfing population has been properly fitted for clubs. His arguments for doing so are: 1) It’s cheaper in the long run to invest in fitting sessions rather than continue buying the wrong clubs at considerable cost, 2) the knowledge one gains from the sessions will help you swing better, specifically the putter fitting which revolves not only around your present putter but your putting set-up and stroke, both analyzed in precise detail.
 
Today’s 21st century testing process requires time, a relatively modest financial investment and effort by you the golfer, both physical and mental. To go through the six separate Cool Club fittings, from driver to putter, takes about seven hours. The total cost is about $600-700, or you can choose single sessions at $100-150. The effort you put in requires hitting dozens of balls with all of your clubs and mastering a short course in technical terminology. If you persevere, you’ll likely have a set of clubs that drops strokes off your game, makes you more aware of how your swing works, and guaranteed you’ll never look at a golf club the same way, from grip to grooves.
 
In order to help golfers of all skill levels, especially middle-to-high handicappers, we put ourselves in the hands of the Cool Clubs experts and went through the entire battery of fittings. We worked in one of the indoor testing bays and outdoors at the Cool Clubs TPC  of Scottsdale facility where they perform the “Gap Fitting” analysis.
 
Our fitting specialist was Josiah Solberg.Solberg possesses a boundless enthusiasm for his craft that never wavered during a marathon six-hour session in which he worked his way through all clubs in our bag on 18 parameters. Solberg proved to be articulate and concise as he explained the machines used in the testing, the basic factors to be measured and what he would recommend with each club to improve performance. He even went so far as to suggest some swing adjustment, thus providing free lessons along the way.
 
To break down the process, here are five areas covered when you work with a professional fitter like Cool Clubs.
 
1)     The Basics
2)     The Driver
3)     Irons: The Short and Long (Hybrids/Fairway Woods)
4)     Putting 
5)     Gap Fitting