6 minute read
Fit To A Tee!
The many benefits of a PUETZ CLUB FITTING through the lens of a local golfer that found clubs just for him
BY TONY DEAR • CG EDITOR
A Foresight GCQuad launch monitor measures all the important metrics as Jim Schmidt hits balls into a screen at Puetz Golf in Tukwila. His ball speed, launch angle, spin rate, side angle (essentially indicating whether the ball is starting right or left of the target), carry yards and total yards flash up before him and he sighs the sigh of every golfer who wishes his numbers were just a little bit better.
He’s 65 now, retired, and leaking yards a little quicker than he’d like. To his credit, though, Schmidt is determined to do something about it, driving to Tukwila to see Puetz club fitter Jack Neville, whom he hopes can customize a set of clubs that might lead to marked improvement.
Neville is a native Oregonian who’s been the store manager at Tukwila for three years. Though October and November tend to be busy but not frenetic, during the summer, Neville will typically schedule 20 fittings a month, sometimes even totaling three per day.
“I’d say about 90 percent of the golfers I fit are motivated to come by a desire for more distance,” he adds. “Although I do offer wedge, putter, and even ball fittings, the vast majority of people are here to find a few extra yards.”
Not Schmidt, though. Not today anyway. Sure, the distance he hits the ball comes up, but he’s here mainly to find a set of irons that will help him become more consistent. He’s been playing with Srixon’s ZX5 irons and SteelFiber shafts and says he’s just not hitting it as well as he likes.
“I wasn’t fit for these clubs,” he says. “I like them and can hit some nice shots with them, but I’m not sure they’re quite right for me.”
The session begins with Neville asking Schmidt what he’s hoping to achieve today, if there’s anything he specifically wants to try, or if he’d feel that he missed out if he went home without hitting something in particular. The information Neville is listening for is essential and will help him to decide where the fitting should begin. Just as important, it will also establish the right atmosphere.
“I’m really just trying to relax the customer,” he says. “I see a lot of new and inexperienced golfers who have never been fit for clubs before, and they’re often a little nervous to begin with.”
Many, Neville adds, will even wonder if they should be there at all, convinced they’re not good enough to be fit for golf clubs.
“That’s absolutely wrong,” he asserts. “Anyone of any standard stands to benefit. In an ideal world, everyone would be fit,” he says. “And it’s probably the novice or high-handicapper who will benefit the most.”
Again, this doesn’t really apply to Schmidt. He’s worked at Druids Glen GC in Kent for seven years, marshalling, cleaning carts, mowing grass, and now behind the counter in the pro shop. He’s long known the value of club fitting, seeing it work wonders for the professionals in the shop looking to break par for 18 holes, as well as the high-handicappers who come in thrilled with the one par they made the entire round.
Neville has Schmidt hit a few balls just to see where he’s at. What he sees enables him to get a baseline in his mind and suggest a few clubs he thinks will give Schmidt what he wants. It would be a waste of time to give a 100-shooter who wanted more distance a blade or muscleback iron with an extra-stiff shaft just because that’s what the best player in the world might be using.
“Having that baseline helps me know where to start,” he says.
Neville is trained well enough, and has been doing this for long enough, that he can make a very educated guess at what sort of club a customer needs.
Unless they specify a certain club they want to try, brands won’t enter the conversation until late in the session, if at all. Early in the session, though, it’s all about finding a category or selection of clubs that would be appropriate to try.
Neville gives Schmidt Callaway, Titleist, Ping and Srixon clubs to hit, and tries each with a couple of shafts getting ever closer to the numbers and feel Schmidt is hoping to find. Neville remains genial but professional throughout, happy to get a little technical at times, as he knows Schmidt has been playing and talking golf for a long time.
“Everyone’s different,” he says. “Some people want to talk about shot apex, smash factors, dispersion patterns and the rate or angle at which a ball descends to the green, while others prefer to keep it simple. It’s rare though to get a customer who’d rather not hear anything about why he’s trying a certain club and just wants to be handed whatever works best for them.”
The magic number of balls Neville wants to see Schmidt strike is about 30.
“Any more than that, and the information I get starts to become distorted,” he says. “The golfer is beginning to lose some speed by then, and often getting a little tired.”
At that point, Neville reveals what he thinks will work best. He recommends that next spring, Schmidt should be hitting Srixon ZX4s with a graphite shaft.
“We felt the graphite shaft was important because it’s so much lighter,” says Schmidt. “That will help me swing the club a little faster without losing a lot of energy, which is important when you get to my age.”
Schmidt leaves the Tukwila store a happy man. With the help of a state-of-the-art launch monitor and his fitter’s expertise, he has found a club that he is convinced will help him swing a little faster and more consistently, claw back a few of the shots he’s lost in recent years and, most importantly, enjoy the game a lot more.
He's had fun this morning and he has a great understanding about everything Neville has explained to him. He’ll re-enter the golf world with renewed vigor, eager to hit the shots he knows he can.
“Club-fitting is so important,” says Schmidt. “I don’t think you can enjoy the game as much as possible, or be as good as you should be, until you get fitted.”
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