What Do They Do at a Golf Club Fitting?

Thinking about getting your golf clubs custom-fit but not sure what the process really involves? You're not alone. Many golfers assume it's just for professionals or is an overly complicated experience. The reality is much simpler and more helpful than you might think. A fitting is a collaboration aimed at one thing: building a set of tools that work with your unique swing, not against it. This guide breaks down exactly what happens during a modern golf club fitting, step-by-step, so you know just what to expect.

It Starts with a Conversation: The Player Interview

Before you even hit a golf ball, a good fitter will start by talking to you. This is one of the most important parts of the entire process. They aren't just selling you clubs, they're solving your problems. They can’t do that without understanding your game first. Expect them to ask questions like:

• What's your current handicap or typical score? This gives them a general idea of your skill level.
• What’s your common miss? Are you fighting a slice? Do you tend to pull shots left? Hit the ball too low? This is the core problem they want to solve.
• What are your goals for your game? Are you trying to break 100 for the first time, or are you trying to become a scratch golfer? Do you want more distance, better accuracy, or more consistency?
• Do you have any physical limitations or past injuries? A bad back or a stiff shoulder can significantly influence the type of shaft and club build that will work best for you.
• What do you like or dislike about your current clubs? Maybe you love the look of your irons but hate the feel, or you feel like your driver shaft is too flimsy.

Actionable Advice: Be brutally honest. There's no judgment here. If you tell your fitter you're hitting weak slices, you're not admitting failure, you're giving them the a clue they need to help you. Think about your biggest on-course frustrations before you arrive and be ready to share them.

Setting the Baseline: Your Current Clubs and the Launch Monitor

Next, you’ll be asked to warm up and hit some shots with your own clubs, specifically the one you're being fitted for (usually a 6 or 7-iron for an iron fitting). During this phase, you’ll be hitting into a net or screen equipped with a launch monitor like a TrackMan or Foresight GCQuad.

Why do they do this? The fitter needs to establish a baseline. They need to see a clear picture of:

1. Your natural swing tendencies (tempo, transition, attack angle).
2. What your current equipment is *actually* doing.

The launch monitor will collect a trove of data on every shot, but the fitter will immediately zero in on a few key metrics:

• Club Head Speed: How fast you're swinging the club.
• Ball Speed: How efficiently you're transferring energy from the club to the ball.
• Launch Angle: The angle the ball takes off at right after impact.
• Spin Rate: How much backspin the ball has, which affects how high it flies and how quickly it stops.
• Dispersion: How tightly your shots are grouped together.

This data gives the fitter statistical proof of the problems you described in the interview. For a player who slices, they will likely see a low spin rate with an open club face at impact and a ball launching too far to the right. Now they have the puzzle, the next step is finding the pieces to solve it.

The Heart of the Fitting: Testing and Dialing it in

Here's where the real "building" begins. A great fitter has a massive matrix of components - dozens of club heads and hundreds of shafts. Their job is not to have you try all of them. Their job is to use their expertise and the data from your baseline to narrow those hundreds of options down to just a handful of promising candidates.

This process is about isolating variables. They won't just hand you a completely different club. Instead, they’ll typically follow a methodical process, something like this:

Step 1: Finding the Right Club Head

Based on your interview and baseline numbers, the fitter will select 2-3 club heads for you to try. For example, if you said you need more forgiveness, they'll pull from the "game-improvement" category. If you mentioned you want to shape the ball more, they’ll lean toward "players" models. You'll hit a few shots with each, likely attached to a shaft similar to your current one. Here, they're looking for which head gives you the best combination of ball speed, forgiveness (how straight your mishits go), launch, and, just as important, which one you like the look and feel of.

Step 2: Optimizing the Engine – The Shaft

Once you've narrowed it down to the best-performing club head, the focus moves to the shaft. This is often where the biggest gains in feel and performance are found. The fitter will use your club head speed, tempo, and transition from the warm-up to grab a few shafts with different profiles.

What they're adjusting:

• Shaft Flex: This goes way beyond Regular, Stiff, or Extra-Stiff. Those labels aren't standardized across brands. A fitter looks at the full shaft profile, including how and where it bends (the kick point), to match it to your swing dynamics for optimal launch and feel.
• Shaft Weight: This is powerful. A lighter shaft can help increase club head speed for some, while a heavier shaft can smooth out a jerky tempo and improve consistency for others. It’s all about finding the weight that synchronizes with your natural rhythm.

You’ll hit a series of shots with each shaft combination. The fitter will be watching the data closely, looking for the shaft that tightens your dispersion, optimizes your launch and spin, and gives you more consistent ball speed across the face. "Wow, all my shots are flying higher and landing closer together," is the kind of feedback that signals you’re on the right track.

Step 3: Fine-Tuning the Specifications

With the winning head and shaft combination identified, the final step is to dial in the smaller - but equally significant - details. This is where a fitting truly separates a custom-built club from an off-the-rack one.

• Length: While they might take a starting wrist-to-floor measurement, the final length is determined by your swing dynamics. They’ll use impact tape on the clubface to see where you're making contact. If you’re consistently hitting it toward the toe, a slightly longer shaft might be needed to help you find the center.
• Lie Angle: This is what controls your initial shot direction. As you swing, the fitter will place impact tape on the sole of the club and have you hit off a lie board. The marks on the tape tell the story. A mark toward the heel means the club is too upright (often causing pulls or hooks). A mark toward the toe means it's too flat (often causing pushes or slices). They'll bend the club until the mark is perfectly centered.
• Loft: They will check the lofts to ensure proper "gapping" - meaning you have a consistent and predictable yardage difference between each iron. They can bend lofts stronger or weaker to make sure there are no awkward gaps, like your 7-iron and 8-iron going the same distance.
• Grip Size: The last piece is the grip. They’ll measure your hand and have you try a few sizes. A grip that's too small can cause overactive hands and hooking, while one that's too large can restrict your hands and lead to slicing.

The Result: Your Personalized Spec Sheet

At the end of the session, they won't just hand you a bag of clubs. You'll receive a detailed "spec sheet" outlining every single piece of your new club's DNA: the exact head model, shaft model, flex, weight, final length, lie angle, loft series, and grip size.

You can then use this sheet to order your new clubs, built from the manufacturer precisely to those specifications. You walk away not with a guess, but with a blueprint for a set of clubs engineered specifically for you.

Final Thoughts

A golf club fitting removes the guesswork and replaces it with data and professional insight. It’s a personalized, collaborative process that marries technology with the human element of feel, resulting in a set of clubs that gives you the best possible chance to play your best golf.

Once your custom clubs are in your bag, the focus shifts to using them with confidence and smarts out on the course. That’s why we’ve built Caddie AI to be your personal on-demand expert, giving you strategic advice on any hole and even analyzing tricky lies from a photo to help you make the smartest possible decision with your new custom-fit tools.