Every golf publication tells you to get fitted, usually without saying who benefits and by how much. Here's a straighter answer.
Who should get fitted
Anyone about to spend real money on clubs. If you're buying a driver or a set of irons, the fitting costs a small fraction of the purchase and determines whether the purchase works. Buying unfitted clubs is spending a lot to optimise nothing.
Anyone unusually tall or short. Standard clubs are built for a fairly narrow range of heights. If you're outside it, your lie angles are wrong and every iron shot starts offline before you've done anything wrong.
Anyone who can't get the ball airborne with a driver, or who launches it too high and loses distance. Both are usually equipment problems as much as swing problems.
Anyone whose miss is consistent. A reliable pattern is a fitting problem waiting to be solved. Wild and varied misses are a coaching problem first.
Who shouldn't bother yet
Complete beginners. Your swing will change enormously in your first two years. Get a cheap secondhand set, take lessons, and get fitted when your swing has settled into something.
Anyone whose strike is genuinely all over the face. A fitting measures your delivery, and if your delivery changes every swing there's nothing stable to fit to. Spend the money on lessons first and come back.
Anyone who plays four times a year. Fitting optimises the margins. If you're not playing enough to have consistent margins, the money's better spent on green fees.
What actually gets fitted
In rough order of how much difference each makes:
- Shaft weight and flex — the biggest lever, and the one retail almost never gets right.
- Lie angle — cheap, quick, and commonly wrong. Two degrees off pushes iron shots meaningfully offline.
- Loft — especially in a driver, where most amateurs play too little.
- Length — affects strike location more than people expect.
- Grip size — small effect, but cheap and affects release.
- Head model — genuinely last. The model matters less than everything above it.
Independent versus brand fittings
A brand fitting day is usually free or cheap and run by the manufacturer. You'll be fitted well — into that brand. Excellent if you already know which brand you want, and a good way to get numbers at no cost.
An independent fitter charges a fee and can put you into any brand and any shaft. More expensive, no allegiance, and the fee is often credited against a purchase.
If you're spending serious money and don't have a brand preference, independent is worth the fee.
What to expect on the day
Allow ninety minutes to two hours for a full bag, less for a single club. Bring your current clubs — the fitter needs a baseline. Bring your golf shoes, and wear what you normally play in.
Warm up first. A fitting where the first thirty shots are you loosening up gives the fitter thirty bad data points.
And be honest about your game. A fitter who thinks you're a 12 when you're a 22 will fit you into clubs you can't use.
Straight answer
- Buying clubs
- Yes. Non-negotiable if it's a real spend
- Very tall or short
- Yes. Standard doesn't fit you
- Consistent miss
- Yes. That's fixable
- Beginner
- No. Lessons and cheap used clubs first
- Wildly inconsistent strike
- No. Coaching first
- Cheapest useful version
- Lie-angle check and new grips on what you own
The summary
Fitting is genuinely the best value in golf equipment for anyone who plays regularly and has a repeatable-ish swing. It's also frequently sold to people who'd get more from six lessons.
If you're not sure which you are, ask a coach. They'll tell you honestly, because they've got no stake in selling you a shaft.