Golftec Iron Fitting/Shaft testing

[FatThinShank]

I recently had an iron fitting at Golftec, had never been there before, and left pretty disappointed. First off they had a very minimal number of extra stiff irons shafts, I had done a lot of research and knew some things I wanted to try but they had almost none of them for X stiff including DG X100, C taper, $ Taper, and Nippon Modus 120 or 130. My fitter also didn't seem to really know much about shafts in general, he went online, found the taylormade shaft chart, and then pretty much said yeah I cant find any of those here. He found a DG 105 X and recommended that but that seemed odd as my 7 ball speed was 130mph and I am already a very high ball hitter. 

 

Was wondering how you guys have gone about testing different equipment or shafts specifically if you don't have a good fitter around. 

 

Thanks

Edited December 2, 2020 by FatThinShank

[phizzy30]

I'm lucky enough to have a local guy as a good friend of mine that has a trackman available.  He's a club fitter/builder who I also train in the gym as well.  I try to get on his trackman once a month.  Honestly for you, I would recommend going to a big box store and get on their launch monitor if you don't have access to a higher end club fitting operation.  At least places like Dick's, Golf Galaxy, etc. will have way more options when it comes to testing iron shafts.

Edited December 2, 2020 by phizzy30

[FatThinShank]

I ended up going to Golftec because none of the big box stores had those options either which is a bummer, tried a couple and they said they just don't have any of the X-stiff options available. One had the mizuno shaft optimizer but  once I got the results they only had regular and S versions of those available to test. 

[LIGHT THE CANDLE]

I’d ask for my money back. Sorry I feel bad for you. Where are you located? I would search wrx posts for good fitters in your area. That sounds like a horrible experience 

Edited December 2, 2020 by LIGHT THE CANDLE

[Strategery]

My fitting at Golftec was also underwhelming.

They broke the iron head I was scheduled to try before my appt, had a poor selection of clubs and iron shafts, and the fitter explained very little about my numbers.

I think they just wanted me to buy clubs through them.

 

I ended up testing and buying elsewhere.

[Stuart_G]

8 hours ago, FatThinShank said:

Was wondering how you guys have gone about testing different equipment or shafts specifically if you don't have a good fitter around.

 

Some OEM fitting carts at retail outlets and pro-shops sometimes have a decent selection of shafts.  It's kind of hit and miss depending on how well they maintain the carts.  I wouldn't actually trust a salesman or a pro to fit me - but it would give the opportunity to demo some of the shafts side-by-side.

 

In my case, I had to find a graphite shaft at the time when there was little or no options for demoing or testing the heavier graphite options.   In that case, I bought a single shaft for each models I was considering and some cheap component heads to put together a bunch of clubs I could go to the range and test myself.

 

[phizzy30]

9 hours ago, FatThinShank said:

I ended up going to Golftec because none of the big box stores had those options either which is a bummer, tried a couple and they said they just don't have any of the X-stiff options available. One had the mizuno shaft optimizer but  once I got the results they only had regular and S versions of those available to test. 

If you have any Club Champions near your area, that would be your best bet.  However, they are pricey but have a large selection of x stiff shafts.  I went once awhile back with one of my cousins.  He didn't buy anything but had to shell out 150 bucks for his driving fitting.  

Edited December 2, 2020 by phizzy30

[hoffa72002]

Similar experience for me at GolfTec.  They crunched the numbers and ran all the data and basically just fitted me into irons that were half inch oversized with stock shafts.  Not super impressive, which led to me gathering my own equipment and doing my own club work.  Much easier to dial in each individual club that way.  

[mikewohlwend]

9 hours ago, LIGHT THE CANDLE said:

I’d ask for my money back. Sorry I feel bad for you. Where are you located? I would search we’d for good fitters in your area. That sounds like a horrible experience 

 

This is the correct response.

 

I'm sure there are some good fitters remotely close to you.  

[brosee]

Literally created an account on this website to weigh in here. Had a golf-tec 'fitting' about 6 weeks ago.

 

I did a full bag fitting. It was super-underwhelming, really just a glorified demo session with a dedicated bay for a couple of hours. Right of the bat the fitter made a big deal out of me gaining 15 yards from my current 7 iron to the new ones. He tried to make it seem like it was cause my old clubs were crap and nothing to do with the 4* loft differential from old clubs > new club. There were a couple more little redflags like the fitter being sort of reluctant to tell me what my clubhead speed was "you don't need to worry about that just focus on hitting the ball". Also there was basically zero input and we chose the irons based off the ones I thought felt the best.

 

I should have ended it right there and asked for my $250 back but hindsight is 20-20. 

 

They didn't have a complete set of irons so for the rest of the fitting this dude was fitting me into custom length clubs to try and get the gapping right. He was just assuming what my yardages for all my clubs were going to be based on what I hit the 7 iron. Custom-length clubs are non-refundable.

 

I ordered the irons only through them and was told it would be 2-3 weeks only since there's no custom work to be done on them other than the grip selection. Going into the 6th week now and I'm still waiting.

 

The icing on the cake is I went into a golf-galaxy last week to hit a couple 3 woods. Their sales guys let me take a couple different clubs into a bay and hittem, showed me ball-flights and every stat imaginable for my shots from each club and helped me make a decision, it was almost the exact same experience I received from golf-tec. They also had the irons I ordered sitting there in stock....... I won't be going back to golf-tec.

 

 

[FatThinShank]

Alright well looks like I'm not the only one. I was just surprised at the lack of equipment they had available and to be honest the fitter really didn't know what he was talking about in most cases. I told him that I wanted to move into something different than my current irons, not just an updated model, and that I didn't love the shaft, (JPX 900 forged w/ KBS tour 130x) and he brought out 3 iron heads and 3 shafts, one being the 921 forged and one of the shafts being kbs tour 130x. That's probably when I should have just left. He truly did not know very much about golf equipment, he didn't know what T100's were, but he found them, he thought project x 6.5 was too light of a shaft to try but brought me mostly 105g shafts, even after I asked for DG x100, it was just weird to me.

 

I realize I'm just sort of ranting at this point but I'm a tad bit of an equipment nerd so I was really looking forward to it and was just sort of amazed by the whole thing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FatThinShank]

11 hours ago, LIGHT THE CANDLE said:

I’d ask for my money back. Sorry I feel bad for you. Where are you located? I would search wrx posts for good fitters in your area. That sounds like a horrible experience 

Im near Seattle. I ended up ordering the irons myself a couple weeks later anyways, I just don't have a great way to get the specs checked and confirmed when them come.

[sadclevelandsports]

Question about golftec fittings..so I was watching a golftec fitting on youtube, and they were using this numeric scale for the irons that looked at launch angle, ball speed, land angle. The guy that was getting fit had a pretty steep land angle (which is a good thing in my opinion), but they were working really hard to decrease land angle to improve his overall distance (despite his 7 iron carry being around 190). They had these little sliders with colors, and they were trying to get the sliders to "green" which signify maximized conditions for distance. His slider for land angle was too far right (steep), so they were trying to flatten it to make it green. Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't that seem like a counterproductive thing? 

[RainShadow]

12 minutes ago, FatThinShank said:

Im near Seattle. I ended up ordering the irons myself a couple weeks later anyways, I just don't have a great way to get the specs checked and confirmed when them come.

 Go try Puetz Golf in Seattle. I know they have Flight Scope and a pretty good selection of shafts in their fitting carts. Also hitting outside ( even though off mats ), and when I lived up there they had a couple of pretty knowledgeable fitters at the main store. 

I don't think you're going to find anyone who has every club in the set with your specs anywhere. It doesn't work that way, even if you go to  something like Club Champion. The overhead would be crazy to do that, as you can imagine.

 Oh, and Golf Tec is probably the worst possible place to go for anything. I've wandered into several of their store fronts in different cities and asked a few question and left thoroughly unimpressed.

Edited December 2, 2020 by RainShadow

[mikewohlwend]

Looks like there's a few places local to you.

 

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/clubfitter-directory-americas-best-clubfitters

[FatThinShank]

7 minutes ago, sadclevelandsports said:

Question about golftec fittings..so I was watching a golftec fitting on youtube, and they were using this numeric scale for the irons that looked at launch angle, ball speed, land angle. The guy that was getting fit had a pretty steep land angle (which is a good thing in my opinion), but they were working really hard to decrease land angle to improve his overall distance (despite his 7 iron carry being around 190). They had these little sliders with colors, and they were trying to get the sliders to "green" which signify maximized conditions for distance. His slider for land angle was too far right (steep), so they were trying to flatten it to make it green. Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't that seem like a counterproductive thing? 

I'm pretty sure I saw the same video. haha For my fitting that is all the guy cared about was those 3 sliders being in the optimum zone. I think in the case of that video his spin was pretty high and land angle was pretty high which can be problematic if you are hitting into wind. He had more than enough spin to stop the ball so he doesn't need that height in theory.

 

But I think that can be the problem with fitting that way because you might not like the look or feel of the iron that gets you into the "green zone" there. To me its just a way to sell someone on the fitting working if they can see the sliders moving around, they focus only on launch angle, spin, and landing angle.

 

[Greenskeeper13]

Also pitching in to say golftec experience was horrible .. 

 

Did a driver fitting and he basically took my worst shot on my current driver and compared it to the best shot with the driver he recommend me buying . 
 

adter seeing his trick I asked if I could hit my current driver 3 more times just for craps and giggles .. he was reluctant to but at the end said okay.. 

 

He only let me see the numbers for a short second and then said “ ok hit again “ 

 

what I noticed though was my numbers were very very similar in which there wasn’t going to be a huge change for a new driver .. 

then spent 30-40 minutes throughout the fitting trying to get me to do lessons ect ect .. never again and will never recommmed 

[extrastiff]

 

33 minutes ago, RainShadow said:

 Go try Puetz Golf in Seattle. I know they have Flight Scope and a pretty good selection of shafts in their fitting carts. Also hitting outside ( even though off mats ), and when I lived up there they had a couple of pretty knowledgeable fitters at the main store. 

I don't think you're going to find anyone who has every club in the set with your specs anywhere. It doesn't work that way, even if you go to  something like Club Champion. The overhead would be crazy to do that, as you can imagine.

 Oh, and Golf Tec is probably the worst possible place to go for anything. I've wandered into several of their store fronts in different cities and asked a few question and left thoroughly unimpressed.

They are bad for most things, but for video equipped lesson/practice bay, they are solid 

Edited December 2, 2020 by extrastiff

[Slona]

Bit of a pile on here, but also underwhelmed with GolfTec. It seemed to me that it was much more of a "let's gather numbers then just recommend what the computer spits out" instead of the fitter actually looking at my swing. 

 

I ended up getting a fitting through PXG directly when they had that huge 0211 sale recently and they were much much more involved and caring.

 

I have tried periodically to get back into Dick's near me but the simulator is still shut down due to Covid, unfortunately. I would hang out in there once a quarter or so the past couple years and the guys at mine are very chill. It's nice to just go look at some of your own numbers sometimes without someone trying to fix or sell you something. 

[JCAG]

1 hour ago, mikewohlwend said:

Looks like there's a few places local to you.

 

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/clubfitter-directory-americas-best-clubfitters

Take a close look at that list. Basically it has more crap than gold on it. Notice how many chains stores are listed. Now assuming the typical chain stores is open 7 days a week, about 80 hours a week. They would need 3-4 full time fitters to cover those hours. How many of them are good at it? Ask yourself.

[RainShadow]

52 minutes ago, extrastiff said:

 

They are bad for most things, but for video equipped lesson/practice bay, they are solid 

 Well, it has been 7 years since I left that area for drier climes.

[mgoblue83]

1 hour ago, sadclevelandsports said:

Question about golftec fittings..so I was watching a golftec fitting on youtube, and they were using this numeric scale for the irons that looked at launch angle, ball speed, land angle. The guy that was getting fit had a pretty steep land angle (which is a good thing in my opinion), but they were working really hard to decrease land angle to improve his overall distance (despite his 7 iron carry being around 190). They had these little sliders with colors, and they were trying to get the sliders to "green" which signify maximized conditions for distance. His slider for land angle was too far right (steep), so they were trying to flatten it to make it green. Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't that seem like a counterproductive thing? 

Pretty clear they are being sponsored/paid or partnered with Golftec to make these videos. The fact that it was still an awful fit is very telling...

[sadclevelandsports]

1 hour ago, FatThinShank said:

I'm pretty sure I saw the same video. haha For my fitting that is all the guy cared about was those 3 sliders being in the optimum zone. I think in the case of that video his spin was pretty high and land angle was pretty high which can be problematic if you are hitting into wind. He had more than enough spin to stop the ball so he doesn't need that height in theory.

 

But I think that can be the problem with fitting that way because you might not like the look or feel of the iron that gets you into the "green zone" there. To me its just a way to sell someone on the fitting working if they can see the sliders moving around, they focus only on launch angle, spin, and landing angle.

 

 

Gotcha, that makes sense. Still seems kinda one dimensional to only focus on the little sliders, almost makes me feel like I could be a fitter with my limited knowledge base. 

[FatThinShank]

3 minutes ago, sadclevelandsports said:

 

Gotcha, that makes sense. Still seems kinda one dimensional to only focus on the little sliders, almost makes me feel like I could be a fitter with my limited knowledge base. 

Yeah exactly, pretty much felt like I was fitting myself with a babysitter in the room.

[Goon Golf]

Fittings these days have been ruined by TXG youtube....

 

There are really only a few 100 people on the planet that actually understand golf equipment like Ian Fraser does.

 

If you watch that channel and then go to a random fitter, chances are that fitter doesn't even watch TXG. 

 

I had a fitting done by Titleist Thursday event & I was not happy at all, told me I was losing distance by not switching to the T100S. I said isn't that because they're stronger lofted? I basically just walked away after that.

 

After that I booked another fitting with my club pro who has given me lessons in the past so he knows my swing and play style.

 

We hit the T100S that the Thursday fitter recommended and right away he just laughed at my 7 iron going 195-200 yards carry.

 

"You don't need to hit your 7 iron that far do you?" is what he said lol.

 

Ended up with T100, Project x 6.0 shafts. Honestly I liked the feel of the X100 better- but flight was better with the project X's. Didn't have the 6.5 to try but the 6.0 performs beautifully for me. 

 

[DREWZER300]

I was given a lesson and a free practice session at GolfTec as a Christmas gift about 5 years ago.   

 

It was the one and only lesson I have ever had.    It was supposed to be an hour long and I think 20 minutes was him explaining all the gadgets they hook you up to, 10 minutes of me actually hitting balls, and then 30 minutes of him trying to sell me bigger lesson/practice packages.   Kept trying to tell me how much better it is to practice there because of all the gadgets.   Just felt like it was a rehearsed sales pitch instead of a lesson.    

 

I never went back.  Didn't even use my free practice session. 

 

I've had more in depth conversations with the pro at my local Golf Galaxy while just stopping in to pick up golf balls.  

 

 

[LIGHT THE CANDLE]

13 hours ago, FatThinShank said:

Alright well looks like I'm not the only one. I was just surprised at the lack of equipment they had available and to be honest the fitter really didn't know what he was talking about in most cases. I told him that I wanted to move into something different than my current irons, not just an updated model, and that I didn't love the shaft, (JPX 900 forged w/ KBS tour 130x) and he brought out 3 iron heads and 3 shafts, one being the 921 forged and one of the shafts being kbs tour 130x. That's probably when I should have just left. He truly did not know very much about golf equipment, he didn't know what T100's were, but he found them, he thought project x 6.5 was too light of a shaft to try but brought me mostly 105g shafts, even after I asked for DG x100, it was just weird to me.

 

I realize I'm just sort of ranting at this point but I'm a tad bit of an equipment nerd so I was really looking forward to it and was just sort of amazed by the whole thing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is so disappointing and actually pisses me off. How in the world do you not know what T100’s are? Give me they’re phone number and I’ll get your money back 😡. What a joke.

[LIGHT THE CANDLE]

10 hours ago, Hoot n Shoot said:

Fittings these days have been ruined by TXG youtube....

 

There are really only a few 100 people on the planet that actually understand golf equipment like Ian Fraser does.

 

If you watch that channel and then go to a random fitter, chances are that fitter doesn't even watch TXG. 

 

I had a fitting done by Titleist Thursday event & I was not happy at all, told me I was losing distance by not switching to the T100S. I said isn't that because they're stronger lofted? I basically just walked away after that.

 

After that I booked another fitting with my club pro who has given me lessons in the past so he knows my swing and play style.

 

We hit the T100S that the Thursday fitter recommended and right away he just laughed at my 7 iron going 195-200 yards carry.

 

"You don't need to hit your 7 iron that far do you?" is what he said lol.

 

Ended up with T100, Project x 6.0 shafts. Honestly I liked the feel of the X100 better- but flight was better with the project X's. Didn't have the 6.5 to try but the 6.0 performs beautifully for me. 

 

Love this. Well said.

[Nels55]

I had a rather poor experience at Golftech a few years ago.  I ended up getting a series of lessons from what turned out to be the worst golf instructor I have ever run into.  I am still kicking myself on the butt for going for his obnoxious hard sell on a lesson package, at my age I should have darn well known better.  Anyway as far as club fitting goes during one of the lessons he had me do a lie angle test on one of my irons using the line on the ball test.  The line was straight up and down on the club face but I hit it off the toe and this guy did some mental calculation and told me that I needed to bend my clubs two degrees flat!  I guess that if I had hit it on the heel he would have said that I needed clubs that were 2 degrees upright. 

My impression of Golftec is that they cater to beginners and possibly helping beginners with lessons and clubs is something that they are good at.  Don't know on that one...

[mikewohlwend]

22 hours ago, JCAG said:

Take a close look at that list. Basically it has more crap than gold on it. Notice how many chains stores are listed. Now assuming the typical chain stores is open 7 days a week, about 80 hours a week. They would need 3-4 full time fitters to cover those hours. How many of them are good at it? Ask yourself.

 

I'm not from the area just giving someone a place to start looking.  I would research each one myself and see what's the best fit for me.  But you also can't deny that Club Champion will have tons of options to try out.

Edited December 3, 2020 by mikewohlwend