My PXG Fitting Review

[asofine]

Greetings WRX-ers!

 

Background (feel free to skip):

I've perused this forum over the years, but I've always felt like a total outlier when it comes to my golf game relative to the average WRX-er.

 

I'm 33 y/o and live in the PNW where I play 100+ rounds/yr. I never practice. My index usually fluctuates between 5.5 - 9.0 during the season.

 

I have an AWFUL golf swing. I've never really seen a single digit handicap with ball striking as poor as mine. My index is where it is because - according to Arccos - I putt like a + handicap player, and though I'm not long, I almost never put myself in trouble off the tee. My driver swing speed is in the low-to-mid 90s (7-iron mid-70s).

 

My pathetic distances:

Driver: - 240ish

4 Wood: 220ish

3 Hybrid: 205

4 Hybrid: 190

5 Hybrid: 175

5 Iron: 170

6 Iron: 160

7 Iron: 145

8 Iron: 135

9 Iron: 120

PW: 105

SW: 75

 

So, because I'm a stubborn fool who doesn't practice and a sucker for a "good deal," I did a fitting with PXG for a full 14-club bag to see if I could buy a game 😛

 

The PXG Fitting Experience (and my impression of fittings generally):

I'm no luddite, but I've always been skeptical about the science of fitting and the expertise of fitters. I nonetheless went into the fitting open-minded. Having done it, I am certainly more "pro fitting" than I was before, although certain aspects of the process still left me wanting.

 

The Good:

I was impressed by the fitter's ability to get me into the right shafts throughout the bag. It was clear that there were measurable gains by fitting me into the right shaft with every club in the bag. I'm very very glad we did this, if for no other reason that it will forever remove that little doubt in my mind that asks, "am I playing the right shafts for me?" This was the best part of the experience.

 

The moveable weights in PXGs (and presumably other clubs) are no joke. My hybrid miss has always been left. Strangely, in the PXG hybrids I was fading the ball. One switch of the weights in the club head noticeably straightened out the ball flight. The fitter made a few similar adjustments throughout the bag. I was shocked that I could notice such a difference. Again, huge kudos for the fitter for his ability to work this stuff out.

 

I was also impressed with the fitter's general ability to switch up shafts, club heads, shaft lengths (he eventually fit me into a 5-wood in a 3-wood length shaft, for example), to dial in some good numbers.

 

The Bad:

I was unimpressed with the fitter's lack of knowledge when it came to actually building out my 14-club bag. As an example, I had to point out to him that the PW in the iron set was lofted at 41* (crazy, right?), so we would need to add another club between the 41* PW and the other two wedges he was eagerly spec'ing out (54 & 58). There were a few instances similar to this, where I felt like I had to leverage my own knowledge in order to ensure I didn't wind up with a silly spec. I imagine a lot of guys who walk into a fitting don't spend the time reading up on lofts (etc) and may have walked out from a similar fitting with some weird gapping throughout their bag.

 

I also didn't love how the fitter went about assessing the requisite lie angles for my clubs. I told him that I'd used a lie angle board in the past and determined that I needed clubs 2* flat relative to stock lie angles on TaylorMades (I'm super short - 5'6" - with long arms) and 3* flat in my Vokey wedges. He didn't do any measuring, and instead concluded that he "liked" 2* flat for my irons but thought it was imprudent to bend wedges any more than 1* flat. I was there to defer to his expertise, but I'm worried that these wedges will be off for me.

 

The Ugly:

This also involves gapping - and more: Inasmuch as I'm sure I was fit into the right shafts and clubheads for my skillset, I really walked out of the fitting with no effing idea what these clubs would perform like on the golf course (particularly the irons), nor what gapping would look like throughout my bag. This continues to be my major gripe with fitting. I blasted 100+ (maybe 200+) Pinnacles off of a range mat in 90 minutes. I'm sure half of those swings were not really my golf swing: I'm not used to bashing balls at the range, and 20-minutes into our 90-minute session I felt pretty tired. I don't really have a sense of how these clubs will feel striking a good golf ball off of turf. Most importantly, I hate hate hate that iron fittings only have me hitting a 7-iron. 

 

The 5-iron in the set I ordered is lofted at 20*. I don't think I should be hitting a 20* iron with my swing speed, but I won't know until I actually hit the damn thing. I also have no idea how the 5/6 iron distances will gap with the highest lofted hybrid we spec'ed out (he had me in 19*, 22* and 25* hybrids). So sure, I walked out of the fitting with clubs that "fit," but I have no idea if the actual bag composition I wound up with will make any sense. I'm worried it won't.

 

Conclusion/TL;DR:

PXG was wonderful to deal with. Every PXG employee I dealt with was great. I'm so happy that I'll never again have those pangs of doubt about whether my equipment is fitted to me. Highlights included dialing in the appropriate shafts and club heads throughout the bag that I felt confident with.

 

Negatives included the fitter's inability to help actually build out an appropriate 14-club bag. I also don't think the experience of whacking beat range balls on a mat with a 7-iron for half an hour gave me any semblance of how these clubs will feel/perform on the golf course. Finally, the fitting didn't give me a proper idea of what gapping through my set will be like, and I'm worried that I'll have to tinker with this after receiving clubs. I guess I should just accept that I'll need to do a gapping session when I get these clubs, but wtf happens if I determine I don't belong anywhere near a 5/6 iron in this brand new set of clubs I ordered? 😛

[nutdriver]

I am new to the forum and generally speaking new to golf.  My existing clubs are clearly not working for me.  Just today, I scheduled a fitting with PXG for a full bag review, so I found this post helpful in knowing what to anticipate.  My swing has some serious issues so I am not sure how this fitting will go or really to what extent it will even be helpful but for a $50 investment I thought it may be of some help in demystifying club selection.

 

To asofine, which PXG irons and driver models did you go with?

[asofine]

21 minutes ago, nutdriver said:

I am new to the forum and generally speaking new to golf.  My existing clubs are clearly not working for me.  Just today, I scheduled a fitting with PXG for a full bag review, so I found this post helpful in knowing what to anticipate.  My swing has some serious issues so I am not sure how this fitting will go or really to what extent it will even be helpful but for a $50 investment I thought it may be of some help in demystifying club selection.

 

To asofine, which PXG irons and driver models did you go with?

Cheers, I'm glad I could be helpful. 

 

I wound up with the XP irons (i.e. their most forgiving ones) and the X driver (i.e. not the most nor the least forgiving - I think this one targets most golfers).

[Nels55]

Nice writeup on your experience!  Does PXG offer any sort of follow up fitting once you get the clubs that would allow any for necessary adjustments that need to be made?  Sounds like this was an outdoor fitting, what sort of launch monitor did the fitter use?

[snagy2000]

4 hours ago, Nels55 said:

Nice writeup on your experience!  Does PXG offer any sort of follow up fitting once you get the clubs that would allow any for necessary adjustments that need to be made?  Sounds like this was an outdoor fitting, what sort of launch monitor did the fitter use?

They use Trackman. 

 

7 hours ago, asofine said:

Greetings WRX-ers!

 

Background (feel free to skip):

I've perused this forum over the years, but I've always felt like a total outlier when it comes to my golf game relative to the average WRX-er.

 

I'm 33 y/o and live in the PNW where I play 100+ rounds/yr. I never practice. My index usually fluctuates between 5.5 - 9.0 during the season.

 

I have an AWFUL golf swing. I've never really seen a single digit handicap with ball striking as poor as mine. My index is where it is because - according to Arccos - I putt like a + handicap player, and though I'm not long, I almost never put myself in trouble off the tee. My driver swing speed is in the low-to-mid 90s (7-iron mid-70s).

 

My pathetic distances:

Driver: - 240ish

4 Wood: 220ish

3 Hybrid: 205

4 Hybrid: 190

5 Hybrid: 175

5 Iron: 170

6 Iron: 160

7 Iron: 145

8 Iron: 135

9 Iron: 120

PW: 105

SW: 75

 

So, because I'm a stubborn fool who doesn't practice and a sucker for a "good deal," I did a fitting with PXG for a full 14-club bag to see if I could buy a game 😛

 

The PXG Fitting Experience (and my impression of fittings generally):

I'm no luddite, but I've always been skeptical about the science of fitting and the expertise of fitters. I nonetheless went into the fitting open-minded. Having done it, I am certainly more "pro fitting" than I was before, although certain aspects of the process still left me wanting.

 

The Good:

I was impressed by the fitter's ability to get me into the right shafts throughout the bag. It was clear that there were measurable gains by fitting me into the right shaft with every club in the bag. I'm very very glad we did this, if for no other reason that it will forever remove that little doubt in my mind that asks, "am I playing the right shafts for me?" This was the best part of the experience.

 

The moveable weights in PXGs (and presumably other clubs) are no joke. My hybrid miss has always been left. Strangely, in the PXG hybrids I was fading the ball. One switch of the weights in the club head noticeably straightened out the ball flight. The fitter made a few similar adjustments throughout the bag. I was shocked that I could notice such a difference. Again, huge kudos for the fitter for his ability to work this stuff out.

 

I was also impressed with the fitter's general ability to switch up shafts, club heads, shaft lengths (he eventually fit me into a 5-wood in a 3-wood length shaft, for example), to dial in some good numbers.

 

The Bad:

I was unimpressed with the fitter's lack of knowledge when it came to actually building out my 14-club bag. As an example, I had to point out to him that the PW in the iron set was lofted at 41* (crazy, right?), so we would need to add another club between the 41* PW and the other two wedges he was eagerly spec'ing out (54 & 58). There were a few instances similar to this, where I felt like I had to leverage my own knowledge in order to ensure I didn't wind up with a silly spec. I imagine a lot of guys who walk into a fitting don't spend the time reading up on lofts (etc) and may have walked out from a similar fitting with some weird gapping throughout their bag.

 

I also didn't love how the fitter went about assessing the requisite lie angles for my clubs. I told him that I'd used a lie angle board in the past and determined that I needed clubs 2* flat relative to stock lie angles on TaylorMades (I'm super short - 5'6" - with long arms) and 3* flat in my Vokey wedges. He didn't do any measuring, and instead concluded that he "liked" 2* flat for my irons but thought it was imprudent to bend wedges any more than 1* flat. I was there to defer to his expertise, but I'm worried that these wedges will be off for me.

 

The Ugly:

This also involves gapping - and more: Inasmuch as I'm sure I was fit into the right shafts and clubheads for my skillset, I really walked out of the fitting with no effing idea what these clubs would perform like on the golf course (particularly the irons), nor what gapping would look like throughout my bag. This continues to be my major gripe with fitting. I blasted 100+ (maybe 200+) Pinnacles off of a range mat in 90 minutes. I'm sure half of those swings were not really my golf swing: I'm not used to bashing balls at the range, and 20-minutes into our 90-minute session I felt pretty tired. I don't really have a sense of how these clubs will feel striking a good golf ball off of turf. Most importantly, I hate hate hate that iron fittings only have me hitting a 7-iron. 

 

The 5-iron in the set I ordered is lofted at 20*. I don't think I should be hitting a 20* iron with my swing speed, but I won't know until I actually hit the damn thing. I also have no idea how the 5/6 iron distances will gap with the highest lofted hybrid we spec'ed out (he had me in 19*, 22* and 25* hybrids). So sure, I walked out of the fitting with clubs that "fit," but I have no idea if the actual bag composition I wound up with will make any sense. I'm worried it won't.

 

Conclusion/TL;DR:

PXG was wonderful to deal with. Every PXG employee I dealt with was great. I'm so happy that I'll never again have those pangs of doubt about whether my equipment is fitted to me. Highlights included dialing in the appropriate shafts and club heads throughout the bag that I felt confident with.

 

Negatives included the fitter's inability to help actually build out an appropriate 14-club bag. I also don't think the experience of whacking beat range balls on a mat with a 7-iron for half an hour gave me any semblance of how these clubs will feel/perform on the golf course. Finally, the fitting didn't give me a proper idea of what gapping through my set will be like, and I'm worried that I'll have to tinker with this after receiving clubs. I guess I should just accept that I'll need to do a gapping session when I get these clubs, but wtf happens if I determine I don't belong anywhere near a 5/6 iron in this brand new set of clubs I ordered? 😛

You can always do a follow up spec check with the fitter once the clubs arrive to get dialed in from a loft and lie perspective. IMO, sounds like you're already brewing excuses in your head for a reason not to like your new clubs. Not good! They have good fitters, keep an open mind, PRACTICE with them and see how it plays out. If you don't put in the effort to make something work, you can't really blame anyone but yourself. 

[caniac6]

Was this a fitter from PXG, or was this done at a fitting facility that reps a lot of manufactures?

[Soloman1]

In the 1980’s, a 20° iron had the number 2 stamped on it.

 

”I hit clubs so much farther now than when I was younger. I’m such a better golfer now thanks to modern instruction and people being in better physical condition. I used to weigh 165, but now I weigh 218 - all muscle.”

[ND2005]

Have to say, I’ve never done a full bag fitting at once precisely because of the swing fatigue OP mentions. 
 

I’m usually spent after just a driver fitting, can’t imagine having to go through FW, hybrid, irons and wedges after that 

[caniac6]

10 minutes ago, ND2005 said:

Have to say, I’ve never done a full bag fitting at once precisely because of the swing fatigue OP mentions. 
 

I’m usually spent after just a driver fitting, can’t imagine having to go through FW, hybrid, irons and wedges after that 

I don’t think I could concentrate that long! All my fittings have been done outside, and we just looked at trackman numbers, ball flight, and figured out lie angle. It really didn’t take very long to figure if new clubs were enough of an improvement over current clubs to justify the expense.

[bellken]

If you bought 19*, 22* and 25* hybrids, your least lofted iron should be 25 degrees or higher. If you have concerns about your iron set make up, you should call PXG, and, express your concerns. I know of PXG owners, that start their iron sets with a 7 iron.

[ND2005]

2 minutes ago, bellken said:

If you bought 19*, 22* and 25* hybrids, your least lofted iron should be 25 degrees or higher. If you have concerns about your iron set make up, you should call PXG, and, express your concerns. I know of PXG owners, that start their iron sets with a 7 iron.

 

Oh boy, I didn't catch that part. 

 

Yeah OP this fitting sounds messed up. It makes zero sense to be carrying a 25 degree hybrid and a 20 degree 5 iron, esp when you're talking about a 41 degree pitching wedge and a 10+ degree gap til your next wedge. 

 

Gapping and overall bag composition is a really important part of a fitting and you are getting a really weird setup here. 

[snagy2000]

7 minutes ago, ND2005 said:

 

Oh boy, I didn't catch that part. 

 

Yeah OP this fitting sounds messed up. It makes zero sense to be carrying a 25 degree hybrid and a 20 degree 5 iron, esp when you're talking about a 41 degree pitching wedge and a 10+ degree gap til your next wedge. 

 

Gapping and overall bag composition is a really important part of a fitting and you are getting a really weird setup here. 

Are they being opened up?

[asofine]

Thanks for the feedback, all. 

 

My gapping with the hybrids has *always* been weird. For context, my former bag looked like this:

 

19* Hybrid: 205

23* Hybrid: 190

27* Hybrid: 175

23* 5 Iron: 170

25.5* 6 Iron: 160

28.5* 7 iron: 145

 

This is bizarre, and obviously owing to some extreme deficiencies with my iron swing. 

 

My concern isn't the lofts on the hybrids relative to the irons in a vacuum. Instead, I'm just worried about my ability (or lack thereof) to hit a 20* iron, period.

Edited April 3, 2022 by asofine

[Jeff58]

What shafts and flex did he put you into?

[asofine]

4 minutes ago, Jeff58 said:

What shafts and flex did he put you into?

In the irons - UST Recoil 75 Dart F3-R

In the hybrids - Riptide 80g 5.5

In the wood - Riptide 60g 5.5

In the driver - Riptide 50g 6.0

 

If it helps at all, I mentioned my s*** golf swing...

 

I have an *extremely* flat/inside takeaway that I get away with in hybrids/woods/driver. I'm a sweeper/picker. I hit a low draw with those long sticks, and my distances with them are at least respectable-ish. My iron swing is a totally different ballgame. I'm very uncomfortable over the ball, I take an abbreviated very armsy swing and feel like I'm only giving it 50%. It makes for some weird distances/gapping as cited above.

Edited April 3, 2022 by asofine

[Jeff58]

I think the points you make are both correct and show a good degree of understanding about the fitting. Overall, you probably did better than you think.

 

There is always a degree of variability between the fitting environment and how an entire set performs in play. Reducing this gap is to a great degree the fitter’s job, not yours. He should understand how the 7 iron performance relates to the rest of the set and adjust accordingly. 

The gapping between your longest iron and the next club up is always a challenge. Loft is far from the only variable. Having to make gapping adjustments is normal. Hopefully it can be accomplished with the clubs you have in hand.

[ChaosTheory]

@asofine

It does seem that you could omit the 5 and 6 irons, given the hybrid lofts.  

[No_Ugos]

1 hour ago, Snowman9000 said:

@asofine

It does seem that you could omit the 5 and 6 irons, given the hybrid lofts.  

The lofts don’t matter, the carry distance is what matters. The mass of a hybrid and an iron are different, which impacts launch conditions and spin. If the distances are gapped correctly, the loft doesn’t matter. 
 

We don’t play a game of lofts, we play a game of distances. 

[snagy2000]

6 minutes ago, No_Ugos said:

The lofts don’t matter, the carry distance is what matters. The mass of a hybrid and an iron are different, which impacts launch conditions and spin. If the distances are gapped correctly, the loft doesn’t matter. 
 

We don’t play a game of lofts, we play a game of distances. 

Thank you for stating this. A lot of folks don't know this info. It's why getting fit is so important. 

[nutdriver]

To asofine, did the PXG fitter suggest that you order the suggested clubs at the end of the fitting experience, or did you have some time to ponder your purchase decision?  

[asofine]

1 hour ago, nutdriver said:

To asofine, did the PXG fitter suggest that you order the suggested clubs at the end of the fitting experience, or did you have some time to ponder your purchase decision?  

He was ready to take the order, but not pushy at all! I called it in that evening. Maybe my OP made it sound like I wasn't happy with the experience. I was happy! The major flaw (the whole bash a 7 iron on a mat thing) isn't PXG specific. It is what it is. The only other concern (gap between PW and other wedge) was/continues to be a concern. But I figure I have a 46° Vokey that I could always shove in the mix if need be.

 

In any event, PXG just called me re: the whole Gen 5 thing and we've made it right. So I'm pleased!

Edited April 3, 2022 by asofine

[asofine]

Update:

 

Received my sticks last week and hit them for the first time yesterday. Damn, hitting good balls off of turf really is night and day compared to bashing Pinnacles on a range mat. Clubs feel amazing. Performance is great. I'm very pleased.

 

PXG made a great offer to get me into Gen 5s, too. I gave them a whack, performance was indeed marginally better, but not worth the headache with my Gen 4s already in hand.