By Scott Ough
Certified Personal Coach
GolfTEC Denver
With today’s modern equipment there is bound to be some clubs out there that will help your game immensely, but how do you know which ones? I honestly feel that if you run out and buy the newest driver, irons, wedges, or putter without getting professionally fit you just wasted your money! There are so many aspects of golf equipment that should be fit to the player that you could never hope to guess correctly! Take the time, get fit, and get clubs that will help you play better by taking a Personal Club Fitting at GolfTEC.
Here is what I play. Keep in mind that I have taken the time to get properly fit for every club in my bag. What works for me may not be the best solution for you. Talk to your Coach about Personal Club Fitting today.
Driver: I play a Callaway FT-9 with 9 degrees of loft. It has a Mitsubishi Fubuki 66 gram X flex shaft in it. One thing that everyone should know is that there are tons of different shaft options out there these days, and the shaft is the engine that drives your club. Do NOT just buy a driver because you like the brand name and you assume that it is close to fitting you. The truth is that launch angle and spin rate can be just as important as your club head speed, and these are performance variables that can be customized with a good shaft and driver fitting.
Fairway wood and Hybrid: I play with a 14 degree Sonartec GS Tour 3 wood and a 19 degree Titleist 585H Hybrid. I have replaced the stock shaft in both of these clubs with the UST V2 shaft because I love the feel of this shaft and the ball flight that it produces. Most players these days are using at least one hybrid, if you have not tried one yet, you need to! Fairway woods and hybrids that you love are hard to find, so once you do, stick with them. Now that I finally have my perfect clubs, they will be in my bag for a long time.
Irons: I am carrying Callaway X-Forged irons 4-P with Rifle Project X shafts. My shafts are a 6.2 flex. Yes, I said 6.2. There is no industry standard as to what stiff, regular, or any other term even mean, so most pros use something called frequency to measure shaft flex. Notice that I do not have a 3 iron? Most of my students should not even have a 4! It takes a certain amount of club head speed to launch long irons properly that most people just do not have.
Wedges: I play with 52, 56, and 60 degree Titleist Vokey Spin Milled wedges. Most pitching wedges in today’s iron sets are strong lofted (45-46 degrees) so having a set of wedges that fills in your gaps is key. I have a 48 degree Pitching wedge and therefore I have 4 degree gaps in my set. I see many people with 45 degree pitching wedges and then going straight to a 56 degree sand wedge (that’s an eleven-degree gap). Your GolfTEC coach can recommend a good set of wedges. And by the way, the more loft on a club, the more important things like lie angle become.
Putter: I use a Scotty Cameron Studio Style blade. Try different putters that match your stroke but be sure to find the right length, lie, and balance for your putter. I am 6’1” and play a 33.75” putter which is shorter than most you can buy in the stores. I think that most people are using putters that are too long. The balance of your putter can also be important. I am a person that likes to feel that the blade naturally opens and closes so I like my heel shafted putter. If you are a person that likes the straight back and straight through feeling, or a closed to open club face, then try some face balanced putters.
Ball: I play with the Callaway Tour IX. This ball is made to have low driver spin while still maintaining spin around the greens, which for me is great. Find out which ball gives you the best spin rates and you will be glad you did.
