The fourth installment of our Five Minute Fitting Series doesn’t literally take five minutes this time. But when fitting a player for new irons using this new protocol, the iron fitting process rolls by extremely fast. Saving this time provides instructors more focus and player energy to make a real difference in the iron game. Without further ado…here’s how to find the best irons of your life…
When you think of the greatest iron players of all time: players like Hogan, Nicklaus, Kite, Watson, Woods, what do you envision? If you are watching TV you’ll see the greatest knocking pins down. At the very worst the greatest are pin high on the correct side of the green. If you are watching in person you’ll witness how precisely the greatest control trajectory.
When a player sets out to improve his game, what are the typical goals? Distance off the tee. Making more putts. Little better short game. Our favorite heard at our old Studio…”consistency.” Perhaps a good fitter can find ten more yards off the tee and the correct wedge design to suit your style. Perhaps a good fitter recommends a Belly Putter and an AimPoint class to help putting. We maintain that correctly fitted clubs have the biggest and consistent impact on lower scores but there’s still a wide range of improvement we can achieve with fitness and instruction.
But what about irons?
We haven’t discussed fitting the group of clubs in your bag between the metals and wedges here on MGP.com. Even a non-golfer would look at a golf bag and see “a lot of the same looking clubs with different numbers.” Surely an iron set must be important if they own a majority of the 14 allowed.
We certainly believe the most efficient way to lower scores is to have the fewest putts and the most greens in regulation. It certainly helps if players are in the fairways and closer to the green. But not all players are long and accurate off the tee and when it’s time to hit an iron shot, they usually guess wrong, pull the wrong club or mishit the shot. How can golf professionals help these players shoot lower scores without actually carrying the bag and providing advice for every shot?
When we fit players for irons, the most important aspect to a fitting is making sure the player understands the distance each iron will produce.
Most players incorrectly assume that each iron has a ten yard gap. We have measured iron gaps between as little as four yards to as many as 20 yards when lofts, ball speed and contact are not optimal. The greatest iron players know their distances precisely. Regular golfers do not. It’s an instruction and fitting opportunity you cannot miss.
Based on the population of golfers that have rolled through the Studio, 80% are good players with handicaps in the single digits. They can make-up shots on the greens with better short games. But even with this high population of good golfers, maybe only 1% know exactly how far each iron travels.
When Titleist debuts new irons every 18 months or so, club professionals need to understand the massive opportunity for fitting and instruction. Not only can you sell about $800-$1200 in equipment per player, you can teach your golfer how to become a great iron player by knowing precise distances. Armed with opportunity, here are MGP’s protocols for precision iron fitting.
Identify the type of iron player: Low Spinner, High Spinner or Great Ball Striker
The greatest iron players of all time share one thing in common: spin control. They don’t necessarily hit their irons longer, higher or lower. The greatest ball strikers simply hit their irons and put the ball where they want that ball to go. Consistent backspin is the number one measurable factor that distinguishes good iron strikers from bad strikers. Great iron strikers spin their shots consistently within 200 RPMs.
Low Spin Iron Players
Low Spin Iron Players simply do not spin the ball enough to carry and or hold greens. During the fitting process with their six iron, low spin players tend to produce 4000-5500 backspin RPM. The possible causes are:
In our experience, low spin players typically draw the ball, drive the ball better and reach more fairways in regulation than greens in regulation. A typical round looks like 10 fairways and 7 greens in regulation. Low Spinner ball flight is more of a driving ball flight which is great….unless you want the ball to stop somewhere. That’s kind of the idea when attempting shots into greens.
High Spin Iron Players
High Spin Iron Players typically drive it shorter than their friends. They can’t reach greens in regulation. They simply spin the ball too much and wind affects their game more than ever. High Spin Iron Players typically hit iron shots too high and short. They tend to produce 6500-7500 backspin RPM with their six irons. The possible causes are:
Great Ball Strikers
Great ball strikers typically walk into your studio looking for assurance or simply something new. Regardless of their equipment, or swing, these great ball strikers spin their six irons near 6000 RPM plus or minus 300 rpm. Players that hit a cut will spin near 6300 RPM. Players that draw it will spin near 5700 rpm. Even after we try new shaft and head combos, we still see numbers near the magical 6000 RPM rule.
Once you identify the type of iron player, loft and shaft adjustments become easy. Low spin players need more spin, high spin players need less spin. Find optimal spin rates first and iron fittings become fast and efficient. Spend the rest of the session working on player assurance, feel and appearance.
Make Precision Iron Fitting Follow-up Visits Mandatory
Ninety-nine percent of the top fitters in the world just have six irons, provided by manufacturers, that are expected to fit every golfer of every skill level. It’s the perfect middle of the road iron that fits all players. Where most fitters go wrong is that they assume a six iron fitting is good enough to design a set of irons. Not at MGP.
At the end 2008, after two years of exclusive Studio time and the original AP2 Phenomenon had changed the iron world, we began to realize our players loved their new irons, but weren’t necessarily scoring better. The original Titleist AP2 was a super soft feeling, high spin iron. Everyone seemed to enjoy their golf and iron play, but nobody knew how far they were hitting each iron!
We began to realize that we could provide an excellent fitting service, but we needed to provide an excellent performance service. Once we perfected the six iron and ordered the set, we had the player revisit the Studio for further testing in order design the ultimate scoring iron set.
Loft Standards Are Actually Guides
We began to charge a fitting fee that included the initial fitting and a “follow-up” visit towards the end of 2008. We applied the fee to all fittings, but since 2008 was a Titleist iron year, the iron market was our focus.
We restarted the fitting process with the “new” six iron and began testing. We then moved to the 7, 8, 9 irons and finished with the 5, 4, 3 irons. We tracked performance on our launch monitor and measured gap distances and launch data. We found that consistency improved once the player understood their yardage gap differences. We measured consistency by analyzing their spin rates and average carry.
For example, a player may have hit a 6 iron with an average carry of 180 yards, while their seven iron flew 165, eight iron flew 155. We adjusted loft to minimize yardage gap differences and therefore, created a new “personal loft standard” compared to a typical loft chart. There was no loft rule as long as their was acceptable and “known” yardage gaps between 8-12 yards. There was no way to measure these iron gaps without a complete set of irons.
Lie Standards Are Actually Guides
While it certainly helps to design a custom fit six iron at a particular lie, there is no guarantee that custom lie will transfer throughout the set.
During these followup visits we found out that regardless of preferred shot shape, some players controlled one iron better than another. We typically observed long irons needing more adjustment than short irons. For example, if a player needed a one degree flat six iron, they tended to block or fade their longer irons. A simple adjustment on the lie/loft machine to a more upright lie angle solved their issues. We tended to see flatter lies in the short irons compared to more standard and upright lies in long irons. Lie tape no longer produced the desired fitting result. Shot shape and control determined lie angle for each iron. The player determined his own standard lie angle for each iron.
Opportunity Knocks
In November of 2011, Titleist will again launch a comprehensive iron product offering that will fit all your players. Take advantage of this opportunity from a revenue standpoint and long term player performance concept. A great fitter sells a full set of custom clubs to scale themselves as a recurring provider of golf performance. There is a reason we think selling 14 correctly fitted clubs is like selling “14 little RCs” in the bag.
Change your iron fitting focus to precision. In our opinion, iron manufacturers that continue to focus on distance gains rather than precision control contribute to the false fallacy that longer iron players are better iron players. Understand that fitters are not just selling high performing golf clubs, you are selling a precision way to play iron shots. Maximum workability with enhanced MOI ensures spin rates remain consistent: the hallmark of great ball strikers.
It may not take exactly 5 minutes to fit a complete set of irons…but iron fittings are much faster when you begin with spin control. :)
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