A Club Champion putter fitting is extraordinary both in the experience itself and results it produces. It will make you a better putter immediately. And it will also give you more of the ingredients needed to start making more putts.
I'm taking you through some key aspects of a Club Champion putter fitting in this review (based on my recent CC fitting at their Warrensville Heights, Ohio studio) to highlight not only things that can go wrong if you're playing the wrong putter. But also and more importantly to show you how all these same things that can go wrong become things that go right when you're playing a putter fit for you by Club Champion.
Here are 10 Things to Know about a Club Champion putter fitting.
Number 1. ◾ Club Champion uses SAM PuttLab for its putter fittings. With 3D analysis SAM PuttLab evaluates everything about your putting stroke. And I mean everything.
More than 70 parameters are used to measure details like face angle at address and impact, club path at impact, face rotation, ball direction, stroke length, acceleration, tempo, launch, impact spot, shaft loft and lie at address and impact, timing, and consistency. It's basically an MRI of your putting stroke.
Number 2. ◾ To begin your Club Champion putter fitting you hit five 10 foot putts with your current putter (or if you want to go nuclear and start from complete scratch you can choose a new putter you think you might like). Either way the purpose is to record all the metrics and provide a baseline for your putter stroke. You'll typically hit 4 to 8 different putters during a fitting. But honestly Club Champion wants you to be as perfectly satisfied as possible with this process so the number of different putters you test is entirely up to you.
SAM PuttLab analyzes your stroke with all the putters tested and your Club Champion fitter (Mike in my fitting) makes customized recommendations and adjustments that include unique head designs, putter length, putter weight, lie angle and face angle, grip size, and more. And as you go through different putters and configurations keep in mind the feedback you give your fitter is important. Your feedback is encouraged at a Club Champion fitting and the back-and-forth between you and your fitter will help them apply the SAM PuttLab analysis in the most exact and precise way to fit your unique swing and preferences.
So for example let's say SAM PuttLab recommends a blade is best for you because of your swing path or rotation. This doesn't necessarily mean a blade is the end all, be all for you. Maybe your visual preference is for a mallet putter. If so your Club Champion fitter can begin looking at different mallet putter designs and make decisions and tweaks that still deliver ideal performance based on your same and particular swing path or rotation (more on that below).
Number 3. ◾ The first recommendation SAM PuttLab addresses is head design or style. Whether it's a blade or mallet or square style putter (smaller mallets and bigger blades) the recommendation is based on what putter fits your stroke best. The far left column in the picture below shows the general putter head recommendations for general categories of arc and rotation of stroke. But again remember this is only a recommendation (or starting point really). Your Club Champion fitter is analyzing the stroke dynamics of your entire swing and how each dynamic fits together to produce the best most consistent putts.
Mike pointed out I was hitting the blade putters almost perfectly square at impact. But he was quick to mention this doesn't mean that I wouldn't hit mallet putters almost perfectly square as well. We'd test that theory. With the blade putters I did have quite a bit of arc (which is neither bad nor good). Still, maybe less arc in my swing would tighten up center impact in addition to being square at impact? It wasn't exactly like Mike becoming Zach Galifianakis counting cards in the blackjack scene from The Hangover. But I could tell the wheels were spinning in Mike's head.
Number 4. ◾ This is a good time to revisit how important your Club Champion fitter is in both analyzing the SAM PuttLab reports as well as interpreting them so they can create a putter that's perfect for you from both a performance and preference standpoint. As I mentioned on X the day of my fitting, my fitter Mike is one of the absolute best. He has over 20 years of experience fitting players of all abilities. And he genuinely cares about you and the job he does for you. Mike is a pro's pro, a consummate pro. And it's worth a long distance road trip to get fit by Mike.
Mike will go as deep down the rabbit hole as you want talking about all the data and explaining what it all means and how it's all connected. Or if you prefer to keep it simple Mike will oblige you there as well. I love learning as much as possible during my fittings so I asked Mike what if SAM PuttLab recommends a blade for someone but their preference is for a mallet. Mike's reply? "Whatever someone needs, I'll get them there."
So let's say you need the toe hang of a blade to help slow down the putter head and bring it square into impact but you prefer the looks of a mallet. Well your Club Champion fitter would play around with weight distributions, hosel options, shaft designs, and even grip types (among other things) to get you into your preferred mallet style putter. Ultimately by the end of my fitting Mike knew exactly why and how the various putters I hit preformed the way they did for my particular stroke. And the result was a a putter that feels comfortable to me, looks fantastic, and performs as flawlessly as I could possibly want or even imagine.
Number 5. ◾ We all know what the face of our putter head is doing through our stroke is important. Club Champion calls it Rotation Relative to Path. It's important to square the putter if you're going to hit putts on line and roll them consistently. What we don't know is what goes into accomplishing that or sometimes even what it feels like. That is until you're fit at Club Champion.
I hit a few putts with a particular putter that felt really good. Made some putts, missed a few. I liked it. Then another shocker. Mike showed me my impact with this putter was very inconsistent. My backswing was inconsistent. The length of my backswing was inconsistent. Even my forward swing was inconsistent. I couldn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. By the time Mike was done with me though? That rotation back, into, and through impact was pretty much perfect. Mike said it was Tour level putter face positioning and consistency. And yeah, I'm good with that.
Number 6. ◾ Your putter length seems straightforward. And when it's correct for your swing it is straightforward. When it's incorrect however it can cause a world of traumatic hurt. You generally want your eyes directly over the ball at address. If you're too far away from the ball that can indicate your putter is too long. If your eyes are outside the ball that can mean your putter is too short.
Mike and I tested different length putters and even a one-half inch difference caused changes in impact spots, rotation of my putter head (just discussed above), ball launch, and even how my putter was set up at address (flush to the ground, toe up, or toe down). Again it's worth mentioning you really can't detect or get a complete feel for the variation in impact, face rotation, and launch of even a slightly incorrect putter length until you actually see the SAM PuttLab reports. Club Champion makes it an easy fix.
Number 7. ◾ The Launch Conditions analysis was another eyes wide open surprise for me. No matter what the lie angle of a putter face is, your face angle at impact can change based on the way you deliver the putter head into the ball. Too much or too little loft causes your ball to bounce or smother. And every time your ball leaves the ground it affects spin and direction. It's going to throw your putts off line, mess with speed, and mess with distance control. A Club Champion putter fitting takes those maddening results away once and for all.
During my fitting some putters I hit had great balance. My stroke was consistent and square. But I was coming into the ball with about 5 degrees of launch which created way too much bounce and backspin high off the face. And that was simply because of the particular putter design. Again there's just no way you know this unless you're fit at Club Champion.
Equally important to your fitter finding a launch angle that's ideal for your stroke is helping you hit at this ideal launch angle more repeatably. Sure a particular face (technology, milled or insert, etc) matters and adjustments can be made to static lie. But your Club Champion fitter goes way beyond that and analyzes all the dynamics of your stroke to put you into a putter where consistency of direction and roll becomes your strength rather than your weakness.
Number 8. ◾ These days all companies are making putter faces more forgiving. But if you can hit your putts in the middle of the face consistently why not do it, right? And it certainly helps if you can hit clusters of putts in the same general middle area of the face and eliminate those heel and toe outliers.
I began my Club Champion fitting with respectable impact spots, usually about half a ball off center line at worst. By the end of my fitting impact spots were like 5-layer pound cake. Mike had me hitting putts in the same spot on the face and rolling balls in the same spot of the cup. I'm telling you... come see Mike and then just let him cook baby!
Number 9. ◾ Club Champion has over 65,000 hittable head and shaft combinations. That's like an entire NFL stadium full of fans. And it fits with their mission of wanting to fit and build custom clubs tailored to each of our unique swing styles and club preferences. I'll be honest I don't know how many putters Club Champion has available for testing and fitting.
But you know I'm a bit of an equipment maniac. It's also my job to stay up on the latest and greatest in new equipment. So during my fitting I counted well over 100 different putters. And every brand I was curious about or had in mind to either test or at least look at was in studio.
Number 10. ◾ To wrap this all up I also want to briefly mention Club Champion's Perfect Fit Guarantee, both for what it is and maybe more importantly what it represents.
If you're not seeing the results on the course that you saw in your putter fitting (and for that matter all clubs they build for you) you can being your putter back in and Club Champion will do everything they can to make it right. And this guaranty extends a full 90 days after you pick up your custom built putter (or clubs). Club Champion is absolutely and clearly invested in you and your complete satisfaction.
A Club Champion putter fitting and custom build sets the bar as high as anything you'll see in the golf industry. And then somehow it even surpasses that bar of satisfaction and performance by leaps and bounds. Club Champion's motto is "Better Fit, Lower Scores." They could also add the motto "Over Promise, Over Deliver." They're simply the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment