I’ve been fit for new irons several times over the past 15 years. I always ask the person doing the fitting,
“How many strokes do you think being fit for these
new irons will shave off my handicap?”
Invariably the answer is, “Three or four.”
So by that calculation, my handicap should now
be at least plus- 3. Move over Luke, move over Phil...
there’s a new sheriff in town.
But a funny thing happened on the way to my PGA
Tour career: My handicap card still shows 10. 3. Hey,
there must be some kind of mistake! Sure enough,
though, a review of my 20 most recent scores
showed no 68s, no 72s...in fact, I've not broken 80 for
almost six months.
There is, however—as there always must be in golf—some glimmers of hope. In
January, in Scottsdale, I went for another fitting, this time at the invitation of Mizuno.
Accompanied by Kraig LeRoy, the Mizuno rep in Scottsdale, I headed over to a local golf
shop where Mizuno’s Performance Fitting System was set up. Touted as, “the only club-fitting method that fuses the expertise of professional Mizuno fitters with the state-of-the-art analysis of our exclusive Shaft Optimizer,” the system is remarkably simple.
No 3D sensors or magic vests were attached to my body, no dark room with lasers
tracking my every move. No, instead Kraig asked a series of questions about my game,
entered my answers into a computer and then proceeded to attach the Shaft Optimizer
devise to the shaft of a club. I swung it a few times, he took the readings.
With the correct shaft now recommended, Kraig attached several head options, asked me
to swing four or five times with each one, and wrote down my responses to how they felt.
We finally settled on a set of Mizuno JPX800 HD, with a Fujikura Orochi 65 gram R flex
shaft. “Graphite?” I asked.
Phrasing his reply ever so gently, Kraig said, “Well, your tempo is so...controlled...that
graphite will help your distance.”
He revealed that my 7-iron swing speed was 79 MPH.
“So I have an old man swing?” I asked.
He kindly described it as “controlled” again and we were done. The whole process had
taken less than a half hour. The cost? Nothing...it’s a free service if you’re considering a
new set of irons. Can’t beat the price!
A week later, my new set of irons arrived at my front door, and in the two times I’ve
had a chance to try them since, I must say that I have never felt impact so pure, nor shots
going so close to what I envisioned. I’m still getting to know my new irons—particularly
the distance my shots travel compared to my old set—but there are glimmers of hope
that maybe...just maybe...those promised three or four strokes might finally be shaved off
my handicap sometime soon.
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What is your experience being fit?
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