I know. . . it’s common to say “THANKS” this time of the year because that’s what this time of the year is all about. Not that my thanks are any different or more important than anyone else’s, but since I have a blog, that does give me a chance to do the right thing and offer my sincere thanks. . . .
. . . first to the golfers who opened their minds to a better way and doing the research that put you in contact with a custom clubmaker. Thanks to the clubmakers who support us, who care what we’re trying to do in this great craft and who care to keep learning to be the best clubfitter you can be. Thanks also to whatever chain of events that put me on the path to being able to pursue a career in golf equipment R&D. I’m certain I would be bored to death by now had I gotten into dental school way back when – might have been a little more well off, but hey, money isn’t everything.
Doing something you really like and have a passion for is. And in that sense, I am very thankful to have discovered golf clubs as my passion. While there are times I get really frustrated trying to convince more and more golfers that custom fitting beats standard brand names sold off the rack, I seriously would not change a thing in my career. The lack of respect I encountered working in the component clubmaking side of the business was far outweighed by the depth and breadth of experience I gained because I have only worked in the component side. Being understaffed in my positions and having to design tons and tons of different models of heads, shafts, grips and tools allowed me to learn far more than I ever could had I accepted one of those offers to work for a big OEM.
I’m also thankful that I still have a very strong dream that I hope someday will come true.
Some of you may know that I also have a very strong passion for the history of this great game. In terms of the history of golf clubs, from the dawn of the game in the late 1400s to the late 1800s, if you played the game and you wanted to buy golf clubs, you had to go see an independent clubmaker. There were no golf stores. There were no mass produced sets of golf clubs sitting in golf stores to be bought off the rack by golfers. There were only clubmakers, who made golf clubs one at a time, for one golfer at a time.
While the concepts of clubfitting were quite rudimentary back then, the clubmakers still did try to tailor elements such as the length, weight, grip size, set makeup and shaft flex to the individual needs of each golfer.
All this began to change in the late 1800s to early 1900s when the game increased greatly in participation. With more golfers playing more golf courses that were run by club pros, the pros began to ask the clubmakers to provide them with sets of golf clubs that the pros could stock in their shops and sell to the golfers who came to the courses to play. And thus was born the business model that still exists today for golf companies to mass produce sets of clubs to a series of standard specifications so the sets could be sold off the rack to golfers.
In all areas through their history, it is not uncommon for events to evolve in a circular manner. You name it and quite likely its trends have been there, changed and come back in a circular manner of evolution.
My dream is that I will live to see the sales of golf clubs also come full circle and revert to being the domain of the independent custom clubmakers. One club at a time, for one golfer at a time. Wouldn’t that be nice to see?
Until next time,
TOM
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Thank you for this blog. I have a question concerning players vs cavity backed clubs, which you previously talked about. I’m not interested if players clubs allow better control or not. I’m interested if they are longer than cavity back clubs, since there is more weight directly behind the ball at impact?
Michael:
The distance a golfer hits the ball with the irons is determined chiefly by the Loft, then by the Center of Gravity and how the CG works with the golfer’s clubhead speed + angle of attack into the ball and loft to determine the launch angle and spin rate of the shot. After these elements, it is possible to design the face of an iron to have a higher COR by using a high strength steel material and making the face very thin – this will increase distance because of the higher COR. But having more mass right behind the point of impact does not matter for distance.
TOM
Tom, I for one am glad you didn’t end up working for a large OEM. I found out about club fitting through reading your books, and sure you would have been “gagged” from writing these.
The first golf tournament I attended was a WGC event, won by Tiger Woods if I recall. As a complete novice to the game, I stood gazing at the tour trucks wondering what went on inside.I recall thinking why did the pros need so much back up, when as the worlds best ball strikers they should be able to hit anything, just like I have to from my local pro shop.Initially I thought they were there for repairs/minor tweaks.
I have now learnt that marketing by OEMS far outweighs anything else they do. My local pro told me recently that the latest range from a well known brand differs very little from it’s predecessor, other than cosmetic changes.
I even challenged a top selling golf magazine here in the UK to get custom fitted for some of your products against fitting for a “big brand” of their choice. I even gave them details of the clubmaker I use. Five months on they still haven’t taken up the challenge.Say no more.
The measure of using a clubmaker in my experience was when I was getting my son’s clubs adjusted,when he invited me to try his own 7 iron on his indoor range/launch monitor.Having seen me hold this club, he said straight away, the grips on my off the rack irons were too small because he could tell how tightly I was gripping his club, which had larger grips.I was amazed, but that is the standard of skill and observation an experienced clubmaker can offer.For the record the iron i tried was a Wishon design, which felt way nicer than my set which were from a big brand company supposedly renowned for their irons.
Keep up the good work Tom because it’s refreshing to hear knowledgeable comment and honesty without the marketing hype from the OEMS
Darren:
Thank you very much for your interest and for your support. Actually, I proposed writing the Search books when I was VP of Golfsmith and was “gagged” even there from writing this type of information. The reason was because Golfsmith was in the process of building their big box retail store business – they knew that much of the business in these big stores would be to sell the OEM’s clubs off the rack so they did not want me to do a book or to do anything that could make these OEM companies mad. They felt if these OEMs got mad, they would not ship their clubs to the GOlfsmith stores to be sold off the racks, and from that, the GS stores could fail. Interesting when you think that GS was by far the largest custom clubmaking supply company at the time – but because the projected sales of their big retail stores was much larger than the component division, thus the policy was for nothing to be said that could upset the big OEM companies.
Glad to hear you have challenged the golf magazine in your country – they undoubtedly will think you a “quack” but never let that sway you – it’s just an indication of how little these magazines really know about what is and what is not real custom fitting. Again, thanks, and the very best to you in this great game!
TOM
Tom,
As a magazine, and it’s the biggest selling one in the UK, they have some interesting contradictions.They test every category of club annually testing the latest models from the OEMs.Testing them for distance, dispersion, looks, feel etc.They use four testers ranging from pro to high handicap. Considering these are all off the rack models it seems strange that at the bottom of the test literature they advocate getting custom fitted to ensure the best possible fit for your game”.
Also their equipment editor on their webpage forum has admitted that he uses your books to check any technical claims made by any company about their clubs.So peased to say the “quack” label wasn’t used.The magazine claims their tests are impartial and objective, yet said they claimed to have problems getting hold of your products to test them, despite my “helping them”. Are the publications in the US as contradictory ?
Darren:
I’ve always looked skeptically at ANY such testing because all they are doing is finding out which off the rack clubs may or may not come closer to fitting the size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics of the few golfers asked to do the test hitting. Not to mention bringing in the psychological side of the test hitters being predisposed by marketing to possibly like or not like a club they are about to hit. Over here in the US, the most publicized “golf club test evaluation” is the HOT LIST done by our Golf Digest magazine. All the companies send Golf Digest their new models each fall. GD convenes a test week and has their 12 or so individuals of different hdcp hit the clubs and make their evaluations.
A few years ago I happened to be at the GD Hot List meeting so I saw exactly how it was done. In short, there is no possible way their group of golfers can possibly hit test every single one of the clubs that all the different companies send in because there are just too many. I no longer send in my clubs to Hot List because for two straight years, when the clubs I sent in were returned to us, we could see from looking at the heads that virtually none of them had ever been hit even one time. With far too many clubs submitted in total, it is very common for the hit testing people to pass over the clubs from companies they’ve never heard of to be able to hit the clubs from companies they are more familiar with.
Based on this and based on the fact that you’re asking golfers to hit and evaluate clubs that may or may not fit them very well, to me all these club comparison testing things are completely misleading. Until golfers realize that it is so much more about getting the right FIT, you’re going to keep seeing golfers waste a lot of money when they go out to buy golf clubs.
TOM
Tom – I began playing golf in the 6th grade and have been an avid golfer most all my life. The last 6 years led me on an entreprenurial trail that didn’t work, and I’m gladly back in the corporate world for my stability. I have played little golf over the last 6 years, need new equipment, and am very interested in learning how to make my own, and maybe build a business on the side building custom equipment. I’d like to begin by reading on the basics of club building and learn the whole process. Where would you suggest I begin?
MIke:
Club MAKING and club FITTING are two very different parts of the custom club business. The making part you can master quite quickly with a little initial training followed by a few months of practice. The fitting part is going to take a lot more time. For the repair/assembly part, companies like GolfWorks, Golfsmith, Mitchell GOlf all have week long training schools at which you can learn the basics, from which you then can go home and practice and gain the skills. I think GOlfWorks also has a book in which they illustrate most of the repair and assembly procedures – although I can’t remember what the title is.
Fitting wise, in all honesty no one possesses the depth and accuracy of fitting knowledge that we do here at TWGT. The fitting schools offered by GolfWorks, Golfsmith and Mitchell are not really worth the cost of attending – sorry to say that but that’s the way it is. Unfortunately, we don’t offer schools at TWGT – so the best suggestion would be for you to get a copy of our book, Common Sense Clubfitting, and read it and study it thoroughly. Then you start by fitting friends and people you’re closer to who won’t bitch when you make mistakes until you start to feel a little more confident and you start to see some real fitting successes. Expert clubfitters get there with no shortcuts – it takes a lot of initial study with a good resource such as Common Sense Clubfitting, followed by a lot of experience building through doing it with real golfers, again and again.
TOM
Thank you Tom. I purchased your book Common Sense Clubfitting and have just started diving in – lot of detail, I love it – just what I need. Can you please suggest the equipment that I will need up front? I just want to budget what I need to do this right, so I’m curious about what clubhead spec measuring machine you recommend, as well as a length measurement device, swingweight scale, MOI matching equipment, and launch monitors. I’m a techie so I’m not intimidated with software and technical issues. This will be a sideline for me right now, so I’m in no rush – just want to take my time and learn to do this right so it can be something I might work into full time down the road. You have my email address if you want to respond privately. Thank you Tom!
MIKE:
Glad you like the deeper treatment of the subject in the Common Sense book. Or as my wife likes to say, “Tom how the heck can anything that is 488 pages long have anything to do with COMMON SENSE?? !! I smiled at that comment from her! Let me pull some things from other advice/suggestions together to send to you at your email address to try to help you with your request for a list of what you need.
Thanks,
TOM
Tom, I am also reading your Common Sense book and have found it very in depth but having a lot of common sense! I am retiring and would like to keep myself busy. I am an avid golfer, 5 handicap, and a lot of my family and friends ask me a lot of questions about their golf games. I read in one of your blogs someone asked about what equipment to purchase for building custom clubs. I already have a launch monitor, Auditor MOI machine, Loft & Lie bending machine, Loft & Lie measuring device What other items would you suggest to purchase,[must haves] to build clubs the correct way. I have time to learn since I ma retired. Thank You for your time.
Doug Grinstead
DOUG:
I assume that in addition to the equipment you listed, that you have all of the other assembly type equipment? Things like a good shaft extractor, a 1×30 or 1×42 belt sander with both abrasive and ferrule turning belts, a good shaft cutter, a decent ferrule installation tool, swingweight scale too (since some may prefer swingweight to MOI matched clubs). And I thank you for commenting that the Common Sense Clubfitting book did have a lot of common sense. When my wife saw the title and saw that it was 488 pgs long, her comment was “how the heck can anything 488 pgs in length be common sense??” So I shall show her your post!!
TOM ;>)