Most of you know that we not only custom fit clubs but make sure they are custom built to your exact specifications that we measured in your fitting. A lot of club fitters will fit you and the make a “custom” order that is sent to the manufacturer for fulfillment. We know from hard experience that what comes back from the manufacturer in most cases in not very close and in some cases so far off that your performance will be less than what you experienced in your fitting. Why? First, the manufacturers are mostly concerned with getting the proper swing weight and length of the clubs. In a lot of instances, especially if you are having lie angles adjusted significantly (2-3 degrees up or down), there will be major inconsistencies throughout the set. Another major factor is the variation in the shafts. We have measured stock driver, fairway and hybrid shafts and found that a S (stiff) shaft can measure anywhere from R (regular) to X (extra stiff). If the variance is more than a half of a flex from what you were tested for, your performance (shot dispersion, distance, consistency) will be a lot less than what you experienced in your fitting. In addition, light weight steel iron shafts in the 90 gram range or less will play VERY soft to flex (senior to ladies flex) and will result in very wide shot dispersion, fat shots and mishits. This is especially true if you have an aggressive swing.
Of course, custom building takes time. From start to finish, it takes roughly an hour to build a club, longer if we are retro fitting (re-shafting), as it entails removal of the existing shaft. So, a conservative estimate to the actual build is a full day for a set of irons. The process includes removing the heads from existing shafts and then weighing the heads. We then assemble the shafts we will be using for the clubs and do a FLO (flat line oscillation) test on the raw shaft and measure its CPM. We assemble the grips we will use for the set and weight sort them as well. Then, the build is ready to begin. We frequency match, re-check the FLO, determine the amount of weight to be added or counterbalanced to match swing weight, and then cut the clubs to length. The clubs are then epoxied with 24-hour cure epoxy to reduce any chance of epoxy failure and allowed to cure overnight. The next morning, the assembled clubs are double-checked for cpm and swing weight. The clubs then move to the finishing area where they are gripped, the lofts/lies checked and modified to order specs, and then cleaned. We want all clubs, even retro-fit clubs to go out better than when they came in. Finally, the clubs are inspected for length, CPM (flex) and swing weight with the results recorded in our system. This 7-step Quality Assurance system allows us to track any imperfections in the build process. The customer is provided with a Finished Order Report that shows the ordered and delivered specs. So you can see, this is not a cut and glue operation. The reason we give a two-week turnaround time is that we do not stock a lot of inventory as literally every order is custom built. Yes, we maintain inventory of many popular shafts and grips, but we do not do that with heads.
So, with custom fit AND custom built clubs, you will get the same improvement in distance, accuracy and consistency on the course as you did in your fitting. Our ability to custom build clubs to your exact specifications is what allows us to also guarantee our work. After all, we want you to Play Better Golf…Faster!
Dan Sueltz
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