Advice from the pros on club fitting

By Jennifer Gardner
GPA Equipment Editor

Do your clubs fit correctly?

If not, you're not alone. Top PGA Tour pros said last week that ill-fitting equipment is one of the biggest problems they see with amateurs, including those in pro-ams, exhibitions and clinics.

"We did a clinic on Monday in Canada, myself and J.J. Henry, and, you know, most of the guys obviously want to hit it a long ways," said Ernie Els at the Deutsche Bank Championship. "I think ... they don't have equipment that is really fit to their size or to their particular games, and they try and hit it like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson."

Pros benefit from having club testing and fitting facilities with top-of-the-line measuring equipment, along with fully-equipped tour vans at tournaments. Each major manufacturer has a truck that carries hundreds of combinations of shafts and grips, club components and machinery to adjust and build clubs.

Tiger Woods believes having clubs fit to your body and swing can make a noticeable difference.

"I'm very lucky that my dad was such a stickler for having clubs that fit me and I didn't have to make concessions in my golf swing because the clubs fit; they were never too big, too heavy, too long," Woods said. "I think that's one thing before you even get started that all amateurs can do is to get something that fits, and then from there keep expanding your knowledge and understanding how to play."