Distance? You want distance? Get yourself to a competent club fitter immediately. I spent a couple of hours on the fitting tee with Steve Kurnit at DD Custom Golf, a new club fitting service operating at Fairview Golf Center in Elmsford, yesterday and saw some numbers that made my jaw drop. How about another 20 yards on my drives and ten more yards with my irons? Those numbers aren't to be sneezed at.
Steve started with a complete analysis of the clubs in my bag today. FYI, my driver is about five years old--and I was fitted for it at the time by a good, experienced club fitter. My irons have been around for three years and were fitted to me by the company rep, so these weren't off-the-rack junk either. I've also not been unhappy with the results I was getting--at least until Steve took me to the top of the mountain and showed me what kinds of shots I could hit.
My current driver distance is about average for a slightly better than mediocre player: according to the monitor, I carry it 226 yards and it runs out to a total distance of 254 yards. On this day, at least, I also hit it only about a yard off line. Then Steve started tinkering (mostly switching shafts) until he put one in my hands that carried 243 yards and produced total distance of 273 yards--with just a slight increase in distance off the center line. Maybe it's not tour length, but it's longer than I ever expected to hit the ball.
Then we went to my six iron. The current club carries 167 yards with a peak height of 27 yards and produces total distance of 185 yards. By the time Steve got done testing different configurations, I was hitting a six iron 175 yards in the air with another 20 yards of run out for total distance of 195 yards. That particular club didn't have quite as much height in the ball flight, though, (peak height of 20 yards) so he made up another one that carried almost as far--172 yards--at a peak height of 26 yards for total distance of 192 yards. All without tinkering with my swing!
Think about these numbers for a minute. If I'm playing a 450-yard par four now, it takes a 250-yard tee shot followed by a hybrid or even fairway wood to reach the green in regulation. If I arm myself with clubs made to Steve's specs, I'll be hitting a seven or eight iron into that green. Gee, you think my scores might go down?
BTW, I interviewed Steve not long after he opened shop in Elmsford. He explained the procedures he follows in an earlier post.
In addition to writing about golf, Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.
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