3 TIPS to NOT Overpay for Custom Fit Golf Clubs
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Fitted golf clubs are a good idea and can be beneficial to golfers of every ability level. However custom fit golf clubs can too often be far more expensive than the standard retail prices.
In this video I discuss how and why the cost of custom clubs vary so much and give you 3 tips to make sure you don't pay too much for custom fit clubs.
Interested in a fitting, custom build or repair. Contact me
adam@elitefitgolf.com
Links to my shaft PUREing videos
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100% with you on the puring, so expensive.
This is exactly why you will from now on be my fitter!! I’m VERY familiar with that invoice… I through mine in the trash…
During Covid I was bored and locked down. So I bought a swing weight , ordered heads and shaft etc… and built my own set, found your channel and learnt a ton plus you answered every question I asked so -
thank you!
And just another note I just got new wedges and ordered 3 , 8 iron shafts that I’m about to change over - again thanks to you
Great advice!!! Thank you! Wish i lived in your area!
Wish this video would have been a month earlier. Paid too much for fitted clubs and now I’m regretting it. Great video and awesome content!
Another trick that they use. I had a putter fitting at CC and the best putter was a Ping putter that I was rolling really well, but when it was all set and done, that putter was out of production, and it couldn’t be made with the shaft length that I needed. But guess what? The Bettinardi putter I was also rolling well was available. It just happened to be twice as expensive. Shocker.
Dude from club championship literally told me, ya buy the titleist head if you want to hit it left (trying to fit me into apex callaway) dude I know how to read a trackman😂. Also, they were charging me $100 a shaft when titleist had them at like $15 up charge. Absolutely insanity. KBS tourV 120 X
Great vid mate, I bet I know who that charge sheet came from... 🙄 It looks alot like what I had to pay to get my PXG 317T's in Australia... At the time, they were the only supplier in the country of PXG... They recon they are the only company that gets heads only too... 🙄 So I had to pay $350 AUD for just heads, then they slugged me for the shafts Modus 3 120 which are stock for the majority of brands for $86 each. Then they got me for the pureing and the build $79 each and the $33 for the each grip... I got absolutely screwed but really wanted the clubs and had no other way to get them... 3 months later PXG opened up to 50 sellers in the country... 🤬🤬🤬 Ps my only saving grace is a promo came out 2 weeks after my fitting, with a discount of a couple hundred bucks off any iron order, which I got them to honour... 😎
It has alsways been a big concern of mine finding a club fitter that you can actually trust. unnfortunately, in my neck of the woods, most of the club fitters are not forrthright. They try to upsell you exotic shafts, puring and other stuff that you don't need., especially if you're an amateur. I'm a 4 handicapper and I don't need any of the exotic shafts nor do I need my shafts pured or any other nonsensical costs they try to push on us. Most of the OEM's have a variety of shafts for the clubheads you choose and one or two of them will work just fine. The only extras I'll pay for are ferules that I like, and branding my wedges with my company logo. Cheers.
Most can’t do basic math or listen to the customers instructions.
Please butt cut to this length and then put the stinkin’ grip on! Can’t be done. I’ve gotten 3 different lengths that varied 1.5 inches on 3 8 irons.
I always test potential new clubs out on a golf course. Mats are only a starting point.
@@johnbrodnik839 you are absolutely correct. Most club fitters are not very good or, even worse, horrible. Math and science are integral parts of a good fitting. If you don’t understand both, find another profession. You don’t need to be a wiz, but you need to know the basics. Cheers.
So “Club Winner” fitters will charge you the stock price for the entire club (head, shaft, grip), and then 2x per aftermarket shaft, plus after market grips? What happens to the stock inventory that they charged you for? Do you get that as the consumer, or do they pocket it?
Unless you ask for them it funds the annual staff golf trip or Christmas function
I would rather just order a set of Miura's than pay that amount of money for any TM, Titleist, Callaway etc.... irons.
very few people would benefit from more than stock shaft and grip selections from most manufacturers once the lie angle, length etc are dialed in. i walked out of TXG pre club champion with a great fitting on mizuno irons. The extra wait time from mizuno will still drive you bonkers but not as bad s getting ripped off.
Why not expose the company that’s ripping people off in that build sheet? Club Champion?
CC for sure. They showed me a $3000 invoice for a set of zx7's they tried to fit me into.
They tried charging me $500 just to put a new shaft in my already owned driver. 😂
Oh it’s definitely Club Champion. I got a set there as a gift from a family member. They “built” my set and didn’t check their own lie/loft machine and proceeded to bend each head to increase the loft +5 degrees on each head. I held them to their guarantee and made them replace the heads. Forged head can be manipulated +\- 2 inmost cases. But not 5.
Wasnt my money, but I will never go back.
I hear so many bad things about Club Champion, I had a bad experience with them as well. I went for a putter fit they were using SAM putt lab which is dated tech, they only had about 15 putters to try. The putter they fit me in they wanted me to wait 6 weeks for it to get it in. I went up the street and bought it at a Mom and Pop shop. The guy that fit me was a ex caddie I found out later that hadn’t had any real training and he didn’t stay there long and went back to caddying. Watching TXG on RUclips showed how much knowledge and experience it takes to be really good at it and their people just don’t get that for the most part I’m sure there are some exceptions. TXG sold out to them and CC I’m sure did it to try and get some legitimate credentials but they need way more than that
My Club Champion fitting experience was great and the staff was on point, but they were already a premier fitting company before Club Champion acquired them so.... Australia btw. We only have 3 fitting shops in the whole country and all of them used to be Pureform Golf, so for me it works out.
I just went back (got a full custom build on callaway driver, 3 wood and 7 wood on 1st visit) and got a putter fitting, and there was probably 200 putters on the wall. Left with a custom mizuno omoi in a shaft size no stockist here carries, in the ion blue nobody carries either... so I really cant complain of my experience.
Wish I lived closer to Decatur as you'd have my business. I have researched fitting to the point of mass confusion and stagnation. This may have been your best video yet for me to finally pull the trigger. I have narrowed my club choices to the Srixon and Mizuno hot metal irons based on cost, appearance and reviews. I would be doing the mid level fitting, sticking with no cost or minimal increase in shafts based on manufacturer options. Now the hard part to find a fitter I can trust. For this type fitting would a box store fitting be adequate? Thinking PGA store or 2nd swing. Hate asking for free advice, but there I am.
uh oh. the "Club Champion" guys are going to come after you now. i expect a new video soon.
Club champion is decent but over priced for normal sized humans. As a large human they have no options over standard length or with oversize grips so doesn’t help people like me at all really
What happened to them being txg? (or whatever it was called)
@@tretre4435they consumed TXG. TXG is now part of the machine.
@@tretre4435Club champion bought them last year. They are still on RUclips.
Lol whats the deal with that? I got fit at one and quite frankly my golf isnt even the same game anymore and I cut 20 off my scores from shooting 100s (who knew my driver and long irons cost me so much...) Ive got a brain-turned-off set now thats exactly how I need them to be for my feel and visual ocd needs.
They supposed to be bad or something? I got exactly what I wanted. Maybe not all their franchises are up to standard? Pls enlighten me.
Some custom shops only have “head only” account, meaning they get bulk access to iron heads “at cost” and as AJ pointed out you pay the “premium” for having the privilege of them building them for you. I do think they should charge something, it is a service, but as was pointed out 2x shaft cost, 1.5x grip, and an add on to PURE a shaft is ridiculous. You can take your build sheet and shop it out for a much better price.
Who every gave that quote really was expecting to have a endless stream of rich/uninformed customers.
I have a couple of components only accounts and I can build a club to the same price as an online retailer. No reason to go that crazy.
did Pure drips go under and why did they make the grips so short?
Profiteering comes to mind.
"THAT RETAILER/FITTER" has a RUclips channel on which, their SME's posted a video some years ago demonstrating that puring isn't needed. Especially on quality shafts
That was before "THAT RETAILER" bought their channel
Folks. The Puring is a full stop. Waste of cash
$70 a club install ..... good work if you can get it. 🙃
My buddy got a set of Titleist irons from a large custom builder franchise and his said each shaft was an extra 150. I asked him if he noticed a difference between those shafts and stock that would come with them, he didn't know because they never those to him.
So it would seem to me only test what is stock, as they are designed for those clubs by the manufacturer, but still hit some upgraded premium shafts. I doubt you'll notice that big of a difference in performance for us mere mortals.
I agree that many wouldn't notice that much of a difference but don't kid yourself that the manufacturer designed the clubs for only those certain shafts that they offer. The shafts that they offer are just the shafts that they get from the shaft companies at the best price point to maximize profits.
Shafts make a huge difference, as they are what you feel when you swing. However, once you figure out what you like, you don't need to really change from it. You shouldn't change, either, because it's so impactful for timing and rhythm. Maybe as you get older and slower, then you can start looking again.
great video
So how then, does a company like yours make money AJ? Your overhead, your incredible experience and the like. If you're using retail prices to calculate a price, how do you add a markup for your time and experience and not price yourself out of the business? I work as a club builder at a chain in Canada.
If he uses retail prices to the customer, he should be buying those parts at trade prices, the difference between trade and retail is the profit. And I'm sure he has a reasonable fit and build fee that works for him.
Soooo you’re saying whoever got that custom build got duped lol. Sad part is I’d bet in about 8 months those clubs will find their way to the second hand market. It’s not the club, it’s the swing you put on that club. Work on your swing and stop hopping around buying multiple sets. Bryson DeChambeau just posted a few videos where he has shot par or better with hickory shafted clubs, a junior set of clubs and a crazy assortment of the cheapest clubs off Amazon…from the tips. I know he’s a tour player with an excellent swing but the point is his swing overrides all those handicaps those clubs were supposed to put on him.
The golf industry will allways have plenty of people who try to buy a game. They can turn up to the course in a farrari with a 50k rolex on their wrist. But although they will try they cant buy a win on the course. And to many guys being ripped off $1000 for their clubs is pocket change.
Horrible take 🤣
Question: Can you make a video on the best way to buy Takomo (or any other brand) Golf club? Should we just use online calculator for shaft, or buy heads only, or get fitted for best shift... What do you recommend?
Thats the pay off with the $ savings from DTC companies, it's always going to be a best guess.
AJ, what do you think about ordering shafts (legit) online for a discounted price and ordering the components and then having a club builder put the set together versus telling a club fitter what you want and getting charged Msrp prices?? New uncut shafts not pulls.. and what do you think about pulls also?
It's another way to go. I would always recommend buying from a legit retailer as their are counterfeits out there. Nothing wrong with pulls, but need to make sure you know all the specs and trust the seller. Buying gripped pulls that have extensions in them happens a fair amount.
@@EFGMC thanks for the reply. I personally would not buy pulls because I wouldn’t trust them unless I knew the club builder but figured others might like to know as well. I was just curious if the shafts (as long as from a trusted source) would basically be the same a club builder is buying or do manufacturers pick specific (maybe weighted/ or cpm matching) shafts when sending to a builder / maybe the builder is requesting as such or any other variables I’m missing??
Why don’t people just pay to get fit then take that spec sheet and order clubs from the manufacturer. Dont try shafts that are not a stock option. Unless you make a living playing golf get over yourself and use a stock offering.
So this is a big issue for me the regular golf stores aren’t equipped to properly fit me because of limited to stock shafts for manufacturers but I went to club champion and got fitted into a tsr3 with a ventus tr black 6x shaft at 7.25 loft and it costed over $1200 dollars I need a new 3 wood but this is ridiculous to have to pay these prices to get fit into what I actually need
I got fit at Club Champion Brisbane (Pureform Golf) and whilst my swing is not really consistent, the new boutique shafts I got to try TRULY got me some consistency in both direction and draw, a NIGHT AND DAY difference. As for Pure-ing some people say its shit/BS but I for whatever reason I REALLY can tell the difference in my irons, like I can tell which of my clubs are off and which are good before I even walk in.
As for shafts, not alot of variety/availability for shafts here in Australia, especially with shipping which is BAD here.... so for me, the saving of hassle and having it already built is so worth the extra cost.
I was recently fitted for a set of T200 irons by Titleist. Beforehand, I thought that I needed a heavier shaft. Previously, I had tried the DG 95 and Recoil 95s and felt that they accentuated my swing quirks. To my surprise, I made my best swings with the Steelfiber I80cw shaft and my 7-iron club head speed actually increased 3 mph. I learned that one cannot depend upon written specs and regarding weight, flex, etc. but must try the shaft in a controlled environment to really know what best suits you.
A basic fitting is free at my local retail golf shop. Last year I hit several model irons; determined the best head, shaft and grip; and paid MSRP (no extra charges). I guess I am not too particular, but the process was great.
The shaft pureing drives me nuts. The radial consistency of shafts are so incredibly high now that pureing is absolutely not needed, but all the big fitting companies try to sell you pureing still. It's like the dealership trying to sell you paint protection to your new car.
Hello Adam, Must commend you for great content and an "openminded" approach to the business of club making. In a previous video you asked for some ideas about what kind of content you could focus on in your channel. It would be very interesting if you created a series with, for example, the title "The journey from occasional club maker to professional club maker". In that series, you can discuss topics that lead the viewer through what it takes to be, for example, an "Occasional club builder, Regular club builder to Professional club builder". Think of it as a way to introduce to the viewer the progressive journey a person can take in club building/fitting world to get from A (amateur) - P (Pro) and also discuss some milestones that might be worth stopping at along the way.
On the channel, you have talked a lot about how clubs are built and tools, etc., but maybe there is some room to develop it a little more into a "Clubbmaker profession" tutorial, for example (suitable training and where to find it, example business models along the way, tools for amateurs or pros, types of premises needed for different types of clubmakers, collaborations with golf equipment companies and what to expect, setting goals for your clubmaker journey, When will a fitting studio become necessary (if ever), etc etc).
I just got fitted from CC and i got a 10% off from them and 20% goft cards and that was the only thing that made them reasonable. You have to pay for puring in driver shafts but all other puring is optional. Ended up paying about the same as any other builder without discounts but under normal circumstances wouldnt buy from CC
One of the biggest reasons I won’t go to certain fitters is because they charge you full price for the head and then again for a shaft even when the shaft is available as a stock offering from that brand.
So frustrating to want to just get fitted for the optimal shaft to have a set of Maltby or Tacomo or Hogans made up cause no one near that doesn’t just do the big names 😢
Thanks for making this video. Really applaud your transparency and honesty around this issue. Like someone else said, wish I lived near you.
I know that build sheet and for what they quoted I put together half a bag with it being half the price as quoted. Nothing older than two years old.
This is one reason I haven’t upgraded to a new set of clubs. I have swing flaws that I am trying to overcome with lessons and drills. I use “vintage” clubs because I want to improve ball striking rather than mask my bad shots with technology. I appreciate what AJ shares with his followers. It’s very important and helpful information.
Totally agree. I play with Mizuno T-Zoid Pros. From what I can tell, they were manufactured in '96. Dynamic Gold X100 shafts and I replace the grips every season. They still have lots of life left in them. They have taught me how to swing since there's no tech and little forgiveness. My hcp currently is 7 and things are looking good to see it drop to 5 or better this season. The local sim had reps from the big guys come in and do a complimentary fitting. I was only able to book with the Titleist Rep and purposely didn't tell him anything about my current driver. After the session he gave me a printout of what he setup for me. 9° standard (not fade or draw bias), standard lie, stiff 57 gram shaft (hazardous black, I think since it was a while ago). I then told him I play a sldr at 9°, with a 57 gram stiff shaft. The performance numbers were actually a bit better with the old sldr. He said that I had a unicorn. Whatever, I wanted to know since every year the drivers are longer and greater. I rest at night knowing that the guys spending a boatload of money have no advantage over me especially when I easily out drive them and out score them with my ancient irons.
@@glennwiebe5128 I picked up a tzoid sand wedge from Salvation Army last year and I have been using it as my go to sand wedge for 9 months. It’s a great club! My regular clubs are Hogan Apex’s. I’m a 15 handicap so I should probably use game improvement clubs to lower my scores but that doesn’t do much for swing improvement. It’s like perfume on a pig when the pig really needs a bath.
I recognize that invoice format :)
So, I did order a set of irons from that company. They had discount % for them though. In my case the "exotic" shafts were $50/ea more than you could buy them for online, but the heads were about $40/ea less than you could buy the clubs for retail. So if you add in the cost to build each at my local shop, it turns out that all together my irons cost me about $20 LESS than I could have bought the shaft/head/grip/ferrule/assembly for. Of course that ignores the fact that I don't have a set of stock shafts I could throw on ebay, but still. It ended up being actually not as expensive as the sticker shock appeared to be.
I also skipped pure'ing. Not only am I not sold at all on it doing much, if anything, I really hate when the shaft logos are visible at address.
You make some excellent points. I have some good fitters and a couple not so good. My last set of pings was a bad experience.
Nice👍🏻
I paid $125 for a fitting from a top fitter in my area. Good. Then when I got the invoice for the clubs the head cost was the fully built retail cost of the irons from the manufacturer, plus a 50% markup on the grips, a 25% markup on the shafts. total cost was $400 more than direct purchase + the price I paid for the fitting. Pass...
I actually don't have a huge problem with that price depending on the caliber of player you are. First, the price of the fitting stands alone, that is a cost for the professional's time and hourly wage, cost of the expensive equipment, overhead for the store etc.... Now when you consider the cost of upgraded shafts and the price for disassembly/reassembly, loft and lie adjustments, swing weight check and adjustments, and new grips that isn't all that much too high for a set of clubs. Say you just purchased a set of clubs off the shelf and went out and played them for a few rounds or three. Then you decided that you wanted new shafts because you tried a buddy's club and hit it better. What would it cost you to get these new shafts and to have them installed to your specs?
This is why I buy my clubs online and not from a local store. If I don't like how they feel, I can sell them for what I paid and move on. Golf shops are getting to be like mechanics.
BMW and Jaguar mechanics!
Hi, I enjoy your channel very much.
I travel to the Atlanta area several times a year. Right now I use t300's .
What manufacturers do you rep for custom fitting? Thank you!
Please send me an email so I can answer your question. Since my brand list is changing through time, I don't want an answer on here and have an out of date response in short time.
adam@elitefitgolf.com
Thanks AJ
I'm still a pretty high handicap player but have been focusing on improving my game this year, but still playing my stock Cobra S2 Max Irons and off the shelf woods. I've never done a club fitting before and wondering if it's worth it to get one done just to adjust the length and lie of the clubs.
Never a bad idea to at least make sure your current clubs are fighting against you.
What would you say is the industry standard or average charge for iron assembly in the USA?
Big box stores are around $25 I think. Specialized shop will be a bit more, say $5 or $10 extra depending on location etc.
I reached out to a fitter / builder in Augusta and was quoted $75 per club for assembly... Yes, assembly only. The fitting was a separate fee.
Augusta tax! i build my own clubs in the shed and even with limited equipment it take not much longer than an hour to put a set of irons together (and I do swingweight them)
Looks like Club Champions build sheet. In 2019 I went for a custom fit and they pushed ACCRA shafts on the Cobra F9 woods. Found out later on they owned ACCRA and they pushed them for that reason. Also they pured my new Callaway irons at that time too. Never again. I’ve been to 2ndSwing in DE several times since then and they’re much better and more honest fitters and builders
At least ACCRA is a great quality shaft though. Doesn't mean it was the best fit so I get your point, but the shaft is very good and consistent.
My club champion experience was vastly different. I just told them to pick the shafts that they think fit what I was doing (plus shatfs I wanted to try) and I let the trackman (and my hands) decide what I was going to end up with and had zero pressure of any upsell. Heck they didnt even talk about puring until I asked what that odd vice machine was in the corner lol. Most stress-free fitting, and they let me re-try my existing clubs mid session to compare tired metrics to clubs I was swinging and make sure the numbers were still better.
I oped to pure them because I just seem sensitive to that feel, but my OCD is special.... But yeah, I told them what brands and what heads I wanted to try amd we went through them all and let the data and my visual ocd about how it looks at address pick the club. Last word was always with me, I would think its weird if a fitter was pushing anything on me.
I love your honesty, very rare these days
love your videos. they make sense.
EXCELLENT. AJ !! REALLY SPOT ON. !!!
Truth be Told - Thank You!
My favorite when I made that mistake once was the “custom build” - the 7 iron, PW and 58 were all the same length 😂😂😂
Whats the issue? Sounds pretty "custom built" to me. 😂
@@kennyoliver2403 you’re right. All a matter of perspective 😂
Damn good content.
Agree at 100%
what is your opinion on swing weight? there are zero OEMs that let you customize that. Is that a big problem or does it not matter for most golfers?
Primarily it's important so everything feels similar. I personally think it's less important than many give it credit for although some people do like a heavier or lighter feel.
@@EFGMC here's the issue though. I had a friend, who is a low single digit handicapper, who was fitted for a set of Mizuno Pro 243 irons. The fitting put him in a set of irons that was more upright and 1/2" longer than what he was used to playing. He started trying to play the new irons and could tell right away something wasn't right. He still stuck with them for a while and tried to make them work. Finally he decided to just sell them and I asked if i could try them. Right away they felt very heavy to me and I like and play heavy feeling clubs. I put them on my swing weight scale and they D6 in the long/mid irons and D7 in the 9I &PW, or within a half SW point of that. So that tells me that even though the clubs were ordered 1/2' over in length the person on the assembly line just threw the clubs together using the same head weights (same tip weights installed) as usual and just cut them .5" longer and threw the grips on and was good. That's BS in my book and I don't care who you are. Very few people on the planet want to swing clubs that are that heavy especially when they get fitted for everything and pay over $1300 for them.
@@kennyoliver2403that should never happen, swingweight should be on the build sheet for that purchase, very dodgy.
@@TheStaniG I agree. I can't say that it wasn't but the swingweight was not right. If you cut the.5" extra length off the shaft then the SW would be really close to where it should have been. That's why I said that they must have just slapped them together as they always do for stock length and never even considered SW at all.
Club Champion tried to fit me into $3000 irons after all their markups lmao (Srixon zx7 btw)
I'm tempted to try out a few models from Maltby when I look at upgrading from my srixon ZX4s. I appreciate what CC did for me in terms of my 3 wood which is probably the best club I have ever hit, but it was quite costly. Thankfully it won't break me but man that bill was no joke.
look at it this way. is that well fit pricey 3wood going to be better for you golf game for the next 5 year+ as opposed to a few random off the shelf clubs that never really work great.
Bought a nice set of Japanese Tour Stage heads and built them up with Apollo stepless stiff shafts for under $200. Zing! The Japanese play five times then sell on eBay.
I've also been buying heads from japan and assembling at home. cheap, readily available and easy. shipping is fast too.