Bit of a long post but bear with me if you can! I mentioned in another post that I was going to get fit this past weekend. I went to the Haggin Oaks Golf Expo on Friday 4/25. I had been fit by the Titleist Tour Fitting Van at this event last year by Eric and it was a blast. I picked up an AP1 set at that time and this time around I was hoping to fill in some gaps by purchasing some vokeys and hybrids.
Last year the Tour Fitting Van was clearly parked right next to the fitting area, Eric had a ton of equipment out, and I tried a huge number of combinations to find the right clubs for me. This year a small unmarked SUV pulled up and two Titleist staff unloaded equipment from that car. Right away I was a little disappointed that it was advertised that the tour fitting van would be there when in actuality it was not. Who knows, maybe the van came to the expo on the next two days? Either way, it wasn't there for me. Neither was the excellent fitter I worked with last year. I assume, he travels with the tour van.
Unfortunately, it became quickly obviously they didn't have the same amount of equipment the tour van has. I was fit with -1/2" shafts last year after getting to try a variety of shaft lengths/weights. This time around, they didn't have a selection of shafts I needed and I hit everything in standard length. I was eventually fit for -1/2" on the clubs but that was based on me telling the fitter that I was fit that way last year and the fitter just marking it down that way on the order sheet.
I ended up getting fit with a Vokey 54/10 and 58/7 (both S grinds) for my wedges and 913 H.d 20 and 18 all with shafts -1/2". However, I didn't end up ordering anything except one wedge. And even though I was fit for the -1/2" lengths, because they didn't have those shorter shafts for me to try, I never actually hit the club that I was "fit" for. I was forced to just choke up a little on the standard length clubs and hope that the change in length/weight wouldn't bother me.
I was also a little disappointed about the fact that my fitter didn't use a Trackman at all while fitting me. This was especially bothersome because there were two fitters at the event and the other fitter had a Trackman set up while mine did not. When I was fit last year at the expo my fitter did use it so I was a bit confused. Is it a matter of personal preference of the fitter or did they just not have one for him to use? For the wedges it wasn't as big of a deal (although I couldn't get any spin numbers) because I can see the flight, trajectory, and distance because they don't fly as far. Plus it's much more of a "feel" club. But for the hybrids, there was no real accurate way of determining the distance I was getting. How do I know if the gaps got filled correctly?
After all this, I'm not sure how confident I can be in the fit so I'm apprehensive about purchasing the clubs. The only reason I purchased a wedge in the first place was because by purchasing a club I was credited back some money towards the cost of the fitting.
Don't get me wrong, my fitter was perfectly nice and it's always fun to get out and hit new Titleist clubs. But after the precision, care, and accuracy of my first fitting, this one just seemed a little more sloppy and I feel a little less confident in the results. Am I off base here? Is it not a big deal that I wasn't able to try the shorter shafts or that I wasn't on a Trackman? For those of you who have more experience getting fit, what's your opinion?