Understanding Your Swing
Custom Fitting
Custom fitting at Lavender Park, we believe that understanding a golfer’s swing is the key to unlocking the potential of their game. This is our starting point when teaching golf, but it also our starting point for custom fitting.
Swing
DNA
Every golfer has a unique set of swing variables owing number of other physical and mental factors, such as height, weight and agility. These swing variables make-up your ‘swing DNA’ and the process of custom fitting allows us to analyse your swing in order to establish your specifics. This ensures you purchase the right equipment that will enable you to hit straighter, more consistent shots.
The only way to ensure that your clubs are compatible with your swing variables is to be custom fitted. Online custom fitting services are available. As they only assess your static measurements without considering your swing variables, they are of little value alone.
Custom
Fitting
At Lavender Park, we offer dynamic fitting combined with static fitting sessions. Dynamic fitting is where all aspects of swing and ball flight are taken into account alongside your measurements.
Our sessions also give you the opportunity to try the various clubs that meet your requirements to aid personal preference selection.
The custom fit team is led by David Johnson, a Master Professional with over 40 years fitting experience and fitting consultant to many of the leading golf brands.
Our Professionals have undergone substantial training. This has enabled them to be able to assess swing mechanics, ball flight patterns and the technical make-up of golf clubs.
This training, coupled with extensive experience gives us the ability to determine your needs within five main specifications to select the perfect clubs for your swing:
- Lie angle
- Club length
- Shaft type and flex
- Grip size and type
- Model/ club type
At Lavender Park, we currently offer full custom fitting facilities for Callaway, Ping, Titleist and Yonex. A custom fitting session usually lasts up to 45 minutes and costs £40.00. Which should you decide to purchase clubs through us based on your specification is refundable.
The Five Main
Specifications
Whilst it is true that the longer the golf shaft, the greater the club head speed achieved, it is also true that distance will only be maximised if the ball is struck from the centre of the club face (known as the sweet spot). Scientific research has shown that a ball struck half an inch horizontally away from the sweet spot will result in a loss of 15 yards distance. If a club is too short: the shot will come off the toe of the club face, resulting in a thinned shot falling forward on impact and excess knee flex. If a club is too long: the shot will come off the heel of the club face, resulting in fat shots with inconsistent striking and falling away at impact. Our Professionals understand that incorrect club length will promote bad posture. Alter the swing plane and promote off-centre ball striking. We therefore take static measurements, followed by dynamic testing and ball flight analysis to ensure the correct club length is specified.
Fitting Your
wedge
The objective of wedge fitting is to provide the golfer with the best combination of wedges to optimise short game performance and remove yardage gaps, resulting in a decreased score.
There are two primary swing styles that will determine which wedge variables are best for the player’s short game technique:
Slider/ Sweeper: Where the golfer has a shallow angle of attack and slides the leading edge of the club under the ball. Thus lifting the ball off the fairway. This player will play best with a wedge that has a narrow sole, less bounce and more camber.
Driver/ Digger: this golfer uses less hand action, a stronger grip and a steeper angle of attach which will take a large divot. This golfer may position the ball back in their stance and trap the ball at impact. This player will play their best with a wedge that has a wider sole, more balance and less camber.
With wedge fitting there are some additional specifications to consider, as the correct sole profile of the wedge needs to be identified to best suit the golfer’s short game technique. Bounce, sole and sole camber work together to provide golfers with ideal turf interaction that compliments their swing style.
Bounce is the angle from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the wedge. The sole camber is the curvature of the sole, measured from the leading edge to the trailing edge.
Our custom fit team is led by David Johnson, a Master Professional with over 50 years fitting experience and fitting consultant to many of the leading golf brands.
At Lavender Park, we currently offer full custom fitting facilities for Callaway, Ping, Titleist and Yonex. A custom fitting session usually lasts 45 minutes and costs £35.00, which should you decide to purchase clubs through us based on your specification is refundable.
Fitting Your
Putter
Putting is said to make-up about 43% of the average golfer’s score. If it is important enough to have correctly fitted irons and woods (equivalent to 13 clubs for 57% of your game) then that makes your putter extremely important.
Putter fitting is primarily the process of adjusting loft and lie angles, correctly fitting the length of the putter to the individual and ensuring the correct putter style is specified.
Dynamic putter fitting is the ability to measure certain parameters from the putter head making contact with the golf ball. This measuring enables a putter to be specified that will help the golfer: improve the consistency of shots on the intended line, make solid contact, impart the correct amount of loft on the ball to minimize skidding and to roll the ball at a consistent speed to maintain a controllable distance.
Loft and lie both influence the roll and direction of the golf ball. If the lie is incorrect for the golfer and the putter head does not sit flat at address, then the ball will be misdirected by the stroke. For example, if the putter is too upright (toe up), the face is aimed to the left of the hole for a right hand putter. The golfer must compensate the stroke to make the ball start on the intended line.
The proper loft is important to get the ball rolling properly along the target line. The ball is actually airborne after leaving the face of the putter. If the putter has too much loft, the ball will be in the air too long and the ball will skid and bounce on the putting surface for several inches before it starts a true roll. This affects the distance the ball will travel and influence how the ball reacts to the break in the putting surface. It will also increase the chance of being knocked off-line as it bounces and skids. The ideal loft will minimise the distance the ball is in the air which will reduce the likelihood of it going off-line.
The length of your putter has a direct effect on how you set-up your putt. If you are like the majority of golfers, you are currently playing with a putter that’s either too long or too short for your natural stroke.
If a putter is too long, it not only affects the way your eyes are positioned over the ball (eyes will be inside of the target line), but can also cause your arms and hands to be too close to your body causing you to manipulate them through the stroke to compensate for the incorrect length.
Putters that are too short have the opposite effect as eyes will be outside of the target line with the ball too close to your body, causing the hands and arms to ‘reach out’ to the ball during the stroke.
The profile of the grip influences how the golfer releases the wrists through impact. Players who prefer a wristy stroke or with an ‘open-close’ stroke may prefer a thinner profile grip, whist players who prefer a pendulum stroke may prefer a deeper profile grip.
Different putter designs can benefit golfers with different types of putting strokes. Designs range from heel-shafted models, which benefit an ‘open-close’ stroke to ‘face-balanced’ putters which are more suited to pendulum stokes.
At Lavender Park, we currently offer full custom fitting facilities for Callaway (Odyssey), Ping, Titleist (Scotty Cameron) and Yonex. A custom fitting session usually lasts 45 minutes and costs £35.00, which should you decide to purchase clubs through us based on your specification is refundable.
