​Local golfers have another choice in club fitters now that Club Champion has opened its studio on Main Street in White Plains. Early reports are that the national chain delivers a tour-quality custom club fitting experience combining technology with the personal touch of patient fitters and club builders. The goal, of course, is lower scores for the average golfer, which the company claims to deliver eight out of nine times.
Rye Brook golfer Eric Berger took his two sons to Club Champion and said they each hit over 150 shots in three hours. He reported, “I can see how pros could spend hours each day analyzing the data trying to get the absolute best out of each club. Seeing the data for each shot (spin rate, smash factor, etc) validated how a shot felt and reacted off the club.”
Club Champion’s fitters have access to over 35,000 head and shaft combinations, but a qualified fitter quickly narrows the choices down based on the data he’s seeing on the screen. At the end of the session, he’ll make no-pressure recommendations and offer alternatives for maximizing the performance of your swing with better equipment. Don’t let anyone tell you lower scores can’t be bought, because they can.
That better performance doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, either. I went for a driver fitting—a process I’ve undergone several times—and found a club head and shaft combination that would give me an additional five yards off the tee with substantial improvement in accuracy. The recommended new club would cost about $1,100, however. David Schonborg, the Club Champion fitter I worked with, pointed out that the principal difference between the new driver and my current model was in the swing weight, which he could fix at the cost of a $27 weight from the club manufacturer. Guess which option I chose?
