How to Compare Clubs

In more than ten years of fitting clubs, we find the best way to compare clubs when the choices narrow down to a couple of shaft/clubhead combinations is to hit the golf balls you play using a launch monitor to measure the results. As the old cliche goes, test don't guess. Your eyes will tell you what your bias wants to tell you, but the launch monitor gives you the truth and doesn't care about opinions and brands.

You want to know the details of ball spin, launch angle, clubhead speed, club path, face angle calculation, impact pattern on the club face, ball dispersion, consistency, and plenty of extra information that will indicate what is really happening. Even top pros who have a refined sense of feel want to have launch monitor data to help them understand what they feel.

Watching the flight of the ball on a range is fun but you must use a launch monitor to get accurate data. Hitting typical range balls is not recommended if you are making a serious choice unless you want to believe the spin numbers of the usual range rocks. And when it comes to feel, range balls are not my first choice. And we don't like distractions coming from the hitting bays next to one we are using to refine our selection. 

Players who grab a couple of demo clubs and head to the range are mainly just getting exercise unless they are using a premium quality launch monitor. Hitting a large bucket or two of range balls will not refine your choice between two similar clubs if you are changing your swing technique because you don't like the flight of the ball. Yet, it's the most common mistake made in buying clubs when you have the range demo option.

Bottom line, hitting the premium balls you play into a net using a launch monitor to measure the results and without nearby distractions and under the watchful eye of an expert clubfitter just can't be surpassed by any other experience when you want to make a club selection.