Is custom club fitting actually worth it?

What a fitting actually changes

Four things get measured and adjusted: length, lie angle, shaft and grip size. Length and lie determine where the sole sits at impact. Get them wrong and the face is effectively open or closed before you've done anything — you then learn a compensation to square it up, and that compensation becomes your swing.

Shaft is the one people over-think and under-measure. Flex is not a function of swing speed alone; tempo and transition matter as much. A smooth 95 mph swing and an aggressive 95 mph swing want different shafts, which is why guessing from a chart on a website gets it wrong so often.

What the numbers usually look like

Across the fittings we run at Belton Park, the common pattern is not a huge distance jump. It's a tighter dispersion pattern and a more consistent strike location — which shows up on the scorecard as fewer greens missed left and right, rather than as a longer drive you notice once a round.

• Irons: strike moves toward centre, dispersion narrows, gapping becomes even
• Driver: spin usually comes down, launch usually goes up, carry follows
• Wedges: bounce matched to your strike and your turf is the biggest single gain
• Putter: length and lie matter more than head shape, despite what the marketing says

When fitting isn't worth it

If you're brand new to the game and still changing your swing week to week, a full bag fitting is premature — get a starter set that's roughly right, take some lessons, and come back once your swing has settled. It'll save you money.

If you play three times a year, the honest answer is that a fitting won't change your enjoyment much. Spend it on a lesson instead.

And if you've been fitted in the last two years and haven't changed physically or technically, you don't need doing again just because a new model launched.