Club Fitting and the Role of a PGA Professional

It’s time to have a real discussion about club fitting and how it relates to being a PGA Professional. There is no argument about the importance of teaching golfers a proper swing to enhance their game and help them get more enjoyment out of it.

The disconnect happens when a golf professional doesn’t take the club fitting and performance equation into play. One of the primary reasons this happens is because many golf professionals are not familiar with how to bend a club to spec, or have the tools to do it, so they do not feel comfortable talking about with their students as it is out of their wheelhouse.

Changing the curriculum: The lack of club performances classes in a golf management program.

It’s hard to lay the fault on the professionals as this aspect of the game is typically not part of their education. While the PGA offers a PGA Golf Management (PGM) University Program where graduates earn a bachelor’s degree in golf management and PGA membership, golf club performance has nearly been eliminated from the curriculum. Subsequently, graduates of these programs don’t have the training or the realization of how significant club fitting and performance is.

Fortunately, this mindset is starting to change as more professionals begin to understand how important this facet of the game is. Recently, a PGA instructor for one of the tour’s top golfers took the Repair, Build, and Alter Clubs class at the Mitchell Golf Performance School. He was getting many questions from golfers who kept asking him what was going on with their clubs. He realized he couldn’t truly serve his customers until he understood the entire process, which included taking the class while getting hands-on training using the Mitchell Golf Steelclub Signature Irons Angle Machine and other equipment.

Taking the profession to the next level

This quest for more information on how the performance of a club affects ball flight is also coming up more in conversations from golfers.  Why? Because they want the same accessibility to optimize club performance as the tour pros receive. The golf professional who takes their profession to the next level by learning all aspects of the golf game is in a great position to keep the customers they have while attracting new ones.
Having the right training and equipment also enables a club professional to add a new profit center to their facility. They can now schedule both a lesson and a club performance evaluation, giving the golfer a unique learning experience. Adding club performance as part of the total package not only offers the opportunity for a golfer to improve, it also helps golf professionals embrace the role of equipment experts too.

To learn more about professional grade golf club performance and repair equipment used by more industry professionals, please contact us at 936.437.1314 or email us at info@mitchellgolf.com.