At Titleist, clubfitting isn't just a way to get golfers hitting their clubs. It's one of the company's main endeavors as they work to get the right products into consumers' hands.
"We started fitting long before it was popular - back in 1992," says Brett Porath, the Director of Titleist's FittingWorks program. "It's really an all-encompassing thing as fitting is so central to our club plan."
Some manufacturers center their fitting efforts around hardware - a great fitting cart, a variety of clubs, even clubs with interchangeable shafts so a golfer can try literally hundreds of different club combinations. That's not the emphasis with Titleist, which looks at the process of fitting and concentrates on educating their fitting staff, and, in turn, consumers.
"Part of our goal is to share information and education," Porath explains. "We have various ways we conduct training. (We'll have) over 125 hands-on fitting workshops this year where we get a fitting expert to come in and work with local fitters, present information and fitting scenarios - what would you do if this happens, or that happens? We have an online training aspect where fitters can get that information where and when they want, not only when we have someone in town. Then we have regular communications with fitters, an email update where we share best practices, maybe success stories from a fitter in one area."
Titleist's fitting philosophies start with their professional staff and work down to recreational golfers, although their emphasis really is on better players - those who can break 80. (Another Acushnet Company brand, Cobra, focuses more on the average or higher-handicap players, although there can be a lot of overlap between the two.) Tour representatives develop their methodologies through working with the tour pros and finding what works best for them, then creating a system that also works for different skill levels.
A good example: Masters champion Zach Johnson. Shortly before the Masters, Johnson worked with Titleist wedge expert Bob Vokey to get new wedges, ones that were a little crisper and gave him more spin. The process that Johnson went through is similar to what you would do when being fit for a Vokey wedge.
"For instance, you hit shots out of various lies that the player would encounter in their home course. Is the turf tight or more buoyant - that would affect what bounce angle we would prescribe," Porath says. "It's interesting that the correlation applies to people of all different abilities, that they should go through those steps of evaluating what club will work best off of their home course and what fits the style with which they play."
Better players seek out more information about equipment and how to improve their games, so they might be an easier audience to target than a less-experienced golfer.
"They seem to have a voracious appetite for information," Porath says. "We use our web site and go into some pretty good detail about the specifications of our clubs and about our fitting methodologies. Ultimately, we then refer people to a local fitter who can offer those services that they want.
They're also much more influenced by other good players than by advertising, which presents its own set of challenges.
"We find a lot of the players who are our typical consumer don't necessarily play a club because of an ad they saw. They tend to be more performance-focused," Porath says. "They're looking more at who's winning the county amateur, or the state amateur. They're still pretty in tune to Zach (Johnson) but are less influenced by a player endorsement and are more focused on their personal performance."
Porath says that in recent years, golfers of all abilities have come to realize that clubfitting is important to get the best results from equipment. Where just a few years ago, fitting was limited to whether the golfer thought he should get a regular or stiff shaft, these days a lot of information can be compiled to help the golfer get clubs that will improve his play.
"I think now, fortunately, we're at the point where we don't have to convince people to get fit. It's more about where to get fit, where will you get the service that you want. The market has been transformed - the message is out there a little bit more than it's ever been," he says.
And Titleist's FittingWorks program is driven by what the consumers are requesting - better service and help from an experienced fitter.
"We asked consumers about what's important to them. Is it a broad assortment of clubs? Is it what launch monitor gets used?" Porath says. "Time and time again, they come back and say 'The most important thing to me is to find a knowledgable clubfitter who is really good at their business.' That's why we focus so much on education.
To learn more about FittingWorks or to find a fitter near you, see www.fittingworks.com.
