The Fitting

Yesterday I went to Golf Galaxy for a free 30-minute Ping fitting. I thought there would be a representative from Ping there, so I was surprised to find that it was just the usual sales guy conducting the fittings. I brought my old Ping G2 clubs to compare to the new Ping Faith clubs. The sales guy directed me to the first hitting bay and asked me to hit balls with my 7-iron. 

“How far do you usually hit with a 7-iron? 130, 140?” he said.

“Uh, isn’t that how far men hit? I’m more like 105, 110,” I said. According to a chart on amateur golf club distances, the women’s average is 90 yards.
“We’ve had some women come in here and hit that far,” he said.
“Well, I’m working on it,” I said.

The sales guy lined up some balls for me, and I started to whack at them. As I practiced, a few more people arrived for their fittings. There they stood, outside the bay, gathered like carnival goers who’d come to see the freak show. I felt so exposed, performing for their amusement like an animal in a cage, a monkey who learned to swing a golf club. “I am not an animal!” I felt like roaring. It didn’t help that my golf teacher Mike was there in the background, pretending not to look, his mere presence making me feel very self-conscious.

I felt the glare of the overhead lights and a dozen pairs of eyes watching me, as my hits registered on the computer monitor mounted high on the wall. I glanced up at the screen to find a bunch of colored dots had all landed around 105-110, just like I said they would.

The sales guy put some impact tape on the face of the club. I hit one in the center and two slightly off-center but still mostly inside the red circle on the tape. He said that means the shaft length of my club is okay for me. Then he put some impact tape on the sole of the club and had me hit balls off of a plastic board. He looked at the markings which all showed a mark toward the toe of the club. He asked if my iron shots tended to go a little to the right.

“I guess so,” I said. Of course, sometimes they go left or straight, I thought to myself.
“I think you need to go to the black dot,” he said.

In the Ping fitting system, clubs have different colored dots to indicate the lie angle of the club. When I got my G2s, I picked the orange dot based on my height and a wrist-to-floor measurement. But according to the impact tape test, that was wrong. I needed a more standard lie angle, not the flatter orange-dot one.

The sales guy then got a Ping 7-iron with a black dot on it and put some impact tape on the sole. I hit a ball off the plastic board. The tape showed a solid mark dead in the center.  

“So does this mean I could buy a standard set of Ping irons off the shelf and play better with them?” I asked.

“Yup,” he said. “You’re one of the lucky ones.”

But he went on to explain that while I would hit straighter, I wouldn’t get more distance with them, according to the computer data. I tried out the Ping Faith driver, too, and even that didn’t generate more distance for me than my old G2. He suggested that rather than buy a new set of Pings, I should get my old ones sent back to the factory where they could adjust the lie angle. This would cost far less than a new set.

But I do want a new set someday. I’m just waiting for Ping to come out with a color combination for women’s clubs that I actually like. The G2’s are blue, which has never been my favorite color. The Faith series is maroon and white. I’m thinking more like green or gold. Or green and gold. At least I know I’m a black dot now, which is good because black matches everything. 

In the meantime, if my shots go to the right, I can blame it on the orange dot.