Selecting a golf club is like trying to choose a brand of beer from John’s Grocery — each has its own unique features, and the variety seems limitless.
This can make it difficult for golfers to learn which club will fit their needs, and playing with clubs that don’t fit those needs can result in more harm than good.
Iowa men’s golf head coach Mark Hankins said there are many factors — including shaft stiffness, shaft length, and club-head angle — when choosing a club. But the goal is to find something that fits a golfer’s body type and playing style, not necessarily the club with the newest technology.
“You can really make any club fit you with the right shaft. The head doesn’t really matter.” Hankins said. “That’s the crazy thing, everyone always buys the head, but it’s really if the shaft fits you along with the lie and loft angle.”
But with the advanced technology provided to Iowa at the Riverside Performance Studio at Blue Top Ridge — which features a $33,000 launch monitor that tracks the launch angle, club-head speed, ball speed off the club face, and angle of the club — several Hawkeyes have been able to decipher what fits them best.
It can be something as simple as switching a set of fairway irons from a slimmer head to a wider, over-sized head, as red-shirt sophomore Dusty Koth recently did.
“I used to use Mizuno MP-32s, but they were more of a skinny blade and tougher to hit solid,” he said. “The [Taylor Made Tour Preferred] oversized heads are pretty forgiving and have a bigger face, so I hit them more consistently.”
Sophomore Barrett Kelpin was recently fitted for a new Titleist 909D2 driver with the help of computer technology in Ann Arbor, Mich. Despite the importance of fitting, he said, he is partial to Titleist and Cobra clubs — both manufactured by Acushnet Co. — because of the way they look and feel.
“The way a club feels and sounds is a big thing for me before I even see how the ball flight goes,” Kelpin said. “I have to like the way it looks when I’m looking down on it and how it feels coming off of the club head.”
The only club that seems to stick with several Iowa golfers for an extended length of time is the putter.
Kelpin has been using the same Yes! putter for around five years. The club’s frayed, multi-colored grip resembles an old bungee cable and reveals its longtime use.
“I haven’t changed anything on it,” he said. “I still like the way it feels and when you have something good, you have to go with it.”
Junior Vince India, on the other hand, switched to a belly-putter about a month ago.
The putter’s longer-than-average shaft is pressed into the stomach while the golfer leans over the putter for leverage. The Ping Doc15B also features a large line down the middle of the putter’s semicircle head to provide for a better line.
India said the new putter has brought him better success on the greens.
“I used to hit putts off line a lot because I would either close or open the head slightly,” India said. “But now all I really have to worry about is speed.”
India noted selecting a club is also part of the metal game during play. The Deerfield, Ill., native knows when he chooses his 6 iron, he is going to hit a good shot.
“It’s probably all mental, because I don’t hit great shots every time with any other club,” he said. “Just the way it looks when I step up to the ball and address it, it’s the only one I know I can hit well every time, and it just does what I want it to.”
