At the Golf Lab, we continue to push the state of the art to help our customers improve their game and have more fun. If all we did was sell golf clubs, we’d have bored ourselves to death a long time ago. We stay in touch with club makers from all over the world to make sure that we have the latest technology and the best ideas on our side. Not only that, we’re always dreaming up new programs with our partners to make the tedious business of practicing to improve more interesting and efficient.

You need to play a couple of times a week and practice as often as possible. You need to be close enough to the Golf Lab to visit every week or so. And, you need to be able to join Leith at least a couple of times a month for “Mornings at the Muni”. If we find your magic clubs, you can buy them for our cost to build. If you’re interested, call Leith Anderson at the Golf Lab for a brief telephone interview. 650-493-1770.

Back in January, Eric had another great accomplishment. He traveled all the way to Orlando, Florida to compete in a long drive championship. He won the seniors division and stayed in the competition for the open division. When the dust settled, Eric won the open division as well – beating a former world champion Carl Wolter in the finals. It’s the first time a senior has ever won an open division title. The finals were held with a 20 MPH headwind. Eric’s versatility paid off. He was able to hit a low drilling shot and take down a bunch of guys who are a lot bigger, stronger – and younger. If you are looking for an instructor who understands technique and power, you can’t beat Eric Jones.

If you are not interested in the combo deal, but would like to work with us in an informal fitting and practice session, call for an appointment this Saturday. We’ll have our array of high performance Drivers, irons, fairways and utilities. You’re free to hit them all for as long as you last. It’s not a complete launch monitor fitting, but we’ll help you choose the right clubs. $75 for up to two hours. Keep reading to understand the virtues of our new fitting system. As a special bonus, if you come out this Saturday, Heather Hughes will be presenting a free chipping and putting clinic on the Poppy Ridge practice green. Add $20 for a Poppy Hills lunch and you’ll make a great day of it for under $100 Then, stay home for Mother’s Day.

Another thing that we can’t do as well outdoors is dial in driver performance. The Launch Max launch monitor can tell us exactly the ball speed, launch angle and spin rate that you get with YOUR ball and YOUR driver. We compare those numbers with “theoretically perfect” and then go to work to get the best results possible with your swing. We can frequently work small miracles. But, we also find that a player’s own club is often hard to beat. Now you can know exactly what you’re getting. There’s no point putting a new driver in your bag unless it works better than your old one.

Many players want to see the way the ball flies outdoors after we narrow down the testing choices. That’s OK if you keep in mind that you’re hitting range balls and they don’t behave like the balls you normally play. Also, unless you take the time to find a good grass range, it’s hard to detect feel differences hitting irons off of mats. That’s where Poppy Ridge is so effective. You have an array of test clubs and good grass to hit from. Match that up with a radar-based launch monitor – the Flight Scope – and you’ve got a very good setup to tell you how clubs you’re testing perform and how they feel. Outdoor testing is particularly effective for wedges, utility clubs and fairway metals. If you’re really looking for the magic clubs, a combination of indoor and outdoor fitting is the way to go.

The manufacturers’ systems are all designed to test shafts. They are all proprietary, meaning that if you want to know how one of their heads feels with the shafts they offer, you can do that. But each company wants to make sure that you only use their heads. None of those systems was designed to let a player compare heads from different manufacturers. That’s a huge defect in a fitting system that aims to be truly universal.

What happens after you find the shaft that fits your swing? It’s much better to test heads from any manufacturer with shafts from any manufacturer. If you’re really interested in finding the very best combination, that’s the way to do it.

Most players think that all heads of a certain type deliver similar performance. For example, a forged blade is a forged blade, forged cavity back a forged cavity back and so on. We think that there is just as much magic in an iron head as in a shaft. Once we fit players to find the shaft that works and feels the best, we turn our attention to heads. Some work better than others – measured by ball speed. You may find major differences in carry distances by simply changing heads. That is bad news for all of the players who think that Titleist (or any other hereditary brand choice) is “their brand”. The ability to swap heads and shafts has the chance to revolutionize the way players find their magic clubs more than any other breakthrough since the advent of the launch monitor.

There’s an enormous investment in creating a comprehensive fitting system. Each head has to be machined to common tolerances and ground to known weights. Each shaft has to be meticulously trimmed to get exactly the right flex. That’s hundreds of parts that need to be prepared, tested and labeled. We’re now satisfied that our new system is the best universal custom fitting system available today. As time goes on, you will be able to test any head (driver, fairways, utilities and irons) with any shaft model, any flex. We’re building out our new fitting system as fast as we can. If you have a head and shaft you are interested in testing, give us a call at the Golf Lab and we’ll try to set it up for you.

Tom Wishon is the “Patron Saint of Clubmakers”. A year ago, Tom published a book aimed at consumers “The Search for the Perfect Golf Club”. The goal of the book was to argue that name brand-name, off-the-rack golf clubs are manufactured without meaningful standards that allow a golfer to easily buy golf clubs that fit their game. His book promotes the virtues of custom made clubs, fitted and built by a conscientious clubmaker. Naturally, we agreed with the thesis.

A few months ago he released an abbreviated version of his book, the “Twelve Myths That Could Wreck Your Golf Game”. It’s paperback and easy to read. If you’re thinking about buying a new golf club or set of clubs, “Myths” will be a good foundation for your decision. We’re offering any of our clients a free copy of the “Myths” book for just stopping by. If it turns out that you really like the book and want to pick up the complete “Search for the Perfect Golf Club”, we’ll give you a copy free if you just make one referral. The “Search” book has a retail price of $24.95

Best Regards,

Leith Anderson and Bob Huff