Club fitting: what happens, and what gets measured.

What the rules cover

The R&A and USGA regulate what a club may be, not how it is fitted. Our research did not cover any formal fitting standard from a governing body or a fitting association, so what follows is how individual fitters and trade sources describe their own process. Treat it as one approach among several.

One fitter's process, step by step

AmateurGolf.com, in an article first published in January 2026 and updated in June 2026, describes Titleist's fitting process in five steps:

1. Interview. The fitter asks about your goals, your typical misses and the courses you play.
2. Baseline. You hit your own clubs so there is something to compare against.
3. Head selection. Heads are chosen for launch, spin and forgiveness.
4. Shaft pairing. The shaft is matched by weight, profile, length and feel.
5. Build and gapping. Loft, lie and the make-up of the set are checked so that each club has its own distance.

The same article says iron fittings typically begin with a 7-iron to set carry distance and flight. It says launch-monitor numbers are used to confirm choices, while the fitter also watches where the ball strikes the face, the start line, how the club meets the turf and how the miss behaves. A Titleist fitter told GolfWRX that its approach is dynamic, based on watching swings and ball flight, rather than static fitting from body measurements.

What gets measured

Mississippi State University's golf course lists the measurements its fitting service takes with a launch monitor: swing speed, launch angle, spin rate, lie angle, face impact and carry distances.

Two kinds of launch monitor

Golf.com, writing in April 2025, explains the two main technologies:

• Doppler radar units send out a microwave signal, bounce it off the ball and club, and track the whole flight. They sit behind the golfer, suit outdoor use and are affected by wind.
• High-speed camera units record impact and the first few feet of flight, then calculate the rest. They sit beside the golfer, need less space and good lighting, and are common in indoor fitting studios.

Golf.com concludes that neither type is better; they suit different jobs. Foresight Sports, which makes camera systems, says camera units measure spin directly from dimple rotation and use reflective stickers on the face for club data, while radar units estimate spin indoors where they cannot see the full flight. That is a manufacturer's account of its own technology and a competitor's.

Lie angle

CaddieHQ describes dynamic lie fitting: impact tape goes on the sole, you hit shots, and the fitter bends the club flatter or more upright until the sole meets the ground evenly. A US patent on a trial fitting club describes the lie-board method, in which you hit off a hard board and the mark on the sole shows whether the lie is right. PING records lie as a colour code and publishes its standard lie angles for its Black code at standard length.

Where the advice disagrees

• Shaft flex. Published swing-speed charts for flex do not agree. Wikipedia and retailer TGW give different bands, so the same swing speed can land in different flexes. See shafts and grips.
• Wedges. Guides disagree on the loft ranges for gap, sand and lob wedges. GolfMagic recommends choosing wedge loft, bounce and grind with a certified fitter. See wedges.
• Putters. GolfMagic pairs face-balanced putters with straight strokes and toe-hang putters with arcing strokes, while The Golf News Net favours fitting from how the putter is actually delivered and the results. See putters.
• Balls. Bridgestone claims that matching ball compression to swing speed gets the most distance, and offers ball fitting on that basis. A Titleist representative was reported by GolfMagic as rejecting swing-speed matching, though we could only read a summary of that report. See golf balls.

Fitting stays within the rules

Whatever a fitter recommends, the finished club must conform. Every setting of an adjustable club must conform, and adjustments other than weight need a special tool and approval by the R&A or USGA under Part 2 of the Equipment Rules. Clubs must be between 18 and 48 inches long (putters have no maximum), and a Committee may lower the limit to 46 inches for clubs other than putters only when it adopts Model Local Rule G-10.

A launch monitor is a fitting and practice tool. During a round, Rule 4.3a of the 2023 Rules of Golf, in effect from 1 January 2023, does not allow equipment that analyses your swing or uses data from the current round, and the USGA's guide to distance-measuring devices lists swing analysis as information a player may not access. See distance-measuring devices.

A fitting does not make a club conforming. If you play in competitions, check the R&A's equipment database for the head you are fitted with.