I decided to schedule with Club Champion out of concern for the equipment and knowledge limitations of a big box retailer. Club Champion's facilities were exceptional. Exactly what I was hoping for in a 21st century fitting facility. The range of irons we had to choose from included all of the latest brands and models. The accuracy of the measurement tools seemed inline with my experience on the course, on a day when weather isn't a factor.

I met with Jeff Bolinger a few minutes early for my scheduled time and we got rolling right away. He grabbed my clubs and took them over to the bay for me, and while it seems like a little thing, it started me off feeling like I had the white glove treatment coming. I typically avoid hitting off mats at driving ranges, and hate Top Golf sort of facilities because the mats destroy the feeling at impact. While Club Champion uses mats (of course), the quality was much closer to the feel my clubs have in a turf environment. A chunk hit obviously doesn't carve out a huge divot, but it's also not going to be a "keeper" for club selection statistics either.

The measurement tools were nearly invisible to the process thanks to smart planning of the bay layouts. My golf swing is a head game normally anyway, but having a big radar scanner 12" in front of me at address, in my line of sight as I've seen at other facilities, wouldn't have let me relax and focus on my swing. It's a minor thing that you might not notice, but that's the point.

I'd been doing research ahead of my appointment to familiarize myself with the club fitting process and parameters of interest. I'm a mid-80s player typically. I dance down toward the 70s on my best day, but more often bump up to the low 90s on my bad ones. I've been playing with 25 year old hand-me-downs since my days on the high school tournament team, and finally decided to pull the trigger on a new set of irons. Jeff was very knowledgeable, and I appreciate how he'd toss in a brief discussion every few swings to let me recompose myself. I don't spend a ton of time at the driving range, so I'm more used to have a few minutes between duffs on a course. Rapid firing 10-15 swings doesn't reflect my golf game or my real golf swing, so a little banter was helpful to let me stay focused.

I came in with a slight bias toward Callaway irons, having done some internet research in advance. After seeing my clubs and my swing, Jeff pulled a few different brands, including my eventual winner, the Apex Pro 21s. I swung with some Mizuno, Titleist, and Ping equivalents, but the groupings with the Callaway 6i impressed me the most. It was a given that with a more modern set from my current Tommy Armour Silverscot 845s that there was going to be a bump in distance due to the trend toward delofting the faces, and of course the technology differences over nearly 3 decades. Each of the newer clubheads was pushing my 185 yard game improvement cavity back 6 iron distance up into the 203-208 yard range, so an easy pick up of 20 yards with a generic shaft across all four. The Apex Pros were grouping very nicely in each of my flush shots, where the other heads were spreading out noticeably more. I'm not a scratch player, and from my reading the Apex Pros tend toward being a little more forgiving than most in this tier. It helped to see a good cross section of comparable brands in a controlled environment, and the ability to quickly average my "keepers" and throw out my shanks with each of the irons.

We confirmed on the measurement equipment what I had suspected coming in; that my clubhead speed is on the higher side. We also confirmed that extra stiff shafts were going to be a more consistent fit for me than my regular flex irons from the 90s. Jeff cycled through various types of extra stiff shaft with me, that had to do with where the stiffness was really focused, and we settled into some Nippon Modus Tour 120s that made a noticeable difference to the feel in my hands on both good shots and misses. I'm in no way up on the latest and greatest equipment technology or brands. I knew "fancier" shafts were available, but Jeff walked me through why one particular extra stiff is different from another, and it was apparent as we cycled through them that even in the extra stiff class, there are big differences in how they feel. I wouldn't have known why they were different, but I could feel it, and it helped me find the shafts that make my swing more enjoyable and consistent.

After we had the shaft figured out on the Apex Pros, we did a quick lie check with some marking tape and a board. Jeff again explained some of what goes into setting a correct lie, and how depending on the particular clubhead shape on the leading edge, and my particular clubhead position at impact, the tape doesn't necessarily tell the whole truth. That said, he made a 1.5 degree adjustment, which might have been largely due to my playing the last two decades with 25 year old clubs whos shafts were 1/2" less than standard length irons today.

Just to give some added confidence to my selections, Jeff made the same adjustments to my "runner up" clubhead, the Mizuno, and I went through about 10 swings with each. The Apex Pros were still clustering better for me, so it left me with a good feeling about this configuration.

The only drawback to this process with Club Champion is that the prices for custom fitted clubs is a good bit more than the MSRP you'll find at your local big box. I think everybody reading this is probably aware that custom fitted clubs tailored by a professionally trained expert is going to cost a bit more. I played with my last set for 20+ years, and I'm hoping I'll play with this set for around that same amount of time. I know people that buy off-the-shelf, and they tend to cycle through a set every 2-5 years depending on how poorly they play with them. The fact is, buying off the rack is a spin of the roulette wheel. Custom fitting (I hope) will allow me to get a long life out of these clubs, and in the long run, I'll probably spend less than my fervent golfing buddies dropping $1500 every few years, and play better than them while I'm doing it. Including the fitting session, it came out to about a 75% extra upcharge over the MSRP of the set I chose, but it comes with some excellent feeling "pured" shafts, custom grips, custom lie adjustment, and confidence that I'm playing with what fits my game and my swing. I don't have any regrets about the process or the money spent. Jeff was a professional and highly recommended (and I can be picky about service). I haven't received my finished clubs yet, but writing this today, I'm pretty sure I'll be back to fit some wedge and woods in the next year or two.