There are three ways to improve your golf game: Altering your swing, addressing your mind and body, and making sure you have the right golf clubs for your swing and ball flight.
A good way to work on the latter is to hit a demo day, such as the one at Golf & Ski Warehouse on Saturday. This is my opportunity every year to test the new drivers, irons, wedges, hybrids and fairway clubs, looking for that added performance — and hopefully find a few more birdies and fewer bogeys.
My goal at the demo day this year is to go through a long-game gap fitting by making sure I have even yardage gaps and playable trajectories between my fairway woods, hybrids and longest irons.
Long-game gap fitting is based on your critical loft threshold, or CLT. We made that term up during my days managing the Titleist club-fitting program.
Your CLT is the longest iron in your bag that produces the necessary yardage gap with a playable trajectory, where the ball has a chance to stop when it lands on the green.
I discovered my critical loft threshold was my 4 iron, when performance tests showed I hit it farther than my 3 iron and the ball flew high enough off the club to land like a butterfly with sore feet.
Everyone has their own critical loft threshold. For some, it’s a 7 iron that hits longer than a 6 iron. For others, it’s a 5 iron that outperforms a 4 iron. What’s yours?
When the longest iron in your bag is established, the next step is to test and figure out your longest fairway wood. The longest-hitting fairway is based on your ball speed and launch angle and may be a 3, 4, 5 or even a 7 wood. Don’t get caught up thinking that a 3 wood always plays the longest. It may on paper, but it may not for you. Oftentimes, the higher you launch the ball, the farther is goes. Get tested and know for sure.
The yardage difference between your longest iron and your longest hitting fairway is called the long-game yardage gap. This yardage gap may be filled with a combination of higher-lofted fairways and hybrid clubs or just hybrid clubs. Whatever you choose, the goal is to establish clubs that fill out the yardage gaps with trajectories that will land on the green and stop.
I have a plan for my improvement this weekend. I’ll get up early, I’ll be focused and I’ll be ready to try things out. You should, too.
Peter Harris is the director of golf at the Fore-U Golf Center in West Lebanon. His column appears in the weekly Recreation page during the golf season.