Because no two golfers are alike, with the same strength, height, swing dynamics, tempo and ability, more and more of them have discovered how custom clubs fitted uniquely to them can help them improve their performance and enjoy this great game even more.

"Custom" is our middle name for a good reason. A custom fitted and custom built set of golf clubs can remove many obstacles to a better and more pleasurable game of golf.

So, what's it all about Alfie?

First of all, I approach fitting anyone, from newcomers to touring professionals, with a lot of questions about their game. What kind of courses do they play on, distance with a driver, 5 iron, what their favorite club is, which club they like least. What is their shot pattern -- straight, hook, slice, push, pull, etc? Do they like heavy feeling clubs or light ones? Do they feel the head during the swing? Do they like to feel the shaft kick at impact or do they like a more firm feeling shaft with less of a bending sensation? Do they have distance problems or control problems? Are they losing strokes with the putter? All these and many other questions are designed to help me design a set that will fit your individual needs and will be perfectly matched to someone special -- you.

On this website, I have published a Fitting Form which asks for all your vital information which will enable me to fit and build your clubs exactly to your desired specifications. This is how the touring professionals have their clubs built and for good reason. It removes doubt from their minds about their equipment and allows them to concentrate on playing the game.

There are key fitting factors that affect how far you will hit the ball, how accurately you will hit the ball, and most important, how the clubs feel. These are the key ingredients to building a custom set of golf clubs that perform right and feel right for you.

Clubhead Design

One of the first items when considering new golf clubs is the head design of the clubs. Should your new irons be perimeter weighted models or forged blades. Wooden woods, stainless, bi-metals, tri-metals,Titanium? While your personal taste will have a lot of influence on which type of heads to choose, the clubmaker (that's me) can help guide you through the selection process, pointing out the pros and cons of different designs. With the tremendous amount of head designs available, it is almost a certainty that you will be able to find club heads that are both cosmetically appealing and functionally right for your game.

Distance

Everyone wants to hit the ball further. The truth of the matter is that there is no magic golf club that will do this for everyone. Every golfer has a natural God-given swingspeed. Some much faster than others. The person with the faster swingspeed will always hit the ball further. The person with a slower swingspeed will need clubs that are tuned to perform best at his or her particular speed.

While a golf club seems pretty simple to look at, and really has only one moving part (the shaft), it is a complex combination of loft and lie angles, shaft flexibility, balance and overall weight which, combined with your swing, serves to launch the ball down the fairway. Someone with a fast, high powered swing will usually require a stiffer shaft with less loft to achieve the same trajectory as someone with a slower swing. The purpose of custom fitting is to determine the best loft, shaft type (steel or graphite), shaft flex, lie angle, swingweight, grip material and size, along with the proper club length to maximize the power and control in your golfswing.

Perhaps the most confusing aspect of a golf club for the average player is the club's shaft. It is the only part of the club that actually moves (changes shape) during the swing. Matching the shaft to your swing (both speed and tempo) is important so that you hit the ball as long, straight and consistently as possible.Shafts come in a variety of frequencies or flexes, commonly referred to generally as "stiff", "regular", "senior" or "ladies". Other shaft specifications include shaft material, weight, weight distribution along the length of the shaft, flex point of the shaft which influences your ability to feel the shaft "kick" at impact and also has some influence on how high your shots fly. Torque measures the amount the shaft twists on off-center hits. All of these specifications combine to form the performance characteristics of any given shaft.

Unfortunately, for golfers, each shaft company measures their shafts in a different manner. This effectively makes what one company calls a stiff shaft perform much like another company's regular flex. How does a player know one shaft from the other? Quite simply, without a tremendous amount of study and trial and error, he or she can't hope to know one shaft from another. Here's where the clubmaker's knowledge and experience can save you years of agony trying to find the right shaft for your particular game.

"Great," you say. "You've figured out how to power me up. Now, how do I keep it in the fairway after I blast it?"

Control

Okay, here's where we talk about the angles. Golf is a game of angles. Kind of like trigonometry if you were a science geek in school. Or like playing pool if you were maybe a little less academic.

When a golf club strikes the golf ball it imparts spin to the ball. This is what controls where it goes. If you hit it a glancing blow, it invariably tends to slice off the club and go right (if you are right-handed). If you hit it perfectly, let's say with a 9 iron, the ball tends to go straight and backspin due to the higher loft angle of the clubface. A driver has much less loft than a 9 iron and tends to promote more sidespin if not hit perfectly on the center of the clubface. Sidespin tends to make the ball hook or slice, depending where on the face you hit it. This is why a driver is harder to control for higher handicap players and why the old saying that "Loft is the golfers best friend" is still true.

Drivers can range from 6.5 degrees of loft up to 13 degrees. In general, if you swing slow and smooth or have control problems, a higher lofted club might be recommended. Conversely if you are a strong swinger with a fast tempo and fewer control problems, a lower lofted club might be just the ticket to longer, straighter drives.

A club's length is a vital element to achieving consistent contact with the ball. Remember you are trying to strike the ball with the center of the clubface. If the club is too long it can cause you to miss the desired impact area too often, leading to errant shots. A club that is too short, while making it easier to achieve consistent impacts, will cause you to lose distance. The job of the clubmaker is to help you achieve the best tradeoff of distance vs. control by fitting you into a length that will give you the best of both. Not surprisingly, if the club is the right length for you to hit most consistently, it will also be the length that feels best to you. This applies to both woods and irons.

The truth about lies

A major influence on ball direction,especially irons,once you have the proper length clubs, is a specification known as lie angle. (I told you this was all about angles). It is one of the easiest specifications to fit, yet it is often overlooked among most golfers. Lie is the angle between the clubhead and the ground when the club is in the impact position. Lies are classified generally as either flat, upright or standard. A lie that is too flat will cause errant shots that push or slice to the right of the target. An excessively upright lie results in shots that pull to the left of the the target. The correct lie results in shots directed straight at the target. This is what you are shooting for and what the clubmaker (that's me again) will adjust on the loft/lie machine when I build your clubs.

Feel

Your only contact with the golf club is with the grip. (The poor ball takes the beating). The grip must feel good to you and be the right thickness for your hand size. The grip fits properly if the tips of your second and third fingers of your left hand (if you are right handed) gently touch the heel pad of your hand when you are gripping the club. Too large a grip will cause space between the fingertips and the heel pad. One that is too small will cause your fingertips to dig in excessively. Grips that are the wrong size will cause inconsistent shots in a variety of directions. Grip design and material is a matter of personal preference. Grips may be rubber, cord, leather, or synthetic material and come in a dizzying number of designs, colors and price ranges. Generally go with one that feels good to you and I will insure your grip is sized properly.

Putting it all together

Once all the different components are sorted out for your particular set, the fitting is nearly complete. Now we match the components you have chosen to each other to balance the clubs, both in total weight and in swingweight. Total weight is simply how much a club weighs if it was put on a gram scale. It is expressed in grams or ounces. Swingweight is the weight relationship between the grip end and the head end of the club. It is the balance of the club. Kind of like a seesaw with a little kid on one end and a big kid on the other end. It is expressed in alpha-numeric designations such as D1 or D2, with the higher letter-number combinations indicating a club whose head is heavier in relation to the grip end than a lower letter-number designation. Most ladies clubs swingweight at around C6 or C7. The average swingweight for men's clubs is around D0 to D3. When we build your clubs, we balance each club individually on the swingweight scale so the entire set is consistently matched at your designated swingweight.

Choices, choices, choices

Finally, the set makeup of your new clubs will be determined. Do you need the standard 3 woods, 8 irons and a putter? Maybe a higher lofted wood is a better choice than that 2 iron you never hit straight. Do you need a third wedge to fill a gap in your loft progression? If you miss many greens in a typical round, you may find a high lofted wedge might help you get the ball up and down more often. These are all important factors in making your set perform for your needs. The key idea here is to put together a set uniquely suited to your game and one that will help you perform your best.

Once you get your new clubs, confident that your equipment is fitted to your unique needs, your friends will be impressed by how much you learned about equipment and will be envious of your new clubs--because of the way they look, but even more importantly, because of how they perform. A word of caution though. Once they see how your game has improved with your new custom-fitted, custom-built clubs, it probably won't be long before they call me and elevate their own game by doing the same thing!