In our first club fitting series, we talk with Ron Nihoff, a Nike rep who is stationed at Tashua Knolls about the importance of club fitting.

Video Transcription

Marc: Welcome back to Golf is Hard TV, The Golf Show for the Rest of Us! We've got a special episode today. We are here again with Ron. Hey! Ron. Ron Nihoff: Hey! Buddy. Marc: How are you doing? Ron Nihoff: Alright, man. Marc: Thanks for having some time with us. Ron Nihoff: Thanks for having me. Marc: Great, so we are here at the range of Tashua Knolls Golf club, our home club as you know already, and Ron is a club fitter, which is pretty cool. But I want to know more about club fitting and why it’s important. So why don’t you give me -- kind of tell me what you do here? Ron Nihoff: Okay. Marc: I know you were working for Nike, talk to me about that a little bit. Ron Nihoff: Alright yeah, well that’s courtesy of Bobby Brown. Bobby allowed me to be a staff member of the company. We work with Jack Miller very closely; he is our regional rep, and yeah Nike is going to come along the way in the last year. But the thumbnail sketch of golf club fitting is no more buying of the shelf. Not that, that’s a bad thing. Some people like to do that, but I think the higher handicap player is already handicap to the point where they have something quality in their hands. That's something that’s actually going to move through the zone better, then you are going have the better chances squaring the club face and hitting the ball straight and that’s ultimately our goal. Marc: So club fitting, what does that mean? I mean is it about grips, is it about shafts, I mean what's the -- ? Ron Nihoff: Okay it’s about everything, it’s about the grip, the shaft, the proper lie angle in which the -- lie angle essentially in short stories, if this is square, if that's completely square, if you are like that, that means you are little bit too up right there. The toe is up in the air, and you are going to come in, and you are going to turn the club over one way or another. If you are I mean -- here is a good example, if I am too flat with my lie angle, I come into the ball like this, and the ball turns, and now I am blocking it away, away right with the ball. Marc: Okay, I think I am familiar with that. Ron Nihoff: Yeah, so that’s a common misconception. The other thing is the shaft, is it too stiff? If it's too stiff, the player won't able to get the ball up in the air properly to get the yardage he has desired out of each individual club. So the proper, the regular shaft, stiff shaft, and also weight. Weight has a lot to do, there is a lot of swing weights, that allows you to come into the ball, and if it's too heavy, it's not going to be comfortable to you, or if it's too light same thing. So and the last thing would be grip. If the grip if too fat, you are not able to release your top hand, and therefore you will block it right all the time. If it's too thin you are going to release too early, and you are going to push the ball left. You are going to -- this is a right-handed to play, I am talking about. So you are going to -- so that’s essentially and it's not -- in kind of nutshell what it is. Marc: Okay so basically when you bought off a shaft obviously, you know how many choices, you are just buying whatever -- Ron Nihoff: Usually yeah, usually your standard. If it's a standard shaft, and it could be regular stiff, and most people don’t even know the difference. Marc: The price. Ron Nihoff: Yeah exactly, it's usually standard. Now if you do are off-the-shelf, if it’s a forged club meaning it’s a little softer metal, you can always bring it to a club professional or myself and we could bend and we can scope you out and get you lying and bend it up, but that’s kind of like almost defeating the purpose. The shaft maybe too long at that point, maybe too short, you can always cut it down, or lengthen it, but it's nice to kind of get it all in right at the first time. Marc: So I think the message is get the club fit first, and then pick some clubs out. Alright so what we are going to do is I think we are going to take a look at my bag, on an upcoming episode and see how badly I have done, I was fit. Now what I am interested in I was fit, and they had this little plate and I had a bunch of balls and I pick from 2 or 3 different iron sets. So I am interested to see if I am actually fit correctly now, as I was a couple of years ago. So my swing I think has changed thanks to Coach Dave and Golf is Hard TV, just a little, I drop like, I don’t know, 12 stroke or so. Speaker: Yeah that’s a good question, if someone improves your game a lot -- because they are -- that's their fit change. Marc: Yeah that is a great question. So we will get into that as well, and then the other thing is you got a great sort of tools over here, gadgets bunch of club heads, I don't look at all those. I not think everybody understand I mean I know I don’t understand, and I am assuming that lot of people don’t understand as well. What all these gears are for and what it all. So we are going to get to that next, we appreciate you being with us, and thanks for watching Golf is Hard TV.