Golf Notebook James Stammer September 2007

The future of club fitting and building is here.

Computers and cameras have now taken over the final aspect of our beloved game.

I recently spent a couple of hours at Taylor Made Golf's newest Performance Lab at the Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando. The company's Motion Analysis Technology or MATT system uses nine high-speed cameras and computers to swallow a huge amount of data and make not only equipment recommendations, but also show your complete swing and setup as well.

Travis Kent, manager and master club fitting professional at the lab, ran me through the program.

First, I answered some questions about my game, current equipment and provided physical attributes that were fed into the system.

In order for the computer and its sensors to gather all the data, I needed to put on special apparel. The sensors in this non-intrusive apparel attach to the wrists, elbows, knees, waist, feet and around the chest in a vest.

The final touch was a Taylor Made cap, which also had sensors. The sensors, 26 in all, resemble small antenna with gum-ball size reflectors on the ends. When I was done being fitted with the gear, I looked more like "My Favorite Martian" than a golfer.

Nine high-speed cameras then read the sensors and loaded me into the computer. Magically, I appeared on the screen next to the hitting station as a gray cyber golfer.

I then hit a few practice shots into the net to get the feel of having all this gear attached to me. Thanks to its incredibly light weight, after a couple swings I no longer noticed or felt any of the gear attached to me. I was ready to go.

To start, Travis handed me a six-iron, complete with six sensors of its own. I hit a few balls and the system recorded a tremendous amount of data. The cameras shoot 100 frames a second and the data is immediately displayed for us to see.

Mr. Kent explained that the system keeps track of every part of your body and the club throughout the entire swing. It computes launch angle, swing speed, ball speed at impact, swing plane and numerous other bits of information.

The first thing we noticed was that my stance was very good. By rotating the computer view, Mr. Kent showed me how well my shoulders, hips and feet lined up to the target line.

The flaws in my swing are two-fold.

I take the club back too far and I allow my head to slide to the right just prior to impact. The result is that I try to compensate the shift by flipping my hands through impact, resulting in some ugly hooks.

Mr. Kent suggested I flatten out my swing and keep my right foot more perpendicular to the target line. By doing this, I kept my body and head from sliding. With all the sensors and software, it was easy to see if I was making the correction.

I was able to see that my ball impact was very close to center of the club. However, the club tended to be toe-down at impact, meaning that I require an upright lie on my irons.

Next was the driver.

My impacts were all over the face and my swing speed was too slow to hit the ball long distances off the tee. Fortunately, there is equipment to help.

I've always been a solid putter, and the data here proved that to be true. Nearly every piece of data for each putt that I hit was the same.

When we finished up, Mr. Kent burned everything onto a CD and printed out a few pages of information as well. He then built the clubs recommended by the system. From there, I went to the range to test them for myself.

The new Burner Driver with the recommended loft and shaft flex made a noticeable difference. The ball flight was much better than what I have seen from my swing and distance improved.

The irons certainly helped with a more upright lie. My ball flight was straighter, and once I correct my head movement and flatten my swing, things should get even better.

If I had wanted to, I could have ordered the recommended clubs right then. If the timing at the factory was right, I would have had them by the next morning.

The future of club fitting is here.

The pros use it to make sure they get the best results from every swing.

As recreational golfers we should enjoy the same things. After all, we don't get to play as often, so we should demand to enjoy it more.

For information on Taylor Made Performance Labs, visit www.TMPLabs.com or call (407) 238-0577.

James Stammer has been an avid golfer and golf enthusiast for 30 years. He hosts the Tuesday Night Golf Show on WPSL 1590-AM radio station. Contact him at jstammer@yahoo.com