Hi my name is Dave Fanning. I'm the marketing director here at PING Europe. We're here today at Thonock Park Golf Club
which is the home to our National Fitting Center and we're here with 3 readers of Women
In Golf Magazine who were lucky enough to win a competition to come and experience a
full fitting for their equipment. We do make gender specific golf clubs in our
G Le series that are designed for ladies but the way we fit is not to gender but to ability
so we've got 3 ladies off totally different handicaps and we're going to try and figure
out what equipment will help them play their best and hope they get their handicaps down
even further. It was a real eye-opener to type of clubs
that are out there and available.
I found that the advice I've been given and
the different types of shafts I think are going to help a complete beginner to make
her game a bit better. By using my old club and the new one how much
further I can make the ball go which is the aim of the game. I think actually having the right equipment
gives you the confidence to go out there and play. It's like anything.
If you've got the right gear then that gives
you a good starting point. I think as a beginner especially, I started
off with a set of clubs that I kind of inherited really and you feel that's all you need to
the time until you know you like the game enough to make that big investment and buying
a new set of clubs but actually now going through the process, actually I think it's
just as good for a beginner because you can get the right clubs from the start, then your
game will probably be better almost straight away and that then will build your confidence
which will make you want to play more hopefully. For me, because I am short but sort of quite
strong for a lady player, it's really important for me to get fitted so it was really good
to get clubs that are actually an inch shorter for me but then regular bend steel. But it was brilliant to just try everything
and have all the time as well. I felt really special. The PING guys are brilliant they just spend
quality time with you and let you hit as many shots as you need, all the different combinations.
I've always had PING clubs right from about
15 was the first time I got PING clubs. My coach back then said you need to get fitted. PING are the best. They're the ones that really have so many
different options and particularly like I said for me cause I'm short and a lady but
then I've got small hands but then again I've always played regular men's. It was really good just to try different things. I've gone for the Fetch putter which is the
one with the hole in it where you can go pick up the ball with it. When you see something you already love it,
put it down, loved it, and I tried a few others but really really liked the look of that and
it did perform well as well so definitely excited to get that in the bag. Like I said I think fitting because everyone
hits it different and everybody is different sizes and heights and even down to your hand
size it can make a real difference to your game and definitely recommend it from if you're
just first starting out and the other thing is you can get it changed as well- I know
I have.
I know I've kept coming back to PING and just
getting my color code, the lie angle changed. As a junior when I was kind of growing up,
I kind of started off very flat and I went more upright but I could just bring them here
and get them adjusted so I think very important for everybody. It's been really enjoyable. The man doing the fitting was real pleasant,
very knowledgable so yeah I think I flattened him to death when I hit most of my shots straight
and now I've got clubs that fit at certain distances and they all overlap so I've got
a full bag which should mean I'm going to become a single figure handicapper again.
I've always used men's clubs and we've still
stuck with men's clubs, men's grips. I've got some are a normal shaft and some
are a softer shaft. You've got to know how far you can hit your
clubs that are actually fitted to you rather than just buying off the shelf as it were..