Golf Club Fitting: The Full Bag, Spec by Spec
A fitting is a sequence, not a menu. Length before lie, because changing one changes the other. Weight before flex, because weight controls the face and flex only trims the flight. Attack angle before loft, because it moves the answer further than swing speed does. Take them out of order and you fit the same club twice.
This page is the reference behind the tool: every specification in the bag, in the order a fitter would work through them, and what each one is actually there to do. Run your own numbers first, then read down.
Your full bag, spec by spec
Every specification at once, from your measurements and the set you already own.
Why the order matters
Most fitting advice presents specifications as a list of independent choices. They are not independent. Four of them move each other, and the dependencies run in one direction only.
- Length changes lie. Every half inch of added length makes a club play about one degree more upright at impact. Fit the lie first and you have fitted it to a club that no longer exists.
- Length changes flex. Cutting a shaft removes its softest section, so a shortened club plays stiffer. Half an inch is worth roughly a third of a flex.
- Weight changes what flex feels right. A heavier shaft at the same flex feels stiffer through transition, and golfers reliably mistake that for a flex problem.
- Attack angle changes loft. Static loft is what is stamped on the head; dynamic loft is what the ball experiences, and attack angle is the difference.
Follow the order below and each decision is made once. Take them in a different order and you will find yourself revisiting earlier ones.
Step 1: the two measurements
Everything geometric in this bag comes from two numbers, and one of them is the measurement most golfers have never taken.
Height
In the shoes you play in. Golf shoes vary by nearly an inch between spikeless and traditional, and that difference is real to the club even though it is not real to you.
Wrist-to-floor
Stand straight on a hard floor with your arms hanging loose. Measure from the crease at the base of your palm — where the hand meets the wrist — straight down to the floor. Have somebody else read the tape, because reaching for it changes the number.
This is the measurement height cannot replace. It captures arm length relative to height, which is what determines where your hands sit at address. Two golfers the same height with a three-inch difference here need lie angles three degrees apart — why height alone gets lie angle wrong .
Step 2: your pitching wedge loft
One number, and it determines more of the bag than any other single specification you own.
Your pitching wedge loft sets your iron distances, because the whole loft ladder is derived from it. It sets which iron a hybrid replaces, because that is a loft comparison. And it sets your entire wedge configuration, because the wedges hang below it.
Across the 201 sets in this site's database, pitching wedge lofts run from 38° to 47°. That spread is nearly a full wedge, and it is the reason no generic chart can answer the questions below it. Find yours from the manufacturer's specification table for your exact set and model year, or select it in the tool above.
Steps 3 and 4: length, then lie
Length
Iron length comes from wrist-to-floor in quarter-inch increments off standard. Long arms relative to your height mean a smaller wrist-to-floor figure and a shorter club; short arms mean the opposite.
The driver is a separate decision and a different one. Length there is governed less by your body than by whether you can find the centre of the face, because half an inch off centre costs six to ten yards while half an inch of extra shaft is worth two or three — whether your driver shaft is too long for your height .
Lie
Lie is the two-variable one. It comes from the relationship between height and wrist-to-floor, not from either alone, and then has to be read against the standard lie of the specific set you own — which is why the tool asks for your model rather than giving you a generic figure.
Lie matters most in the short irons, where it moves the ball sideways most per degree, and it is the specification amateurs most often play wrong without knowing it. A club two degrees too upright sends a well-struck 9-iron several yards left of target with no help from the swing.
Steps 5 and 6: weight, then flex
Weight first
Weight is fitted less often than flex and matters more. You feel it continuously through the swing, and that feedback is what lets you square the face without thinking about it. It is also comparable between manufacturers, which flex is not: sixty grams is sixty grams whoever made it.
Driver shafts run from about 45 grams at 70 mph to about 80 at 110, with a five-gram correction either way for transition. Iron shafts sit 40 to 60 grams heavier — how heavy your shaft should be for your swing speed .
Flex second
There is no industry standard for flex. A stiff from one manufacturer can measure softer than a regular from another, so treat the letter as a starting point and hit two before committing. Transition matters as much as speed: a hard change of direction loads a shaft far more than the mph figure suggests — what shaft flex a 95 mph swing speed actually needs .
Step 7: driver loft
Loft is the single largest lever on carry distance, and the one most often set by preference rather than by numbers.
Swing speed sets a window: roughly 12.5 to 15 degrees below 75 mph, 10.5 to 12 at 90, and 9 to 10.5 above 105. Slower swings need more loft, not less, because there is not enough ball speed to carry a flat trajectory — why a slow swing speed needs more driver loft .
Attack angle then decides where inside that window you land, and it moves the answer by up to two degrees — more than the difference between adjacent speed bands. If you can get one figure from a launch monitor, get that one rather than clubhead speed.
Step 8: gapping the whole bag
With every individual specification settled, the last step is checking that the fourteen clubs form a continuous ladder with no gaps and no duplicates.
- Top of the bag. Driver to fairway wood, four to six degrees. Fairway wood to longest iron or hybrid, four to five — what loft fairway wood closes the gap above your irons .
- The long-iron transition. Where your irons stop launching properly, a hybrid takes over — matched by loft, not by the number on the sole. Which iron a hybrid actually replaces .
- Through the irons. Set by the manufacturer, but worth checking in yards rather than degrees — what your irons should carry at your swing speed .
- Below the pitching wedge. Four to six degrees a step, as many wedges as the span requires — what degree wedges you need and where the yardage hole sits .
Fourteen slots is a hard limit, and gapping is a zero-sum exercise. Every wedge you add comes out of the top of the bag, and every hybrid comes out of the bottom. Deciding that deliberately is most of what a good bag setup actually is.
What a static fit cannot do
Everything above uses measurements taken standing still. That is genuinely useful — it gets you to the right head, the right shaft category and the right build sheet before you spend anything, and it is what stops a golfer buying a 9-degree driver at 82 mph. It is not everything.
- Lie needs a lie board. How you deliver the club matters more than how you stand, and impact tape settles in five swings what a tape measure can only estimate.
- Spin needs a launch monitor. Loft and shaft both move it, and the interaction is not predictable from static measurements.
- Shaft profile needs hitting. Two shafts with identical weight and flex can bend in different places and produce different flights.
None of that is a reason to skip the static fit. It is the step after it — and it is far cheaper to confirm a specification you arrived at deliberately than to discover one from scratch in a bay.
What to shop for
Every recommendation on this site points at a specification rather than a product, which is what makes the used market usable. A 10.5-degree head built in 2019 is the same specification today, and it costs a third of what it did.
Used clubs by specification
Start from the specification the tool above produced, then search that exact spec rather than a model name.
We earn a commission if you buy through the retailer links below, at no extra cost to you. It never changes the specification we recommend. How this site makes money.
These links run a search for the specification, not for one club. Used clubs are one-of-one and sell within days, so nothing here is tied to a single listing that can go out of stock.
If you want a professional to confirm the last degree, several of the retailers above also run fitting bays. Going in with a specification already in hand makes that session shorter and more useful than arriving with nothing.
Common questions
Fitting questions
What order should a club fitting go in?
Measurements first, then length, then lie, then shaft weight, then flex, then loft, then gapping. The order matters because each step changes the next: changing length changes how the lie plays, and changing shaft weight changes what flex feels right. Fitting loft before you have settled length and shaft means fitting it twice.
What is the difference between a static and a dynamic fitting?
A static fit uses measurements taken standing still — height, wrist-to-floor, hand size — to produce a starting build sheet. A dynamic fit watches what you actually do to the ball with a launch monitor and a lie board. Static gets you to the right club to buy; dynamic settles the last degree of lie and the spin.
Do I need a fitting for used clubs?
You need the specification, which is not the same as needing a fitting session. Knowing that you want 10.5 degrees, stiff flex, 60 grams and one degree upright lets you shop the used market with confidence. That is what a static fit gives you, and it costs nothing.
Which specification matters most?
Loft on the driver, because it moves carry distance more than anything else you can change. Lie angle on the irons, because it moves direction. Gapping in the wedges, because it decides whether you have a full swing for the distance in front of you. Everything else is refinement.
How often should specifications be rechecked?
When something about you changes. Clubhead speed falls with age, which means driver loft should rise. Lie angles drift as heads get bent through normal use, particularly in forged irons. A swing change alters attack angle, which alters loft. Nothing here needs annual attention, but none of it is permanent either.