A Golf Club Fitter Is On Your Side, Not Judging Your Swing... How 3 Female Golfers Transformed Their Game

When we look at the bags of the world's best players, we can see their equipment is tuned for precision, but the power of a custom fitting lies in its incredible breadth. For many women, however, from beginner to experienced players and for a variety of reasons, the road to the fitting bay is paved with reluctance. Often, that hesitation stems from a fear of being judged – of performing under a spotlight or feeling that their swing isn't consistent enough to justify a professional’s time.

The reality is that your fitter is on your side. Rather than a test of ability, a fitting is just a friendly team effort to solve specific challenges. For one player, that might mean finding the help to get the ball airborne; for another, it’s about tightening the margins of a county-level game. By viewing the fitter as a problem solver rather than a judge, we can move past the hesitation and see fitting for what it is: a brilliant way to make the game easier.

To demonstrate how this process works for every handicap, we took three golfers – Louise Mackay, Alison Root, and Carly Cummins - to see how PXG fitter Tom Johnson could reshape their games.

The Improving Player

Louise Mackay played a limited amount as a junior before returning to the game a couple of years ago. She currently plays off a 35 handicap, and while she is thoroughly enjoying her golf, a consistent strike is still eluding her.

During her initial assessment, the data revealed a recurring pattern. She was striking the ball almost exclusively on the toe of the club. This wasn't just a swing flaw, it was a setup mismatch. Louise was delivering the clubhead in a very upright position, which naturally presented the toe to the turf nine times out of ten.

To fix this, the fitter looked at her dynamic lie angle, which was measured at 66.7 degrees. By adjusting the club to a flatter magic number of 63 degrees, the centre of the face was finally allowed to return to the ball.

To complement this, she was moved from a feather-light 35g shaft to a slightly heavier KBS Max 55. This added mass in the handle allowed the club to act more like a pendulum, smoothing out her transition and preventing the snatchy move at the bottom of the swing that Louise often felt during a bad shot. With those adjustments, Louise finally saw a GEN8 7-Iron fly with proper height.

Having previously avoided her driver in favour of a reliable 7-wood, Louise was fitted into a PXG Lightning Max 10k+ driver with the hosel set to the big plus position. This effectively closed the face to counteract her tendency to leak shots to the right.

Matching the extreme head forgiveness with a slightly closed face angle immediately produced a much more consistent strike and ball flight. While the ball did still tend to fly right of the target, the session proved that Louise absolutely has a future with a driver. Right now, it’s simply a matter of building confidence.

As Louise noted, she had always stayed away from custom fitting because she thought it was strictly reserved for elite players.

"I haven't been custom fit before because I've always thought it was for golfers who need to make those small adjustments to make a difference to their game," Louise confessed. "And I thought with my handicap where it is in the 30s, there's so much more I need to improve before I start looking at the clubs. I thought, it's not the equipment that holds me back at the moment."

However, the process completely shifted her mindset. Louise discovered that instead of waiting until her swing was perfect, the right clubs could specifically compensate for her current weaknesses right now.

"It's definitely taught me that there are things that can be changed in the clubs to compensate for some of the weaker areas of my game," she said. "Having the weights in the toe and the heel to help get a higher trajectory with the club, that was something I had no idea about, and that's something that would help me out a lot."

Mid-Handicapper

Alison Root plays off 17 and came to the session as a seasoned player looking for more distance without sacrificing her straight consistency. Her main frustration was a chunky iron shot, the destructive feeling of the club bottoming out behind the ball and hitting the ground first.

The technical reason for this was a flat delivery. Her dynamic lie angle of 57 degrees meant the heel of the club was catching the turf early, causing it to dig in catch it heavy and the toe to overtake. The fitter’s first move was to flatten the lie angle of a GEN8 Iron head to 60 degrees to clean up the turf interaction.

However, the interesting part of Alison’s prescription was based on her history as a tennis player. Because she was used to the balance of a racket, where the mass is held close to the body, a standard golf club can feel disconnected.

The solution was to lighten the clubhead by using 2g weights while moving the mass into the handle. This counter-weighting gave Alison a better sense of where the club was during her down-swing, allowing her to control her low point with the same intuition she used on the tennis court. The result? A new 7-iron that travelled 7 yards further than her old 6-iron.

In her driver, the fitter noted that she was sacrificing distance by spinning the ball too much and losing out on crucial ball speed. To solve this, he moved her into a more stable, weighted shaft that she could easily handle, which instantly boosted her ball speed and delivered a more centred strike. Because the data showed she also delivers the driver a little flat, the fitter adjusted the club to a flatter lie angle to keep that strike consistent.

To maximise her distance, she was placed into a 12-degree PXG Lightning Max 10k+ driver. Moving from her current 11.5 driver up to 12 degrees provided an extra bit of launch, while the technology of the club's frequency-tuned face helped to generate more ball speed. The result was an average gain of approximately 10 yards off the tee.

Reflecting on the experience, Alison admitted that while she was no stranger to custom fitting, the PXG process brought completely new insights to light.

"I’m usually fairly straight and consistent off the tee, but I explained that my timing is sometimes off with my irons, and the contact isn’t great. By changing the lie angle and giving me a counterbalance and more stable shaft, something I didn’t think I was capable of using, I started to make better contact because the ball was flying out of the centre of the club."

She was also fascinated to see how her setup paired with her tennis background. "Having played a lot of tennis when I was younger, I found it really interesting what I was told about having the mass/weight of the club a lot closer to my body because that is what will feel more comfortable to me, that was something I’ve never heard before.”

Single-Figure Player

For Carly Cummins, a 1-handicapper and county player, the fitting was about fine-tuning an already elite game. Her brief was simple: maximise distance to keep up with the younger power-hitters. Despite her high skill level, Carly was playing with 10-year-old irons and shafts that she had long since outgrown. With a clubhead speed of 70mph, her previous light and soft setup was actually robbing her of stability and power.

The prescription for Carly was a move into the PXG 0311 XP GEN8 Irons paired with i60 Steelfiber shafts in an A-flex - two full flexes stronger than her current set. This composite material offers the lightweight feel of graphite but the rigid stability of steel, allowing her to transfer her full speed into the ball.

The fitter also used PXG’s unique weighting ports to lighten the head slightly, balancing the heavier shaft to optimise her dispersion. The data spoke for itself: her iron dispersion tightened from 13 feet to just seven, while she gained a staggering 14 yards of carry distance with a 7-iron.

In the driver fitting, the goal was to prevent an over-draw or hook that was her typical miss. By removing weight from the rear of the head and repositioning it in the toe in the PXG GEN6 XF into the PXG 0311 Lightning Tour Mid driver, this ensured the face stayed square for longer through impact.

For Carly, the experience was the equivalent of a car MOT, highlighting that as we change physically through strength and flexibility work, our equipment must be checked annually just to keep pace.

Going into the session, however, she admits she was highly sceptical. As a single-figure handicapper with a notoriously consistent iron game, she didn't believe there was much room for improvement. But the session quickly proved to be an eye-opener.

"Technology moves on incredibly fast, and my irons are ten years old," Carly reflected. "Purely through the tech in the new PXG GEN8 Iron head, I was getting a much faster response off the face. It’s at least one club further, which is just amazing."

The process also debunked a long-held myth for Carly regarding her equipment. She previously assumed she didn't have the swing speed or strength to handle a stronger shaft.

The Verdict

Whether it was the pendulum feel that gave Louise her confidence back, the counterbalanced weighting that tapped into Alison’s athletic history, or the high-tech stability that unlocked Carly’s power, the day confirmed one universal truth: the fitter is your best friend on the quest for better golf.

At the end of the day, a club fitting is just a friendly team effort to make the most of your natural swing and smooth out the rough edges. It shouldn't feel scary or intimidating. As Louise, Alison, and Carly all discovered, the secret to hitting the ball further and straighter often isn’t hidden in a gruelling gym routine, it’s waiting for you in the weights, the loft, the lie angle and the shaft of a club that fits.