I Just Had My First Ever Full-Bag Fitting... I Was Staggered By How My Clubs Were So Wrong For Me

I've just had my first ever full-bag fitting and the results were very, very interesting.

My current bag is comprised of hand-me-downs from my colleagues who get to test everything, as well as wedges I bought off the rack and a hybrid and 5-wood that I picked up second-hand from online retailers.

It is somewhat of a jumble but I've got to know them all very well and their tendencies.

It's why I wrote a love letter to my decade-old irons earlier this year, with the familiarity of my setup a nice comfort blanket. I know how my clubs perform when I play well and what to expect when I'm not swinging it my best.

But just because I know them well doesn't mean they're right for me, and I found that out quite quickly when I visited the incredible Mizuno Tour Performance Centre at Bearwood Lakes in Berkshire.

I Just Had My First Ever Full-Bag Fitting... I Left Staggered

The state-of-the-art facility is regularly visited by the brand's touring professionals and other elite players so I was very lucky to get the chance to have a session. My fitter for the morning was Joe Beck, an expert tour rep who has fitted the likes of Sir Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie and Marco Penge.

We started on the irons and I learned that my current MP-5s were an inch shorter than standard. Having inherited them from a colleague a decade ago, I either had no idea or had completely forgot if I was ever informed of that.

Being a muscleback, they are also weak in loft so there were easy distance gains I was giving up.

I was fine with the weak lofts but in hindsight a short-hitting six-handicapper should not really be using clubs that are essentially made for tour pros.

As well as the lofts, the shafts were also an issue. My Dynamic Gold S300s were apparently far too heavy for me, which was why my launch was too low and descent angle was too shallow.

I was keen for the Mizuno M-15 irons as they offer a bit more help, but I was not spinning them enough and they were coming in too hot. In the end we arrived on the gorgeous Mizuno M-13s, fitted with Nippon Modus shafts that were around 20g lighter.

This was one of the top suggestions from Mizuno's very cool Shaft Optimizer tool, which measures 40 data points of your swing and matches your 'unique DNA' to a map of over 50 iron shafts before shortlisting the best three to test.

The result was a more forgiving iron, a comfortable six yard distance gain, a six feet peak height gain and a steeper descent angle. Surely longer, higher iron shots with more stopping power should equal lower shots? I am looking forward to finding out.

I also added a set gap wedge for the first time, for more forgiveness, and went for two Mizuno Pro T-1 wedges, switching my 58 out for a 60 as the distance gap between my 54 and 58 degree wedges was not large enough.

These were each matched with the correct shafts to produce a little extra height while keeping the spin high.

I'm also hoping a 60 degree, with two extra degrees of loft vs my current 58 and high bounce to match how I deliver the club, should especially help with those cute greenside bunker shots and chips to tight pins.

My fitter, Joe, then started to rummage around my bag and discovered another decade-old club, my Titleist 816H 4-hybrid. I bought it second-hand as a 4-iron replacement and have loved it.

However, I was surprised to discover that it is also all wrong for me...and I was staggered to learn that I hit it lower than my 7-iron!

The Aldila Rogue 110 shaft is too heavy for me and the gap from 5-iron to 4-hybrid was not big enough. He was convinced it could be easily beaten.

Step up a 9-wood.

9-woods have become more and more popular on tour, and Joe is a 9-wood user himself so is clearly a big proponent of them. After a few swings it immediately felt like a very easy move. The ball was flying considerably higher than my hybrid with a steeper descent angle and more distance.

It should be a very useful weapon when coming into greens and it's something I'll follow up on as the season goes on.

We then looked at my 5-wood, which was again fitted with a shaft too low-launching for me. I have enjoyed my TaylorMade Qi10 fairway since picking it up last year, but it does come in a bit too hot and low when trying to hit greens. Again that was all down to the shaft.

The Mizuno JPX One 5-wood that will replace it is fitted with a 50 gram Denali vs my current 5-wood's 60g Ventus Blue TR, which results in a higher ball flight and an incredible gain of 10 yards in distance.

I was genuinely shocked to see it going so much further despite being the exact same loft, which really illustrated the importance of getting the right head-shaft combo.

We also settled on a Mizuno JPX One Select driver, which performed similar to my trusty Titleist TSR4 but was a little more consistent and forgiving, with a flatter descent angle to hopefully get as much roll-out as possible.

I'm very interested to test it through the summer months to see if it can replace what has been one my all-time favourite clubs.

We didn't touch my beloved mini driver, the TaylorMade R7 Quad, which will be staying in my setup for the foreseesable. The result from a fascinating, and very fun, session is 12 brand new Mizuno clubs tailored to my swing and hopefully some lower scores.

My key takeaway from the session was that I actually could hit it high with an improved descent angle. I thought I was just a low-ball hitter for life, and didn't quite realise just how much difference the shaft weight made.

Another takeaway was just how good the Mizuno metalwoods felt.

I obviously know how great the irons feel as I've been using them for a decade, but I had never hit a Mizuno fairway wood in my life - and they were fantastic.

They get overshadowed by the brands with big tour presences but this session was quite eye-opening. I read the reviews every year that companies like Mizuno are underrated in the metalwood department, and they're really not wrong.

Custom fittings and new clubs are very expensive but if you have never had one or are considering one, I would thoroughly recommend them. You might be happy with your current clubs like I am, but if they're old or bought off the rack then you are likely leaving performance on the table.

I haven't received the clubs yet so cannot comment on whether my scores have lowered - but I will update you on that in the future.

I am quietly confident that my new sticks will do just that, though, and can't wait to get them out on the course. Stay tuned.