But when a lady golfer goes into a shop to buy a set of clubs the only ones usually offered are clubs with one type of shaft only - a graphite ladies shaft, in one standard length and with standard grips.

Rene weighed my clubs and tested the shafts. I was staggered to find out that most of them were not suited to my own personal swing speed, my height and hand grip. Also the flex range varied considerably between each shaft. When I filled in my questionnaire at the start of the fitting session I had chosen "driver" as my favourite club and in fact, I found out later this was the only club suited to my game. It all made sense!!

If you decide to change your clubs after a fitting with Rene (and you are under no obligation to do so - there is no "hard selling") your clubs will be made to exacting tolerances. This results in specifications not achievable in mass produced sets.

I now know that if I hit some bad shots I can't blame my clubs……….back to working on my golf swing!!

Read the article below by Rene and visit her website www.clubmasters.co.uk for more information.

Rene is 2005 International Clubmaker of the Year. She was selected from six regional winners for the honour which recognises one member each year as the best clubmaker in the world. Rene is the first British winner of this prestigious award.

Click here to read about the Sex Ratio!!    Rene's article is both humerous and very worrying for us golfing gals!

What is the length of your driver? And is it the optimum length for you to get the best results from your tee shots?

From years of experience as a professional clubfitter, I can confidently tell you that one of the most critical fitting specs for helping golfers maximise their on-centre, solid hit capability with all clubs is LENGTH.

Length is a major factor affecting Distance
Length is a major factor affecting Accuracy
Length is a major factor affecting Feel

No other golf club specification has a major effect on distance, accuracy and feel. Getting the correct length nailed down for you by a professional clubfitter will almost certainly result in custom built clubs that perform better for you than clubs bought off the rack. The reason for this is that almost all standard off the rack clubs are built to lengths that are too long for the vast majority of golfers to swing consistently, particularly drivers and fairway woods.

Most off the rack men's drivers are assembled to a playing length of 45" or 45 ½" with matching fairway woods being an assortment of lengths depending on the increments the company chooses to set. For each company, ladies' lengths are normally set 1" shorter. However, male and female golfers who can reliably hit on-centre with drivers of 45" and 44" respectively, are in a very small minority.

So how does a professional club-fitter determine the best length for each golfer? There are three factors to consider.

1. A measure of the golfer's wrist to floor dimension. This should not be the final length determination but it is an excellent lace to start.

2. The golfer's swing path, swing plane and swing tempo. The reason that so many golfers do not fit to a driver of 45" and longer is that many golfers swing with an outside-to-in swing path. The more the club is swung on the down-swing from outside-to-in, the steeper will be the descent of the club and it is more difficult to deliver a longer length square at impact. The same is true for swing plane. The more upright the golfer's swing plane, the steeper the club will be delivered to the ball and the more difficult it will be to bring the club back to square at impact. Lastly, the faster the golfer's tempo the more difficult it will be to rotate the clubface back to square on the down-swing with a longer length.

3. The Golfer's ball striking skills. The better the athletic ability and hand/eye coordination of the golfer the longer the club can be. Try telling Ian Woosnam he needs shorter than standard clubs! Drivers that are longer than a golfer's optimum result in reduced accuracy and/or reduced distance. If you can hit your 3-wood as far as your driver, that's a real tell-tale sign that your driver is too long.

Is your driver the optimum length for you to get the best results from your tee shorts? You won't know unless you have been properly fitted for driver length. If you would like to be confident with your driver and every other club in your bag, visit a PCS-certified professional clubmaker. We are a world apart from the mass market. And after all, when it comes to your game, you deserve the best.

By Rene Cleaver PhD, Professional CLASS "A" Clubmaker

Custom fitting and custom building golf clubs is a people driven, result orientated profession. Success depends heavily on the effectiveness of the clubfitting process.

The Practical Clubfitting Method used at Club Masters is the model used by most of the industry's top clubfitting experts. It is the most comprehensive method available. Of particular importance to me is that it leads in a rational, as opposed to a trial and error, way to equipment that best fits the golfer.

A typical clubfitting session takes an hour and a half to two hours. A significant chunk of time, you might think. But clubfitting done properly takes time. It's simply not possible to do a good job in the 15 minutes that some manufacturers allow each golfer.

By evaluating your current clubs, we have a baseline over which to improve. I cannot stress enough how valuable this exercise is. There are no standards in the equipment industry. So it is essential for me to have my own measurements.

For example, shaft flex is a specification that varies a lot. Your so-called "R-flex" shafts might turn out to be Extra Stiff; or they could turn out to be far more flexible than you would expect R-flex to be. It's impossible to know unless we do the measurements. I use a frequency analyser to measure the flexes of your shafts and to frequency match your custom built clubs.

Loft is another specification that varies a lot. We might find that the loft of your 5-wood is as strong as 17o or it could be as weak as 24o. If you are planning on keeping your 5-wood and would like to add a 7-wood to your bag, I need to know the loft of your 5-wood so that I can match the 7-wood in properly.

In order to understand how you play with your clubs, I ask you to fill out a questionnaire, which examines your strengths, weaknesses and playing goals. This allows us to address your normal playing tendencies, and it avoids the pitfalls of trying to exclusively fit to "today's swing" - a mistake that is all too commonly made.

These initial steps in the clubfitting process start us on the path towards specifications that both fit your swing and address your playing goals. At this stage it is possible to come up with a preliminary fitting recommendation. Specific recommendations for club specs are determined by dynamic fitting.

Shaft fitting is at the core of the dynamic fitting session. I go beyond simply measuring clubhead speed (a measurement of only one segment of your swing) to match a shaft to your swing.

Other considerations are: down swing acceleration, shaft loading, swing tempo, and length of backswing. By adding these to the equation, I may end up fitting players with exactly the same clubhead speed with different flex shafts, because other aspects of their swings are not the same.

Just as there is more to swing measurement than clubhead speed, there are more shaft specifications that just flex. Other considerations are weight, bend point, balance point and torsional stiffness. Shafts measuring the same frequency, but differing in amount of torsional stiffness, feel and perform differently. When fitting a shaft to your swing, these other specifications are taken into consideration.

For club length, I will use your wrist to ground measurement (fingertip to ground is incorrect) as a guide. However, playing ability and swing plane are more important determinants of club length, which is therefore defined during the dynamic fitting.

Swing weight is a factor contributing to clubhead feel and is determined interactively with the client.

Lie angle should also be determined dynamically, best done at the end of the process, when club length and shaft characteristics have been defined.

Grips are fitted for comfort, so that your hand and arm muscles are relaxed as you begin to take the club away. The requirements of both hands are considered in grip sizing.

Towards the end of the dynamic fitting, we will have defined a small range of club specs that fit you. This is confirmed and fine-tuned with one or two trial clubs. Up to fifteen club specifications that match your swing and playing goals will be defined.

The efficacy of the process means that there is no need to present the golfer with a "cocktail cabinet" full of trials clubs. However, the "cocktail cabinet" approach is used by many manufacturers. They take you and a cart-load of clubs to the range, and have you try multiple clubs out on a trial and error basis. Having had first hand experience of this approach, I can tell you that it's a nightmare, both for the clubfitter and for the golfer. The more trial clubs, the more confusion. To be avoided at all costs!

Regarding clubhead designs, we identify those that are pleasing to your eye. Ensuring that you are comfortable with the appearance of your clubs at address, is as much custom fitting as any other part of the process.

Selecting the best set make-up for your game can contribute hugely to helping you meet your playing goals. What do I mean by set make-up? It's simply the combination of clubs that you carry. Some examples of possibilities: fairway woods instead of long irons; using blades for feel in the short irons and cavity backs for control in the long irons; customising your wedges separately from your irons to suit your short game needs.

"Should my putter be custom fitted?" I'm often asked. Yes, it should. You use it more that any other club in the bag. And my approach to custom fitting the putter? Well, on this one, I'm keeping my cards close to my chest. But I will tell you that my process is very simple…there's no magic involved…but the results just might be!

The word counter tells me I have already rattled off more than 1000 words. If you have read this far….congratulations! Hopefully it has given you an insight into my approach to custom fitting and my fitting philosophy.

Rene

Rene Cleaver is a Professional CLUBMAKERS' Society CLASS "A" Clubmaker, CLASS "A" Clubfitter and Golf Clubmakers' Association Advanced Clubmaker. Rene is owner of Club Masters, Cheltenham. If you have any questions about golf equipment contact Rene directly at rene@clubmasters.co.uk or tel. 01452-715007.

To find a certified clubmaker near you, use the Clubmaker Locator in the Professional Clubmakers' Society web page: www.proclubmakers.org.   Alternatively, call West Country Golf News for an up to date list of certified equipment professionals.