What’s better than winning a free set of golf clubs? Winning a free set of custom-fit golf clubs, of course.

Thanks to a giveaway from Carl’s Golfland, one of the top golf retailers and custom-fitting facilities in North America, GolfWRX forum member Rob Hsu (rsh0308) won exactly that, as well as first-class, round-trip airfare and accommodations to visit Carl’s headquarters in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Hsu, a 31-year-old ER doctor from Philadelphia, was a 9.2 handicap before the fitting, and is already down to an 8.3 index with his the new sticks. Enjoy our Q&A below, where we ask Hsu about the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

WRX: Tell me about the moment you learned you won the contest. What was going through your head?

RH: The first thing I thought was, “Well, this has to be fake.” I got a PM from ScreamingViking about winning and I actually responded, “Are you serious, is this for real?” or something along those lines. I had to look back at the contest thread to make sure he was the original author.

When he responded, I freaked out. I probably started jumping up and down — I think I lost my mind a little bit. I immediately texted two of my buddies who I grew up playing with, and that’s when I started really getting excited. Like, this is going to happen!!!

WRX: Before winning the contest, you had never been professionally fit for golf clubs. What was different about the experience than you expected? 

For one, the whole experience was different than anything I’ve ever done. I’ve hit balls in plenty of simulators at the big golf stores, but I never really trusted how accurate their simulators were in terms of ball flight. The whole Launch Pad experience was impressive. I’ve never hit outside with a launch monitor, and I’ve never had endless access to all the major club and shaft manufacturers. 

Rose was fit for clubs by Ryan Johnson (right), a Trackman University Master Club Fitter. Carl’s boasts an industry-leading five Trackman University Master Fitters on its Launch Pad staff.

Going back to your question, I never really knew how much info you could get from a launch monitor. Take into account how accurate Trackman is and add the knowledge that my fitter (Ryan) had and it was very educational. The amount of science and physics that can go into a proper fitting was cool. For each club in the bag from the top-down, Ryan was able to show me the ideal launch angles and spin for my swing speed, and we were able to match clubs and shafts to my swing.  

WRX: What was the biggest “surprise” of the fitting? Did you end up with the clubs that you thought you would?

The biggest surprise was how un-optimized (I know that’s not even a word) some of the clubs were in my bag. I was pretty happy with my iron set, and figured I wasn’t going to find anything better in terms of overall distance, feel, and forgiveness. That ended up being the case, but I did find several sets that were equal. Surprisingly, my woods and hybrid weren’t even close to reaching their full potential. I thought I was pretty happy with my clubs, but I gained significant carry with the correct driver fitting on the launch monitor, 10+ yards with the 3 wood, and the results are carrying over on to the course. My gaps in the wedges were also totally off at 45/48/52/58 all with different shafts, and I had adjusted my game to the clubs that were in my bag. It’s been much easier to fire at pins with predictable yardages with even gapping (45/50/54/58)!

Hsu shakes hands with Carl’s Owner Carl E. Rose. Rose’s father, Carl F. Rose, started the business in 1958. It now has two Michigan locations (Bloomfield Hills and Plymouth), and is a leading online retailer.

As far as the club selection, I asked Neal from Carl’s Golfland beforehand if I should come in with any ideas for which clubs to hit. I figured that in the normal couple of hours a fitting takes, it would be hard to start from scratch and find a set that I liked and maybe I should go in with 3-4 woods and iron sets to pick from.

Neal told me to come in completely open minded, and to let Ryan, who is a Trackman Master Fitter and who does this every day for a living, do his job. He asked me about my game, watched me swing with my clubs, and I think he pretty much knew what kind of clubs would work for my game and also what clubs I’d like to look at and have in my bag. Actually, he pretty much nailed it.  

If I had come in with a wish-list, I would’ve probably said, “I want a 915 Driver and 3W, I don’t care which hybrid I get as long as it doesn’t hook, and I want AP2’s, Ping i’s, or Fly Z+ irons.” Ryan gave me all of these and other similar clubs without me even asking (it’s like he knew what I would’ve wanted to hit), and I ended up with equivalent clubs to what I would’ve wished.  

So, no, I didn’t end up with the clubs I “thought I’d end up with,” since I kind of came in open-minded. But I ended up with clubs that I was very happy to have in the bag!  

Note: Hsu was fit for a Callaway Great Big Bertha driver, TaylorMade AeroBurner TP fairway wood and hybrid, Mizuno JPX-850 Forged irons and Titleist Vokey SM5 wedges. He goes into much greater detail about his fitting in this thread. 

WRX: Did you ask a lot of questions during the fitting? What did the experience teach you about golf equipment that you didn’t know before? 

For the most part, I was just kind of in awe and shock of being at Carl’s Golfland and on the tour, I asked a bunch about the shop and its history. During the fitting, I asked questions about Trackman and how it works since I’ve never seen it before, but to be honest I had a lot of trust in Ryan regarding the clubs. I was trying to put good swings on the ball and didn’t put a whole lot of thought into specifics. I knew a lot about the iron heads I was testing, as I was really interested in the models from this past year and had done some research. I had very little knowledge of the wood/hybrid heads or any of the shafts we were testing. I let Ryan look at my launch and spin numbers and put me in a head and shaft that fit my profile. I wasn’t too worried about the brand or model, as long as it gave me optimal results and good feel.  

As far as what did I learn? It was pretty amazing to me how ball flight varies with certain shaft and head combinations. Even within the same “stiffness” across different brands, with similar club lofts, results can be drastically different. I hit a bunch of driver heads and shafts in Stiff and X-Stiff, and had some combinations that launched low with low spin (1200 rpm), and some that launched high with high amounts of spin (3000+ rpm), with similar swings. Carry distance varied by 20+ yards. I’ve been leaving yards out there that I didn’t even know about. I’m now recommending to all my friends to get fit when they buy new clubs.  

WRX: Thank you for your time, Rob.