[Head First: Golf Fitting Expert Prioritizes Driver Head Design Over Shafts]
As long as there’s been custom fitting, golfers have wondered if the head or the shaft makes the difference in a driver fitting.
On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, co-host Johnny Wunder asked Impact Golf’s Eric Chung, one of Malaysia’s top fitters, what he believes drives his decision-making in driver selections.
“I like to keep things relatively simple with everything I do. But I’ve always favored heads,” Chung said. “Heads to me has always been paramount to any fit, whether it’s locked, whether it’s certain weight positions, even shapes, looks, feels, sounds, et cetera, right? Spin rates on different areas.
"I always use the shaft as a pairing instrument, this so that they can center the strike a little bit better. Whether it’s length, whether it kicks, whether it’s being profiles, et cetera. So, to keep it really simple, um, predominantly head-based, um, head bias first and then shaft pairing."
“And then all the small things, like, whether it’s a preference of swing weight, grip sizes to, uh, even total masses, which is probably more important for me. Yeah, but it’s still along those lines, and as long as I just feel that you can get it close enough. Like, 85, 90% of where it needs to be. It doesn’t have to be completely dialed in or over optimized.</p>
Chung’s strategy is straightforward: identify the optimal head first, then adjust everything else—including the shaft—from that point forward. He explains that you can achieve approximately 85 to 90 percent of the ideal fit without ever touching the shaft.
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