Swinging by Callaway’s Performance Center

Jetlagged is not the ideal way to arrive at a custom fitting session, much less one at Callaway Golf’s worldwide headquarters in Carlsbad, California. In an environment that relies upon a repeatable swing in the attempt to match you with the best possible equipment, a fuzzy-headed Canuck wobbling over the ball like he’s fresh off a magnum of merlot is probably not the sort of client master clubfitter John Mlynarski had in mind when he got into this business.
But then how better to test the skills—not to mention the patience—of Mlynarski and his assistant Amy Alston, a recent member of San Diego State’s women’s golf team?

Somehow I’d envisioned the twosome’s place of employment as a dramatic structure dominating the Carlsbad skyline like the Taj Mahal. But it’s merely a handsome building in an industrial park region 40 miles north of San Diego that houses the corporate headquarters of two other golf equipment powers, TaylorMade and Cobra.

Above: Author Ted McIntyre gets tested at Callaway’s Performance Center

While public golfers can randomly wander in to Callaway’s 23 other Performance Centers around the globe, you need an appointment to get past the front desk in Carlsbad. Those booked for a session, which can range from 60 to nearly 90 minutes, are ushered through a corridor that passes by a large club assembly area, where every Callaway tour player golf club is inspected, bent, ground or otherwise tweaked and pieced together to precise specifications. A large window separates the room from the indoor putting green, providing onlookers with a view of specialists applying the finishing touches to clubs for players like Henrik Stenson, Jim Furyk, Lydia Ko and Morgan Pressel.

[quote]I could barely stand the look of the Mack Daddy PM Grind wedge, with its super-tall toe looking like a big wedge of cheese at the end of the shaft. However, the following day I got to test it and discovered that the added time the ball spent on those additional grooves resulted in shot after shot sucking back like balls of wool through a vacuum tube.[/quote]

Even rank amateurs get special treatment here, as I discover after being led into one of the facility’s two hitting bays. This is Callaway’s ultimate fitting experience, with the same technology and full range of products that’s provided to their elite playing professionals up the road at the Ely Callaway Performance Center. The only difference is that the pros get to hit off natural grass at the Ely Callaway Center while the public hits off indoor turf here. And even that is somewhat offset by the huge screen you fire into, with its five-minute looped video of the nearby driving range. The realism of following your shot path is pretty impressive.

While there’s a vast array of the latest and greatest Callaway equipment lined up on the side or in a nearby fitting cart—with each head quickly and easily snapped onto a different shaft—it helps to have your own equipment on hand for comparison purposes (and so that you don’t have to remember the shaft flexes and other details of your current set when asked). The seven-iron and driver were used in my fitting, so at least bring those with you.

Mlynarski begins the session by inquiring about the amount of golf I play, my handicap (about a 9.0) and my current clubs before suggesting I give the forged Callaway Apex Pro a whirl. Overhead there are two high-speed cameras operating at a whopping 10,000 frames per second to capture every nuance of my swing and infinitesimal rotation of the ball after impact. It’s paired with Callaway’s proprietary Callaway Performance Analysis System, the software of which spits out pretty much everything from swing speed, ball speed, launch angle, spin rates and attack and path angles to the winning numbers of next month’s lottery. With each swing comes a new set of data on a plasma screen on the adjacent wall.

But numbers aren’t everything. How does it feel? Is it pleasing to your eye? Personal feedback is vital in every great fitting process and Mlynarski can tell from our running conversation that I prefer a little swing weight in order to feel the clubhead through impact, so he plays with shaft options (dropping from 115 to 95 grams) to change the feel and timing of the same clubhead, which marginally improves my consistency. Even the optimal shaft length is tested with a wrist-to-floor measurement.

Face tape is now applied to the club and a special grooved ball used to test for lie angle. It’s happily one of the few things that doesn’t need adjusting.
We experiment with the forged Apex CF 16, a slightly larger clubhead featuring Callaway’s Cup Face technology, and, sure enough, my ball speed increases from 105 to 111 mph, resulting in an added carry of 10 yards with my seven-iron. However, the dispersion pattern is more inconsistent, and, aware of my fondness for a more solid-feeling, responsive iron, Mlynarski recommends the Apex Pro with the lighter stiff shaft.

Although I’m in love with my ancient Merit wedges, I had to test out Callaway’s latest weaponry in that department as well—the MD (Mack Daddy) 3. John suggested I try the MD3 PM (Phil Mickelson) grind, but I could barely stand the look of it, with its super-tall toe looking like a big wedge of cheese at the end of the shaft. However, the following day I got to test it and discovered that the added time the ball spent on those additional grooves resulted in shot after shot sucking back like balls of wool through a vacuum tube.

There’s nothing like results to evoke a little excitement. Players usually gain about a club on their irons and seven to 10 yards with the driver if they follow through on the recommended equipment changes, Mlynarski notes. Something else they tend to get out of the session is a better understanding of the gaps between their irons (it’s always a revelation to amateurs how long—or, more appropriately, how short—they actually carry their mid and long irons).
“Once a month we get a letter from someone who’s been fitted here saying, ‘I had the best game of my life,’” says Mlynarski. “We can even fit the public with brand new equipment, which sometimes includes clubs that haven’t even been officially launched yet.”

The facility’s two bays witnessed a combined 1,086 fittings last year—Monday to Friday beginning at 8 a.m. The most often-changed variable? “Loft,” Mlynarski says. “Even tour pros are surprised.” It’s one of the tweaks they make to my driver—adding one degree to my usual set-up.

The fee for this service is $150, for which you also receive a dozen top-grade balls appropriate to your game, a $100 gift card toward any equipment orders more than $500, as well as an arm’s length of data regarding the clubs you hit— the latter of which is emailed to you afterward.

We concluded the session at the putting green, where Callaway’s SAM (Science and Motion) system recorded the face rotation and loft and lie path of my putting strike to within a millimeter. Alas, overtired and bleary-eyed, I began to push and pull one ball after another wide of the target.

As talented as Mlynarski and Alston might be, they could not be expected to correct my vision.

Info: http://cmp.callawaygolf.com/custom-fitting/ 

Ted McIntyre is an Ontario-based writer and editor.

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This article appears in the Winter 2016 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer. Subscribe today!

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