There is no doubt that the introduction of hybrid clubs has helped today’s golfers. These utility, hybrid or rescue clubs are not a recent invention, but there has been an explosion in hybrids because manufacturers have continued to lengthen and strengthen their irons, in a bid to provide golfers with ‘added distance’.

The 3-wood is the longest and least lofted of clubs that are designed to be hit without a tee peg. As manufacturers have lengthened and strengthened clubs, the modern 3-wood is the equivalent of the traditional 2-wood in loft, and driver in length, which is not an ideal combination for the average golfer!

Neil Cooke, technical director of Golfsmith Europe, addresses the importance of providing golfers with the right lie

Neil Cooke, technical director at Golfsmith Europe, offers some advice for custom-fitting drivers

There are three key specifications that really count when fitting drivers:

Length

While the average driver length from manufacturers is just over 45”, a 44” driver hit in the middle will go further than a 46” driver hit out of the heel. It is critical that length is determined by the percentage of on-centre strikes. The idea is to increase average driving distance, not to set a new personal best!

Neil Cooke, technical director of Golfsmith Europe, writes that a source of income that is often overlooked is the re-gripping service.

Not many golfers are splashing out on new clubs at the moment, but most are prepared to pay a reasonable sum to make their existing clubs more playable. Club pros used to find re-gripping a lucrative operation, although it does not seem to be offered with the same enthusiasm today. Pros not offering re-gripping are missing an opportunity in terms of immediate profit and also in terms of illustrating expertise, which boosts customers’ loyalty.

Neil Cooke, technical director at Golfsmith Europe, recommends that offering a golf equipment ‘M.O.T’ service is a great way of keeping money coming into the till before the club season gets underway in earnest

Over a golfing season lofts and lies can change, grips wear out and the general condition of clubs deteriorates, but as these changes are gradual they are difficult for the golfer to notice. As well as wear and tear, if new clubs have been added to a set there is a good chance the specifications won’t match, and the M.O.T. can identify this.

Neil Cooke, technical director at Golfsmith Europe, reports that too many shots are played from within 100 yards of the green for us to ignore the importance of custom fitting wedges.

It seems everyone is getting into grooves this year, and Golfsmith Europe’s technical director Neil Cooke has seen an influx of orders for wedge re-grooving

Even though golf’s new groove limitations apply to Tour golfers only in 2010, and even though a non-conforming club cannot be made legal by re-grooving, the new regulations have led to club golfers focusing on cleaning up and re-grooving their existing wedges in increasing numbers. A clubface that is too worn cannot be re-grooved, but one with less wear can certainly be freshened up, resulting in noticeable results on the course.

Neil Cooke, technical director at Golfsmith Europe, explains the best method for removing the end of a broken steel shaft from a hosel

For many years one of the nightmare repairs that used to crop up was a steel shaft broken in the hosel - the problem being there wasn’t a proper tool to do the job.

It is many years ago now that Karsten Manufacturing introduced the innovation of firing a ball-bearing down their putter shafts to ensure the clubhead stayed in place. It was an excellent technical advance at the time, and it was all well and good for day-to-day play, but that tiny ball-bearing became a dreaded nightmare of considerable magnitude on the occasions when customers had decided to shorten the putter shaft over their knee after another tiddler scooted around the hole!

The Golfsmith repairs department receives countless through-bore drivers for re-shafting. This is usually because the pro doesn’t realise how easy the repair really is.

The first step is to remove the existing shaft by using a decent shaft extractor (if you’re looking to save and reuse the shaft) or simply by drilling it out. The new shaft then has to be prepped by removing the paint right down to the graphite. The edge of a Stanley knife blade does the job, and scraping away from you ensures the graphite fibres don’t get damaged. It is essential that the paint be removed from the whole length of the insertion depth, as failure to do this may result in shaft ‘creaking’.

If you are going to fit only one club in the bag for your customer then make sure it’s the driver. It doesn’t matter that you ‘drive for show, putt for dough’, because the reality is that the one factor that sells golf clubs better than any other, and the one factor that creates legends in the pro shop, is distance. If you can give your customers more yards off the tee, you’ll have their mates beating a path to your door.

To fit the driver correctly three separate issues need addressing; swing technique, set up and club specification. The main fitting parameters for club specifications are length, loft, flex, face angle and total weight. While swing technique takes a lot of time and effort on behalf of the golfer, a few simple changes in set up can add valuable yards.

By now, virtually every avid golfer is aware that the USGA and the R&A have incorporated a new rule change affecting the dimensions of the score lines of golf clubs with lofts of 25° and higher. Grooves will be smaller in the future. How does this affect you? The new rules do not apply to all golfers straight away, but for card-carrying PGA Tour pros the new rules are effective from January 1, 2010. All clubs within a tour player’s bag must incorporate the new, smaller groove dimensions if lofts are 25° or higher.

On the bench

The first and most essential piece of kit in a pro's workshop is a strong, sturdy bench with and a good quality vice. You can buy a cheap vice from any hardware shop for around £15-20 but it's worth spending a few pounds more to get one with larger jaws and a swivel base. This will not only put you in good stead for club building, but also for re-gripping and general club repairs.

Re-gripping clubs is part of every pro's basic training, so there is a danger that pros assume it is a simple and straightforward process. The reality is that a lot can go wrong when re-gripping, and a badly installed grip can ruin an otherwise perfectly good set of clubs. Re-gripping is one of those jobs that goes unnoticed if it is completed properly, but if the job is sub-standard it stands out like a sore thumb.

The Ball Roll software, designed by Quintic's Dr Paul Hurrion, measures the skid, backspin and roll of the ball, launch angle and bounce, ball speed, hook and slice, and the point at which a true roll is established. Designed to assist pros teach putting, and to fit and sell putters, pros will need a computer, video camera and fire wire cable separately.

Invented by PGA pro Ian Melville, the CentreCup is a training aid designed to hone the perfect pendulum putting stroke. When a golfer is connected to CentreCup, it ensures the golfer's shoulders, forearms, hips, knees and feet are all aligned square to the hole, and it also keeps the putter face square to the line of the putt throughout the stroke.

Yes! Golf has established a network of 24 golf clubs around Europe that offer a putter custom-fit service, incorporating video analysis. Musselburgh GC has reported that while they previously sold 20 putters a year, they have sold 60 putters already in 2009 since starting the Yes! programme.

The Vector X is particularly suited to pros who need a launch system that doesn't require an external computer. The easily portable Vector X measures ball speed, launch angle, backspin, sidespin and side angle and displays results on a colour display screen.

Gel Golf's custom-fit programme has been designed by Dr Paul Hurrion. Each Gel fitting centre is equipped with Hurrion's Quintic Ball Roll software and a range of tools including Hurrion's putting mirror. Hurrion is also training fitting centre pros a series of nine custom-fitting drills.

The TOMI putting system uses a camera that records three-dimensional movement of the putter head from backstroke to follow-through. The TOMI Home model analyses alignment, stroke path, stroke rotation and clubhead speed, with the professional model also gauging tempo, impact spot and shaft angle at impact.

Golfsmith says the number of clubhead, shaft and grip options it can offer golfers through its Snake Eyes Custom service is unsurpassed in the UK. The company boasts over 600 shaft options and over 400 grip variations at its Cambridgeshire fitting centre, which utilises the Vector launch monitor.

One of the most important parts of the golf club is the one that golfers tend to overlook, the grip. Golfers will pore over the importance of shaft weight, flex and torque, but miss the fact that if they don't have a good hold on the club all other specifications become irrelevant. There are so many golfers out there who are using grips that are in such poor condition or so ill fitting that it is impossible to play to their potential.

In terms of materials, ‘iron' clubheads offer much less variety than woods as there is no great advantage in using different alloys. Unlike with a driver clubhead, there is no benefit to having an iron head that is ultra lightweight. As a result the metals used for irons are generally one of two forms; cast stainless steel or forged carbon steel.

No set of clubs has been expertly fitted unless the clubs have the correct loft and, in particular, lie, for each golfer's particular swing mechanics.

Bonding golf club components together is the most critical stage of custom-fitting, and thereby the single most important ingredient in clubmaking is the epoxy used to bind the head to the shaft. Using the wrong epoxy, or just poor preparation, can result in catastrophe. Reputation and credibility could be wrecked if the wrong adhesives are used.

The practise of swing weighting clubs has been around since the 1920's, but it is still very much a grey area to many golf professionals and golfers alike. Here is a definition in simplest terms: swing weight is the balance of a club, according to its weight distribution over its playing length. By matching the balance point of different clubs, swing weighting is the closest we can get to providing a universal feel throughout a set.