The Things People Ask on the Phone, Written Out Once
Ruth answers most of these several times a week. Putting them here does not stop anyone calling, and it should not — but it does mean the call can start further along.
If your question is not here, ring (775) 555-0193 during studio hours. Nobody will try to book you for anything on that call.
Before You Book
Do I need to be a good golfer for this to be worth it?
No, and the assumption works backwards. A golfer with a wide dispersion pattern is being hurt more by badly matched equipment than a low handicap is, because the low handicap has already learned to compensate and does it consistently.
What we do need is that you can make contact often enough to produce a readable sample. Roughly eighteen swings with a mid-iron where most of them go forward is plenty.
How far ahead do slots go?
About two weeks through the summer and inside a week from late October, when the lake courses shut and the phone quietens down. Saturday mornings are the first thing to fill and the last thing to open up.
What should I bring?
The clubs you actually play, however dirty they are. Your course shoes. A glove if you wear one. The names of the two courses you play most, because the elevation difference between them changes what we recommend.
If you have a spec sheet from a previous fitting anywhere, bring that too. It saves us fifteen minutes and it occasionally explains something immediately.
Can I bring somebody with me?
Yes. There is a stool and terrible coffee. Bringing a playing partner who has watched your swing for ten years is often genuinely useful, because they will contradict you about your miss and they will usually be right.
I have never had a fitting. Which session do I book first?
Call and describe the shot that annoys you most. Ruth will match it to a session in about two minutes, and the answer is frequently cheaper than what you were about to book.
If you would rather not call: most golfers get the largest return from the iron set session, because that is where the gapping problems live and gapping problems cost strokes quietly for years.
The Altitude Part
Is the altitude thing real or is it a marketing angle?
It is real and it is measurable. Air pressure at our studio floor sits around 85 percent of a sea-level course. A mid-iron gains roughly six to seven percent of carry against a sea-level baseline, and the driver gains the same percentage of a much larger number.
Where it becomes a marketing angle is when a studio uses it to sell you something. The correct response to altitude is usually a different set of numbers written down, not a different set of clubs.
I only ever play in Reno. Do I still need three columns?
Strictly, no, and we will tell you to ignore two of them. But almost nobody only ever plays in Reno. A round at the lake is seventeen hundred feet up from the valley floor, and one trip a year to see family somewhere flat is enough to make the sea-level column earn its space.
The columns cost nothing to produce once the valley numbers exist. There is no reason to leave them off.
Can I not just add ten percent to everything?
That is the mistake we spend most of our time undoing. The correction is proportional, so ten percent of a 280-yard drive is 28 yards and ten percent of an 85-yard wedge is eight and a half. Applying one flat yardage figure to the whole bag reorders your own set and puts a hole in it.
Think in percentages, convert each club separately, and write the answers down rather than doing it on the tee.
Does temperature matter as much as elevation?
Not as much, but more than most people expect, and here it is unusually large because our daily swing is unusually large. A June round that starts near fifty degrees and ends above ninety covers a real distance change across eighteen holes.
That is why we ask what time of day you usually play. A dawn golfer and an afternoon golfer with identical swings can want slightly different gapping.
During and After the Session
What if the answer is that my clubs are fine?
Then that is what the sheet says, and it happens in roughly one session out of six. Those usually end with a lie adjustment, a regrip, and a paragraph explaining what to stop worrying about.
It is a legitimate outcome, not a failed session, and the fee is the same because the measuring was the same.
Am I going to be pressured to buy on the day?
No. Nobody here works on commission and there is no monthly target. The spec sheet goes home with you regardless, and you are welcome to take it to another shop and have the work done there.
We would genuinely rather you had the numbers than had us. A golfer who buys elsewhere and plays better still tells people where the numbers came from.
How long until a build is ready?
Three to six days for anything where the components are already on the shelf, because the bench is in the same room and nothing gets couriered to a third party. Add whatever the supplier takes if a part has to be ordered in, and we will tell you that figure before you commit.
Is the fitting fee refunded if I buy?
Credited, not refunded, and against build labour rather than components. Order through us within sixty days and the session fee comes off the labour line on the invoice.
Do you keep my numbers?
Yes, indefinitely, with the conditions log attached so a future session can be compared honestly against this one. Call in three years and we can tell you what your seven-iron did in this bay on the day you came in.
They are not shared with anyone and they are not used for marketing. If you want your record deleted, say so and it is gone the same day.
What if the new clubs do not work on the course?
Come back. Bench adjustments to something we built are not charged for, and if the answer turns out to be that a shaft was the wrong call, we will say so and work out something sensible with you.
This is the reason for the follow-up call two months after a build goes out. We would rather find out from a phone call than from silence.
Do you do repairs on clubs you did not sell?
All of it. Regrips, reshafts, ferrules, bending, length changes, groove reports. There is no requirement to have been fitted here and no different price if you were not.
Can you fit left-handed golfers and junior sets?
Both, routinely. Left-handed component stock is thinner across the whole industry so the shortlist in a session is occasionally shorter, and we will be honest with you about that rather than pretend otherwise.
Juniors are half price once a year for as long as they are still growing, with length and lie changes included.
Ask the One We Missed
Phone during studio hours or send it in writing. Either way it gets a real answer from whoever would run the session.