The Island Golfer: Players seek better performance via custom clubs

Above, John Dal Santo on site at Coral Creek Club

Chasing perfection can be a fool’s errand, especially on the golf course. Yet it doesn’t stop avid golfers, and even beginners, from seeking it through lessons, custom golf club purchases, and golf simulator experiences.

Serious players perpetually look for improved accuracy and consistency, often through better distance control, enhanced feel, and confidence. Many look to avoid bad habits and prevent injury via personalized club selection. This may involve tailoring specifications like club length, shaft flex, and grip size to an individual’s unique swing and physical makeup.

Coral Creek and Lemon Bay offer custom golf club fitting services to their members. They invite manufacturer representatives to their facilities to introduce new lines. These custom fittings may be performed by the clubs’ golf professionals or manufacturer’s specialists, typically via private appointment or member-wide Demo Days.

Jim Lohbauer, Coral Creek Club’s Head Golf Professional, has a love for teaching and club fitting. He monitors current trends and new golf club offerings and is committed to staying trained so that he can help the club’s members.

“Anybody new to the game, the worst thing you could do is get bad equipment in their hands,” explained Lohbauer. “That just makes the game harder for someone that’s just getting into it. So, even if it’s just getting a kind of starter set, getting the right components, it will make it so much easier for them to gravitate to the game and excel faster.”

Chasing perfection for more experienced golfers may involve committing to a manufacturer’s brand under the watchful gaze of an expert club fitter. These specialists are trained in the art and science of custom golf club fitting. Coral Creek is currently featuring representatives from Ping, Callaway, XXIO, and Titleist during its winter club fitting season.

One such specialist is John Dal Santo, Acushnet’s Senior Club Fitting Professional. Acushnet owns the Titleist brand of performance improvement golf equipment and apparel. Dal Santo, based in Naples, services clubs like Coral Creek whose members desire a bespoke golf club fitting experience.

“We are a scoring company,” claims Dal Santo. “We want to make you score better, and that’s not all about hitting the ball farther. We want you to be able to have proximity to the hole when you’re hitting the ball into the green.”

Dal Santo is nothing if not enthusiastic about his mission; and he can be downright evangelical. A session with Dal Santo may send you to your knees in deference to the so-called Golf Gods.

“We want you to know how far this club’s going to go, both when you hit it flush and when you miss it a little bit,” preached Dal Santo, his voice rising. “We want you to be able to hit your wedges closer to the hole and stop the ball. We want you to score better. So, if you’re shooting 80, then I want to help you shoot 75. And get you whatever part of that bag is missing to knock those five shots off.”

Boca Grande resident Paul Dundore is a Titleist loyalist. Growing up, most of his golf clubs were hand-me-downs from his grandfather. Dundore purchased his first set of brand-new clubs from the retailer Edwin Watts six years ago. Club fitting there was different than with Acushnet’s Dal Santo, who Dundore met two years ago at Coral Creek.

“At Edwin Watts, it was just a guy in a store; you’re hitting off mats inside. It doesn’t feel terribly realistic compared to hitting off grass outdoors and dealing with wind and things like that,” mused Dundore. “It was okay for the purpose it served at the time.”

Dundore came to his appointment seeking a game-improvement iron. Dal Santo fitted him with Titleist 350s, which claimed a bigger sweet spot and better shot dispersion. What he experienced was anything but a high-pressure sales experience.

“I thought John was very good,” said Dundore. “He sort of dials in your distance and doesn’t try to sell you something you really don’t need. For example, we tried a newer version of Titleist irons, and it really didn’t change my distance or dispersion. We tried a different shaft that really didn’t change anything either. I appreciated the honesty.”

Dundore did leave his club fitting session with a new 7-wood, which he claims sends his ball the same distance as his 3 and 4 hybrids, but a little higher, with a softer landing and narrower shot dispersion.

At Lemon Bay, custom fittings involving their golf professionals went on temporary hiatus due to the club losing its fitting carts after hurricanes Helene and Milton. They received new fitting carts this season and have resumed services. Meanwhile, Lemon Bay relied heavily on monthly events where two or more manufacturers sampled their wares to club members. According to Ryan Hartnett, Lemon Bay’s Head Golf Professional, XXIO is the most popular brand at Lemon Bay’s Demo Days events, followed by Ping and Callaway, respectively, based upon golf shop sales.

“If you’re coming out to a Demo Day, it’s funny to see because it’s a different crowd at each tent,” explained Hartnett. “Every vendor attracts a different member group.

With XXIO, it’s the older members. With Mizuno, I get my younger guys out there.”

The limitation to hosting multiple vendors at Lemon Bay’s Demo Days is the driving range size. Hosting three manufacturers at a time is a tight fit for the club. The club is addressing this situation in its long-range strategic planning, contemplating the construction of a golf learning center featuring hitting bays, golf simulators, and the latest Trackman technology. Importantly, its use would benefit more than just the club’s membership, also helping grow the game among local youth via its summer golf program and the A Better Shot Foundation.

“To serve the Better Shot program, a long-range goal would be to have a simulator room with a putting lab and two or three hitting bays,” said Hartnett. “Then also another room where we can bring the junior golfers in after school, where they could do some homework, and then have the opportunity to teach them indoors and outdoors during the summer.”

Envisioned through its preliminary strategic planning work is a golf learning center half the size of Lemon Bay’s clubhouse, possibly located on the club’s undeveloped property near holes 13 and 14. The land is currently zoned for residential property development, so rezoning would need to happen first.

To support its vision, Lemon Bay’s golf professionals and organizational leaders visited clubs in Fort Myers to see other golf learning centers. They also priced new hitting bay technology at the annual PGA Show, including the Trackman iO, pricing for which it starts at $13,995 per hitting bay.

“We want to do something that actually separates us and makes us special,” said Hartnett. “Provide a great club experience and build a real teaching center. Our problem right now is trying to find the footprint where we are going to place that experience.”

Scott Cotherman writes about all things golf-related in and around the Cape Haze Peninsula. Contact him at the.island.golfer@gmail.com