Learning from the PGA Tour

Intellectual curiosity. I wish I knew where mine came from. Perhaps I was born with it, perhaps it was instilled in me from a young age by parents who frequently responded to my questions not only with the answer but usually with another question to continue to stimulate me. Perhaps my grandfather who was a college professor and administrator was influential in pushing me to be curious and not take what other people tell me as absolute truth but to figure things out on my own and ask questions. Whatever the source, I am glad I am curious.

I am happy to share with you the experience I had recently at the PGA Tour’s first stop here in DFW at the Byron Nelson. The final Byron Nelson Championship to be played at the TPC Four Seasons in Las Colinas. 

Ever since I turned professional over 17 years ago and had my first club fitting experience as a player, I have been fascinated by how the differences in equipment can impact the flight of the golf ball. I found myself with access to the club fitters and club builders who man the PGA Tour equipment vans that follow around the world’s best players. I got to spend a full day inside the ropes, on the range, and on the putting green around both the world’s best golfers and the professionals who build and work on their clubs. What an experience!

I found myself asking many questions. What happens when you change length? What do you see when you lengthen the driver? Shorten the driver? Why do you change weight of shaft? What happens when you go heavier? Lighter? How is this shaft different than this other one? Why does this work for that player and not this one? What is the ideal landing angle for a driver? For a 5 iron? Why?

I don’t share this experience with you to brag about my access. (Okay, maybe a tiny bit!) I am sharing this because as a PGA Golf Professional and club fitter it is my passion to understand how golf clubs work and how to make them work better for you. That is what the professional club fitters who follow the tour do. They help players play better. That is also precisely what we here at Dallas Golf do - we help players play better.. 

You can be confident that Dallas Golf is right there on the leading edge of club technology. We invest both time and money to better ourselves as both a fitting and retail destination. We are always striving to learn more. Come see us soon for a club fitting, and in the mean time, enjoy a few pictures from the 2017 Byron Nelson.