Club Champion offering free putter fittings for buyers, expanding in SouthPark

The deal is available now through Sept. 30.

Expansion: Club Champion’s Charlotte location is the 2nd busiest of their 85 golf fitting facilities, behind only their original spot near Chicago.

• The premium golf club fitter will soon move to a larger space (four hitting bays instead of two) in SouthPark’s Morrison shopping center, according to Club Champion master fitter and builder Bruce Raffe.

Zoom out: Golf rounds are up roughly 19% compared to pre-COVID-19 years, according to the National Golf Foundation. Equipment sales are exploding as well.

As a golfer, I’ve been fascinating by the rise of custom fitting operations like Club Champion. So, I put the clubs in the back of my Jeep and drove over to their SouthPark location for a one-hour putter fitting with Bruce.

How it works: Here’s an action-packed play-by-play of the process. It took about 50 minutes in total.

• Warm up hitting putts on their artificial putting green.
• Hit seven putts as their Science and Motion (SAM) PuttLab software records your stroke.
• A fitter will then walk you screen by screen with data on club path, face angle at impact, loft, and lie angle.
• You’ll then address the ball with laser, laser removed, and fitter monitors where the club face is pointing.

• SAM PuttLab software will recommend a putter type (not a brand).
• Fitter then gives you four or so options of that specific putter type for you to test.
• Select two putters and hit four putts with each to a string on the putting green (testing speed consistency).
• Fitter then makes a final recommendation.

My thought bubble: I felt like Bryson DeChambeau utilizing all this technology. For golf nerds, it’s fascinating to see all of these putting statistics.

Okay, here’s a nine-photo look at the putter fitting process.

Why it matters: “Putting may not be as sexy as bombing it off the tee,”Nick Sherburne, Master Fitter and Club Champion founder, “but your putter is arguably the most important club in the bag if you’re looking to truly play better golf and lower your scores.”