Rick Terzia knows a way most golfers can improve their games, and it has nothing to do with lessons, state-of-the-art equipment or infomercials on late-night Golf Channel programming.
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It takes about 1 1/2 hours of collaboration on golf club fitting with Terzia, and a fee.
Though Terzia is outgoing, has a quick laugh and a seemingly endless supply of stories, the club-fitting process is more serious than it is fun.
"It's work on both of our parts," said Terzia, who is one of more than 1,100 world-wide members of the Professional Clubmakers' Society.
Yes, but the potential payoff - lower scores and confidence in the clubs you are playing -can be worth it.
After a golfer goes through a session with Terzia at his TnT Custom Golf Fitting Studio in Martinez, they leave knowing exactly what kind of clubs they should be hitting.
If their current set doesn't match the specifications Terzia has come up with, golfers have to make a choice: have Terzia modify them, have him build them a new set or continue to hit ill-fitting clubs.
Terzia said 46 percent want him to build new ones, 40 percent want their old clubs modified and 14 percent decide to do neither.
In the club-fitting session, Terzia puts a golfer through a short interview session, then has them hit balls on a launch monitor and into a net. The results are then analyzed.
"What I do is performance-based fitting," Terzia said. "What I'm looking for is: what do you hit in the center of the face most often, what length is correct for you, check the lie angles ... put all the specs together."
Because he can correctly fit any golfer, Terzia has a new take on the question, "Is it the Indian (the golfer) or the arrow (the equipment)?" that golfers often ask when they play badly.
"I say just give me a straight arrow," Terzia said.
Club fitting is advisable for anyone who wasn't properly fit for their current set, or is in the market for a new set.
"The chances of walking into a shop and just picking them off a shelf and they fit you perfectly are pretty slim," Terzia said. "Clubs, the way they're designed and marketed, are marketed to the mean height."
The problem with that, Terzia said, is that height has nothing to do with how long or short a club should be for a golfer.
"There are tall people with short arms and tall people with long arms and short people with long arms and short people with short arms," Terzia said. "It's got more to do with your physical makeup."
Some golfers were fit for their clubs by a store employee or a club pro, but not always properly, according to Terzia.
"They might measure your wrist and ask you a few questions about your swing, and take four or five clubs to the range and say this one is for you," he said.
A proper fitting has to involve a launch monitor, such as the Golf Achiever brand Terzia has in his studio. A grid of lasers on the monitor measures and calculate club head speed, ball speed, ball spin, launch angle and carry distance.
As the launch monitor session begins, Terzia starts by asking the golfer their favorite club, the one they're most consistent with. After Terzia gets the numbers from the launch monitor on about 15 shots with that club, he tries to fit the golfer with the correct club from the demos he has in his shop.
Terzia then studies the numbers and does video analysis of some of the swings.
The cost of a custom-made set of clubs is not necessarily more expensive that a new set at a golf store (which Terzia might have to modify anyway).
One reason is because Terzia will know, based on his analysis on the launch monitor, if there are certain clubs a golfer won't be able to hit, such as a 2- or 3-iron. In that case, he won't build those clubs.
Terzia's heart is in the right place.
"Part of what I do and I hope to do is make it more fun to play golf," Terzia said. "Playing better golf is my entire goal; not to sell golf clubs, though I do want to make a living."
Terzia doesn't want to ever take advantage of customers, which is why he insists that customers call him after six rounds with their new or modified clubs. If they aren't happy with the clubs, he'll alter them.
He also doesn't sell clubs that he didn't build.
"I don't carry inventory for a simple reason: one of my mentors said if you carry inventory, you're going to find yourself pushing stuff off on people just because it's been sitting around too long," Terzia said.
Of all the groups that need club-fitting the most, Terzia says women head the list.
"A lot of women come in and say, 'I went to so-and-so, and they wouldn't even let me hit a club into the net,'" he said.
As a consequence, they often end up with clubs that don't fit their bodies or swings.
"I really think women are playing with inferior equipment," Terzia said, noting that many use shafts that are too flexible and clubheads that are too light.
"Everyone thinks you should have lighter heads for women's clubs, but you should have heavier heads," Terzia said.
In the end, club-fitting makes sense, even for the casual golfer. Why wouldn't you want to play with clubs that are fit to your game, body and swing?
Reach David Westin at (706) 724-0851 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.
