TL;DR - Club Champion has a predatory business model. Unless you are wanting to pay big bucks for…read moreoverpriced equipment, I would urge you to get fitted elsewhere.
I am in the market for a new driver, as my current gamer is about 7 years old. I specifically chose this timeframe to get a new driver, as the major manufacturers recently announced their new year's model, and have discounted the previous year's model. The new model's aren't on shelves yet -- they are only taking pre-orders and expect shipping to occur the second week of February. My thought was I could get a good deal on one of the now discounted models, so I booked my Club Champion fitting.
I have had multiple fittings for about every club in my bag over the past several years. I have gone through True Spec, previous home golf course, direct from manufacturer and Golf Galaxy. Thus, I pretty much know what to expect.
I was immediately disappointed when I showed up to the fitting asking about certain models from the previous year that are now discounted, literally just as of this week. Supposedly, as soon as the manufacturers even announce a new product line, Club Champion gets rid of the previous years model and only starts fitting for the new model, which again, AREN'T EVEN IN STORES YET AND ARE CURRENTLY PRE-ORDER ONLY. That was a bummer, but I figured I'd already driven to the store so I might as well hit some drivers and get some data.
They have a very brief conversation about what you're currently playing, and what you're looking for in a new club. They never asked what my price range would be.
I warmed up with my current driver getting some baseline data on swing speed, ball speed, etc. I told the fitter I would be interested in Callaway (my current driver brand), Taylormade and Titleist as I have had good success with these club brands in the past.
He immediately picked out one Callaway head and a Tour AD shaft and had me hit some. Their goal is to find the right shaft first, then hone in on the club head. I tried three different shafts, all of which felt "meh". I then advocated for trying the same brand of shaft that I'm currently using (Project X Hzrdus), since I was also previously fit for it and do find it to play well. So he grabbed two different models of that brand and I hit a few with both.
Ultimately, we settled on the same shaft I have in my current gamer, albeit a newer version (Black Gen 5). I then basically had to ask for which club heads I wanted to try (as opposed to him using my data to come up with what he thought would be best, as most fitters do).
I ended up hitting and liking a Titleist model the best, so we now had both the shaft and club ready to go. We then picked out a grip (same one I currently use) and he provided me with a final invoice.
This is where things got infuriating. The quote for this driver was $820 before tax, $915 after tax. The breakdown was: $450 for driver head, $350 for shaft, $21 for grip.
Despite Titleist not having recently announced a new model, the driver head was put on sale to match Taylormade and Callaway's discount of their previous year's models.
However, the shaft I wanted is a stock offering from Titleist and available at no additional cost when ordered directly from the manufacturer. I pointed this out to my fitter when questioning why it would cost $350 if ordered from Club Champion. To which his response was something like "Well our shafts are tour spec'd and come with pureing." If you haven't heard of shaft pureing, it is purely a marketing gimmick with no benefit to the average golfer. I told him I did not want the pureing thinking it would lower the cost. He said it would only drop the cost by about $50, and the shaft would still cost ~$300. Again, I asked why I would pay an exorbitant amount through them when I could get the EXACT SAME SHAFT from Titleist at no additional cost. On top of this, the EXACT SAME GRIP only costs $12 through Titleist. He was unable to give me an explanation, so I promptly said I appreciated his time, but would only be paying for the cost of the fitting and then order the driver directly through Titleist.
The fitting fee for a driver was $175. To get fitted from Golf Galaxy, it costs $79. In hindsight, I should've gone to Golf Galaxy as they have the same trackman data provided by Club Champion. With a little self-directed research, you can learn what to look for in a club head and shaft to optimize things like club head speed, ball speed and spin rate, and effectively guide yourself through your own fitting.
Side note: during the fitting, my fitter was fumbling through just about everything. He had a hard time working the trackman software -- tagging the wrong clubs and unable to show shot dispersion or impact location at certain times. He also fumbled with the equipment, accidentally adding loft and adjusting lie angle when switching heads when I specifically told him at the beginning I wanted everything to stay neutral.