How to find out if you need new golf clubs

The E in the acronym at the end of GolfTEC stands for equipment (the T represents technique, the C conditioning), and at that it probably stands for equipment ill-suited for your game.

GolfTEC, recently named to Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Best Clubfitters, has launched Set Analysis, a comprehensive evaluation of your equipment and whether it's right for you. Set Analysis is available at any of the 140 GolfTEC Improvement Centers around the country, at an introductory cost of $49.

The company surved more than 6,000 of its clients, 70 percent of whom thought their equipment was suitable for their game. It also surveyed its coaches, who revealed that a like percentage of their clients would benefit from equipment changes.

"We thought, 'wow, there's a need for a product,'" said Emily Aldredge, digital marketing specialist for GolfTEC.

Doug Rikkers, director of clubfitting and merchandise, said a Set Analysis takes 30 minutes.

"It's a fairly simple process," he said. "We have you come in and we go through your entire set of golf clubs. We're looking for any issues that have a problem, be it shaft flex, loft, lie angle, length, gaps in yardage. We even measure the putter length to see if that's appropriate based on how tall you are.

"We go through and input info for each of your clubs. We developed an alogorith and our system automatically creates red flags for any potential opportunies."

Set Analysis also will help identify whether the technology reflected in golfers' bags might be obsolete and in need of an upgrade.

"We recommend golfers should have their bags looked at every three years, just because improvement in technology changes so fast," Aldredge said.

-- John Strege