Designated Drivers

Custom clubfitting can be intoxicating. You start with a clear head, take some shots, and end up a little light-headed—with the ideal driver in your hands.

- Alan Shipnuck

I KNEW I’D gone too far when I showed up at Bayonet Golf Course and every golfer there was giving me side eye. I guess folks aren’t used to seeing a dude carrying a bag stuffed with nine drivers and their colorful head covers. But in the search for the perfect driver, you gotta go big. I had borrowed most of the clubs from Golf Mart, my local house of worship, in Seaside, Calif. Waiting for me on the range was a TrackMan and an even more finely calibrated piece of equipment: Joe Kwok’s brain.

Kwok is a San Francisco–based club fitter with a cult following on GolfWRX. He has a mystical, Mr. Miyagi–like way of imparting wisdom. Fanned out in front of him today were a wide selection of shafts to experiment with. Gulp. I couldn’t remember the last time I hit a full bucket of balls. Suddenly I was wishing for a golf variant of Viagra.

We began by establishing a baseline with my gamer, a first-gen TaylorMade SLDR. It’s so old that part of its sole is missing, which Kwok found hilarious: “It probably changes things by two swingweights!”