Sensing my current set of irons wasn’t quite helping milk the most out of my swing, I visited the brand-new Club Champion fitting center in Newport Beach this week. This fast-growing, Chicago-based independent clubfitting chain employs well-educated PGA Pros and fitters armed with 35,000 club-and-shaft combinations and tons of state-of-the-art technology, to help find the perfect clubs for your game. Best of all, they’re not biased toward any brand. And they stock every label’s latest models.

My pro, Jordan King Thomas, had me swing my own irons to start, measuring all pertinent data on a launch monitor. He instantly recognized a glaring error in my irons — that the shafts were too short for me. He also suspected I needed a softer-flex shaft, as well as a clubhead that generates less spin. Through a process of scientific trial-and-error — with detailed measurements of every swing — he quickly zeroed in on a shaft and clubhead much better suited to me. To my surprise, the combination gained me 15 yards with a much better ball flight. The studio guarantees that will translate to the course. For kicks, we gauged my current driver against some newer models but ultimately agreed that mine was as well-suited as any on the market. Club Champion is soon opening its second Southern California location in Del Mar.