There may be quite a lot of cool gear within the golf gear world that doesn’t at all times match neatly into Most Needed Exams or Purchaser’s Guides. You continue to need to know the way it performs. In our We Tried It collection, we put gear to the check and allow you to know if it really works as marketed.
What We Tried
Fairway Jockey—A web-based choice for golfers who need custom-built gear however like the choice to order off-menu.
Product Skilled
Chris Nickel. I’m a tinkerer by nature. I wish to construct issues, break them aside after which construct them once more. Golf golf equipment, steak fajitas … actually something goes. Past that, I’ve a penchant for lesser-known, and infrequently hard-to-find, gear manufacturers.
A Phrase About Fairway Jockey
Golfers have numerous choices with regards to buying new gear. Massive-box retailers (Golf Galaxy, PGA TOUR Superstore, DICK’S), native green-grass accounts and DTC (direct-to-consumer) choices every have clear advantages with few drawbacks. The first upside is comfort however the fee for that’s usually a one-size-fits-most number of product. Some areas supply becoming providers, the standard of which frequently varies greater than the wait time on the native DMV.
Extra discerning shoppers would possibly work with an area mother and pop fitter or at a brand-sponsored demo day.
Firms like TrueSpec, Membership Champion and TXG supply soup-to-nuts, in-person becoming, and custom-building providers. Wanting alternatives afforded to elite professionals, that is what most would contemplate the most suitable choice for golfers who’re prepared to pay a premium for custom-fit gear constructed to tour-level specs.
However what concerning the golfer who is aware of what she or he desires and simply wants somebody to construct it?
Enter Fairway Jockey. In response to the corporate, it has the most important number of premium aftermarket merchandise on the planet. Past that, its greater brother, True Spec, has the back-end success and construct a store that permits Fairway Jockey such a sturdy menu of choices.
Put otherwise, Fairway Jockey is for the golfer who has the measurements and simply wants the tailor.
Fairway Jockey Ordering Course of
It’s easy. The web site is about as much as facilitate a clear, easy course of. It’s nicely organized and took me all of 4 minutes and 28 seconds to construct and order a {custom} set of irons. It’s not fairly Amazon Prime fast nevertheless it’s no extra concerned than ordering takeout from Qdoba.
Furthermore, when you have a request that isn’t a part of the usual kind (i.e., additional wraps beneath solely the underside hand of a midsize grip), it’s straightforward sufficient so as to add beneath the “Product Notes” part. To not belabor the purpose, however even a card-carrying Luddite might navigate the method with none missteps.
That is additionally the place Fairway Jockey’s telephone session/becoming choice performs a job. To be clear, it’s extra of a session than a becoming. Except you might have significant club-specific knowledge (swing pace, launch, spin, path), there’s solely a lot the particular person on the opposite finish of the road can do. Like former IBM programmer George Fueschel mentioned, “Rubbish in, rubbish out.”
My recommendation can be to current both loads of knowledge or particular setups (membership, shaft, flex, size) which have labored nicely beforehand. That manner the fitter may help discover potential choices that is perhaps useful. In my case, I had the whole lot found out except the shaft. Due to my Zorro-esque transition and tempo, I would like a shaft with a stiff butt part. Usually, Dynamic Gold X100 (130 grams) or the marginally lighter Dynamic Gold 120 X100 yield pretty optimum outcomes for me. My query was, “Is there anything within the 120-gram vary you would possibly counsel?” After some extra dialogue, we landed on Nippon Modus 120X. For the file, Tony Finau makes use of the identical shaft, albeit mine is one flex softer.
And The Outcomes …
A few weeks after putting my order, the 48″x6″x6″ field that all of us like to see on the porch, arrived. However earlier than that, I used to be routinely up to date on the construct course of and supply schedule. By the way, Fairway Jockey does have a dwell cam of the construct store, although they could need to replace the estimated turnaround time which nonetheless refers to April 2022.
Fairway Jockey guarantees to construct your golf equipment to “tour-level” spec tolerances. That’s positive however, absent quantifiable metrics, it’s a nebulous speaking level. To that finish, Fairway Jockey defines “tour -level specs as:
- Size inside 1/16”
- Loft and lie inside +/- 0.5 diploma
- CPM inside +/- 2
- Swingweight inside +/- half level
Within the remaining evaluation, shoppers need to know whether or not any good or service met the acknowledged expectations. We are able to argue whether or not some tolerances must be tighter—personally, I’d wish to see swing weight nearer than +/- one-half level. If the goal swing weight is D2, meaning your 7-iron may very well be as heavy as D2.5 and your 8-iron as mild as D1.5. Technically, it meets the acknowledged tolerance which remains to be a lot better than normal manufacturing tolerances.
However sooner or later, it’s cheap to think about whether or not a minuscule distinction in spec tolerance has any impression on efficiency. It’s a distinction with none actual distinction.
I measured my set utilizing a Mitchell ruler and Mitchell loft/lie machine. As well as, I used a GolfWorks swingweight scale to evaluate each swingweight and complete weight. I additionally measured CPM with out the grips put in utilizing a five-inch butt clamp.
Fairway Jockey Construct Rating
Size 10/10: I really eliminated the grips to see precisely what the minimize size was, provided that the cap measurement on every grip can fluctuate barely. Every iron was nicely inside the 1/16” goal and to the bare eye, it was spot on.
Loft/Lie 9/10: The one purpose I knocked this down some extent was a few the golf equipment deviated by greater than the acknowledged tolerance on my machine. The first upside with loft/lie is {that a}) it’s tremendous straightforward to repair and b) you need to test it a minimum of twice a 12 months when you have gentle, cast irons. So no biggie.
Swingweight 9/10: Utilizing my analog scale, I discovered that a number of golf equipment exceeded the +/- half level tolerance by roughly an extra half level. That mentioned, and not using a digital scale, I’d counsel that my measurements have been inside an anticipated error vary.
CPM 9/10: First off, 2 CPM is roughly ⅕ of a flex. So, once more, if one iron is +2 CPM from goal and the following is -2 CPM from goal, that’s practically ½ of a flex. It’d sound like I’m nitpicking however, given the capabilities of high-end construct outlets, that is the one spec that I’d need to see as near good as doable. Some will contend that +/- 2 CPM in all fairness good. And if that have been the whole CPM vary all through a set of irons, I’d agree.
Whole 37/40: That’s stable work and I are typically a bit powerful to please. By any measure, it’s a rating that ought to give golfers loads of confidence in what Fairway Jockey gives. Put otherwise, I’d suggest Fairway Jockey’s providers with none reservation.
Let’s Discuss Worth
Fairway Jockey guarantees the “lowest aftermarket retail costs” Once more, given the variability in aftermarket pricing, absent clear boundaries, it would depart some would-be shoppers guessing. Primarily based on my fast comparability procuring, Fairway Jockey is available in roughly 15 p.c lower than rivals. Fairway Jockey does supply inline retail product as nicely. I solely point out this as a result of when you construct a {custom} set of golf equipment utilizing elements that the producer gives at no-upcharge, it will possibly seem as if Fairway Jockey overcharges for a similar piece of apparatus which you can order immediately from the corporate or a big-box retailer.
To make clear, Fairway Jockey gives the identical retail pricing on inventory golf equipment as some other retail outlet. However that isn’t the actual directive behind the model.
Last Ideas
For the correct golfer, Fairway Jockey presents a transparent profit. That golfer is the tinkerer who has a transparent image of what he/she desires. It’s for the participant who’s prepared to pay a bit of additional to have the ability to get precisely what they need, significantly when the producer doesn’t supply the specified mixture of elements.
Past that, it’s honest to remember that some specs are straightforward to change whereas others aren’t. Firms like Miura, Mizuno, Proto Idea and Titleist supply heads in a number of weights which makes it simpler for builders to hit goal swingweights and CPM requests. Shaft manufacturers similar to Nippon (and the tour-issued model of True Mood shafts) have strict manufacturing tolerances as nicely.
A few of you is perhaps questioning whether or not Fairway Jockey cannibalizes some portion of potential True Spec gross sales. It does. However the greater image is, nicely, the larger image. A sure share of golfers who’re fitted by boutique manufacturers (Membership Champion, TXG, TrueSpec) don’t in the end buy from that location.
So the place do these golfers go? The reply is the impetus and marketing strategy for Fairway Jockey.
As at all times, inform us what you suppose.
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