About
A Room Built Around Two Benches
No simulator lounge, no retail floor, no coffee bar. Two work benches, a frequency meter, a loft and lie machine, and enough component stock to answer a question the same afternoon it gets asked.
Studio RecordSince 2009
- Year the first bench went in2009
- Benches on the floor today2
- Sessions the calendar allows per week9
- Bench cards on file4,700+
- Manufacturer sales agreements held0
Where It Started
The Complaint That Would Not Go Away
Before this address there was a repair counter at the back of a driving range on the far side of the Beltline. The work was regripping, reshafting, and the occasional loft adjustment — ordinary bench work for ordinary money.
The same complaint arrived over and over. A golfer would have been fitted somewhere, would have a printout showing a ball speed number they were proud of, and would still be scoring the way they always had. The printout was not lying. It was simply reporting the best swing of the afternoon and ignoring the other thirteen.
Once we started writing down all fourteen instead of one, the shape of the problem became obvious. Golfers were not short of speed. They were leaking it, and the leak had a geometry to it that a bench could address. That was the year the repair counter became a fitting studio.
Why the name
Fitting rooms tend to be named after the instrument in the corner. We named ours after the furniture, because the bench is where the decision actually becomes a golf club. A screen can suggest a spec. Only a bench can cut it, weigh it, and hand it back.
Every finished build leaves with a small brass tag stamped with its bench card number. It is not decoration — it is how we find the file three years later when you want a matching wedge.
House Rules
Four Things We Will Not Do
Most of what makes a fitting honest is a list of things the fitter has agreed in advance not to do. Ours is short enough to hang on the wall, and it does.
We will not quote a single best swing
Peak ball speed is the least repeatable number in the room. Every figure we report is drawn from the whole set of swings, with the spread stated alongside the average. If a change only improves the best strike, it has not improved anything you will use on a Saturday.
We will not sell you a head you already own
Roughly one session in six ends with the head that walked in staying in the bag, rebuilt around a different shaft, length, or lie. We charge the same for that outcome as for any other, which is the only way the recommendation can stay believable.
We will not fit indoors only
Turf behaviour cannot be read off a mat. From April through October, wedge and iron work includes a session on real grass at a course we have an arrangement with, ten minutes east of here. Winter fittings note the limitation on the card and get a spring follow-up at no charge.
We will not hold a brand quota
Components are bought outright from distributors at ordinary trade terms. There is no volume agreement, no co-op marketing money, and no display fixture that arrived on the condition we place a certain number of orders per quarter.
The Building
Monona Drive, Suite 6
A single-storey commercial row between the isthmus and Lake Monona, sharing a parking lot with a print shop and a bicycle repair place. Suite 6 is at the south end with the brass number on the glass.
Inside, the front third is a small waiting area and the component wall. The back two thirds is the shop: two benches, a chop saw and bore-through fixture, the frequency meter, a scale bench, and a bending machine bolted to the concrete. The hitting bay sits along the east wall with the net running the length of the room and a doppler unit on a tripod behind the ball.
It is not a showroom. It smells faintly of epoxy solvent and it is louder than you expect when the saw is running. Golfers who like watching the work tend to enjoy it; golfers hoping for leather chairs are usually happier elsewhere, and we say so on the phone.
Wisconsin Specifics
Fitting For A Season That Changes Its Mind
Southern Wisconsin gives a golfer four distinct sets of playing conditions inside one membership year, and a bag fitted for exactly one of them will feel wrong for the other three.
April fairways here hold water long after the frost line has gone. A sole that works beautifully in that softness will dig on a firm August lie, and a leading edge tuned for August will bounce off the top of a wet May turf and thin the shot. Neither club is wrong. The bag simply has to be built with a wide enough turf window to cover both ends without needing a second set.
Air behaves differently too. A 47°F morning round in October and a humid 85°F afternoon in July are not the same carry problem, and gapping decided in one will misbehave in the other. We set gaps from the cooler condition and let summer air be the bonus rather than the baseline.
What that means on the card
- Wedge grinds chosen for the wet end of the rangeApr–Jun
- Gap yardages set from cool-air carry50–60°F
- Driver spread checked at two tee heightsboth
- Spring re-check for winter-fitted bagsno charge
Come Look At The Room Before You Book
Walk-in visits are welcome during bench hours as long as the saw is not running. Ask for a look at a bench card — we keep a blank one and a finished one on the counter for exactly that reason.