AGN FAQ

How do I sign up?

Getting started with AGN is straightforward:

1. Press the green Register button to create a user account.
2. Log in to your new account.
3. Press the blue My Profile / Subscribe Now button.
4. Select a monthly plan and complete payment through Stripe Checkout or PayPal.
5. Log out and log back in to refresh your user role and permissions.

How should I use AGN data alongside a real fitting?

AGN should be used as a decision tool, not as a replacement for a fitting. It can help you understand likely speed retention, strike sensitivity, launch tendencies, and tradeoffs between clubs, but it does not remove the need to look at real ball flight, dispersion, peak height, descent angle, turf interaction, confidence at address, and the shots you actually need to hit. The best use of AGN is to narrow the field, explain tradeoffs, and make the fitting process more informed.

What do the AGN fit-tool scores actually mean?

The fit-tool scores are best thought of as a structured summary of how well a club appears to fit the launch, carry, stopping power, and consistency goals defined by the selected settings. They are not a universal rating of how "good" a club is. A score can change when the target distance, speed, launch assumptions, or landing-window needs change. The score is useful because it helps compare options inside the same fitting context, but it should not be treated as a standalone buying answer.

What does AGN mean by forgiveness?

In AGN terms, forgiveness is not just a marketing label. It is about how stable the result remains when strike location or delivery moves away from ideal. That can include retained ball speed, launch stability, spin stability, distance consistency, and whether the outcome stays playable. A club can be forgiving in one way and less forgiving in another, which is why two clubs can both be called forgiving while behaving very differently.

Why do AGN results not always match the marketing category of a club?

Marketing categories such as players, players distance, GI, and SGI are broad product labels, not precise performance definitions. AGN is looking at measured or modeled outcomes, not the story on the badge. Some larger or stronger-lofted clubs may produce more speed but less stable outcomes for certain strike patterns. Some more compact clubs may retain enough stability that they outperform expectations. The useful question is not what category a club belongs to, but how it behaves for the strike and delivery pattern being evaluated.

How do I actually decide what clubs to buy using AGN?

Start by using AGN to narrow the list to clubs that appear to suit your strike pattern and performance goals. Then weigh those candidates using the outcomes that matter most for your game: distance consistency, start-line control, green-holding, playable launch, confidence, and feel. Do not make the final decision from one score, one center strike, or one heatmap. The best club is the one that gives you the most playable pattern, not the one that wins a single metric.

How does AGN process shot data, and why not just use the raw numbers?

AGN is designed to measure how consistent a club face is across the face, not just report whatever number the launch monitor happened to show on a single shot.

Even perfect strikes do not all read exactly the same on a launch monitor. Small read errors and normal machine noise can make identical shots look slightly different. If you try to judge face consistency directly from those raw readings, it becomes very hard to tell what was real club performance and what was just noise.

To solve that, AGN uses a large number of shots and applies regression analysis. That lets us estimate the club’s true baseline performance and smooth out random read error. The more quality shots we have, the better that baseline becomes.

Once that baseline is established, AGN looks at how performance changes as impact moves away from center. Because speed loss across the face tends to behave in a very linear way, AGN can estimate how much speed is lost per millimeter of miss location. That gives a much clearer picture of face consistency than looking at raw shot-to-shot numbers.

AGN also removes obvious outliers. If a shot falls well outside the expected error window, it may be a bad read rather than true club performance. Removing those shots improves the estimate.

Another important part of the process is normalization. Raw smash factor is affected not only by strike location, but also by delivery differences such as angle of attack, path, face-to-path, and delivered loft. AGN adjusts for those delivery-related losses and converts the shot into a normalized value called face speed. That helps isolate the club and strike itself from the player’s delivery.

In simple terms, the AGN process is:

1. Collect many shots instead of trusting one or two.
2. Account for normal launch monitor noise.
3. Build a true baseline with regression.
4. Normalize delivery-related smash losses into face speed.
5. Measure how much speed is lost as strike moves across the face.
6. Remove bad outlier reads that do not fit the expected pattern.

The result is a cleaner, more reliable estimate of how consistent a club really is across the face.

Who is AGN most helpful for?

AGN is especially useful for golfers who want help making sense of launch-monitor data, comparing real tradeoffs between club options, and understanding why a club may or may not fit their strike pattern. It is useful for self-fitters, curious golfers, and players working with fitters who want a more structured way to interpret what they are seeing. It does not remove judgment; it helps organize it.

What shafts do you use in testing?

Shafts mainly alter flight by changing delivered loft. Because AGN normalizes the data for delivered loft, those shaft-related delivery differences are accounted for in the process.

In practical terms, that means once the data is normalized, the clubhead and its loft are what matter for the result. Shaft changes do not change the AGN results themselves.

What is delivered loft, and why does it matter?

Delivered loft is the loft the club is actually presenting at impact. It matters because the ball only reacts to the impact conditions you create, not to the number stamped on the sole. Two golfers can swing the same club and deliver very different lofts because of differences in shaft lean, release, hand position, and strike. Delivered loft strongly influences launch, spin, speed conversion, and stopping power.

What is spin loft?

Spin loft is the difference between delivered loft and angle of attack. Put simply, it describes the relationship between how much loft is being delivered and whether the club is moving up or down at impact. Spin loft is important because it helps explain launch, spin generation, and why two swings with similar club speed can produce very different ball flights.

How are delivered loft, shaft lean, and angle of attack related?

They interact, but they are not the same thing. Shaft lean is one reason delivered loft can change, because more forward lean generally reduces loft at impact and more backward lean generally adds it. Angle of attack describes whether the club is moving up or down at impact. Delivered loft and angle of attack together help determine spin loft, which then influences launch and spin behavior. This is why golfers can have similar speed but very different flight windows.

Does angle of attack affect launch angle, or just spin loft?

It affects both, directly or indirectly. A more downward strike often changes the launch window and also changes spin loft, while an upward strike can do the opposite. But angle of attack does not act alone. Delivered loft, strike location, face orientation, and speed all interact with it. That is why launch cannot be explained by AoA alone.

Why can two clubs launch similarly but spin differently?

Because similar launch does not guarantee identical impact conditions. Two clubs can produce similar initial launch while differing in delivered loft, spin loft, strike height, face behavior, ball speed, or contact quality. This is one reason launch alone can be misleading if you are trying to understand why one club stops better or flies differently.

Why does a stronger lofted club not always go farther in the way golfers expect?

A stronger loft can reduce delivered loft and change launch and spin, but distance is still shaped by strike quality, speed retention, flight shape, peak height, and landing angle. If a stronger-lofted club launches too low, spins too little, or becomes harder to strike consistently, the real-world gain may be smaller than expected or may come with tradeoffs that are not worth it.

Why can a slower face sometimes produce more consistent outcomes?

A face that is not chasing maximum rebound at all costs can sometimes produce a more stable speed pattern and more predictable launch or spin behavior across the face. That does not mean slower is always better. It means that max center speed and usable speed retention are not identical concepts. For many golfers, the most playable result comes from balancing peak speed with stability.

What is the difference between stated loft and what the ball actually sees?

Stated loft is the club’s built loft. What the ball sees is the loft delivered at impact. Those can be very different. That gap matters because launch, spin, and height are driven by delivered conditions, not by the static specification sheet. This is one reason why golfers with different deliveries can get very different results from the same clubhead.

What is shaft lean, and is more always better?

Shaft lean is the forward or backward tilt of the shaft at impact relative to its address or neutral condition. More forward shaft lean usually lowers delivered loft and can change launch, spin, and strike dynamics. It is not automatically better. Too little or too much lean can both create problems depending on the shot and the player. The useful question is whether the player is delivering a functional amount of loft and contact for the shot they are trying to hit.

What does it mean when descent angle is too low to hold a green?

It means the ball may be landing too shallow to stop consistently near its pitch point, especially on firmer greens or longer approaches. Raw carry distance by itself is not enough. You also need a landing condition that lets the shot hold. A club or setup that flies a useful number but comes in too flat can look good at first glance while being harder to score with on the course.

Why can a club look good in a fitting bay but not be the best on the course?

Because the range or bay can reward the shot that looks longest or most centered without fully capturing how repeatable the pattern is under pressure, from imperfect lies, or over a wider set of strike locations. The course tests playable misses, green-holding, trajectory windows, and confidence.