You make it sound like HG's "fitting method" is to fit everyone with longer clubs and that you can't play out of grass with 2" over. Please remember that the HG cart gives options that other manufacturers simply will not do. I have fit many players long and upright, short and flat, short and upright, long and flat, and yes even standard. Whatever it takes to make the student hit the ball better.
I appreciate your knowlege but I think that presenting doubt to someone who is obviously happy with his changed appearance and swing motion is wrong. The player made a point of of referencing his teacher's lineage and its TGM roots so why question the club. Have you seen him swing? Do you know his physical size and/or limitations? Why can't a player play in grass with +2"? Isn't a 5 iron 2 inches longer than a 9 iron?
Just like TGM, HG believes in options. I really wish that "standard" would go away and we could all deal with the real.
I was not referring to the fellow above as having been fitted wrongly at all as his fitter DID know what he was doing. The HG cart is magic options wise and because of it a player gets to TRY so much more than any OEM cart has a chance to offer. Indeed their post purchase service should be second to none product wise for those not getting the intended result.
Sadly fitting down under is very much a bottom rank set of skills with many a player not being fitted for all the variables you mentioned above. Clubs are more about the sales than the playability for the individual player (and I stress this is not a comment on HG fitting there!!!!) .
Having been fitted by Hg in the past my experience was bordering on laughable,yet i was fitted by the no1 or no 2 HG man in this country.
The sad thing is the system i was fitted by is so far behind what a modern club fitter can do with a range of clubs it is laughable.
Do hg own the world rights to sst no plenty of people use them for those who wish to buy the service.
Are hg the only company that cpm shafts and match them before use no.
But then if they were using premium shafts they would not need to after all a number of graphite shaft manufacturers have a plus or minus 1 cpm tolerance on their shafts and they state what the cpm is in manufature ie 245 cpm 250etc etc they have a quality control that Hg have not achieved yet they supposedly analyse all their shafts.
When i get fitted with a reg flex soft tip shaft with a swing over 100 mph and hitting the ball high and a fast transition i know their system is breaking down.
Hg need to get rid of the guys who sell rather than fit clubs.