One Bay, One Bench, One Golfer at a Time
Strike Lab Golf occupies a unit on Kraft Avenue with a hitting bay at one end and a repair bench at the other. That is the entire operation, and it is deliberate.
A Repair Bench That Grew a Hitting Bay
The business opened in 2015 as a repair operation. Regrips, reshafts, ferrules, the occasional loft and lie job for a local club professional who did not want to buy a machine. There was no fitting bay for the first two years and no plan to build one.
What changed the direction was a pattern in the work. Golfers kept dropping off clubs for repair, and while the clubs were on the bench we would measure them out of habit. Set after set came back wrong — lie angles well off, lofts inconsistent, lengths that had clearly never been considered. These were golfers who had bought good equipment and had no idea it was not set up for them.
Telling them was awkward, because we had nowhere to prove it. So we knocked out a wall, put in a net, a mat, and a strip of turf, and started reading impact patterns before handing clubs back.
That is still how the place works. The bench came first and the fitting bay exists to support it, which is the opposite of how most fitting studios are arranged.
Four Rules We Do Not Bend
Geometry before components
Length, lie, and loft get corrected before any new head or shaft is discussed. Comparing components on top of bad geometry produces a conclusion that will not survive contact with a golf course.
The measurement is written down
Every number we take goes on a card, and a copy stays in our file. Nothing about your set exists only in a technician's memory.
No club is sold to fill a quota
We hold no exclusive agreements. If a session concludes that your existing set is fine, that is what we tell you, and we charge for the session rather than inventing a reason to sell.
One golfer in the bay at a time
No overlapping appointments, no queue behind you, no technician splitting attention across two bays. Four sessions a day, maximum, and each one gets its full time.
What Is Actually in the Building
The Bay
A single hitting bay with a hitting strip that shows turf entry clearly, an adjustable mat, and a launch monitor mounted behind the strike zone. The lie board sits beside the mat so a reading and a correction happen a few steps apart.
There is a chair, a small table, and a wall where we pin the day's impact readings. It is not a showroom and it is not trying to be.
Bay equipment
- Turf strip for entry-point reading
- Adjustable hitting mat
- Launch monitor with dispersion capture
- Lie board and sole tape station
- Indoor putting roll strip
The Bench
Two working benches with a shaft puller, a frequency analyser, a swingweight scale, two loft and lie machines, and a grip station with a proper solvent trap. Ferrules are turned to fit on a small lathe rather than being forced onto a hosel and hoped for.
This is where about a third of each week's work happens, and it is why the tune-up programme exists at all.
Bench equipment
- Hydraulic and heat-based shaft pullers
- Frequency analyser for set matching
- Swingweight and total-weight scales
- Loft and lie machines for forged and cast
- Ferrule lathe and finishing station
Southeast Grand Rapids
Kraft Avenue SE, a short drive from the 96 interchange, with parking directly outside the unit door. Most of our clients come from Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Ada, and Cascade.
West Michigan gives us a specific set of conditions to fit for. The season is short and intense, the turf runs soft through spring and firm by August, and a large share of practice happens on mats rather than grass. All three affect what we recommend.
Mat practice in particular changes how quickly equipment wears. Grips harden faster, grooves round off sooner, and lie angles drift more than they would for a golfer playing exclusively on grass. Our service intervals are set with that in mind rather than borrowed from a warmer climate.
Winter is our busiest bench period. Between November and March most of the work is service and rebuilds, which is a good time to bring a bag in without missing playing days.
Come Look at the Bench
Drop in during posted hours if you want to see the place before booking anything. There is nothing to tour and nobody will follow you around, but you are welcome.