Breaking-in or 'seasoning' your new clubs?

Is there such a thing? I was reading through some forum posts on GolfWRX that said there was no such thing, but yet when I got my new clubs I was told that the shafts needed some time to 'break in' to achieve max performance. Trying my new irons at the range I saw quite a large fluctuation in terms of distance (20-30m sometimes) for the same iron -i'm attributing it to poor off centre hits (and more of my own swing inconsistencies) as the current clubs aren't as forgiving as my previous super game improvement irons, but still, was wondering if there is any truth to this breaking-in of clubs. Any comments?

Need a pro fitter's input will be more credible.

For me, I think it's the other way around. With a new  club, it's me who needs to get familiar and comfortable on how to use it. I believe the performance of the equipment is solely based on how it's used. To minimize the transition to new equipment, probably a fitters advice is recommended.

I asked my golf fitter who is building my new set now. He said no such thing.

One fitter at Far East shopping centre also told me that my driver Tour AD shaft after more usage will become more consistent.  

Maybe like all new things "breaking in" or "seasoning" means getting used to its new characteristic of the equip. 
Once u get the hang of it, then u will be able to capitalize on its performance.

Yeah, I guess its us that need the 'breaking-in' rather than the clubs

Not sure you talking about iron or graphite shaft but club fitter told me before the driver shaft will break in after 50 to 100 hits. Maybe more for graphite shaft and yourself to get more comfortable with your new clubs.

Normally when u change to new equipment. U will need time to adjust prob due to change of overall weight of club, swing weight, diff loft or angle/lie.
If you still can't hit after a few rounds, see a fitter to analyze what is need to improve your hit.
Recommended fitters are those who has equipment to determine your impact of each hit.

I had the idea that pros usually get customized clubs made for them 1 or 2 days before a tournament

A Pro Fitter mentioned here once that ONLY graphite shaft needs to "breaking in" something like the car tyres/engine ...

Heard of graphite shaft being "breaking in" before also..

Can anybody give a reason?

Like for Internal combustion automobile engines, when we say break in, the reason is very clear. The chamber block and pistons have burrs/residual/shavings from fresh machining and the initial interactions between the tight tolerances will definitely create more "waste metal" that needs to be flushed out (also why we used to recommend mineral oils for 1st thousand km). So the conventional breaking in calls for the driver to moderately rev the engine for a certain mileage, flush out these impurities, to avoid having them damage the metal moving parts of an engine.

So what is the reason a graphite shaft needs breaking in? 

To me, breaking in should not be confused with the user trying to get used to the new shaft.

Actually when I used brand new driver, I felt that the shaft was boardy. However, after a couple of rounds plus hitting a couple of hundreds of balls at the range, the boardy feeling turned to more towards whippy feel. This is my personal feel ... In Mechanical Engineering context, I believe the shaft has gone beyond certain Elastic Modulus ... Elastic Modulus is a mathematical description of a material's tendency to deform elastically (i.e. in a temporary fashion) when a force is applied on it.

 

Agreed! For shafts, need to season a bit. Imo

Well said bro Turbo, totally agreed with you.
Likewise, I can feel my driver shaft really breaking in after 10 rounds.

Did u realised tat when u re hittg those demo shafts, the feel & feedback re pretty nice correct? And u re able to differentiate which shaft heavier, flexy, firmer, etc.. 
But when you hit your new set w the same shaft tested on very first basket of balls, u re realising some different and it gets better only after many golf balls clocked right! 
So...go figure out why? 

the pro has spoken....