By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Golfers who want the perfect swing — and clubs — now have a place to go in Westport. 

Club Champion, an international company with headquarters in Chicago, recently opened its 100^th shop at 427 Post Road East.

Staffed by “fitters” who have taken a month-long training course and are avid golfers and experts themselves, Club Champion’s motto is, “Better fit … lower scores.”

Zach Bennardo, 37, one of the fitters at the Westport shop, has been hanging out at golf courses since he was a kid. He started by working at a driving range while in high school; was on the golf team in Miami at Johnson and Wales University, and has worked as a pro and assistant pro at several Florida clubs and in Connecticut at the Country Club of Fairfield and Shorehaven Golf Club in Norwalk.

He also worked for two years at TaylorMade, a manufacturer of golf clubs and equipment.

Golf isn’t an easy sport to play, he said, and that’s part of the fun. 

“When a good athlete plays golf,” the challenge of playing well “humbles him,” he said.

Club Champion was founded by Nick Sherburne in 2010, and has been evolving since then, Sherburne said from the company’s corporate headquarters in Willowbrook, Ill. The business targeted 20 or 30 markets in highly populated areas at first, but soon learned that smaller markets also can be profitable, he said.

“We started figuring out that the thirst for custom golf equipment was not just in [that] market.” It’s not whether the population “is bigger or smaller — it’s what is the ratio of golfers is.”

The company chose to open a store in Westport store because the town and the surrounding area have a large number of golfers, Sherburne said. 

And the Westport store, which opened May 20, has gotten off to a nice start, he said, just as a new golfing season gets underway. The company’s only other Connecticut shop is in Hartford.

Sherburne explained that when golfers make an appointment for a full bag fitting, they can expect to spend three and a half hours with a golf expert. 

First, the golfer and the Club Champion fitter get to know each other — where the customer plays golf, what kind of equipment he or she uses. “It’s one-on-one personal experience with seasoned professionals,” he said. 

Then the fitter examines the customer’s clubs and other equipment, one by one, and helps the customer decide what they need. “We figure out what’s going on with your clubs now,” he said. 

The cost of a fitting can range from $400 for a full bag fitting to $100 for a one-hour wedge fitting.

“We carry all the brands,” Sherburne said of the store’s inventory. “If you don’t get the clubs that match the fitting you are not going to get the performance … We are excited to get the word out there so they are seeing what a difference a good fitting can make.”

Club Champion, 427 Post Road East; hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed Sunday. For more information or to make an appointment, call 888-340-7820.