Monday, May 25, 2009

Your Best Iron Length - Extenders - MAYBE!!

This week I had two clients request some help with their golf clubs in terms of putting "extenders" in the end of their iron shafts. One client purchased a new set of clubs but knew they would not be the right length, and we identified the best length clubs for him. The other client had recently bought a set of clubs and had extenders put in, but they are coming loose - so he has asked me to repair this problem for him.


Extending the length of golf clubs is a fairly easy clubmaking operation to do. We purchase extenders from many club component companies, and there are different size and type extenders for different shaft sizes and shaft types. It is important to determine the right size extender, I would not put a small extender into a shaft and hope that it would epoxy together well. And there are a few "tricks" that I have picked up to make SURE that the extenders will fit snugly into the shafts, and that they will not come loose when they have been epoxied into the present shafts.


As a near term improvement, extenders are a great option for getting golfers into the right length clubs. This is particularly true for a golfer who does not play a lot of golf - say once a month or less.


If you play a LOT of golf, and really care about having clubs that truly fit your game, then you should be aware of the pluses and minuses of extenders. Definitely the plus is that they can help you be playing the right length clubs, and achieving more square impacts with your irons should improve your ballstriking.


Adding extenders will increase the swingweight of the clubs - about 2 to 3 swingweight points for each 1/2 inch of extender. My recommendation would be that if you want to extend your clubs much more than 1/2 inch in length, and you are really serious about your golf, then you should consider the option of playing with lighter shafts or shafts with different balance points so that the longer clubs will not feel too heavy for you. FEEL is a key element for all golfers - your clubs need to feel good to you for you to play well.


Bottom line - playing clubs that are the right length should be a given for any golfer. Using extenders is a great low-cost option for changing the length of your clubs so that they are the right length. In some cases, there may be a change in feel of the clubs that you do not like and if you so you should consider getting a professional clubfitter to help you find the right shafts for your clubs to get you the right length, swingweight/MOI, and shaft flex for your game. And for sure - if you do get extenders put into your clubs - make sure the job is done right; it is no fun to play with clubs that have shafts that twist at the end!!


MORE ON THE CLUBS WHERE EXTENDERS NOT WORKING.... After I finished writing my initial post, I went downstairs and pulled a grip for one of the clubs. Very interesting! Actually, the extender had NOT come apart. But what the person who put on the extender did was to put grip tape over the old grip tape rather than stripping all of the old tape off and starting with a clean shaft.....SO the grip end of the shaft with tape on was not the same diameter as the other part of the shaft....and the grip slipped at the end. In addition, the extender on this club was 2 inches - WAY too much, the swingweight of the gap wedge was E1, very high. Hopefully I have enough ammo to help this player find a better shaft option for him!


Tony

Monday, May 18, 2009

Hybrids - HATE the name, LOVE the performance!!

I was wondering tonight if calling hybrid clubs "Hybrids" puts a negative golf thought in our minds. These clubs in my view provide amazing performance. All golfers of all abilities need to consider having these clubs in their bags......


Many people do not really know why hybrid clubs really came about. I believe they started as a result of what Tom Wishon calls the "vanishing loft disease." If you look at the progression of the loft of a 5 iron over the past 20 or so years, you will see that the lofts of 5 irons get stronger and stronger - so that what is now a 5 iron was probably a 4 iron or even in some cases a 3 iron 20 years ago. Hybrid clubs became a rage because most normal golfers could not hit 3 irons, 4 irons, often 5 irons consistently. Thus clubs (hybrids...) that look a lot like fairway woods but are meant as a substitute for long irons.


I have had two great experiences, and one soon to be anticipated great experience, recently with building hybrids:

1. My best golfing buddy, who I relied on this weekend to make some pretty good cash in our club member member tournament, plays 4 and 5 hybrid clubs that I built for him. Wishon 785 HF heads, SK Fiber Pure Energy shafts. Once we settled on the right shaft flex and swingweight for him, he hit them well right away. What I have been surprised at is that he is now hitting them about 10 yards longer than I thought he could.


2. My other best golfing buddy - me! - also is playing Wishon 785 HF hybrid clubs - in my case the 3 hybrid and 4 hybrid. I have different shafts in them - Wishon GI-335 Tour weight R flex shafts. These shafts have a butt flex stiffer than what you might expect for an "R" flex and they are also tip soft. Since I put these in my bag I have hit them better than any other hybrid I have played - high and long. I hit the 3 hybrid about 190 yards, and have been using the 4 hybrid for shots from 170 to 180 yards. I like them so much that I ordered the head and shaft for building a 5 hybrid that will soon substitute for my present 5 iron.


3. One of my clients has been playing Taylor Made Burner hybrids. He likes the heads, but has not had good consistency with these clubs. They actually had two different shafts in them - one had a steel shaft, the other a graphite shaft. I recently reshafted his new Mizuno irons with Wishon Superlite R flex shafts and he loves the feel and performance of these clubs. So I convinced him that I should reshaft his hybrids with the same shaft. I just finished rebuilding his hybrids to the same shaft flex and club MOI that he liked in his irons. I believe they will have a very similar feel to his irons, and I expect they will provide the same great performance.


Hybrids clubs built to the right specifications for you are a great way to help lower your golf scores. They are the real deal!!


Tony

Monday, May 11, 2009

Lower Scores? - We All Know How!!

I wanted to put a Club Evaluation Form on my site a few months ago, but "day job" goodies and some needed R&R kept me from attending to that. But now this is active, and I encourage you to take a look and complete the form if you wish. I hope that doing this has value for you directly - to perhaps emphasize or re-emphasize those areas of your game where improvements are most likely to produce lower scores.


For me, my golf game for maybe a year is not close to what it had been. Until the past few weeks, and now I am seeing signs of my game coming back. While encouraged by that I also realize what is truly keeping me from shooting scores in the 70s again. Short game and putting. 20 to 50 yard wedge shots, chips around the green, putting. I think in every recent round I can count at least 5 to 6 shots, maybe more, where just a bit of improvement, reduced 3 putts, etc. would have turned an 85 into a 70 or better.


Is it really so hard to improve your short game? While I am sure there are some technique areas that can help, I think some of the following will also make a big difference:

- Wedges that have spin milled faces, so that when you need to you can get the ball to spin and stop. I am amazed how many wedges I have seen from OEM companies that do not have spin milled faces........these are easily available to anyone.

- Wedges that FEEL good.....the right swingweight and the right flex. Particularly, I believe, not too heavy and not too stiff. So that they are easy to swing.

- Putters that truly fit you....so that you do not have to adjust your stroke because the length and lie angle of the putter are incorrect. Often doing this fix for a putter that you like is not more difficult than adjusting the lie angle and or cutting or extending the length of the shaft.

- AND here is one more to think about. Yes, you may get some more yards with a ball that spins less....but does that really produce lower scores? Maybe playing a ball that spins more so that you have more control on short shots is not a bad idea, even if it produces a few yards less in driving distance....


I think of all of the things that players with handicaps in the range of 10 to 25 can do to improve their scores, getting the right scoring clubs in their hands is actually the easiest thing they can do to reduce their scores. And, in fact in the present cost conscious world, also the improvement with the most bang for the buck. So it is worth your golfing time to take a serious look at your scoring clubs and see if there are some simple improvements that you can make to them.


MORE ON TOUR PRO DRIVER LENGTHS.... In the latest Golf Magazine, it notes that the driver Geoff Ogilvy uses is 44-1/2 inches long. He hits it 290 yards......

BUT in the interest of full disclosure! - In the recent Golf Digest it says that Ernie Els uses a 45-1/2 inch driver. This is the first tour pro driver I have reported that is over 45 inches - but I think so far this is one out of five or six that I have reported.


Tony

Monday, May 4, 2009

Tiger's Driver Shaft.......BMT Driver Shaft Fitting?

I did not watch a lot of the tournament this weekend, but did hear on Thursday or Friday that Tiger was playing a new shaft in his driver, and then on Sunday (and today also) that he is going back to the shaft he was using previously.


I highly suspect that Tiger has intimate knowledge of the shaft flex profile in his driver shaft.....at least I hope so. I know from my relationships with AGCP clubfitters that shaft flex profile is a key variable in finding the right shaft for a player. Jerry Hoefling Sr., one of the AGCP Master clubfitters, developed an excellent system for fitting driver shafts based on their shaft flex profile in the butt, mid, and tip end of shafts - called the BMT fitting system.


This system is based on the theory - proven to work pretty well by experience of a number of clubfitters - that a player's swing speed, swing tempo, and release point - where he releases his wrist cock in the downswing - can be used to determine an appropriate shaft for that player. We have a database of measured shaft flex profiles based on 7 flex measurements along the length of a shaft. Jerry developed a system to correlate this profile to butt, mid, and tip shaft stiffnesses - and then relating these stiffnesses to a player's swing characteristics. Particularly for late releasers - players who hold their wrist cock until JUST before the ball - shaft tip stiffness is a key to identifying a shaft that will produce a minimum dispersion of drives for a player.


Measurement of the three key parameters is not too difficult - a launch monitor or swing speed meter can be used to measure swing speed, tempo timer to measure swing tempo, and review of video of a swing to determine where the player releases the club. The most difficult measurement to determine well, in my view, is the release point.....and with the right camera this is not too difficult to get either.


So Tiger.....all the best at the Players Championship this week. I suspect that going back to his normal shaft will produce better driving results for him.......but I have to admit I would LOVE to know the exact specs on the driver shaft he is using!! And I also know that there is no way these specs will be common knowledge.......


REMINDER........I will be at Centenial Golf Course on Wednesday from 3 to 7 pm - along with Bridgestone Golf and some OEM companies - and if you are I will provide you with some Launch Monitor measurements of your driving characteristics. And if there is time, I will interpret some of this data in terms of what could help you improve your driving distance. Perhaps I will see you then (assuming no rain!!).


Tony