Monday, May 24, 2010

Protecting Your Clubs - And a Great Article!

Tonight I thought I would pass on some advice on making sure your clubs can be kept in good condition. In the summer months particularly, you should not leave your golf clubs in your car trunk. You may not think that temperatures can get high enough in your trunk to affect your clubs but - especially in the hot days in the south - temperatures can get well into the 200 degree levels, and this is hot enough for some epoxies to fail. I know of a recent experience of this happening from a post from another clubfitter. Even without failures directly from heat, you run the risk with steel shafted clubs of the combination of heat and humidity causing rust inside the shafts. Last year I reshafted a set of irons for a client due to rust in the shafts. Better safe than sorry - keep those clubs out of your trunk!


I also wanted to pass on an article from clubfitter who has done some recent great writing - J. Lynn Griffin, owner of The Golf Stop in Columbia, South Carolina. This article is right on the money related to fitting of the right driver and fairway wood lofts, shaft flexes, and substitutes of hybrids for irons. I hope that reading this will provide some of you with food for thought about the makeup of the clubs you play.

Here is the web address for the article:

http://www.peakperformancegolfswing.com/fairway-woods-hybrids/


Tony

Monday, May 17, 2010

Great Putting - Some Thoughts

I thought I would share a few putting tidbits tonight - at least some things that have resonated well with me lately.


First, today I received an email noting that Yes Golf (maker of a well know putter that is being used by a number of touring pros) are offering a free DVD on the key elements of great putting. I am not sure how long these will be available, but if you read this note you might want to go to www.yesgolf.com and see if you can order one. No cost for this, I think all they are interested in would be getting your email address.


Putting is more of interest to me today than normal, because yesterday I had the best putting day I have EVER had. I played our club Member-Member tournament with my best golf buddy (as usual) this weekend. The second day of the event is always 9 holes scramble 9 holes alternate shot - we shot 1 over par which is pretty good for this format, and we won the overall event in our flight. As to my putting, I think I made 3 long putts and at least 4 putts in the 5 to 6 foot range. I attribute this to a number of connected things....

1. I believe my putter fits me perfectly. Right length and lie angle. I have an "Opti Vibe" weight down the shaft and this optimizes the feel of the putter for me.

2. A few months ago I read what I think is the best book on putting I have ever read - Dave Stockton's "Putt to Win." I particularly like his thought to pick a very specific target to roll the ball over.

3. Finally, confidence which has been building for the past few rounds. I feel like my setup has been great and I have a chance to make ever long putt I am looking at.


I hope some of the info. in this post might be helpful to you in your efforts to drain lots of putts!


Tony

Monday, May 10, 2010

Golftek V Swing Analyzer - 10 Swings For You!

I have been working for about a month to get my newest piece of equipment working - a Golftek V Swing Analyzer. This Saturday I put it through some final testing paces and it works well - and I can now use it for some neat measurments to improve future fittings.


This Golftek V - using an array of sensors - can measure club swing path and club face angle at impact. It can also measure swing speed and ball speed and a few other parameters.


The reason I purchased this was to be able to make quality measurements of club swing path and club face angle at impact. Now in my fittings I will be able to see the impact of changing things like MOI/swingweight and club shaft weight on these - and so be able to do more detailed and effective fitting to improve player ball striking.


For the next few weeks, if anyone who reads this post is interested in hitting about 10 shots with the Golftek - perhaps drivers and 6 irons - and seeing some data on their swing path and face angle at impact - let me know and I will arrange a time to get together with you to do this. I will not be at Centenial this Saturday (playing in local golf tournament) but can arrange another time to allow you to get your "10 swings" in and see what the results are!


Tony

Monday, May 3, 2010

Testimonials - Gotta Love Them!

I was fortunate that two of my clients recently wrote great testimonials on the clubs I built for them. For me, this is like extra pay - it is great to have someone say that they really love what you do for them.


What got me thinking a bit more about these lately is that I know there are a lot of the major club companies who are advertising that they do "clubfitting" at demo days. And to be truthful, most of these folks now have some very sophisticated equipment that they can use - particularly TrackMan launch monitors, the cadillac of the launch monitor.


I wondered though - do you think any of the folks who have been fitted at these demo days write a testimonial on the quality of the work and the results? Maybe some do, but I would be surprised if this is the case. Can a truly professional fitting be done in a case where most likely something like 40 to 50 people hit some clubs and get some launch monitor specs?


When I and other AGCP professional clubfitters do a fitting, it takes at least 1-1/2 hours of testing. Then in almost all cases I build a test club and we do some final testing and mods to ensure that the fit is REALLY the fit. Finally (as I started tonight for a client) I build the clubs to as close as possible to the exact specs that I measured in the fitting. To do this takes time and attention to detail.


Is this worth it in the final analysis? Well, I think that the testimonials on my web site from clients speak for themselves. And it is a blast to know that someone is playing a lot better golf using the clubs I built for them.


Tony