Squaring Putter Grips - The Next "Level!"

When I was with Dana Upshaw a few weeks ago, I got to see his setup for putting on putter grips perfectly square - making the flat portion of the grip perpendicular to the face of the putter. When grips are not square, you are "adjusting" your hands to make the face look square to your line, and this kind of adjustment is likely to make it more difficult to putt to your capabilities.

This evening I returned from our annual golf trip to Florida, with 14 of the best golf buddies a person can have. Before going on the trip, I took a closer look at my putter grip, and realized that it was not "quite" square and so I installed a new grip. I used an electronic leveling device to help me square the grip, and am sure it is much better than it was. I could feel it being easier to square the face when I placed the putter on the ground.

While on the trip, I looked at a few of my friend's putter grips, and all were not on square. This is probably more prevalent that most people think, it is not a trivial matter to get a grip on square. One is not likely to be able to do this by eyeballing the grip installation.

When I returned home this evening, a package from Golfsmith was here and it had the Putter Alignment Jig that they sell. Pretty slick, based on using a laser that projects a vertical line and you put the jig on the putter flat surface and work the grip until it is square. Dana did some additional mods to this to make it work even better, and I plan to do so sometime soon.

Getting your putter grip checked for alignment is well worth the time!!

Tony

Do You REALLY Know Your Driver Loft?

This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend a day and a half with Dana Upshaw, Dana Golf in Warner Robins, GA. Dana is acknowledged as one of the premier clubfitters in the world, and I did all I could to soak up as much knowledge as possible from him.

One of the things that I watched him doing during a fitting was to measure the loft of the driver for the player he was fitting. Pretty standard stuff, but also pretty important to understanding club performance. He has been collecting data on real versus marked driver lofts for awhile now, and most often the true measured loft of the club is not what is marked on it - sometimes by a few degrees.

This matters because - for example - you might really be playing a driver with either too much or too little loft. This happened on Friday, when the player Dana was fitting wondered why he was hitting his driver too high - and Dana found out that the loft of the driver was a few degrees more than expected.

I started a similar effort tonight, to start collecting data on driver lofts. For my first opportunity I measured the loft of what was supposed to be a 9.5 degree driver, and found it to be 11 degrees. More data on this effort will be reported in the future!

Tony

Turning Down Business ??

Today I talked with a potential new client, actually someone who lives within a mile from my house.

I mentioned to him that I will be spending some time soon with Dana Upshaw, one of the best 2 or 3 clubfitters in the world (my opinion....) - he offered to let me come to his shop and learn as much as I can from him about how he does clubfitting and club building.

So I asked if this new client wanted me to work with him before I visit Dana - and he said "why would I do that, why not wait until you learn more?" I realized - I never thought of that - and it made great sense!!

Part of the fun and excitement of clubfitting is the opportunity to continue to learn new ways of doing things better. Most weeks there are at least 2 or 3 new things I learn from the AGCP web forum, and each time it is a pleasure to learn from the best.

Tony

A Great Start!!

This past weekend I met with a husband and wife - he is interested in perhaps a new 3 and 5 wood and she has never played and is interested in starting.

Helping new players get into the game is a lot of fun. Not having a lot of experiences with the best way to set up a set for new players (though I had some ideas that proved pretty close), I posted a question on the AGCP forum, and got some great suggestions from Keith Chatham from Texas. Most of the folks that Keith works with are female players and somewhat older folks, and he has lots of experience developing sets that can help players get the most fun from their golf.

So the approach that will be taken for this player is the following:

1. First, I built here a 6 iron - very soft flex, very light swingweight - that she can use to start hitting some golf balls and particularly to take some lessons (from Des Mahoney, my partner) so that she can get a good start with her swing.

2. Second, I found a good 15 degree driver option and 20 degree fairway wood option. These will be built with, again, lightweight shafts, soft flex, and light swinweight. Easy to swing.

3. Finally, based on help from Keith, I will build her some hybrid irons - 5, 7, 9, PW - and a 56 degree sand wedge - so that she has the basic clubs for her bag. Same thing - light swingweight and soft flex. If she decides she needs the clubs in between these, they can be built later. The option that Keith recommended is the Kent Sports RM-5 hybrid heads.

4. Finally, will fit her for a putter, which I believe will be in the 31 to 32 inch length when fitting complete. For this short length need heavier head and I found one that will work.

Success for this player will be for her to get a great start with golf, hit a number and hopefully lots of good shots, and keep playing!!

Tony