Expanding Test Clubs - Easy to Justify!

With one week end to go until the boss (!) gets home, I have made lots of progress in improving my overall group of test clubs for fitting.


This week I am about to finish seven new driver test shafts..............two at 45 inch length (about the max length that I usually fit some one in) and five at 44 inches - varied weights from 55 grams up to a steel wood shaft weighing 105 grams. Now I will able to truly test for the influence of shaft weight on club path - remembering how weight affects path due to the "nine ball flight laws."


And later this week I will finish building a set of six 85 gram graphite shafts (range of butt flexes) so will now have iron shaft weights from about 60 grams (graphite) all the way up to over 120 to 130 grams raw shaft weight (steel). SK Fiber, Aerotech, FST, Wishon, and KBS shafts.


A really neat new addition (I love to add new shafts to my test club set!) are some SK Fiber lightweight graphite test shafts in a range of flexes, with overall 6 iron test club length of a little over 40 inches. These were built to be able to fit a 6 foot 9 inch golfer. We did an initial fitting this past weekend, and we found that he needs his shafts to be just a bit softer than the test clubs I had. So I am building two additional test shafts this weekend, and am sure that these will lead to the right fit and better iron distance for this player.


Bottom line - having a full range of test shafts and test heads is the only way to really do fittings that lead to improved ball striking, distance, and confidence.


Tony

Back At It - Adding New Iron Fitting Shafts

After an enjoyable but VERY hot weekend playing in our annual Member Guest tournament, I have a few iron fittings coming up in the next few weeks.


I presently have graphite and steel iron fitting shafts, in raw weights of about 60 and 70 grams in graphite, and 90 - 100 and 120 - 130 grams in steel. There is a hole between the graphite and steel shafts that I am starting to fill in this week.


I ordered six Aerotech i80 Steelfiber shafts - these combine steel and graphite fibers into one shaft - raw weights of about 85 grams. I will build these to different butt frequencies - 5 cpm apart. The Steelfiber shafts are a high quality shaft presently being used on the PGA tour by at least one prominent player. Many of my clubfitting friends strongly endorse this shaft, and I look forward to having these as a option for future club fittings.


What has pushed me to add this group of shafts is the fact that it is hard to predict what shaft weight and shaft feel will produce the best results for players. So it is important to test a number of options to be sure that all reasonable possibilities are covered to find the best fit for players. I never thought, for example, that 70 gram graphite SK Fiber shafts would be a good fit for me because I still swing the club pretty agressively - but I love the feel of these shafts and all I have to do is swing smoothly to get good results.


It is pretty difficult to have "too many" iron test fitting shafts - which is good news for customers!


Tony