Driver Fitting Basics......

There is presently a lot of buzz about some new driver heads that have weights about 25 grams or so lighter than present "conventional" driver heads. These are being promoted to produce more clubhead speed and more distance with the driver. One of the ads I saw for a light driver suggested it would be best to play with a 47.5 inch shaft. This is more than 1.5 inches longer than present driver shafts that you can purchase in stores, and this recommendation is being made so that the club swingweight will be heavy enough so that you can feel the clubhead.

While I am not convinced that lightweight drivers are a good option for most players, here are some basics that you might want to consider when you purchase your next driver - hopefully from a precision clubfitter:

1. The key fitting elements that affect the performance of a driver are the club length, shaft flex and flex profile, club swingweight/MOI - AND how you swing the driver (more on that later).

2. For any player of any level of skill, the maximum performance you will get from a driver in terms of Carry Distance is 2.5 times your swing speed. So if you have a swing speed of 100 mph, the maximum carry you will achieve will be 250 yards. No matter what anyone tells you, with whatever head and shaft combination you use, you will not carry the ball further than this. And this is with perfect contact on the sweet spot of the clubhead.

3. For players of swing speeds of 70 mph or lower, the 2.5 factor is more like 2.2. So for a player with a 70 mph swing speed, the most he will be able to carry his drives is about 154 yards. Again, with best contact on the sweet spot.

4. Contact with the sweet spot of the driver is king! So if you can find a club length, shaft, and swingweight/MOI combination that promotes the most consistent contact on the sweet spot, you will have the best opportunity to maximize carry distance.

5. For slower swing speeds, drivers with higher lofts can help to provide maximum carry distance.

6. Now beyond carry distance to total distance - roll out of the drive is influenced by ball speed, launch angle, and ball spin. The shaft can have some influence on ball spin, but most likely your technique will have a major influence on your ball spin. The ball you play with can also have an influence.

7. If you decide to have a fitting done for your driver, a key parameter that is measured as part of the fitting is the Power Transfer Ratio - PTR - which is the ratio of the ball speed divided by your swing speed. For drivers option PTR is about 1.48, and if your measured PTR is much below this you are not achieving optimum conditions with the driver you are testing.

8. Finally, of you do decide to hit some very long drivers with lengths in the range of 47-1/2 inches, if at all possible do some test with impact labels. If you see you are consistently hitting this driver in the center of the face great. But if not most likely this club is too long for you.

Happy driving!

Tony

Feel Is The Real Deal!

Finding the right golf club characteristics for a player is often as much a matter of the right Feel of the club as it is getting specific values of flex and MOI/swingweight for the player. The "numbers" may sometimes not be as important as putting a club in a player's hands that simply FEELS right.


In a driver fitting this weekend, we determined that the player needed a shaft that was quite a bit softer in flex than what he was playing. Also shorter in length than he was playing. And pretty high loft, about 15 degrees.


But then it got interesting. With the club that was the best first-level flex and length, we started adding weight to the clubhead to see how if affected how the club felt and how he could release the clubhead at impact. We got to a certain added head weight and he said "that feels really good."


We added 2 grams more weight - he could not close the clubhead as easily. I was looking to make some other changes to the feel of the clubhead, but he absolutely did NOT want anything but the one that "really feels good."


No doubt in my mind after that feedback that that club was the right one to build. Built it tonight to exactly the specs of the test club and hopefully the snow will stop enough soon so that he can get to hit it.


I am always a bit amazed at how players can hit on a club that is Absolutely the best feel for them, and how this is certainly the club that is the best fit. To me player feedback is at the same level of importance as that from launch monitors, impact labels, and precision test clubs.


Tony

Are There "Magic Clubs?"

I have been playing with 3, 4, and 5 hybrids in my bag for the past year or so. But this past week I decided I wanted to see how a 7 wood would play and if it would feel easier to hit than my 3 hybrid.


So I bought a Wishon 915 F/H 21 degree head, and built a 41 inch 7 wood to the flex and MOI values that I believe are a good fit for me. I used an SK Fiber TT 80 shaft, and tip trimmed the shaft to a PCS flex of 4.8. I matched the club to the MOI of my present fairway woods and my driver (I swing my fairway woods pretty aggressively).


Well.................I put this club in play this past Sunday, and it was absolutely amazing. I have never swung a club that was so easy to hit. Great ball flight, easy to hit strong shots out of pretty deep rough, and it feels like it swings itself! Today I ordered the 9 wood equivalent of this club and am hopeful that club will play as well as the 7 wood. Some of it might be the 919 F/H head, but I am sure that is not all if it................the club is a perfect match to how I swing.


Is every club built based on clubfitting going to be what I call a "magic club?" For some players I have built clubs for the matching of the right flex, MOI, shaft, and club length has resulted in clubs that are very easy to hit and that feel absolutely wonderful. The object of all of my fittings is to find a set of club specs that would achieve this.


I do believe, though, that the likelihood of finding clubs that truly have a magic feel to them and that produce superior results is higher when they are built on the best possible fitting for a player.


Tony

The Nine Ball Flight Laws....

Thanks to Dana Upshaw today for posting (through AGCP forum) this link that summarizes the key types of ball flight that are possible - what have been called the "Ball Flight Laws:"

http://www.hkprogolf.com/ball_flight_laws.html

This article discusses the nine ball flight types, which are...

Pull hook
Pull
Pull fade or slice
Draw or hook
Straight
Fade or slice
Push draw
Push
Push fade or slice


The article rightly notes some suggested swing thoughts and changes that can help a player to stop a particular type of flight. It also discusses the influence of shaft flex, shaft weight, grip size, lie angle, and grip size on these different ball flights.


The article rightly shows that "straight" shots are produced when the club travels from inside the target line to square at impact to back inside the target line.


In my view grip size is not likely to be a great contributor to the type of ball flight a player produces. Lie angle and shaft flex can make some contribution to which type of ball flight can be produced, and definitely should be evaluated. Shaft weight can have a major influence on swing path, and club swingweight/MOI can have a major influence on the club face angle relative to the swing path.


So what is your predominant ball flight?


Tony

Personal Golf Club Evaluation...

One of the kinds of emails that I truly enjoy receiving is when someone fills out the "Personal Golf Club Evaluation" form on the home page of my web site. Every week or so I get one of these evaluations from folks I do not know, and it I think is a good starter in terms of learning what people want out of improved golf clubs.


Because I want to help players play the best golf they can, obtaining this information is a key starter to helping folks find clubs that can improve their games. The answers people provide in terms of how they hit different clubs are not always the same - some for example say they would like to hit hybrid clubs like they hit their irons, while some say exactly the opposite.


Usually I can see something in the responses that suggest areas where clubfitting can improve the player's game. If a player says that they do not putt well, it could suggest they need a different putter but also could suggest that some mods could be made to their present putter that can help them putt better.


The evaluation also asks what is the player's favorite club and least favorite club, and favorite shot and least favorite shot. I know for me the favorite club and shot would be the driver, and least favorite shot would be the 20 to 40 yard pitch shot. Improving short pitch shots is something I have concentrated on a lot for the past few months, and I have put a Scratch sand wedge in my bag - digger/driver grind - that suits the way I hit short shots well.


I really encourage anyone who might be interested in being fit for clubs to first fill out this form and send it to me. After completing it, I always ask the player if they want to visit me at Centennial Golf Course - where I do fittings - and let me make a few simple measurements to get an idea on the length and weight of their clubs. Getting a good evaluation up front of player's likes, dislikes, and desired areas for improvement is an important initial key to the fitting process.


Tony

Oops........But Thank You MOI!!

Tonight I was finishing a golf club for a client who will be going on a golf trip in Thursday. I went to a local golf store and bought the grip he wanted............well, not quite...... Bought a Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord..........but did not realize that this grip came in "0.580 core" and "0.600" core. The larger one is the one I wanted, and I did not think to check if there was a different one. And the weight of the 0.580 core grip is slightly higher than the weight of the 0.600 grip - by 1.5 grams.


In the "old" days I would have been pretty fussy about this (well I was not pleased to tell the truth, being a prefectionist....) but I quickly realized that I could make this grip work just as well for the player. I do all of my fitting now to MOI (Moment of Interia) rather than Swingweight - MOI is more of a dynamic measure of how a player swings a club, and Swingweight is a static measurement. When I did the fitting for this player we found that the best MOI for him was 2,833 (in metric units).


1.5 grams of weight in the grip makes a difference of about 1/3 swingweight points. But since MOI is related to location of mass relative to the distance of that mass from the butt end of the club, the small extra weight of the grip should have essentially no affect on the final club MOI. And so no real effect on how the club feels when the player is swinging it.


So I put the slightly oversized grip on, stretched it just a little (to get it back to Men's standard size), and measured the club MOI at 2,836.....................3 points off from 2,833 target which is essentially nothing.


So the player will get his driver back tomorrow, 44 inch length (more than an inch less than he was playing), butt flex about a flex softer (fitting his swing), and the MOI that we tested. And if, after his golf trip, he wants me to put the other grip on I will - but the club will swing the same. Pretty cool!


Tony

When Is Light Right?

One of the big rages at the PGA show this year was lighter clubs and grips. A couple of the major companies are marketing grips a lot lighter than standard, and you probably are also seeing some companies saying they now have the lightest driver available - and suggesting you will get great improvements in distance with those clubs.


Is lighter ever really better? I would say that if someone suggests that making a club lighter AND longer is going to really help that you should be wary. However, there can in fact be conditions where lighter is worth looking at.


I built a slightly different driver for myself this past week that seems to help me reduce some of my major "misses." My usual poor miss with the driver is to the right. Most times when I do this I have been able to "feel" that I have not closed the clubhead. I have always thought this was largely a swing fault...............and most likely there is some element of that. But the driver I just built for myself is an SMT Nemesis....................a smaller head (around 400 cc) and easier to "close" than typical 460 cc heads. And I also built this club about 40 MOI points less than my previous driver - roughly 4 grams less head weight than I had been using.


Results? This past Sunday I drove the ball MUCH better than I had been. A few misses to the right but a lot more draws and straight shots. And also a greater feel for the clubhead and feel for the ability to close it when I hit the ball. Now if it would ONLY stop being so cold when I play.....(37 degrees.....).


So maybe it is possible that a lot of your typical misses are not fully the result of your swing...........or at the very least you can find a combination of clubhead size and club MOI/swingweight that can make your driver FEEL easier to swing.


Tony

FEELING The Clubhead - The Hidden Edge....

Almost everyone who I have done a fitting for lately has received some significant benefits from identifying the right weight feel for their clubs. And it does not go one way only - sometimes adding more weight is the key, sometimes reducing weight is what makes the clubs pay better.

Some examples include....

1. Adding 8 grams of head weight to irons and seeing ball flight trajectory increase significantly.

2. Adding just a few grams to a club and seeing impact go from off center to dead in the center of the club.

3. Increasing the MOI of a driver and learning that the player can now "feel" the head and control it.


I think all of this makes sense.................but I think for a reason you may not think. I think we all inside are attempting as best as possible to hit the golf ball on the center of all of our clubs. And we do the best we can to adjust our swings with the clubs we have to make this happen. But when we get the RIGHT club weight feel, then we allow ourselves to "go on automatic" in terms of hitting the golf ball - center contact becomes effortless, more distance and consistency results.


I am working to get some new equipment into my fitting in the next month or so. When I do, I will be able to measure how open the clubface is at impact, and what the actual path of the club is as it approaches the ball. Once I can do that I will be more easily able to see how club head weight and also shaft weight affect club path and club head contact with the ball.


Bottom line..............just a few GRAMS of head weight can result in significant improvements in ball striking!


Tony

Who Is That "Average" Golfer?

I am beginning to wonder what that average golfer out there is, particularly in terms of the right lengths of clubs for him/her to play.


If I look over the fittings I have done in the past few months, I would say that "average" length clubs do not fit at least 50% of the people I am working with. Right now I am working with three people all who I expect will not fit into standard length irons and in fact will need irons that are a lot shorter than standard.


A large majority of my iron fitting clubs are built to do testing with people who fit into standard length clubs. And I can adapt these to be able to fit folks who need clubs just a bit longer or shorter than standard.


However, when people need clubs that are more than 1/2 inch shorter than standard, it is important to have some fitting equipment particularly devoted to these players. Today for example I rebuilt some driver fitting shafts so that I could do testing for players who might need 42-1/2, 43, or 43-1/2 inch long drivers..............................this is compared to the 45 inch plus drivers they would most likely buy in golf stores.


Shorter clubs can mean significantly lower swingweights/MOIs, and it becomes very important to test for swingweight/MOI for shorter sets - and add clubhead or shaft weight if necessary - and be sure players can "feel" the clubhead when they swing it. Often players who have shorter clubs have never been able to truly feel the weight of the head, and when they actually can get the right swingweight/MOI in their clubs their ball striking immediately improves.


Working with players who need shorter clubs is another gratifying experience - because often they have never felt what a golf club that is the right length and swingweight/MOI for them feels like and performs like.


Tony

FEEL FEEL FEEL ..... A great 4 letter word!

Not every player I build clubs for is greatly sensitive to Club Feel. But almost all are to some extent. I am now midway into a fitting with a good player who is very sensitive to the desire to feel the clubhead. And about to start a fitting for a player who I know needs clubs that are a lot longer than normal......and for him Feel may be more important that for "standard" length players.


Feel is the Bottom Line of a golf club. I believe that if a club does not feel good in your hands you will never truly hit it well. When I do fittings I am constantly asking how one club feels vs another test club and I weigh highly what players tell me about feel.


What affects club feel? Just about everything! For sure the club MOI or swingweight are a measure of feel - and these are influenced by head weight, shaft weight, club length, and club flex.


I do not think it is easy to quantify what makes one club "feel" better than another - but that does not mean that finding the right feel for a player is not perhaps the most important thing that a professional clubfitter can do.


Tony

What are your clubs REALLY like?

After being mostly on vacation for about 2 weeks I enjoyed doing some specs for a set of clubs that I will be reshafting soon. I think it must be the engineer in me, but I enjoy measuring club specifications to see if they are really what people think they are.


Tonight was not really a night of surprises - because the clubs that I evaluated had been built by a very talented clubfitter and clubbuilder - so I was not at all surprised to see that they have very consistent swingweights and club flexes. It was a pleasure to confirm what I expected, that these are a very well built set of clubs.


I think that all golfers - particularly those who play at least once a week - deserve to really know what the specs of their clubs are. The best time to have this done is when players have their clubs regripped - because the most accurate measurements of club flexes can be made without grips on the clubs. It does not take a lot of time to measure club lengths, weights, swingweights, MOI, and club flex - and learning what these are can sometimes show a player why he or she has a problem with a specific club.


So I make this offer to those of you who read this blog and are in need of club regripping. If you have me regrip your clubs and mention that you have read this note on my blog, I will provide you with specs for your clubs at no additional cost - through the end of May.


Happy golfing - once it stops raining!!


Tony

Club Balancing - "Swingweight" and "MOI" Matching

I recently took a big step in moving toward being able to make better "matched" golf clubs for my golf club clients. I purchased a device called the "MOI Speed Match" system from Tom Wishon golf. Tom Wishon has long been a proponent of using MOI matching instead of Swingweight matching of golf clubs - particularly for irons.

MOI matching and Swingweight matching of a set of irons are based on the same premise - having the full set of irons feel the same when you swing them.

Swingweight and MOI are based on somewhat different principles....

SWINGWEIGHT - I believe the concept of swingweight has been best defined by Ralph Maltby of Golfworks - "the measurement of a golf club's weight about a fulcrum point which is established at a specified distance from the grip end of the club." Swingweight is all about the weight distribution between the head of the golf club and the grip end of the golf club. Increasing the head weight and increasing shaft weight make swingweight increase, increasing the weight of the golf grip makes swingweight decrease. A relative weight scale was developed to denote different swingweights - so a D1 swingweight is larger than a C6 swingweight.

MOI - this is an actual physical measurement that is made for a golf club, it has dimensional units of mass/(length*length). It is a measure of how easy or difficult it is to swing a golf club. Interestingly, the weight of the grip has little if any influence on the measured MOI of a golf club.

How do swingweight matched clubs differ from MOI matched clubs? If you have a set of MOI matched clubs, you will find that the swingweights of the higher irons are lower than the swingweights of the shorter irons. Some fitters actually attempt to approximately MOI match a set of clubs by "progressive swingweighting" - increasing the club swingweight by typically 1/2 swingweight point between clubs - for example, the 6 iron swingweight would be 1/2 point higher than the 5 iron swingweight.

Proponents of iron swingweight matching believe that you should determine the best iron swingweight - which produces the best performance - and keep that constant for your main irons - for example 5 iron through 9 iron. Most swingweight proponents I believe feel that the wedges should have a bit higher swingweights than the other irons.

Proponents of MOI matching believe that you identify the best iron MOI for the player and then build the full set of irons to that MOI. They also believe that if you have a set of MOI matched clubs, that you can ask a player to swing their 5 iron and 9 iron with their eyes closed and they will not be able to tell you which one they are swinging.

So why am I making a commitment to moving to applying MOI matching in all of my iron fittings? It is largely from feedback from some of the most influential clubfitters in the country and the world. I am aware of one fitter who has done more than 1,500 MOI iron fittings with excellent results, and of another who has done hundreds of fittings and had only 1 poor result. I also recently learned that MOI matched clubs are starting to make their way on the professional golf tours.

Having golf clubs that feel the same when you swing them to me is an edge that golfers should have available to them.


Tony