Quality Component Heads - The Truth

I did two fittings this weekend, and one of them was with a past customer who I built a set of irons for a month or so ago. He told me that he had never broken 90 before, but had recently shot 86 using the new irons (he also said he now hits his pitching wedge 130 yards, wow!). The fitting we did was to find him a new set of fairway woods, and we settled on a Wishon 525 GRT fairway wood head with an SK Fiber TT 80 wood shaft built to the specs that produced best test results - in particular a 42 inch length 3 wood ("standard" is 43 inches), 15 degree loft, and appropriate weighting and shaft flex. He bombed this test club when he hit it outside.


These results illustrate - as has been the case with other customers - that there are a LOT of great component golf heads out there. Not "knock off" clubs that try to imitate clubs like Callaway and others. But Wishon Golf, Infiniti Golf, Alpha Golf, and others who make heads that stack up with any of the OEM heads that can be bought.


Designers of these component heads have lots of experience with creating clubs that are easy to hit and also that produce good distance and accuracy.


The additional value of using these heads versus rebuilding OEM clubs with the right shaft and club weighting is that when you get these heads you KNOW what you are getting. This makes it much easier to do quality flex and MOI matching of clubs, and the results in terms of consistent feel and quality shots can definitely produce better golf.


This is not to say, to be fair, that rebuilding OEM clubs is not a good way to also get good results. But one should not be afraid, if they find a quality component head that you like, to play these clubs. With the proper fitting and clubs built to test specs, the results can be outstanding.


Tony


PS...........could not miss chance to talk a little about the new camera I just bought for use in fittings. A Casio EX-FH25. It will allow me to take video at 240 frames a second - about a factor of 4 higher resolution than my previous digital video movie camera could produce.

Shafts and More Shafts.....

A few years ago I purchased a copy of Tom Wishon's Shaft Profiling Software. Tonight I updated this software to the newest version.............and it includes quite a number of new shaft frequency profiles.


How a person swings a golf club can influence the shaft that is the best performance fit for him or her. Two people who have the same swing speed can differ greatly in when in their swing they "release" their wrist cock and how aggressively they swing at the golf ball. It is entirely possible that these two people would play shafts that have the same "butt flex" - the flex measured for the full length of the golf club - but one would play better with a shaft that has a soft tip flex while the other plays with a shaft with a stiffer tip flex.


So you should be asking - how would I know which shaft would work best for me? The best answer is to find a clubfitter who has test clubs with a range of test shafts with different flex profiles - and determine by measurements which shaft you hit better (launch monitor data can provide this kind of information).


Personally I often also find that when the "right" shaft is put in the hands of a golfer it simply feels right. The player can feel the shaft unload properly when he hits the ball and "he knows." It is great to be with players when this kind of experience happens, because you know that you are really finding a shaft option that will help them hit the ball further and more consistently.


Shaft profiles are one of the key variables in professional clubfitting.


Tony