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
Showing posts with label swingweight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swingweight. Show all posts
Monday, April 19, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
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
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
Monday, January 18, 2010
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
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
Monday, January 4, 2010
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
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
Monday, September 21, 2009
Advice - I wonder what will happen....
I am not against giving players a bit of advice on golf clubs sometimes.....usually about the simple things like driver length.
I had a meeting this weekend with a pleasant person who is interested in getting new clubs. I made a few measurements with him and identified that he will likely play best with clubs shorter than standard length. Maybe a 43 to 43-1/2 inch length driver, and irons perhaps a half inch shorter than standard (cannot know real best lengths without impact label testing....).
During our discussion, I was wondering what might be the result if he went into a golf store and said "I am pretty sure I would play my best golf with a 43-1/2 inch length driver, what can you do for me?"
To my knowledge, all of the stores carry drivers that are at least 45 inches long. Someone in a store MIGHT say "well I can just cut that driver down to length for you and that would work." Well, if you cut down a driver from 45 inches to 43-1/2 inches, you reduce the swingweight of that driver 9 swingweight points. Say the 45 inch driver had a swingweight of D2, the cut down one would have a swingweight of C3 - very very light and probably not good for this player.
The right way to modify a driver to a reduced length is to add appropriate weight to the head, and/or to reshaft the driver with a heavier shaft. It can be made to work....but simply cutting the shaft to a reduced length will typically not work.
Still, I would love to be a fly on the wall for the conversation with the salesman about reduced length clubs.....
Tony
I had a meeting this weekend with a pleasant person who is interested in getting new clubs. I made a few measurements with him and identified that he will likely play best with clubs shorter than standard length. Maybe a 43 to 43-1/2 inch length driver, and irons perhaps a half inch shorter than standard (cannot know real best lengths without impact label testing....).
During our discussion, I was wondering what might be the result if he went into a golf store and said "I am pretty sure I would play my best golf with a 43-1/2 inch length driver, what can you do for me?"
To my knowledge, all of the stores carry drivers that are at least 45 inches long. Someone in a store MIGHT say "well I can just cut that driver down to length for you and that would work." Well, if you cut down a driver from 45 inches to 43-1/2 inches, you reduce the swingweight of that driver 9 swingweight points. Say the 45 inch driver had a swingweight of D2, the cut down one would have a swingweight of C3 - very very light and probably not good for this player.
The right way to modify a driver to a reduced length is to add appropriate weight to the head, and/or to reshaft the driver with a heavier shaft. It can be made to work....but simply cutting the shaft to a reduced length will typically not work.
Still, I would love to be a fly on the wall for the conversation with the salesman about reduced length clubs.....
Tony
Monday, September 7, 2009
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
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
Monday, July 27, 2009
"Please Release Me!"
It has been a pretty quite week in Oak Ridge clubfitting land, because of big family visits for the baptism of grandbaby #2.
However, there are some interesting fitting developments coming up. I have been reading a number of posts lately related to fitting people who are hitting the ball High and Right (talking right handers....). And have had two similar discussions with local people who are having some similar results.
One is a single digit handicapper who is interested in getting more clubhead feel. I provided him some lead tape to put on the bottom of his club to test, and he said that adding 4 grams of lead tape was causing him to hit the ball high and right. Now, this is a player who has pretty good swing mechanics. So it is highly likely that the cause of high/right in this case is in fact due to the higher club swingweight and head weight that could be inhibiting him from closing the clubface - releasing the clubface - at the end of his swing. We are going to work together later this week with the Opti Vibe optimization weights - some weight down the shaft and some at the butt end, and vary the location of the weight down the shaft - to see if we can come up with an optimum club feel for him that can produce some more distance and not produce high/right shots.
Another case is just speculation at this time.....I got a call today from someone who hits his fairway woods well, but has the high/right shot pattern with his driver. I sent a post to the AGCP forum tonight asking for some feedback from others on solutions to high/right, and one of the answers from a fitter whose views I respect was Be Sure He Releases The Club (he said "Please Release Me!". And Ball Position can also be a cause of high/right.
It is also possible, however, that driver characteristics can be helping to promote High/Rightitis. If the driver is too long for this player (a good possibility...) then the player may not be setting up in an athletic position and may in fact not be able to release the club as he should. If the club swingweight/MOI is too high, then as much as he would like to be able to release the club, he might not be able to do so easily.
So no full answers on this yet - hopefully meeting with the second person later this week to get some club measurements as a start and then see if they tell me anything. And it is also clear that good swing mechanics are important - but also that sometimes club characteristics can keep a player from producing swings that provide good results. Bottom line - it is important to look at the combination of a player's swing and his clubs to find the true cause of mishit shots.
Tony
However, there are some interesting fitting developments coming up. I have been reading a number of posts lately related to fitting people who are hitting the ball High and Right (talking right handers....). And have had two similar discussions with local people who are having some similar results.
One is a single digit handicapper who is interested in getting more clubhead feel. I provided him some lead tape to put on the bottom of his club to test, and he said that adding 4 grams of lead tape was causing him to hit the ball high and right. Now, this is a player who has pretty good swing mechanics. So it is highly likely that the cause of high/right in this case is in fact due to the higher club swingweight and head weight that could be inhibiting him from closing the clubface - releasing the clubface - at the end of his swing. We are going to work together later this week with the Opti Vibe optimization weights - some weight down the shaft and some at the butt end, and vary the location of the weight down the shaft - to see if we can come up with an optimum club feel for him that can produce some more distance and not produce high/right shots.
Another case is just speculation at this time.....I got a call today from someone who hits his fairway woods well, but has the high/right shot pattern with his driver. I sent a post to the AGCP forum tonight asking for some feedback from others on solutions to high/right, and one of the answers from a fitter whose views I respect was Be Sure He Releases The Club (he said "Please Release Me!". And Ball Position can also be a cause of high/right.
It is also possible, however, that driver characteristics can be helping to promote High/Rightitis. If the driver is too long for this player (a good possibility...) then the player may not be setting up in an athletic position and may in fact not be able to release the club as he should. If the club swingweight/MOI is too high, then as much as he would like to be able to release the club, he might not be able to do so easily.
So no full answers on this yet - hopefully meeting with the second person later this week to get some club measurements as a start and then see if they tell me anything. And it is also clear that good swing mechanics are important - but also that sometimes club characteristics can keep a player from producing swings that provide good results. Bottom line - it is important to look at the combination of a player's swing and his clubs to find the true cause of mishit shots.
Tony
Monday, June 15, 2009
And The Driver Length Beat Goes On......
In my three years of professional clubfitting, I have not worked with one player who is playing a driver that is the right length for them. All too long. I think this is why I keep noting the lengths that PGA pros use for their drivers. I hope by doing this that as many readers of this blog will at least have an initial estimate made of what would be the best driver length for them.
This weekend I met a player who is taking lessons from Des Mahoney at Centenial, and Des steered him to me so that I could check his driver length. Another 46 inch driver, and in this case most likely he would hit his drives most solidly if he used a 44 to 44-1/2 inch driver.
And what is great about getting knowledge about the best driver length for you is that an initial fix for this is VERY easy. You can have a professional clubfitter cut some length from the end of shaft, add some lead tape to the bottom of the club so that the swingweight can be adjusted - cutting a half inch of lengh reduces swingweight by about 3 points, and adding 6 grams of weight increases swingweight the same 3 points.
The other often good element about adjusting swingweight by adding lead tape is that this also decreases the flex of the shaft. Many people are playing with store-purchased drivers that have shafts that are too stiff for their swings. So adding head weight can also have a positive influence on shaft flex for a lot of players.
When building drivers of lengths in the range of 44 to 44-1/2 inches, unless you use very heavy shafts it is necessary to add some weight in the hosel to achieve a swingweight that is a good fit for a player. Normally the best way to do this is to add "tip weights" that slip inside the shaft - 2 to 9 gram weights are typically available.
Today I purchased a new piece of equipment for my shop that will make adding appropriate weight to driver heads even easier. I bought the "Silencer System" from KC Products - it is a hot glue gun designed specifically for adding weight inside of driver heads. I believe this product is now used in many Tour club vans, and with it I will be able to add as much as 10 grams of addiitional weight inside of driver heads. My plan is to use this as a supplement for using tip weights to set the best driver swingweights for players.
If you are interested in finding out if you are playing the right length driver, I hope you will stop in to my Centenial fitting center on Saturdays or make an appointment to meet me there for some quick measurements. In 5 minutes I can do a quick evaluation of what your present driver length is and get a good approximation of what it should be. And you will have knowledge that can help you to play better golf.
Tony
PS - for the U.S. Open this week, a hard call as to who to root for more, Tiger or Phil. The best case is for the two of them to be playing in the final foursome on Sunday....how can it get any better than that!!
This weekend I met a player who is taking lessons from Des Mahoney at Centenial, and Des steered him to me so that I could check his driver length. Another 46 inch driver, and in this case most likely he would hit his drives most solidly if he used a 44 to 44-1/2 inch driver.
And what is great about getting knowledge about the best driver length for you is that an initial fix for this is VERY easy. You can have a professional clubfitter cut some length from the end of shaft, add some lead tape to the bottom of the club so that the swingweight can be adjusted - cutting a half inch of lengh reduces swingweight by about 3 points, and adding 6 grams of weight increases swingweight the same 3 points.
The other often good element about adjusting swingweight by adding lead tape is that this also decreases the flex of the shaft. Many people are playing with store-purchased drivers that have shafts that are too stiff for their swings. So adding head weight can also have a positive influence on shaft flex for a lot of players.
When building drivers of lengths in the range of 44 to 44-1/2 inches, unless you use very heavy shafts it is necessary to add some weight in the hosel to achieve a swingweight that is a good fit for a player. Normally the best way to do this is to add "tip weights" that slip inside the shaft - 2 to 9 gram weights are typically available.
Today I purchased a new piece of equipment for my shop that will make adding appropriate weight to driver heads even easier. I bought the "Silencer System" from KC Products - it is a hot glue gun designed specifically for adding weight inside of driver heads. I believe this product is now used in many Tour club vans, and with it I will be able to add as much as 10 grams of addiitional weight inside of driver heads. My plan is to use this as a supplement for using tip weights to set the best driver swingweights for players.
If you are interested in finding out if you are playing the right length driver, I hope you will stop in to my Centenial fitting center on Saturdays or make an appointment to meet me there for some quick measurements. In 5 minutes I can do a quick evaluation of what your present driver length is and get a good approximation of what it should be. And you will have knowledge that can help you to play better golf.
Tony
PS - for the U.S. Open this week, a hard call as to who to root for more, Tiger or Phil. The best case is for the two of them to be playing in the final foursome on Sunday....how can it get any better than that!!
Monday, June 1, 2009
"Rules Are Nice, But Fitting Rules"
In an AGCP post today, Russ Ryden said the quote that I used as the title for this blog post. I think it is a terrific statement of what AGCP and other professional clubfitters do - and particularly what differentiates us from folks who do clubfitting in typical golf club sales stores.
Russ, by the way, has a terrific web site for his fitting business - www.fit2score.com.
There are a lot of technical elements to professional clubfitting - analyzing launch monitor data and building test clubs to specific flexes and lengths are some examples. And I believe we all want to find elements of clubfitting that we can reduce to a formula - like for example what specific iron flex would correspond to the best fit for a specific client swing speed. And there are parts of fitting that can be reduced to following some rules.
But I think there is also some art - based on experience - in doing great fitting. Using the basics to produce some initial ideas of what the right fit might be, but also then using what you have learned from past experiences to really produce a solution that is right for a golfer. Learning to listen to customers tell you what "feels" best and factoring that into fitting recommendations is another example.
This past weekend I did a driver fitting where the ultimate value was in moving past the basics into using past experience to find a good solution. The player is someone who has the capability to drive the ball well, but also pretty consistently pull hooks the ball. We did the basic things of identifying the right length club - 44-1/2 inches rather than his present 45 inches - and the right shaft flex profile for his swing. But if we had ended then he would still pull most likely pull-hook the ball on lots of his drives.
We made an approximate measurement of the swingweight of his present driver - D0. Many stock drivers you can buy in stores have this swingweight, and for some "average" golfer that might be a good club swingweight. But this club was too light for this golfer, and as a result he had to keep adjusting his swing to guard against pull hooking and often was not successful.
We added weight to his club - using lead tape - 2 grams at a time until we had added about 10 grams to the club - about a D5 swingweight now; he hit shots with each addition of weight. When we added this weight he hit some very good drives that started slightly right and then drew back to the middle. Beautiful. Before he left to play golf in the afternoon, I put 10 grams of lead tape onto the bottom of his present driver and asked him to tell me what the results were.
Today I talked with him, and his driving results were mixed but I think positive because of one thing that he said to me. He said when he remembered that I said to him to "relax and let the club hit the ball" that he hit his best drives. He knows that some lessons will help him hit the ball better, but he also knows that when I have rebuilt his driver to a D5 swingweight with a shaft chosen for his swing, he will be a playing a driver that works for the way HE hits the ball.
Fitting really does rule!
Tony
Russ, by the way, has a terrific web site for his fitting business - www.fit2score.com.
There are a lot of technical elements to professional clubfitting - analyzing launch monitor data and building test clubs to specific flexes and lengths are some examples. And I believe we all want to find elements of clubfitting that we can reduce to a formula - like for example what specific iron flex would correspond to the best fit for a specific client swing speed. And there are parts of fitting that can be reduced to following some rules.
But I think there is also some art - based on experience - in doing great fitting. Using the basics to produce some initial ideas of what the right fit might be, but also then using what you have learned from past experiences to really produce a solution that is right for a golfer. Learning to listen to customers tell you what "feels" best and factoring that into fitting recommendations is another example.
This past weekend I did a driver fitting where the ultimate value was in moving past the basics into using past experience to find a good solution. The player is someone who has the capability to drive the ball well, but also pretty consistently pull hooks the ball. We did the basic things of identifying the right length club - 44-1/2 inches rather than his present 45 inches - and the right shaft flex profile for his swing. But if we had ended then he would still pull most likely pull-hook the ball on lots of his drives.
We made an approximate measurement of the swingweight of his present driver - D0. Many stock drivers you can buy in stores have this swingweight, and for some "average" golfer that might be a good club swingweight. But this club was too light for this golfer, and as a result he had to keep adjusting his swing to guard against pull hooking and often was not successful.
We added weight to his club - using lead tape - 2 grams at a time until we had added about 10 grams to the club - about a D5 swingweight now; he hit shots with each addition of weight. When we added this weight he hit some very good drives that started slightly right and then drew back to the middle. Beautiful. Before he left to play golf in the afternoon, I put 10 grams of lead tape onto the bottom of his present driver and asked him to tell me what the results were.
Today I talked with him, and his driving results were mixed but I think positive because of one thing that he said to me. He said when he remembered that I said to him to "relax and let the club hit the ball" that he hit his best drives. He knows that some lessons will help him hit the ball better, but he also knows that when I have rebuilt his driver to a D5 swingweight with a shaft chosen for his swing, he will be a playing a driver that works for the way HE hits the ball.
Fitting really does rule!
Tony
Monday, April 20, 2009
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
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
Monday, March 2, 2009
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
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
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