What golfer doesn’t dream of owning that “magic driver” which enables them to hit the ball longer and straighter?
Tip number one: the very best driver for every golfer is never selected by its brand or model name or model number. It is chosen by its fitting specifications and how those individual factors are matched to the golfer’s size, strength, athletic ability and most of all, to their swing characteristics.
Driver Length:
I’m going to be blunt. The standard driver lengths of 45.5 to 46.5 inches offered by the standard made golf club companies are too long and are preventing at least 75%of all golfers from achieving their maximum potential for distance and accuracy. For men with an average to fast tempo with an outside/in swing path, 44” is the maximum length; women, 42.5” to 43” should be the limit. There’s a very good reason the average driver length on the US PGA Tour from 2004-2010 has been 44.5” and not 45.5” to 46.5”
Driver Loft:
Driver loft must be matched to the golfer’s swing speed and their angle of attack into the ball. The slower the swing speed and the more downward the angle of attack, the higher the loft of the driver has to be for maximum distance. While each golfer has to be individually analyzed to know which loft brings the most distance, here is a basic chart to use as a guideline. The first column of numbers is driver swing speed, the second column is best driver loft in wet conditions, and the third column is best driver loft in dry conditions for more roll-out.
50 21 20
60 18 17
70 16 15
80 14 13
90 12 11
100 11 10
110 9.5 8.5
Based on Level Angle of Attack and Average Release. For golfer' who make contact on the upswing, a lower loft may be better and vice versa - golfer's who make contact on the downswing definately need more loft.
Best Loft for Carry for Wet Fairways.
Best Loft for Roll Out for Hard, Firm Fairways.
Driver Face Angle:
Few drivers sold off the shelf offer options in the face angle to reduce the golfer’s tendency to slice or hook the ball. There is no better way to reduce a slice than to fit the golfer with a more closed face angle in the driver/fairway woods. For more severe slices, the golfer can be fit with a driver head with both a closed face and an offset hosel design. The rule of thumb for face angle change? At a carry distance of 200 yards, each one degree more closed the face angle is than the golfer’s current face angle represents a reduction in the slice of about 4 to 5 yards.
And a Couple More for Covering Your Golfers’ Driver Fitting Needs . . .
Total Weight and Swingweight:
The stronger the golfer physically and the more aggressively they swing, the heavier the total weight and swingweight will need to be. The opposite is true for the weaker and much less aggressive swinging player. Matching the “weights” of the driver to the golfer’s swing strength and aggressiveness is critical for swing tempo consistency and the highest incidence of on-center impacts.
Shaft:
Here’s the facts about the shaft. While the weight, the overall flex and the stiffness bend profile of the shaft has to be fit properly to all golfers, the shaft flex and bend profile are more important for golfers with a late release of the wrist-cock angle in the downswing than for golfers with an earlier release. Don’t worry, we’ll dig deeper into shaft fitting on its own in a successive column.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Comparing a custom fitting to a car wash.
What Kind of Car Wash Do You Want?
More and more golf club companies are starting to emphasize custom clubfitting as an option to their typical marketing to golfers to buy their clubs in standard form, bought off the shelf.
Custom fitting is very definitely for average golfers and not just for single digit handicap players. When done properly, custom fitting can reduce and offset some of your swing errors. In addition, proper custom fitting makes it easier to take swing coaching advice and make the changes in the swing to hit the ball better.
If you are thinking about custom fitting for your next driver or set of clubs, there are a few things you need to know to ensure you really do end up with properly custom fit clubs that will improve your game. A colleague of mine in the golf business put this in the right way when he said that custom clubfitting can be much like having your car washed.
On one hand, if your car needs a bath, you can pull out the hose and just spray water on it to wash off the obvious surface dirt. You can also fill a bucket with suds and scrub the dirt off the surface with a sponge. Or, you can pull out all the stops and scrub, detail and wax it. All three examples could be called a car wash.
Custom fitting in the golf industry today is much the same. There is fitting, and there is professional custom clubfitting. Examples of a fitting include “6 questions on a web site”, 15 minutes hitting a few balls with a swing computer, or 3 measurements and a response from a golf sales person to the effect of, “I know what you need.”
On the other hand, professional custom clubfitting is going to involve a pretty fair amount of your time, often more than one trip to have your swing analyzed in detail so that ALL the possible specifications that make up a set of golf clubs can be pinpointed and selected to match with your strength, size, athletic ability, and especially, the way YOU and only YOU swing. Professional custom clubfitting really is like the scrub, wax and detail car wash I mentioned before. The other types of fitting are not going to get you really matched well to your clubs to really result in the level of improvement that a real custom fitting can and will do. In other words, which “car wash” do YOU want for your money?
To find more about professional custom clubfitting, please contact me at bobsailergolf@shaw.ca or 403-529-0704. You will be happy you did and your club buying money will be well spent.
More and more golf club companies are starting to emphasize custom clubfitting as an option to their typical marketing to golfers to buy their clubs in standard form, bought off the shelf.
Custom fitting is very definitely for average golfers and not just for single digit handicap players. When done properly, custom fitting can reduce and offset some of your swing errors. In addition, proper custom fitting makes it easier to take swing coaching advice and make the changes in the swing to hit the ball better.
If you are thinking about custom fitting for your next driver or set of clubs, there are a few things you need to know to ensure you really do end up with properly custom fit clubs that will improve your game. A colleague of mine in the golf business put this in the right way when he said that custom clubfitting can be much like having your car washed.
On one hand, if your car needs a bath, you can pull out the hose and just spray water on it to wash off the obvious surface dirt. You can also fill a bucket with suds and scrub the dirt off the surface with a sponge. Or, you can pull out all the stops and scrub, detail and wax it. All three examples could be called a car wash.
Custom fitting in the golf industry today is much the same. There is fitting, and there is professional custom clubfitting. Examples of a fitting include “6 questions on a web site”, 15 minutes hitting a few balls with a swing computer, or 3 measurements and a response from a golf sales person to the effect of, “I know what you need.”
On the other hand, professional custom clubfitting is going to involve a pretty fair amount of your time, often more than one trip to have your swing analyzed in detail so that ALL the possible specifications that make up a set of golf clubs can be pinpointed and selected to match with your strength, size, athletic ability, and especially, the way YOU and only YOU swing. Professional custom clubfitting really is like the scrub, wax and detail car wash I mentioned before. The other types of fitting are not going to get you really matched well to your clubs to really result in the level of improvement that a real custom fitting can and will do. In other words, which “car wash” do YOU want for your money?
To find more about professional custom clubfitting, please contact me at bobsailergolf@shaw.ca or 403-529-0704. You will be happy you did and your club buying money will be well spent.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
If a golfer swings 2 exact clubheads with 2 different shafts, is there a difference in ball speed?
From the desk of Tom Wishon:
If the golfer's angle of attack, the ball speed, the launch angle, the spin rate are exactly the same between the two clubs with different shafts, the carry distance would be the same. The only distance difference could come from how much the ball rolls after landing, depending on the firmness of the actual points the two balls landed on the ground. Technically if the swing speed were the same, the distance would be the same as well, but in this case of talking about only the swing speed and not the ball speed, then the only possible variable would be if there were any difference in the balls used for the two shots. Hence this is why I mentioned ball speed before swing speed.
It is pretty well verified by several competent technical sources that a +1mph difference in swing speed equates to a +2.8yd difference in CARRY distance, given the same exact launch parameters.
Trying to nail all this down to a single yard or so is difficult because there are several variables in measuring all these things. There can be tiny differences in balls of the same make/model and it is a fact that no launch monitor is absolutely perfect in its ability to always record launch parameters within 1mph or fractions of degrees or small increments of RPMs. There can and will be small differences in launch parameter measurement from any launch monitor.
Where we believe golfers can see differences in distance from different shafts are with respect to how the golfer reacts to the bending feel of the shaft during the downswing. We believe strongly that when you have a golfer who does have the ability to feel the bending action of a shaft, when that golfer finds a shaft that bends exactly the right amount and at the right time that is pleasing to the golfer, this allows the golfer to swing with full freedom, with no manipulation of the swing, and with a completely full and free release through the ball. When that happens, the golfer will be able to achieve their absolute highest possible swing speed, and from that comes more distance.
We do not believe there is any real difference in what some like to call the "tip velocity" of one shaft versus another. Shafts are in essence, "dumb animals". What we mean is that a shaft can only react to the differences in movements of the golf swing. Yes, different shafts do bend differently in response to the various downswing moves of different golfers. So to us, when a golfer who has a very distinct type of bending feel preference for a shaft is able to find a shaft that does bend when and how much he prefers, this then allows the golfer to gain the confidence that he can really go after the shot on the downswing to hit the ball. And from that comes more swing speed and distance over what the golfer can achieve when using a shaft that does not deliver a bending feel that is right in the golfer's preferred manner.
TOM
If the golfer's angle of attack, the ball speed, the launch angle, the spin rate are exactly the same between the two clubs with different shafts, the carry distance would be the same. The only distance difference could come from how much the ball rolls after landing, depending on the firmness of the actual points the two balls landed on the ground. Technically if the swing speed were the same, the distance would be the same as well, but in this case of talking about only the swing speed and not the ball speed, then the only possible variable would be if there were any difference in the balls used for the two shots. Hence this is why I mentioned ball speed before swing speed.
It is pretty well verified by several competent technical sources that a +1mph difference in swing speed equates to a +2.8yd difference in CARRY distance, given the same exact launch parameters.
Trying to nail all this down to a single yard or so is difficult because there are several variables in measuring all these things. There can be tiny differences in balls of the same make/model and it is a fact that no launch monitor is absolutely perfect in its ability to always record launch parameters within 1mph or fractions of degrees or small increments of RPMs. There can and will be small differences in launch parameter measurement from any launch monitor.
Where we believe golfers can see differences in distance from different shafts are with respect to how the golfer reacts to the bending feel of the shaft during the downswing. We believe strongly that when you have a golfer who does have the ability to feel the bending action of a shaft, when that golfer finds a shaft that bends exactly the right amount and at the right time that is pleasing to the golfer, this allows the golfer to swing with full freedom, with no manipulation of the swing, and with a completely full and free release through the ball. When that happens, the golfer will be able to achieve their absolute highest possible swing speed, and from that comes more distance.
We do not believe there is any real difference in what some like to call the "tip velocity" of one shaft versus another. Shafts are in essence, "dumb animals". What we mean is that a shaft can only react to the differences in movements of the golf swing. Yes, different shafts do bend differently in response to the various downswing moves of different golfers. So to us, when a golfer who has a very distinct type of bending feel preference for a shaft is able to find a shaft that does bend when and how much he prefers, this then allows the golfer to gain the confidence that he can really go after the shot on the downswing to hit the ball. And from that comes more swing speed and distance over what the golfer can achieve when using a shaft that does not deliver a bending feel that is right in the golfer's preferred manner.
TOM
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Do longer length drivers really allow a golfer to hit the ball farther?
A golfer wants to use the longest length driver that he can hit it the center of the face most of the time. Some golfers who are more athletic and have good hand/eye coordination can use a 45 or 46 inch driver and still hit the ball in the center of the face a high percentage of the time. Those golfers who are less skilled are much better off with a 43 inch driver which was the length of drivers when Jack Nicklaus was in his prime. This shorter length allows the golfer to control the club better during the swing allowing for more on center clubface hits. The current world long drive champion can hit a 29 inch driver 405 yards. 29 inches is about 6.5 inches shorter then a standard Pitching Wedge. So if missing fairways is a big concern of yours, then going to a 43 to 44 inch driver will be of great help.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Beware counterfeit clubs bought on Ebay and other internet sources!!
Counterfeit clubs and shafts are now a 4 Billion dollar industry...that's right...Billion! I've seen so many counterfeit clubs brought to me for "fixing" because the owner is not happy with the performance. Sorry...I can't (and won't) "fix" them as they are truly just junk. Lofts way out of wack, swingweights all over the map, etc. These are counterfeit clubs with Titleist, Callaway, and TaylorMade stamped on them with counterfit shafts and grips as well. What did you expect when you paid $200 for an entire set?? Lately, the low price is no longer a tell tale sign as the counterfeiters have raised their prices to make them appear more legitimate....and they look very, very close to the real thing but perform very poorly. So buyer beware.
Monday, September 27, 2010
How does swing weight (head weight feel) and Moment of Inertia (MOI) relate when fitting a golfer?
Headweight feel is both related to and independent of, the swingweight and the MOI of a golf club. Let me explain.
No question if you take any assembled club and add weight to the head, you do increase its MOI and you also increase its swingweight. But if you were to lengthen the club without adding any weight to the head, you would also increase its MOI and increase its swingweight, and you would also end up with a little different headweight feel than if you just kept the length the same and added weight to the head.
In other words, it is very possible to have two clubs with identical MOI but they display a difference in headweight feel - just as it is very possible to have two clubs with identical swingweight that both display a difference in headweight feel.
Not to overcomplicate this, this is why in any fitting for any golfer, it is important to first find the best length for the golfer, and then to find the best shaft weight for the golfer based on your evaluation of their total weight needs for their strength + transition, tempo and release considerations. Finding the right length is much easier than finding the right shaft weight/total weight for a golfer.
At any rate, once the right length and best judgment for shaftweight/total weight is decided upon, then comes the search for the best headweight feel to go along with these first two.
This is why at present, I like the procedure of using a test club built with the right length and best judgment shaft weight, and then using gradual increases in headweight to try to find where the golfer both achieves a higher percentage of on center hits AND where the golfer also tells you they are liking the feel of the headweight versus their tempo and strength characteristics.
No question that much of the fitting of total weight + headweight feel is judgment and trial and error. I wish it were different, but at present there isn't any tried and true measurement that can tell us without a doubt what shaft weight and what headweight with it is going to end up allowing the golfer to achieve their best swing tempo and best on center hit performance.
I can use good educated guesses from my evaluation of their strength + transition + tempo + release, but we still have to experiment and observe the results as well as listen to what the golfer tells me.
While I am a decent ball striker at times, I personally cannot feel a big difference between a one flex difference (10 cpm's butt frequency) between two identical shafts or a 3 or 4 gram difference in headweight...but I know there are golfers who can.
The main thing I try to get across to a golfer when doing the fitting for total weight and headweight feel is to first explain that too light means you have more of a tendency to have your tempo get too quick or you have more of a tendency to think that you need to slow down. And Too heavy means you sense that it really takes more effort to swing the club or that after a few hits, you start to feel like it is too heavy or that you do have to make more effort to swing the club within your desired tempo/rhythm feel.
Putting those concepts into the golfer's mind as they go through the fitting then helps them to give me at least some feedback regarding what I need to know when it comes to increasing or decreasing weight.
Also with some golfers, usually the less experienced or the lesser skilled players, when I talk about these aspects of FEEL, many times they are not going to know what I'm talking about because they cannot themselves relate to these differences yet in their clubs. This is why when I talk to a golfer about the various aspects of feel, if they look at me like they have no idea what I'm talking about, or if they specifically tell me they don't notice such things, then I say "fine, that's OK" and use my judgment based on evaluating their strength + transition force + tempo to make these decisions for them. I then watch for improvement in on-center hits with an impact label while doing the test club thing.
No question if you take any assembled club and add weight to the head, you do increase its MOI and you also increase its swingweight. But if you were to lengthen the club without adding any weight to the head, you would also increase its MOI and increase its swingweight, and you would also end up with a little different headweight feel than if you just kept the length the same and added weight to the head.
In other words, it is very possible to have two clubs with identical MOI but they display a difference in headweight feel - just as it is very possible to have two clubs with identical swingweight that both display a difference in headweight feel.
Not to overcomplicate this, this is why in any fitting for any golfer, it is important to first find the best length for the golfer, and then to find the best shaft weight for the golfer based on your evaluation of their total weight needs for their strength + transition, tempo and release considerations. Finding the right length is much easier than finding the right shaft weight/total weight for a golfer.
At any rate, once the right length and best judgment for shaftweight/total weight is decided upon, then comes the search for the best headweight feel to go along with these first two.
This is why at present, I like the procedure of using a test club built with the right length and best judgment shaft weight, and then using gradual increases in headweight to try to find where the golfer both achieves a higher percentage of on center hits AND where the golfer also tells you they are liking the feel of the headweight versus their tempo and strength characteristics.
No question that much of the fitting of total weight + headweight feel is judgment and trial and error. I wish it were different, but at present there isn't any tried and true measurement that can tell us without a doubt what shaft weight and what headweight with it is going to end up allowing the golfer to achieve their best swing tempo and best on center hit performance.
I can use good educated guesses from my evaluation of their strength + transition + tempo + release, but we still have to experiment and observe the results as well as listen to what the golfer tells me.
While I am a decent ball striker at times, I personally cannot feel a big difference between a one flex difference (10 cpm's butt frequency) between two identical shafts or a 3 or 4 gram difference in headweight...but I know there are golfers who can.
The main thing I try to get across to a golfer when doing the fitting for total weight and headweight feel is to first explain that too light means you have more of a tendency to have your tempo get too quick or you have more of a tendency to think that you need to slow down. And Too heavy means you sense that it really takes more effort to swing the club or that after a few hits, you start to feel like it is too heavy or that you do have to make more effort to swing the club within your desired tempo/rhythm feel.
Putting those concepts into the golfer's mind as they go through the fitting then helps them to give me at least some feedback regarding what I need to know when it comes to increasing or decreasing weight.
Also with some golfers, usually the less experienced or the lesser skilled players, when I talk about these aspects of FEEL, many times they are not going to know what I'm talking about because they cannot themselves relate to these differences yet in their clubs. This is why when I talk to a golfer about the various aspects of feel, if they look at me like they have no idea what I'm talking about, or if they specifically tell me they don't notice such things, then I say "fine, that's OK" and use my judgment based on evaluating their strength + transition force + tempo to make these decisions for them. I then watch for improvement in on-center hits with an impact label while doing the test club thing.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
How important is "image" when a golfer decides to buy golf clubs?
Unfortunately for me, very important. The big golf companies hire marketing firms that know exactly what buttons to push in the golfer's brain to get them to buy that particular golf company's clubs. If you've been watching and believe the golf ads on TV over the past ten years, we should all be driving the ball about 400 yards and hitting the ball in the hole from 150 yards on a regular basis. Every year the newest driver promises 10 more yards and the newest iron has never been more accurate. So as long as consumers by into this, they will be emptying there wallets for the next best thing and end up being in the same boat as they were in with their previous set. Where in reality, the best club or clubs they can have for their game is a professionly custom fit set that matches their size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics. Who wouldn't want their shafts spine aligned, frequency/flex matched, MOI matched, built to the most comfortable length, with the proper lie/face angles/loft, with the most comfortable total weight and head feel, and with the most comfortable and proper size grip? And if this club has a lesser known companies name tatooed on it, so be it....the golf ball doesn't know. As Tom Wishon says, "I'll put up my clubhead designs with ANY companies head designs, any time, any place, any where".
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