From Tom Wishon:
I'll just chime in with some info on the shafts that the OEM companies use in their standard off the rack clubs because I have a good deal of experience to know about that.
When an OEM goes to work to come up with a shaft that is going to be installed in the millions of clubs they will make to be shipped to all the retail stores and pro shops to be sold off the rack, they have two primary requirements.
1) It cannot cost them much more than $10 because they want to keep their profit per club up as high as possible. With clubhead prices rising quite a bit over the past 2 yrs, the OEMs definitely do not want to spend much money on their stock shafts.
2) It has to be of a weight, flex and bend profile that would fit as wide of a range of golfers as possible. That means most stock shafts for drivers and woods are going to be in the area of 65 grams in weight, and will not be too stiff in the butt or tip section for each flex letter. Some OEMS are taking the additional approach to create their S flex stock shafts to be stiffer in the tip section for its flex than will be the R flex stock shaft. In other words, they make the S for a better player but the R for a very much average swinger.
Basically, as the golfer has a more and more aggressive swing speed, with a later and later release, the chances of most OEM stock shafts fitting them properly gets smaller and smaller - thus the need for better than avg to much better players having to spend even more money to get their standard off the rack club fit with a different shaft.
All this once again adds up to say that a golfer who buys off the rack and does not go find an experienced clubmaker to be fit for his/her clubs is unfortunately exhibiting behavior that is not very smart.
TOM
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Is there anything to the stand alone wedge shafts that promise more spin and lower flight?
Most companies that make a separate, standalone wedge shaft such as the Spinner will design such shafts so they have the same overall stiffness as a shaft that would be installed in an 8 iron in the set. So they are in essence made to be 2 clubs softer in their overall flex. Thus if you have the DGS3 taper tip, you would use the 8 iron shaft in the wedge. If you had a parallel tip version, you would use the 8 iron tip trim amount for the shaft being put in the wedge.
What you're talking about in terms of lower flight with more spin is a MYTH - you can't make a shaft that offers a lower launch angle AND higher spin. To make a shaft offer lower flight means you have to make the shaft stiffer overall or make the tip section stiffer. When you do that, you act to LOWER the spin on the shaft, because stiffer shafts always spin the ball less than more flexible shafts. Can't be any other way.
What you're talking about in terms of lower flight with more spin is a MYTH - you can't make a shaft that offers a lower launch angle AND higher spin. To make a shaft offer lower flight means you have to make the shaft stiffer overall or make the tip section stiffer. When you do that, you act to LOWER the spin on the shaft, because stiffer shafts always spin the ball less than more flexible shafts. Can't be any other way.
Friday, December 16, 2011
When OEM's build to standard specs, how do they decide what standard specs are?
The answer to this questions is somewhat of a combination of events and action that all began many years ago.
The very first "standard specs" were chosen by individual clubmakers in the UK in the early 1900s who were in the process of converting their businesses from making one set at a time for one golfer at a time into more of a mass production basis. Up to this time, golf had not grown to be large enough for there to be a lot of golf courses with pro shops and club pros who were demanding to have sets of clubs in their pro shops to sell. Golfers of this era had to go to individual clubmakers to buy their clubs. While the clubmakers did not know all that much about individual fitting specs, they did at least know to build each set so its weights, grip size, and lengths were at least made to try to match to the physical characteristics of each golfer.
As the game grew and more courses were built in the early 1900s, more club pros got jobs at the courses and the pros decided they wanted to have clubs in their pro shops to sell to the golfers who came to the courses to play. Seeing this as a way to increase business, not all, but a few of the more enterprising clubmakers began to build sets to sell to the pros to be stocked in the pro shops and sold to the golfers. Thus this started the off the rack business model that still exists today.
The specs for these clubs were chosen by the clubmakers based on simple averages of the specs the clubmakers built for the golfers who previously had come to them to buy their clubs.
The American golf companies began to evolve in the very late 1800s and early 1900s. First were Spalding and MacGregor, followed in the 1900s by Wright & Ditson, in the 1910s by Wilson and the 1920s by Burke. Because America was so much larger than Britain and because golf evolved here such that there were no individual clubmakers in each town, almost right from the start the American golf companies pursued the "standard off the rack" business model. Their specs were adopted from having seen standard clubs made by the UK companies.
This all evolved through the 1930s to an actual series of standard specs that actually became agreed upon standards among the golf companies. Rarely did you see a golf company build their clubs with specs that were different. Men's drivers were always 43", 11*, 0 square and D2. Fwys were #2, 3, 4 and each 1" shorter than the driver, with lofts in progression of 13*, 16*, 19*. Irons were made on the basis of a 39" #2 iron at 20* loft/57* lie with all irons following at +4* loft, +1* lie and -1/2" length from there. PW had the same lie as the 9 because it was the same length at 35".
And those were the standards that no one deviated from. Until the 1980s. In the early 80s, the number of golf club companies tripled. All of a sudden competition for sales between this much larger number of golf companies became fierce.
Trying to find an edge on their competition, one company (I think it was Cobra from memory) decided to increase the length of their clubs and slightly lower the lofts of their irons. The reason was obvious - "if we make the clubs longer and lower in loft, golfers will hit the ball farther and we'll sell more clubs because everyone knows that distance sells golf clubs."
And thus started the trend of longer lengths and lower lofts that still goes on today. At first, drivers grew to 44". Then when every company pushed their driver length to 44, one of the companies jumped it to 44 1/2". Then to 45". Then to 45 1/2" and so on to where we are today at 46 1/2".
Same with iron lofts. Speaking only of the 5 iron to show the evolution, from the 80s on, the 5 iron went from 32* to 30*, then to 28*, then to 27* then to 26* and so on. Every time the majority of companies changed their lofts, some other company jumped their lofts stronger yet.
So these "standards" on clubs today most definitely were NOT determined by any research on what the "Average Golfer" needs. If you could say any one part of today's std club specs is based on some sort of average analysis of golfers, I suppose you could say the stock R flex shaft from most companies could be said to be chosen on that basis. But then too, if you look at all the stock shafts in the big company's clubs, you can find variations there.
But in terms of lengths and lofts, these are most definitely NOT chosen on the basis of what average golfers need to be able to play reasonably well. They were chosen to try to allow one company to gain a competitive sales advantage over another company, simply to sell more clubs.
What's sad is that most of the specs on std clubs today actually prevent most golfers from playing to the best of their ability.
But what's GOOD about this is that it very much does allow a good clubmaker/clubfitter to fit and build clubs for golfers that DO allow them to play better. The challenge of course is for the clubmakers to convince the golfers that what they can do for the golfer is better than what the big companies offer.
The very first "standard specs" were chosen by individual clubmakers in the UK in the early 1900s who were in the process of converting their businesses from making one set at a time for one golfer at a time into more of a mass production basis. Up to this time, golf had not grown to be large enough for there to be a lot of golf courses with pro shops and club pros who were demanding to have sets of clubs in their pro shops to sell. Golfers of this era had to go to individual clubmakers to buy their clubs. While the clubmakers did not know all that much about individual fitting specs, they did at least know to build each set so its weights, grip size, and lengths were at least made to try to match to the physical characteristics of each golfer.
As the game grew and more courses were built in the early 1900s, more club pros got jobs at the courses and the pros decided they wanted to have clubs in their pro shops to sell to the golfers who came to the courses to play. Seeing this as a way to increase business, not all, but a few of the more enterprising clubmakers began to build sets to sell to the pros to be stocked in the pro shops and sold to the golfers. Thus this started the off the rack business model that still exists today.
The specs for these clubs were chosen by the clubmakers based on simple averages of the specs the clubmakers built for the golfers who previously had come to them to buy their clubs.
The American golf companies began to evolve in the very late 1800s and early 1900s. First were Spalding and MacGregor, followed in the 1900s by Wright & Ditson, in the 1910s by Wilson and the 1920s by Burke. Because America was so much larger than Britain and because golf evolved here such that there were no individual clubmakers in each town, almost right from the start the American golf companies pursued the "standard off the rack" business model. Their specs were adopted from having seen standard clubs made by the UK companies.
This all evolved through the 1930s to an actual series of standard specs that actually became agreed upon standards among the golf companies. Rarely did you see a golf company build their clubs with specs that were different. Men's drivers were always 43", 11*, 0 square and D2. Fwys were #2, 3, 4 and each 1" shorter than the driver, with lofts in progression of 13*, 16*, 19*. Irons were made on the basis of a 39" #2 iron at 20* loft/57* lie with all irons following at +4* loft, +1* lie and -1/2" length from there. PW had the same lie as the 9 because it was the same length at 35".
And those were the standards that no one deviated from. Until the 1980s. In the early 80s, the number of golf club companies tripled. All of a sudden competition for sales between this much larger number of golf companies became fierce.
Trying to find an edge on their competition, one company (I think it was Cobra from memory) decided to increase the length of their clubs and slightly lower the lofts of their irons. The reason was obvious - "if we make the clubs longer and lower in loft, golfers will hit the ball farther and we'll sell more clubs because everyone knows that distance sells golf clubs."
And thus started the trend of longer lengths and lower lofts that still goes on today. At first, drivers grew to 44". Then when every company pushed their driver length to 44, one of the companies jumped it to 44 1/2". Then to 45". Then to 45 1/2" and so on to where we are today at 46 1/2".
Same with iron lofts. Speaking only of the 5 iron to show the evolution, from the 80s on, the 5 iron went from 32* to 30*, then to 28*, then to 27* then to 26* and so on. Every time the majority of companies changed their lofts, some other company jumped their lofts stronger yet.
So these "standards" on clubs today most definitely were NOT determined by any research on what the "Average Golfer" needs. If you could say any one part of today's std club specs is based on some sort of average analysis of golfers, I suppose you could say the stock R flex shaft from most companies could be said to be chosen on that basis. But then too, if you look at all the stock shafts in the big company's clubs, you can find variations there.
But in terms of lengths and lofts, these are most definitely NOT chosen on the basis of what average golfers need to be able to play reasonably well. They were chosen to try to allow one company to gain a competitive sales advantage over another company, simply to sell more clubs.
What's sad is that most of the specs on std clubs today actually prevent most golfers from playing to the best of their ability.
But what's GOOD about this is that it very much does allow a good clubmaker/clubfitter to fit and build clubs for golfers that DO allow them to play better. The challenge of course is for the clubmakers to convince the golfers that what they can do for the golfer is better than what the big companies offer.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The “New” SuperLite Shaft Trend – Who’s it For?
By Tom Wishon:
One of the advantages to getting “longer in the tooth” in any area of interest is it gives you the opportunity to separate the “been there done that” from the things that truly are new and different. One of the latest “rages” in the golf equipment industry is the current trend among some of the companies to offer “superlite” drivers – drivers made with a graphite shaft that weighs less than 50 grams to allow the total weight of the driver to be less than 300 grams (@10.5 oz).
The marketing concept behind these very light weight drivers is simple – the lighter weight driver can be swung with the same effort to achieve a higher swing speed, from which comes more distance. This concept of go lighter to swing faster is definitely not a new direction in club design. Veteran clubmakers may remember the short lived fad started by the Dave Pelz Featherlite clubs of the 1980s with their B-8 to C-O swingweights, as well as the mid-90s era of superlight weight drivers whose sub-300 gram total weight was made possible through the design of light graphite shafts with a huge butt diameter that required a very light weight grip.
Today’s trip down superlite memory lane is fueled by the design of graphite shafts which weigh less than 50 grams yet can still be made with a flex and bend profile to meet the needs of the most powerful swingers in the game.
To give credit where credit is due, it is a remarkable step forward in graphite shaft design to be able to make a 45 gram shaft with a flex and bend profile design that could fit a golfer with a 110mph clubhead speed and aggressive swing characteristics. Shaft makers have achieved this by using expensive high modulus composite materials in a thin wall shaft construction. Up until a few years ago, a 50 gram graphite shaft was chiefly for easy swinging golfers with swing speeds under 90mph.
But now that we do have access to superlight weight shafts in any variety of stiffness design, the question that has to be answered is “who are these shafts and resulting super light weight drivers for?” if you buy into the big companies’ marketing, they’re for EVERY golfer. But if you buy into the concept of professional clubfitting, determining what golfers are best matched into such a light weight design is a matter of probing the golfers’ strength, the force they apply when starting the downswing (transition force), and their downswing aggressiveness.
Typically, the stronger the golfer, the shorter the backswing and more forceful the transition, and the more aggressive the downswing, the heavier the shaft and total weight of the club should be to ensure the golfer can maintain a consistent, repeating swing tempo that allows the highest percentage of on center hits.
However, there is one “fudge factor” in this which will allow some golfers with stronger, more aggressive move at the ball to potentially use a very light weight shaft to gain clubhead speed while retaining their proper sense of swing tempo and timing – and that is by partnering the very light shaft with a higher than normal swingweight or more pronounced headweight feel in the club. What you don’t want to do is give an aggressive swinging golfer a very light shaft with a low swingweight.
By cranking the swingweight higher than normal, this can offset the strong aggressive swinging golfer’s tendency to get too quick with their tempo when using a club with a very light weight shaft.
On the other hand, the biggest population that can gain from a sub-300 gram driver total weight are golfers of average to lower strength who swing more smoothly with a less aggressive downswing move at the ball. But even with these golfers, you still have to experiment with the headweight to get to a point that each golfer can feel the presence of the head enough during the swing so as to maintain a consistent swing tempo.
Until next time, best wishes in this great game,
TOM
One of the advantages to getting “longer in the tooth” in any area of interest is it gives you the opportunity to separate the “been there done that” from the things that truly are new and different. One of the latest “rages” in the golf equipment industry is the current trend among some of the companies to offer “superlite” drivers – drivers made with a graphite shaft that weighs less than 50 grams to allow the total weight of the driver to be less than 300 grams (@10.5 oz).
The marketing concept behind these very light weight drivers is simple – the lighter weight driver can be swung with the same effort to achieve a higher swing speed, from which comes more distance. This concept of go lighter to swing faster is definitely not a new direction in club design. Veteran clubmakers may remember the short lived fad started by the Dave Pelz Featherlite clubs of the 1980s with their B-8 to C-O swingweights, as well as the mid-90s era of superlight weight drivers whose sub-300 gram total weight was made possible through the design of light graphite shafts with a huge butt diameter that required a very light weight grip.
Today’s trip down superlite memory lane is fueled by the design of graphite shafts which weigh less than 50 grams yet can still be made with a flex and bend profile to meet the needs of the most powerful swingers in the game.
To give credit where credit is due, it is a remarkable step forward in graphite shaft design to be able to make a 45 gram shaft with a flex and bend profile design that could fit a golfer with a 110mph clubhead speed and aggressive swing characteristics. Shaft makers have achieved this by using expensive high modulus composite materials in a thin wall shaft construction. Up until a few years ago, a 50 gram graphite shaft was chiefly for easy swinging golfers with swing speeds under 90mph.
But now that we do have access to superlight weight shafts in any variety of stiffness design, the question that has to be answered is “who are these shafts and resulting super light weight drivers for?” if you buy into the big companies’ marketing, they’re for EVERY golfer. But if you buy into the concept of professional clubfitting, determining what golfers are best matched into such a light weight design is a matter of probing the golfers’ strength, the force they apply when starting the downswing (transition force), and their downswing aggressiveness.
Typically, the stronger the golfer, the shorter the backswing and more forceful the transition, and the more aggressive the downswing, the heavier the shaft and total weight of the club should be to ensure the golfer can maintain a consistent, repeating swing tempo that allows the highest percentage of on center hits.
However, there is one “fudge factor” in this which will allow some golfers with stronger, more aggressive move at the ball to potentially use a very light weight shaft to gain clubhead speed while retaining their proper sense of swing tempo and timing – and that is by partnering the very light shaft with a higher than normal swingweight or more pronounced headweight feel in the club. What you don’t want to do is give an aggressive swinging golfer a very light shaft with a low swingweight.
By cranking the swingweight higher than normal, this can offset the strong aggressive swinging golfer’s tendency to get too quick with their tempo when using a club with a very light weight shaft.
On the other hand, the biggest population that can gain from a sub-300 gram driver total weight are golfers of average to lower strength who swing more smoothly with a less aggressive downswing move at the ball. But even with these golfers, you still have to experiment with the headweight to get to a point that each golfer can feel the presence of the head enough during the swing so as to maintain a consistent swing tempo.
Until next time, best wishes in this great game,
TOM
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Can you pleasew explain the terms "bend point" or "flex point" in regards to shafts?
Bend Point/Flex Point are terms from the "old days" which we really wish would just die and go away, never to be seen or heard of again. They evolved from a very old mechanical test done on shafts in the 1950s which had absolutely no relevance to how a shaft actually bends during a swing. The old bend point test involved fixturing a shaft so you could apply a pushing force inward from both ends of the shaft. The shaft bowed in response to this and the highest point of deflection was considered the bend point. Problem is that there is never a time during the swing in which a force is transmitted up the shaft form the tip and down the shaft from the butt. So the test and term is not relevant at all and needs to be discarded completely.
Then the industry moved to doing their bend point test by hanging a weight from the tip end (normal deflection test) and noting the point of maximum deviation from a straight line drawn from the tip to the butt. While this form of bending of the shaft was more relevant, the problem here is that if you do this test on every shaft you'll find the difference between the highest and lowest bend point is less than 2inches.
What we have instead are different bend profiles, or rather, differences in the distribution of stiffness over the full length of a shaft. This gives rise to generic terms like "tip stiff", "tip flexible", "butt stiff", "butt flexible" and so on. As generic terms, these too are not worthwhile because they are not specific enough to allow anyone to use them to compare shafts accurately from a fitting standpoint.
Which moves us into the graphs that are the key element for shaft comparison in the Bend Profile software where over 1200 shafts have been tested all along the length of the shaft every 5 inches. Something like this is FAR more relevant for comparing the stiffness design of shafts so as to know more about how the shafts differ in stiffness design, WHERE they differ on the shaft and by HOW MUCH.
Then the industry moved to doing their bend point test by hanging a weight from the tip end (normal deflection test) and noting the point of maximum deviation from a straight line drawn from the tip to the butt. While this form of bending of the shaft was more relevant, the problem here is that if you do this test on every shaft you'll find the difference between the highest and lowest bend point is less than 2inches.
What we have instead are different bend profiles, or rather, differences in the distribution of stiffness over the full length of a shaft. This gives rise to generic terms like "tip stiff", "tip flexible", "butt stiff", "butt flexible" and so on. As generic terms, these too are not worthwhile because they are not specific enough to allow anyone to use them to compare shafts accurately from a fitting standpoint.
Which moves us into the graphs that are the key element for shaft comparison in the Bend Profile software where over 1200 shafts have been tested all along the length of the shaft every 5 inches. Something like this is FAR more relevant for comparing the stiffness design of shafts so as to know more about how the shafts differ in stiffness design, WHERE they differ on the shaft and by HOW MUCH.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Can My Current Clubs be Custom Fit for Me?
Posted by Tom on Sep 9, 2011.
I understand. You’ve become aware of the benefits of professional clubfitting, you want to see if custom fitting can make a real difference in your game, but you don’t want to spring for a totally new set of clubs because your clubs aren’t that old.
Can your existing clubs, or can clubs you just bought off the rack in a golf store or pro shop be custom fit to your swing and how you play?
For a couple of the 13 key fitting elements, yes, for a fewmore of the 13 key clubfitting elements possibly, but for all of them, no they can’t. In addition, the number of fitting specs that can be retro-fit to meet your needs depends on the skill of the clubmaker doing the adjustments to the clubs. But rather than talk around this, let’s talk directly about it by going over each of the fitting specifications, one by one.
Length and Swingweight: If your best fit length is longer or shorter than your existing clubs, sure, the shafts can be cut shorter or extenders can be epoxied into the end of the shaft to make them longer. That’s easy. The tough part is whether the clubs can be re-swingweighted to meet your swingweight requirements after the length change. If the clubs are cut shorter, you’ll likely need weight added to the clubheads to get the swingweight back up to the proper level that matches your swing and preference for the feel of the clubhead. There are only two ways to do that in clubheads made for a set bought standard off the rack – weight would have to be put at the very tip end of the shafts or lead tape put on the outside of the heads. And for graphite shafted clubs, to do a proper job of adding weight in the tip end of the shaft, the clubmaker has to remove each shaft to put the weight in from the tip end.
If you need to drop the weight of the clubheads to achieve your best fit swingweight at the new length, sorry, that cannot be done. While grinding weight off the head seems a solution, in practical terms this really can’t be done on any metal woodhead because the walls of the head body are too thin. On stainless irons, weight could be ground off, but few clubmakers have the equipment or skill to refinish the heads to look good. On forged irons, the heads would have to be re-chromed at about $40 a pop or else they’ll rust.
Loft and Face Angle: It’s unlikely you would need different lofts for the irons, but if you did, a skilled clubmaker with a loft and lie adjustment machine should be able to bend the new loft into each iron head. If the heads are made from 17-4 stainless steel (most PING and CALLAWAY irons) you’ll have to find a very experienced clubmaker to do the bends. So that’s possible for sure. For your metal woods and driver, sorry, you can’t change the loft or the face angle so if you do need a different loft and face angle on your driver and woods, you’ll have to buy a new clubhead.
Shaft Weight, Flex, Bend Point, Torque: If you need different shafts to better fit your swing, no question, any skilled clubmaker can pull your old shafts and install the new shafts. But if the new shafts are of a different weight or to be installed to a different length than what you had, anytime you change shaft weight or length, re-swingweighting the clubs is required – and we’ve already explained the challenges and limits to that one.
Grip Style and Size: Piece of cake for your old grips to be replaced with ones you like the feel of and which fit your hands better for comfort. The only thing you have to be aware of is if the new grips are a lot lighter or heavier than your old ones. If so you may need to have the swingweight adjusted to get it back where you like it for your swing tempo and timing – and once again as I’ve explained before, this could be a problem.
Total Weight: Total weight is the overall weight of the whole club. It is chiefly controlled by the weight of your shafts. So if you need a lighter or heavier total weight to better match to your transition force, tempo, rhythm and strength that’s done by changing to a lighter or heavier shaft which still has the right flex, bend point and torque to fit your swing. See the comments above for shaft changing.
Set Makeup: So many golfers have bought off the rack clubs in the usual set makeup of 1, 3, 5, 7 woods and 3-9, PW, SW irons. Most of them are playing with sets that have at least three clubs they can’t hit well enough to merit them being in the bag (3w, 3i, 4i). If the clubfitter recommends a set makeup change, plain and simple this means buying the clubs new you need to get the set makeup where it needs to be to help your game the most.
Clubhead Design: Well, this one’s obvious. You can’t magically change one style of clubhead into another. If the clubheads on your existing set are not the best for your manner of play, now you really know you an attempted retro-fit of your existing clubs is a total waste.
Conclusion: I know money can be tight these days for a lot of us, so a retro-fit might seem to be the best of all worlds to help golfers get fit without buying a whole new set from scratch. Best advice I can give you if you are dead set on a retro-fit? Retro fit the irons but be fully custom fit from scratch for a new driver and woods. Seriously though, the only way to really experience the full game improvement benefits from professional clubfitting is to be fully fit by an expert clubmaker for all custom fit clubs, each one custom built from scratch to fit you and your size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics. It really can make so much more difference than trying to cobble together your existing clubs to fit.
Until next time, best wishes in this great game.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Things you need to know about golf clubs.
If you're like the majority of golfers, your interest in buying a new golf club or set of clubs is first piqued by advertisements or commercials from a golf company announcing the performance technology behind their latest golf club model. Once you develop enough of an interest in a particular club or set to act, you then head out to the local golf store or pro shop to take a look and possibly test hit the club(s). If you decide to buy, where you buy the clubs then typically becomes a matter of which store or website has the lowest price.
Some Things you should know about golf clubs before you buy them:
Every golf club or set of clubs ever made has 13 different specifications that make those clubs what they are. Those 13 different elements are the Lengths, Loft Angles, Lie Angles, Face Angle, Shaft Weight, Shaft Flex, Shaft Bend Profile, Shaft Torque, Swingweight, Total Weight, Grip Size/Style, Set Makeup and Clubhead Model Design. The ads or commercials that attract you to any golf club or set of clubs typically talk about one and only one of those 13 key specifications that makes each club differ from another - the clubhead design.
Here's a fact few golfers ever realize. All those golf clubs within each club model you see displayed on the display racks in your local golf store are built to differ in only 2 of those 13 key golf club specifications - you can choose between a few different shaft flexes in the irons, and for drivers you can choose between a handful of different loft angles. Within each club model the other 11 specifications are all made to be the same.
Now think about this for a moment. The last time you were at a busy driving range, did all the golfers have the same size, same strength, same athletic ability and have the same swing characteristics? Not even close I'm sure you'll agree. In fact the golfers who play this great game are quite different from each other in their size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics. Isn't it then logical to question how all these different golfers can hope to play to the best of their golfing ability if they all buy golf clubs that are made to be the same for 11 of the 13 important playing specifications?
If you're like most golfers, you might now be thinking you're not good enough in the game to have your clubs custom fit to your own individual size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics. Think about one more thing. Many of you played baseball or softball at one point in your life and probably 99.9% of you weren't good enough to play baseball or softball for a living. Yet you didn't just use any old standard bat to play the game - you bought your bat with a specific length, weight, and handle diameter that you discovered allowed you to hit the ball to the best of your ability.
So why are golf clubs any different? Like baseball or softball, success in golf is measured by how well you can hit the ball with a "stick". And like baseball or softball, all golfers cannot play to the best of their ability using golf clubs that are made to a series of standard specifications for the simple reason that all the golfers do vary in their size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics.
Statistics within the industry of custom Clubfitting show that over 70% of all golfers who shoot between 75 and 100 do experience measurable, visible shot improvement when they are custom fit for each of the 13 key Clubfitting specifications. Is there more distance, better accuracy, better shot consistency lying in your game ready to surface? With a better than a 7 in 10 chance aren't you curious to know?
Some Things you should know about golf clubs before you buy them:
Every golf club or set of clubs ever made has 13 different specifications that make those clubs what they are. Those 13 different elements are the Lengths, Loft Angles, Lie Angles, Face Angle, Shaft Weight, Shaft Flex, Shaft Bend Profile, Shaft Torque, Swingweight, Total Weight, Grip Size/Style, Set Makeup and Clubhead Model Design. The ads or commercials that attract you to any golf club or set of clubs typically talk about one and only one of those 13 key specifications that makes each club differ from another - the clubhead design.
Here's a fact few golfers ever realize. All those golf clubs within each club model you see displayed on the display racks in your local golf store are built to differ in only 2 of those 13 key golf club specifications - you can choose between a few different shaft flexes in the irons, and for drivers you can choose between a handful of different loft angles. Within each club model the other 11 specifications are all made to be the same.
Now think about this for a moment. The last time you were at a busy driving range, did all the golfers have the same size, same strength, same athletic ability and have the same swing characteristics? Not even close I'm sure you'll agree. In fact the golfers who play this great game are quite different from each other in their size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics. Isn't it then logical to question how all these different golfers can hope to play to the best of their golfing ability if they all buy golf clubs that are made to be the same for 11 of the 13 important playing specifications?
If you're like most golfers, you might now be thinking you're not good enough in the game to have your clubs custom fit to your own individual size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics. Think about one more thing. Many of you played baseball or softball at one point in your life and probably 99.9% of you weren't good enough to play baseball or softball for a living. Yet you didn't just use any old standard bat to play the game - you bought your bat with a specific length, weight, and handle diameter that you discovered allowed you to hit the ball to the best of your ability.
So why are golf clubs any different? Like baseball or softball, success in golf is measured by how well you can hit the ball with a "stick". And like baseball or softball, all golfers cannot play to the best of their ability using golf clubs that are made to a series of standard specifications for the simple reason that all the golfers do vary in their size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics.
Statistics within the industry of custom Clubfitting show that over 70% of all golfers who shoot between 75 and 100 do experience measurable, visible shot improvement when they are custom fit for each of the 13 key Clubfitting specifications. Is there more distance, better accuracy, better shot consistency lying in your game ready to surface? With a better than a 7 in 10 chance aren't you curious to know?
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