Fun question to answer and this actual question came up during a recent seminar Tom Wishon did for the British PGA.
There is no question the most important performance feature on an ironhead for all levels of players has to be its MOI, the head's ability to deliver as much distance as possible when the golfer hits the ball off center. If you look at the green design on most courses, far more trouble lies in the front areas and front side areas of the greens than over the greens. To be able to hit the ball off center and still have the ball fly far enough to get over a hazard, even if the ball only drops on the very front fringe or front side fringe of the green is far better than being short and in such a trouble area.
However, what can be a problem in putting MOI first in iron head model selection is that a high MOI may bring with it a head size and shape that simply is not pleasing to the golfer. So this brings in the second most important iron head model fitting requirement which is SHAPE AND STYLE AND THE OVERALL LOOK OF THE HEAD.
There is no question any average to serious player is not going to be able to hit the ball as consistently well with an iron he does not like the look of compared to an iron model that he really likes to look at when he sets the club down behind the ball. In other words, confidence born from the shape and style of the head is very important.
At the same time, having a significantly higher MOI is more important - so this leads to a statement Wishon came up with during this recent seminar that goes like this:
Among iron head models that you like the look of enough to be able to have confidence in setting down behind the ball, always choose the head model among those that has the highest possible MOI. ANd yes, sometimes the clubmaker might have to push the golfer into giving up some shape and style preferences to be able to do this.
For example, let's say the golfer loves the look of a pure blade muscleback iron. IMHO for any golfer with a handicap above 0, a pure blade is not a great choice because it has the absolute worst off center hit forgiveness. So in this case, you have to counsel the golfer about the importance of MOI and then hunt around to see if you can find an iron model that has some of the shape/style features of the blade but still has a good bit higher MOI. Maybe when you boil it down about the blade, more than likely the golfer likes the smaller than average blade size, the thin topline, the non offset hosel design the most.
In that case, getting him into a cavity back like the 555C would still give him most all these shape/style features but bring a far better MOI along with it. Or maybe you could even get him to agree to like the slightly larger head size of the 560MC so that the MOI and off center forgiveness could be even better. Compromise in the name of much better game improvement for the golfer, in other words.
For the less skilled golfer who does not have quite the list of "must haves" for the shape and style, here the sky is the limit for iron head selection. In this case, if the golfer has been losing distance lately from age, choosing either a high COR face iron or choosing a stronger loft iron design along with putting more hybrids into his set makeup can be a very wise decision for the iron model.
I don't really put center of gravity very high on the list for iron model selection. OK, for the less skilled golfer, sure, it won't hurt to choose a lower CG design, but not at the expense of choosing the highest MOI first and a high COR face after that. There just is not that much difference between vertical CG location among all the irons out there with a higher MOI.
Sole design can be a big one, especially if the golfer has a little more steep, downward angle of attack into the ball. In this case, a more rounded sole from face to back with a more blunt leading edge can help turn the slightly fat shot into one that is solid enough to get to the front of the green.
Bendability and the capability to add head weight can also play a role when the golfer's lie, length and shaft weight needs are a little more out of the ordinary.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Equipment secrets of the Pros.
The latest issue of 'Golf World' has an article about custom-fitting, but unlike the one that appeared in Golf Digest a month or so back, it doesn't say anything at all about independent clubmakers - I apparently do not exist!! It consists of five pages, the last two of which only give details of the custom fitting centres operated or franchised by Callaway, Cleveland, Cobra, Mizuno, Nike, Ping, Titleists, Taylor Made and Wilson.
However, there is an interesting article entitled 'Equipment Secrets of the Pros'. There are the usual howlers from the journalists who write this stuff - for example, Robert Karlsson's Lob Wedge is stated to be 37" long, which apparently means that it ".... close to the length of a regular #8 iron ...", but there are some interesting snippets:
- Both Garcia and Paul McGuinley use 43" drivers. McGinley is quoted as saying: "Most people will tell you that a longer shaft in your driver can add yards, but having been on the TrackMan launch monitor, I have found that my clubhead speed increases with a shorter club."
- The most common driver loft is 9.5º (46.4%), followed by 8.5º (29.7%), 10.5º ( 12.5%) and 9.0º (8.1%). However, these would appear to be NOMINAL lofts, because at least one player is stated to be using a driver picked to a different loft - Ping's Tour Manager is quoted as saying that Lee Westwood's G10 driver "... has 9º on it, but the loft is actually 10.5º". The article goes on to say that "All the driver heads are slightly different, so Ping select the ones with more loft to use for Lee".
- Jimenez's driver is 46" long, which is said to be longer than the Tour norm. This section of the article goes on to say that (as we all know) long drivers are much more prevalent in the consumer market than on Tour because of the falicy "... the longer the club, the longer the hit ...", but refreshingly there is an addendum, again attributed to Ping's Tour Manager: "Ah, there's a catch there. Miguel boasts that he can still hit it out on the middle of the clubface, but even with the Pros, the number of strikes dead centre goes down the longer the club gets."
- A lot of players have the face angles of their drivers & fwy woods cranked or set open by between 2º-4º. The exception - surprisingly - seems to be Garcia, who has his r11 set closed ".. to take the right side of the course out of play."
- Sergio Carcia's irons are apparently shorter than standard, but have counterweights installed.
- Most of the players interviewed have the soles of their wedges re-ground to reduce the bounce at the heel (which Tom Wishon has always done as standard).
However, there is an interesting article entitled 'Equipment Secrets of the Pros'. There are the usual howlers from the journalists who write this stuff - for example, Robert Karlsson's Lob Wedge is stated to be 37" long, which apparently means that it ".... close to the length of a regular #8 iron ...", but there are some interesting snippets:
- Both Garcia and Paul McGuinley use 43" drivers. McGinley is quoted as saying: "Most people will tell you that a longer shaft in your driver can add yards, but having been on the TrackMan launch monitor, I have found that my clubhead speed increases with a shorter club."
- The most common driver loft is 9.5º (46.4%), followed by 8.5º (29.7%), 10.5º ( 12.5%) and 9.0º (8.1%). However, these would appear to be NOMINAL lofts, because at least one player is stated to be using a driver picked to a different loft - Ping's Tour Manager is quoted as saying that Lee Westwood's G10 driver "... has 9º on it, but the loft is actually 10.5º". The article goes on to say that "All the driver heads are slightly different, so Ping select the ones with more loft to use for Lee".
- Jimenez's driver is 46" long, which is said to be longer than the Tour norm. This section of the article goes on to say that (as we all know) long drivers are much more prevalent in the consumer market than on Tour because of the falicy "... the longer the club, the longer the hit ...", but refreshingly there is an addendum, again attributed to Ping's Tour Manager: "Ah, there's a catch there. Miguel boasts that he can still hit it out on the middle of the clubface, but even with the Pros, the number of strikes dead centre goes down the longer the club gets."
- A lot of players have the face angles of their drivers & fwy woods cranked or set open by between 2º-4º. The exception - surprisingly - seems to be Garcia, who has his r11 set closed ".. to take the right side of the course out of play."
- Sergio Carcia's irons are apparently shorter than standard, but have counterweights installed.
- Most of the players interviewed have the soles of their wedges re-ground to reduce the bounce at the heel (which Tom Wishon has always done as standard).
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Why are Tour Pros hitting a 5 iron 200+ yards?
For one thing, ALL the Tour Pros hit an iron the way it supposed to be....hands ahead of the ball at impact resulting in a descending blow which takes loft off the iron. It is also a fact that the AVERAGE tour player's clubhead speed is substantially higher than it was back in the Nicklaus/Miller era on tour. Back then the average driver speed was about 104-105 with avg 5-iron speed around 79-80 while today we're seeing that average be around +9 to +10 mph higher....because of stronger, more physically fit golfers.
Most of the tour players do not use irons based on a 24, 25, 26 deg 5-iron loft - they use iron lofts more in the area of a 27-28 deg 5-iron. Now granted, back in the Nicklaus/Miller era, irons were made more based on a 30*-32* 5-iron and it was more common to see the avg tour player hit 7 iron from 150, with big hitters using 8 iron from 150 - but still when you see the avg clubhead speed be that much higher today, this is a chief reason you see the 175 yd 7 iron and 200 yd 5-iron with a slight loft decrease contributing a little.
Most of the tour players do not use irons based on a 24, 25, 26 deg 5-iron loft - they use iron lofts more in the area of a 27-28 deg 5-iron. Now granted, back in the Nicklaus/Miller era, irons were made more based on a 30*-32* 5-iron and it was more common to see the avg tour player hit 7 iron from 150, with big hitters using 8 iron from 150 - but still when you see the avg clubhead speed be that much higher today, this is a chief reason you see the 175 yd 7 iron and 200 yd 5-iron with a slight loft decrease contributing a little.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The Three Key Specifications of Driver Fitting (and a few more that will help as well).
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.
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.
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.
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