Some Christmas Golf Present Tips

This is the time of the year that many OEM 2011 golf clubs are available at some pretty great prices, and many of you may be tempted to buy yourself or others some new clubs.  Now, I have to first say that you will never get better-performing golf clubs than those that are custom fit for your individual game.  That said, JUST in case you are tempted to buy something new this holiday, here are some reminders of things you should consider in making your purchases....

A New Putter.  As noted in last month's newsletter, playing with a putter that truly fits you is the fastest way to lower scores.  Things to consider in a putter purchase are the length and lie to make sure that the golf ball sits right below your eyes or just outside your eye line, and the right putter loft and swing weight.  If you can, you should see if you can find out the actual loft of the putter you are looking at (3 to 4 degrees is good), and what the swing weight of the putter is.  If you get a putter cut down to get the length right, remember that this makes the putter feel a lot lighter and it will be necessary to add weight to the head.

A New Driver.  A recent golf magazine had an article on the clubs that Nick Whatney plays.  His driver is 44-1/2 inches long.  Almost all drivers you buy in stores are near to 46 inches long, even though I cannot seem to find an article about a PGA player who plays one that long.  If you buy one of these, you should consider having it shortened and weight added to the head to get the swing weight and feel back up.  Maybe most important though is knowing what the ACTUAL loft and face angle of the driver you buy is.  Many drivers I spec have lofts that differ as much as 2 degrees or more from what the head says.  And even if you buy one and ask it to be at a given loft, it may not come to you that way.  See if you can get the loft checked before you sign your check!

New irons.  In the efforts to keep "helping" players hit the ball further, "Vanishing Loft Disease" - making irons with less and less loft to make it seem like you hit the ball further - continues.  If you find a set that you believe you like, ask what the spec lofts are on the full set of irons.  You may find that the 6 iron has a loft of 27 degrees (rather than present "standard" of about 30 degrees) and this can create a gap between your pitching and gap wedges and your sand wedge lofts and distances.

Clubs for Your Grandbabies!!  The big thing to consider here, especially if you hope to have your grandkids play golf with you someday, it to buy them clubs that fit who THEY are.  Cutting down an old set of golf clubs - with heavier and stiffer shafts - and giving them to your grandkids is a great way to help them develop bad swing patterns.  Lightweight, soft flex clubs with higher lofts that are at the right lengths will give them a chance to develop good swing habits from the start.

Can We Help This Guy?

Santa delivered me my new Flightscope X1 Launch Monitor a few weeks ago, and it has capabilities that are a huge step up from what I had in the past.  To learn about how it works, I did some testing with one of my favorite golfers (well, me.....) and hope some of the data that I show below is of interest.

I am presently playing a 44-1/4 inch driver, Wishon 919 THI, 10.5 degree head, with a SK Fiber Lite Rev 1 A shaft in it.  MOI of the club is about 2,650.  I used the Flightscope to collect results from 5 shots. The Flightscope has a neat option called the "Driver Optimizer" that provides insights on what players can to do increase the distance of their drives..

The first image below shows Driver Optimizer data for optimizing my Carry Distance with my present driver and swing...

This second image show Driver Optimizer data for optimizing my Total Distance with my present driver and swing...

Just a few years ago I had a driver swing speed of 95 to 98 mph, oh well.  The good news, though, is that - with some swing modifications - it is still possible to hit the ball further than I presently am.

If I wanted to optimize Carry Distance, I would need to work on more Center Contact on the club face (increasing the Smash Factor from 1.43 to 1.50) and increasing my Driver Launch Angle to about 17 degrees and keeping spin about constant.  With some practice, teeing the ball a little higher, playing the ball a little more forward in my stance, and working on creating a positive Angle of Attack in my driver swing, getting closer to optimum Carry Distance is possible.

If I wanted to optimize Total Distance, I would again need to work on better Center Contact, to increase Launch Angle by about 2 degrees (tee higher, ball forward, positive Angle of Attack), and reduce spin by about 800 rpm.  Perhaps, if I was willing to use a ball that spins less, I could get some of this spin reduction.  But in the end getting closer to optimum Total Distance is also possible.

The Flightscope results illustrate what it would take to get optimum driver distance.  HOWEVER note that they do not suggest that what I necessarily need is to get a hotter driver - factors like reducing spin and increasing launch angle can definitely be influenced by how you swing the golf club, where you contact the ball on the face, and the golf ball you use!

Clubfitting eBook Complete - and AGCP Level 10 Certification

Last month I noted that I hoped to complete an eBook on the process that I use in Custom Clubfitting.  Thanks to copyrighting help from Sue LaPointe, to Harvey Gray for volunteering to be in some of the pictures, and to Dwayne Hickson from Graphic Productions, this eBook is now complete. The link to it is below, and hope you enjoy it - please share it with anyone you think would be interested.

Effective Custom Clubfitting 

I was also pleased that this past month I achieved the Level 10 AGCP Clubfitting Certification; a link to the press release on this achievement is provided below.  Thanks to all of my AGCP friends who helped me get there!

Tony Wright AGCP Level 10 Certification 

All the best to everyone during this holiday season!

The Fit Is IT!

Tony Wright (The Golfer's Clubfitter)

GAME IMPROVEMENT GOLF

Oak Ridge, TN

tony@gameimprovementgolf.com

www.gameimprovementgolf.com