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Game Improvement Golf Newsletter
Information to improve your golf game (January 2012)
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Greetings!
Driver Face Angle - "Who Would Know?"
Happy New Year to all of you and hope you play your best golf this year! From time to time, I hope to write some short "Who Would Know?" pieces in the coming months, hope these are valuable!
Roughly 10 years or so ago, I purchased the driver that got me started as a professional club fitter (nope, will not go into details here....). A Ping driver, 7 degrees, a lot smaller head size (maybe 350 cc?), and 1 degree OPEN face. I remember that driver faces back then often had open faces, but did not remember the connection until today.
I would be willing to bet that - when head sizes were smaller - many of them had open faces. Why? - it was easier to close the face of these clubs at impact, so a slight open face would help to reduce shot dispersion.
Today, however, if you go into a store you will find that most drivers you pick up off the rack have faces that are in the range of 1 to 2 degrees closed. Why? - because the 460 cc driver heads are HARDER to close at impact, so the closed face can help the player to keep the ball in play.
Closed face 460 cc driver heads can, in principle, be a good fitting option for some players. However, what I find is that most folks I see do not know a closed face driver is designed to be set up closed (I mean, who would tell them?). What do they do? - what any person would do - they adjust the driver so that the face looks Square at setup. If they are, say, playing a 10 degree loft driver with 2 degrees close face, setting up the face square: a) makes the playing loft of this driver 12 degrees, and b) negates the purpose of the 2 degree closed face - leading to more pushed shots.
Who Would Know!
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Iron Lengths - Maybe A Better Way
In reviewing content from past newsletters, I realized that I had not written any information related to the differences in length between different irons in a set. This is an important club fitting and building parameter.
If you look at a set of golf clubs say from a 4 iron to a Pitching wedge, the "standard" different in lengths between clubs is 1/2 inch. I saw a chart of data from about 50 years ago, and that length difference was in the clubs built then.
Why 1/2 inch differences? Well, while I cannot find a specific reference for this, I am almost certain that it related to swing weight matching of a set of golf clubs. Golf club heads are typically build with about 7 gram weight differences between clubs, and it turns out that a 1/2 inch difference in length between clubs - with 7 gram weight differences - results in a swing weight matched set.
The next question though is What About Iron Lie Angles? The combination of club length and lie determines - for a given player - if that club will set up well for him/her. It turns out that there are no industry standards for iron lie angles. So some of the clubs my have the right lie angle for you, but others may not.
A few years ago, a concept called "True Length Technology" (TLT) was developed and patented by Dan Connolly from Canada. His approach makes a lot of sense - finding the right "dynamic position" for a player and then adjusting lie angles and lengths to put the player in that dynamic position with all of his irons. He found that if you made 1 degree lie angle differences between clubs, then the length difference between them would be less than the "standard" 1/2 inch difference - more like 3/8 inch difference.
Using TLT lengths in a set of irons tends to make the longer irons shorter than in "standard" sets, and the shorter irons longer. It actually turns out that if a set of clubs is built with TLT lengths, it is also easier to MOI weight match that set of clubs than if 1/2 inch length differences are used.
Many club fitters build iron sets to True Length Technology specs. I also know some who use 3/8 inch club length difference and 1 degree lie angle difference, and a few who use 0.4 inch club length differences.
Using non "standard" club length differences might not be for everyone, but it is a concept worth considering.
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Swingweight vs Swingweight....
In one of my past newsletters, I discussed the difference between swing weight and MOI and my view that, for many players, swing weight may not be the best way to quantify the "weight feel" of a golf club. Last week I realized I had some club weighting results from one of my best buddies - me - that hopefully are useful to share with you.
Late last spring I built a set of irons for myself using a steel taper-tip shaft that weighed about 110 grams. They performed well when I was swinging well, but I did feel like I had to "work" a little too hard to get the distances I would like from my irons.
A little before Christmas, when doing initial Flightscope testing, I did some tests with a lighter-weight graphite shaft (one that actually has been used by at least one player on the PGA Tour). The raw weight of this shaft is about 82 grams, almost 30 grams less than the steel one. Data shows that I am hitting this club about 10 yards further than the steel-shafted one.
I decided to rebuild my irons with the graphite shafts, and MOI matched the set based on Flightscope data. Here is the data from the two 6 irons, one with the steel shaft and one with the graphite shaft - both clubs built to exactly the same length, same grip used on both clubs, head weight of graphite shafted club 2 grams heavier:
Steel Shafted 6 iron:
Swingweight - D1.5
MOI - 2688
Graphite shafted 6 iron:
Swingweight - D1.5
MOI - 2644
Knowing what we know about MOI being a more "dynamic" measurement of the weight of the golf club, we would expect the graphite shafted club to have a lower MOI - easier to swing. However - and remember the steel shafted club is about 30 grams heavier than the graphite one - the swing weights of the two clubs are Exactly The Same.
The point for you - Swingweight Can Fool You. Club Feel - a combination of the club MOI, total weight, and shaft flex - are most important to produce the best results.
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Scott Stallings "Inside the PGA Tour" - and 2012 PGA Equipment Show
Followers of this newsletter know that I am a big Scott Stallings fan, and he had a great first year on the PGA Tour. I found out this week (thanks Des!) that he was recently the host of the 1/2 hour "Inside the PGA Tour" show. If you were not able to see that, you can go to my Facebook page Scott - Inside the PGA Tour! and scroll down until you find links to videos from that show. And while you are on my Facebook page, if you want to "Like" that page I would really appreciate it.
In 2 weeks my higher power (Diane) and I will be going to Orlando, FL to the PGA Equipment Show (well, she will probably not attend!). This year I will, in addition to seeing vendor exhibits, attend the Equipment Demo Day on Wednesday. The next issue of this newsletter will be devoted to information I learned there that hopefully can help you play better golf.
The Fit Is IT!
Tony Wright (The Golfer's Clubfitter)
GAME IMPROVEMENT GOLF
Oak Ridge, TN
tony@gameimprovementgolf.com
www.gameimprovementgolf.com
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