Donate Your Swing to Science

John Jones - Tour Lock Golf

I've reported that counter weighting your driver will add 2-3 MPH of ball speed. That translates into 6-10 yards of additional carry distance for most golfers. In addition, other metrics are likely to improve: consistency of ball speed, launch angle, swing path and face angle at impact. You are likely to hit more balls on the center of the club face.

The company that pioneered counter weighting is Balance-Certified Golf - founded and managed by two former NASA engineers in Huntsville, Alabama. Jeff Lindner and John Cranston deserve credit for "creating the category" in high-tech speak. Their products reflect their engineering background. The B- C parts are intricate and machined to precise tolerances. This year they introduced the "Shaft Stabilizer". It is a breakthrough product. Their innovation is that they moved weight down the shaft under a player's lower hand. The result is that the balance point of the golf club is moved up toward the grip. The evidence is that a club with a higher balance point is easier to control. Hold that thought. For more information on Balance-Certified, follow this link: http://balance- certified.com.

A new company entered the market this year - Tour Lock Golf founded by John Johnson. John is a PGA pro and he's obsessed by helping players improve their swing by changing the way golf clubs are balanced. In his quest, he found a way to manufacture counterweights that are less complicated than the Balance-Certified parts and consequently less expensive. The cost of counter weighting a set of clubs has dropped to about $200. Since the counterweights are removable and reusable, it's easy to justify counter weighting as an investment in a better game.

John Jones at Tour Lock has his own new inventions. The first is a weight that can be located at any point in the shaft. It comes in several gram weights so there is a lot of leeway to change the balance of a golf club. John is less interested in increasing ball speed for distance. He's much more interested in a player's swing path and the point where the player releases the club through impact. He is convinced that he can produce dramatic changes in a player's swing by strategic location of weights in the club.

The problem is that he doesn't know exactly where those strategic locations might be.

We signed up to help him advance the state of the art with our sophisticated electronics. That's where the "Donate Your Swing to Science" line came from. We need test subjects and that's where you come in.

John will be at the Golf Lab all day Thursday and Friday next week. That's the 24th and 25th of July. We are inviting all Golf Lab clients who would like to be part of the testing to receive a free one hour fitting for counter weights from John and Leith. For an introduction to John Johnson, follow this link: http:// www.calgolftech.com/johnson.html

We will start with your own clubs. We'll test them for length, lie angle and flex so we'll have a benchmark. We'll test your swing with your clubs so we know the metrics in original condition. Then, adding a variety of counter weights first under the grip and then down the shaft we'll find the scheme that works the best and produces improved results that can be measured and proven with launch monitor data. We'll have all of our electronic gizmos in place for the test. If you want to find out if counter weighting works for you - by testing all of the options under the eye of a PGA Professional - and know exactly the improvement that you get - this is a no-brainer. You must have an appointment. John will only be here for two days. We'll work eight hours a day so that's room for sixteen players. Give the Golf Lab a call to reserve a convenient time. (650) 493-1770.

As an added bonus, John will have some of his prototype putter shafts and putters along. If you want to try something that's really new and untested, we'll work with you to see if weight in your putter shaft will help your stroke.

If you can't make it Thursday or Friday, you can still get your clubs fitted for counter weights at the Golf Lab. You'll miss the "freebie" but our fee for fitting weights is reasonable. You'll get personal attention from Leith Anderson. This is the closest thing to a miracle that we've seen in golf clubs.