The Start of True Clubfitting – Learning Your Present Club Specs
It would be interesting of some organization did a survey of golfers to find out how many of them know the actual specifications of their golf clubs. I would be willing to bet that much less than 25% of all golfers have any idea of what the Actual specs of their clubs are. I capitalize Actual because often what it says on a club or what it says on a shaft is not really what that club or shaft is.
It does not take a lot of time for a custom clubfitter to measure a majority of the key club specs for a player. Here are some of the most simple things that can be learned from obtaining club specifications….
1. True driver loft and face angle. These are the most important baseline driver club specifications. I know of instances where players think they are playing with 10 degree loft drivers and the lofts are actually 12 and even 14 degrees. Is it any wonder they hit the ball higher than they think they should? And a player might be playing with an open faced driver when they need a closed face one, for example.
2. Iron club lengths and gaps between lengths. Most “standard” iron sets that can be purchased are supposed to have 1/2 inch differences between clubs. A recent set I measured for a player, however, had 3/4 inch length differences between the 4 and 5 irons and between the 5 and 6 irons? By design it turned out, but the player was not aware of this. Was it to perhaps help the player to hit the long irons farther – even though longer not necessarily better?
3. Iron loft and lie angles. Are there consistent differences in lofts between irons? Maybe more importantly, are there large gaps between 9 iron, PW, GW, and SW lofts? If so and you know this, perhaps by bending some of the lofts the player can have more consistent distance gaps between clubs.
4. Club shaft flexes. Sometimes what you get is not what you think you get. I have seen iron shafts that were either one or two flexes too stiff for players, or in some cases shafts that were one or two flexes too soft for players. Either way, if you are not aware of this you might simply keep trying to “adjust” to make the clubs perform for you rather than getting the right flex shafts in your clubs.
5. Club swingweights or MOIs. Sometimes a player has an iron in a set that “just feels perfect.” Knowing the swingweight and perhaps more importantly the MOI of this club, and how the weighting of this club compares to others in his set can perhaps allow the player to modify all of the clubs to have that great feel. At a minimum, it is valuable to know if all of the clubs are built to “feel” the same.
We can go further and talk about things like wedge bounces, putter lie and loft angles, and lofts of fairway woods for example. But I think you get the picture. Know your clubs, and maybe this knowledge can help you shave a few strokes off your scores.
The Fit Is IT!!
Tony
