In search of a perfect driver so we can hit the ball 20 yards longer and straighter, most of us by now have gone through some kind of a driver fitting session using a launch monitor. We are now all familiar with terms like launch angle, spin rate, dispersion ratio, velocity and descending angle—terms used by NASA scientists, not by weekend golf warriors. We’ve tried it all—square heads, heads with screws, heads that look like soft balls, green shafts, purple shafts and bimatrix shafts. But most of us are still in search of our Holy Grail, the magic stick that will help us hit it longer and straighter.
While most of us have not found our magic wand, most of the game’s best players have found theirs. Tour players are hitting their tee shots 25 to 50 yards longer than they did six or seven years ago. According to data from the National Golf Foundation, the average golfer has gained only 5 to 10 yards in distance in this same span. Life is unfair. Why is there just great disparity between haves and have nots? Why?
There are three reasons:
1. Tour players‚ swing mechanics have gotten better. The better their swings, the more benefits they realize.
2. Tour players have gotten stronger and more flexible with better diet and training. Tiger’s training regiment parallels that of an Olympian. (Like most of you, instead of gaining 20 yards off the tee, I have gained 20 pounds of blubber reserve and I’m probably being kind with that estimate.)
3. When a Tour player goes through a fitting, his primary focus is on the shafts, but with most amateurs the primary focus is still on the club head. Tour players know that the shaft is the engine of the driver. Why? Shafts will dictate rhythm, timing and tempo of the golf swing. Let’s face it, given your swing mechanics, the difference between a good shot and a poor shot is your rhythm, timing and tempo. Properly-fitted shafts will increase the probability of you swinging with a better tempo.
Solution
What is the solution? Well, do what pros do.
1. Improve your swing. By using the latest biomechanics tools, find the swing that best fits your body type and flexibility.
2. Match the golf equipment to fit your swing. Let the custom clubs reinforce the basic fundamentals—grip, setup, posture and ball position—of your swing.
3. Find a club fitter/pro/builder who understands the dynamics of your golf swing and its relationship to the shaft and club head combination.
Find the Right Club Fitter/Pro/Maker
So start your quest for the Holy Grail by finding the right fitter/pro/club maker. Interview them. Find out what their fitting philosophy is. What equipment do they use for testing? Do they build the clubs on site or do they just do the fitting? Do they offer any performance guarantees? If there is no performance guarantee, they are wasting your time and money. What is the fitting fee? Some places don’t charge or rebate the fitting fee if you buy something. As you know by now, in life, there is no such thing as a free lunch. You always get what you pay for!
The first question a good fitter should ask you at the fitting is: Which swing should I fit your clubs to? Most club fitters believe in the hit and fit method without looking at your swing dynamics. They let the customer randomly hit different drivers until one with the best results is found. Then the fitting is done. This method works fine as long as the customer doesn’t need any improvement with his or her swing fundamentals and has no desire to improve his or her swing. Both cases are very rare.
With the hit and fit method, the question you should be asking at that point is why did I hit that club better than the others? Was it my swing, the club head or the shaft? A good fitter should be able to quantify the results for you. The hit and fit method without a complete swing evaluation is only half the solution. As an example, let’s take a typical golfer with an over the top move which produces a slice. To combat this swing, a shut faced driver with low spin shaft would be prescribed. What does that really mean? The only way this person will be able to hit the ball straight is to continue swinging with the over top move. If he ever came from inside, he would really hook the ball. This fit only reinforces a bad swing. Is that what you really want to do? I don’t. I don’t believe in the you can’t teach an old dog a trick theory.
A better solution is a fitter/pro that can give you a complete biomechanics swing evaluation and then based on the swing data give you a club recommendation to reinforce proper fundamentals of your golf swing. A good fitter/pro should be able to quantify for you the causes and effects of the fundamental changes and how it relates to your new equipment. This method is only recommended for those willing to make an effort to improve their golf swing. If you do not have the desire to improve your swing or time to work on your golf swing, the hit and fit method should be fine for you. But please remember that your expectations of finding the Holy Grail for 20 more yards should be lowered.
Find the Right Shaft
The shaft is the most important component of the club, yet it is least understood. First, there is no industry standard on shaft characteristics and, more importantly, there is very little information out there on how these shaft characteristics affect certain swing profiles. Shaft characteristics include weight, flex, torque, kick point and mid flex. You have hundreds of shafts out there with thousands of combinations of these characteristics. How do we select the right shaft to match our swing? Because we don’t understand how these shaft characteristics really effect our swing, all we currently focus on is the shaft flex (R, S, X) and ignore the rest.
Second, even if there was a shaft standard, it needs to have strict quality controls in shaft production and installation. Since most graphite shafts are hand made, lower priced shafts (most stock shafts fall into this category) will have less quality control. The obvious solution is to buy the best shaft you can afford. These higher priced shafts will have better grade graphite, greater quality control and therefore are more true to the original specs and give you more reliable performance.
If a raw regular flex shaft is cut too much from the tip end, it could effectively play like a stiff shaft and change all the performance characteristics. The solution is to find a qualified custom club builder who understands the shaft dynamics and practices building frequency matched shafts.
Make sure when you are being tested for a shaft that same head is being used to test the shafts. Otherwise, the data could be misleading. Most major brand heads are so well made these days that it is hard to find a bad performing driver head any more. It really comes down to the look, feel and sound of the head. Just like in the shaft testing, make sure that the head is the only independent variable. In other words, make sure all the test heads are in same identical shafts.
Find the Right Head
A good club fitter should recognize whether you need higher or lower launch and higher or lower back spin. To maximize your performance, optimal launch conditions must be achieved; therefore, you need optimal launch angle and spin. Certain heads will produce more spin or less spin. A good fitter will know which heads will work for your swing profile. Please understand that when all new club heads are hit on the sweet spot, if they confirm to USGA regulation, they will produce similar results. Again, once you found a head with optimal launch variables, it comes down to your preference for the design, sound and feel.
Quality Control
Finally, when you get your custom sticks, to ensure they built the clubs to your specs, don’t take their word for it, do the following:
1. Measure the head loft and face angle. Some heads are off by as much as 1.5 degrees. So your 10.5 driver head might be any where between 9 to 12 degrees.
2. Measure the shaft on the frequency meter. Shafts with R, S, X, S300 or 5.5 frequencies on them may not tell you enough. The fitter should quantify the exact flex for you on a frequency meter. Anyone dismissing the usage of frequency measurement should be avoided. Do you think they tell Phil and Tiger they are getting an X shaft? No. They tell Tiger his driver shaft is a Diamana 83g shaft with a frequency of 300 and a swing weight of D3 at 44.5 inches.
3. Measure the swing weight. This is important for feel.
4. Measure the lie angle. This is more important for the fairway woods and irons. Make sure you hit each club on a lie board. Because each shaft deflection varies between iron to iron at impact, you can’t have all clubs at the same lie angle. We’ll get into more about the irons in the next article.
Good luck on finding that Holy Grail!
Bill Choung is the founder of CompuGolf Center and Tour Proven Technologies (TPT). He was voted as one of top 100 club fitters of the world and club fitter of the year in 2007. CompuGolf and TPT are recognized as one of the industry leaders in Biomechanics swing evaluation, equipment research and custom clubs. Bill works with many of the top 100 teachers, providing his technology and unique approach to club fitting throughout the United States. He has performance centers in Dallas and Orlando and will open new facilities in Las Vegas and Phoenix later this year. He can be contacted at 972-242-7888 or please visit www.compugolfcenter.com |
