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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2003 (Part 12)

Long Drivers, Graphite Shafts & the Trail of the Magic Driver

By Leith Anderson

The competition season is into full swing in the Bay Area. I’ve missed a few of my favorite tournaments and I haven’t played much at Shoreline. But at Palo Alto, one of the high points of the season is the Team Match Play Championships. If you haven’t played in this NCGA tournament with your club, you should look into it. It’s one of the largest in participation and there is no better competition than head-to-head match play.

We played a couple of match play events. I left my trusty LFE with the Speeder 757 in the trunk and took the 48" driver to the first tee. If you’re new to this discussion, it all started with one of my frequent playing partners putting a new Titleist 983 E in play and picking up a mind-boggling thirty yards. That set off the golf equivalent of the "arms race". I’ve been obsessed with distance for two months. Now I remember how we felt when Sputnik went up.

After a fair amount of experimentation, I finally settled on a 48" Accuflex Vizion 55 gram shaft paired up with an Alpha Reaction V2 8.5 degree head. The head was the second; I started with a 9.5 degree and it went too high. I played with the 8.5 degree head with continuing misgivings about trajectory. I was still getting comfortable with the new technique required to hit the long shafts reliably. The bottom line is I won my two matches, the first against the Santa Teresa team and the second in an inter-club event the following day. On Sunday June 29th, I hit three all-time record length drives in a single round. The bad news is that we lost the team event by two points.

The long driver experiment is clearly succeeding. We have been working with several amateurs with handicaps in the 6-15 range, supplying a series of demo drivers until they found one they felt confident with. They are going to the golf course. I questioned whether an "average" amateur could benefit from using a longer driver. The answer so far is a unanimous "yes". Now, the next test is whether I have the guts to play the 48-incher in the Paly Medal Play Championship on the 12th. This is a serious departure for me but it illustrates a reality. If you are hungry for distance and have tried everything else short of a weight-lifting program, the long driver is the only way to go.

Let me put a challenge on the table. I’m the manager of the Saturday Match Play Team at Palo Alto Muni. We’re looking for some competition. If you can put together a team of six to 12 players, your place or ours, we’d like to set up a match. Contact me by email: Leith@calgolftech.com.

If You’re Thinking About a Long Driver . . .

Here are some of the considerations you might want to take into account.

You’re not going to be able to buy one "off the rack". There are none on the rack. If you want a long driver, you’re going to have to seek out a custom clubmaker who can provide you with some swing analysis and an extensive selection of demonstration clubs. You need a partner in this quest. You can’t possibly pick up a long driver and take it to the course and be satisfied. You are going to have to work at getting the right setup.

You probably won’t be able to use a "standard" head from one of your other clubs. The reality of the 48-inchers is that you need a big head to have the confidence to hit the ball with the big swing and wide arc you need to make the long driver work. This is an area where a 400 cc head starts to look small. That is the reason that the 450 cc size seems to be dominating the professional long drive tour.

You will have to experiment with lofts to figure out which loft, with what head and shaft gives you the trajectory you want. My experience is that you are going to probably have to go to a lower loft head than you would use in a standard length driver. I started working with a 9.5 degree head, went to a 8.5 degree head, then a 7.5 degree head and I still have a 6 degree head in reserve. It’s looking to me like a minimum of 2 degrees less than you’re used to for a standard driver might be about right. On the other hand, a couple of players who have worked through the demos from the shop have found that standard 9.5 degree heads suited them just fine. You may find that you need a head with a flatter than normal lie angle to accommodate the longer shaft. The only head with a flatter lie that I know of is the Alpha Reaction V2.

The shaft you choose will have a significant effect on trajectory and consequently on the correct loft angle of the head. Some shafts are going to kick the ball way up in the air. Some will go lower. There is no way to understand what shaft flex will be correct for you without experimentation. As far as I have been able to tell, the method for choosing a long driver has been to take an armload to the range and try to tell the difference. We have hosted a few marathon sessions indoors with our Achiever launch monitor, trying to tell the difference in shaft flex, loft angle, length and all the other variables. It’s a very tedious process. You will have to pay more attention to the weight of the shaft than you would normally. Many of the long drive shafts are ultra light weight construction, others have more normal weights. The only way to know which is right for you is to try it.

Once you find the club that works for you, the final "tweak" should be the Balance-Certified balancing system. The effect of the counter weight system is that it gives you a little more leverage. The ball speed off the face of your club will increase 2 to 4 MPH. But more important, the counter weight gives you much more control when you’re whipping a 48 inch driver around.

That leaves the final question. "Why go to all this trouble?" The answer is that if you want more distance and you’ve done all you can with standard length clubs, a 48" driver is going to give you 15 to 20 more yards right out of the box. We have enough experience with normal amateur golfers to know that this is true. However, it comes with a disclaimer that if you can’t hit your regular driver well, you won’t hit a long driver well either. Sadly, skill is required.

The Next Question Is: "Why Graphite Shafts in Irons?"

Last month, I promised an in-depth review of graphite shafts for irons. We’re going to have to take this project in at least two parts because it’s a big undertaking and I couldn’t get all the shafts acquired and the sets built and the testing done in 30 days. But I did make some progress.

First, we have to get over the hurdle of past disappointments. Time after time, players come to the Golf Lab and when we mention "graphite in irons" they wince, cringe, frown and usually say something like "been there, done that" (to be polite).

If your experience with graphite iron shafts occurred more than two years ago, forget it. That’s ancient history in the graphite world. Plus, you most likely bought a set of Callaways, Taylor Mades, MacGregors or Pings. The graphite shafts in your OEM clubs probably cost about $6 each. Forget doing the arithmetic to figure out why your premium clubs cost you a cool grand back then.

Today there are several smaller companies that do a fabulous job of producing a very consistent, high quality product. Some of the major shaft companies have refocused their efforts to produce very high quality products as well. We think that graphite is stronger and more consistent than steel. As for me, I’ll never go back. I love the feel of graphite and my performance on the golf course has clearly improved.

It’s Not about Distance, It Is about Total Weight

It’s common for golfers to think that graphite is all about more distance. It is likely that graphite shafts will deliver more distance. But extra distance is not the most important benefit of moving to graphite shafts. The real story is about total weight. If you’re playing steel shafts, they weigh around 125 grams. Average graphite shafts weigh around 90 grams, plus or minus a little. That’s a 35 gram difference, or about an ounce and a third. That doesn’t sound like much, but when a golf club weighs 12 ounces, you’re talking about a minimum ten percent reduction in total weight, maybe up to 20 percent if you shave some more weight off by going from rubber to Winn or Whisper grips.

You will swing that club faster, but only by one or two MPH. That’s enough to add half a club to your average distance, but certainly not a miracle. Occasionally, we’ll find a player that hits graphite shafts a full club longer.

What the Launch Monitor Reveals

We’ve been working with our Achiever launch monitor for several months. The obvious statistics that it captures are clubhead speed, ball speed, and carry distance. The less obvious data concerns factors like swing path, club angle at impact, and average deviations in all statistics.

Over and over again, we find that the most important result of bringing the total club weight down is that the swing path improves and the face angle at impact becomes more consistent. That means in addition to hitting the ball a half a club farther, you also hit it straighter.

When you think about it, it stands to reason. If the club is lighter in your hands, it’s easier to control and feel the position of the face. If you are a skilled player, you will be able to work the ball better with lighter weight clubs.

Another unexpected result is that trajectory frequently improves. The conventional wisdom says that if you want to keep the ball down, go to a stiffer shaft. We have found this belief to not always be true. We have seen several strong players at the Golf Lab who were playing X-100 shafts and hitting them into the stratosphere. Switching to graphite shafts actually brought the ball flight down. This finding sounds preposterous, but we know the living proof.

Because of the way that graphite shafts are engineered, it is much easier to pick a specific shaft to fit a certain swing. As an example, we use two Apache models for irons: the MFS 30+ and the MFS 40+. We fit the 30+ for players with average swing speeds and smooth tempos. The shaft has a great feel and helps the ball get up into the air. For stronger players, we fit the 40+. One of the strongest players we’ve ever seen at the Golf Lab (Monster Man) is playing the Apache 40+ shafts, replacing a set of X-100’s with great results.

The Importance of Balance and Tempo

We have tested hundreds of players on our Achiever Launch Monitor. There is one statistic that we always look at first. It is the deviation in swingspeed, expressed as an average over ten swings. We have come to believe that it may be the single most important bit of data for fitting golf clubs.

Let me explain. Say you have a solid AVERAGE 95 MPH swingspeed with a driver. In a series of ten shots, that speed may vary by several MPH. You will probably have swings as low as 92 or 93 and possibly as high as 99 or 100. The Achiever calculates an average, and shows it as plus or minus from the median. For most amateurs with ill-fitting clubs, the deviation will be plus or minus 3 to 5 MPH.

For all good players, the deviation will be very tight, never over plus or minus 1 MPH.

Think about what happens when you hit a club that is too stiff. Your body knows that you have to hit the ball hard to get good results. Most of the time you’ll have trouble getting your clubface closed and you’ll miss weak right. When you bear down, your miss is going to be a pull-hook to the left. But you won’t miss every shot. A certain percentage will be very good long and straight shots.

On the Achiever, which shows the pattern of all shots, we look for the telltale "Army" pattern. (Right, Left, Right). That’s another symptom. If you’re missing "both ways" it’s a sure bet that you’re off tempo and out of balance.

For all really good players, the misses will be consistent in one direction.

Time after time, when we’re testing a player whose clubs are too stiff, we hand him clubs with progressively softer shafts. Inevitably, the standard deviation in swing speed begins to tighten up, sometimes reaching the target consistency of plus or minus 1 MPH. When a player starts swinging consistently, with good tempo and on balance, he will be at the perfect flex for his swing.

If you a beginning golfer or a high handicap player, you will probably have a relatively high deviation. This gives you something to work on. If you plan to get better, you have to find a way to get your swing to repeat consistently. You will not be successful until you "swing within yourself" and stay on balance with a good tempo. Get your swing tested periodically and work on improving. When you test to plus or minus 1 MPH on a launch monitor, you’re ready to join the elite.

How About Shafts That Are Too Soft?

Once in a while, a player will come in with shafts that are too soft. The major culprit is Callaway graphite shafts which frequently test so soft we can’t even locate a point on the slope chart. We have also found Pings and Henry Griffitts that had unplayable noodles for shafts.

When shafts are too soft, you will lose distance. If you think you’re hitting the ball solidly, but it consistently falls short of your target, you should be suspicious. A second telltale clue is lack of distance control. You will be compensating for the loss in distance by swinging a little too hard. When you catch the ball solidly, you’ll sling it past the pin. Shafts that are too soft will also exhibit the dreaded "Army" pattern, missing both directions.

Update on the Magic Driver

For the last couple of months, I’ve been reporting on the most amazing improvement in a player that I’ve ever seen. If you haven’t been following the story, it’s about my friend Reed who two months ago was a mere mortal with a 4.5 index. Then he bought a Titleist 983 E, fitted it with an Apache 65P shaft, and added thirty yards. His index this month is 1.0. Along the way, he won the Palo Alto Club Match Play Championship and money on the Pepsi Tour.

This has been a particularly sore point for me because we are frequent playing partners. We used to walk side by side to about the same place in the fairway. Now, he’s hitting the par 5’s from 30 yards closer to the green and all my work has brought me down from a 4.9 to 4.1. The worst insult? I’m going to have to start taking strokes when we play our normal $10 Nassau.

Not only that, it also cost me $650 this month because I HAD to go out and buy my own 983 E and, just in case, a Taylor Made 580. When all else fails, it’s hard to fight the temptation to try to buy your game.

Is the 983 Illegal?

When strange things happen, the natural explanation is "Somebody must be cheating."

Reed and I played in the new Wednesday night skins game at Shoreline on July 9th. My motive was to take a few swings with Reed’s magic stick and keep an eye on him. I brought out the 580 to hit against the E. It was a race, but in the end, the E proved out to be more powerful.

The 580 was very reliable, producing a great trajectory with a little draw. However, head to head, the Titleist was longer. To be fair, the 580 hasn’t been tweaked and the stock MAS 60 shaft is a little weak.

My theory was that the E head was "hotter". Reed came into the Golf Lab the next day to see if we could detect anything that would suggest chicanery on the Achiever launch monitor. As a benchmark, he brought in his old Mizuno T-Zoid with the Pro Force 65 shaft that had been in his bag for years.

My theory was that the hot head would give a higher ball speed off the face with the same swing speed. We would find that out with a simple calculation. Ball speed divided by swing speed. That’s usually called the "smash factor" or "efficiency".

Alas, it was not to be. Reed’s smash factor was almost exactly the same with both drivers. What was not the same was swing speed. For some reason, he was swinging the Titleist 5 MPH faster over a ten swing average. When we compared the two clubs, we found them to be almost identical. Flex was right around a PCS 6.0, swingweight was within one point, the Titleist was half an inch longer and a quarter of an ounce heavier. The Titleist had a mid size Golf Pride Softie grip.

We had quite a crowd watching the show, including Sonartec’s Tour Rep Tyler Brown. We could not come up with a good theory about why Reed was swinging the Titleist so much faster. The best we could come up with is that it had something to do with balance. Reed’s theory was that the mid-sized grips could have had something to do with the mystery. Reed has a very quick tempo with lively hands. We had good reason to be perplexed because the normal effect of over sized grips is that hands get quieter and swing speed comes down a touch. All in all, totally counter intuitive.

Where Do We Go From Here?

There is another mystery in the test results. Reed’s average carry distance measured by the Achiever increased from 221 to 238. That’s a reasonable but high number for the 5 MPH increase in swing speed. What doesn’t show is the result on the course. His drives are at least 270-280. I don’t think that they have been extraordinary "runners". There is simply no explanation for the total distance that Reed has been getting.

Here’s the mystery. My statistics are very close to Reed’s. He’s swinging at 110. My swings speed is about the same. As a reference point, I hit a set of drives on the Achiever with the 580 and my averages were almost identical to Reed’s with the 983 E. All of my Magic Drivers show about the same swing speed and carry distance, some even a little better indoors, on the Achiever. But on the course, things are very different. Reed is thirty yards ahead. If someone had told me the story, I’d have thought he was hallucinating. But I saw it with my own eyes. More than once. That’s the Magic Driver at work.

I’m going to keep chasing the answer to this mystery. We’ll try to exactly duplicate Reed’s Magic Driver with my new 983 E. I’ll probably get another chance to test Reed’s club in the Lab and on the course. We might even get Bob to try the lefty version of the E with the Apache 65 P shaft to see if the rotation of the earth has an effect. I’ve got to find out why Reed is hitting it so far . . .

Next Month

I’ve got a good start on the "graphite shafts for irons" story. Next month, I’m going to research an in depth analysis of suppliers and review the most promising shafts. If you’re thinking about putting graphite shafts in your irons, this is going to be a very interesting column.

And of course, we’ll try to shed more light on the "Search for the Magic Driver."

Leith Anderson is a partner in the Golf Lab in Palo Alto. He will answer all questions related to clubmaking and clubfitting personally. Contact Leith Anderson by email: Leith@calgolftech.com. Cell phone 650-743-2816.