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The Search for the Magic Driver (Part 6)

By Leith Anderson

2003 - The New Year. High 5's all around for getting this far. It's a great time to be living in California. Our golf season starts now. Shed a tear for our brothers in the East and Midwest (where I grew up) who won't get a chance to play their first muddy round until mid March.

We've got a great year planned with Golf Today. The "Search for the Magic Driver" will continue all year. In addition, we will explore a wider range of subjects about golf equipment, club fitting and club making. I am absolutely excited to be working with Golf Today, the premier golf publication in the West.

As a new service, I invite any reader to contact me directly by email with any question related to golf equipment or fitting and I promise to answer each and every one personally. My email address is leith@calgolftech.com.

I only played two competitive events this month but each one had an effect on my current set makeup. The SMT Shinnecock/Apache Magic Driver, unfortunately, didn't stay in the bag. It was that old problem of "couldn't take it to the course". To keep up a level of suspense, I'll save that story to the end.

To some extent, I reached one of my personal goals in 2002 which was to work out the "perfect driver" problem. Over the last six months I have tried at least fifty different drivers. Most of them were tested with the Distance Caddy recording the session. I was able to come to a very solid understanding of the relationship between flex and swingspeed. I discovered the playing characteristics of dozens of shafts that affected performance. I saved a lot of time by disqualifying any driver setup that had deficiencies in carry distance, head speed or ball speed off the face. As a result, I have a driver in my bag today that I'm not sure I can improve very much. That's not to say that I won't keep trying, but at least I'm confident that I'm not losing strokes with the driver. (Any new readers can relive that six month odyssey by downloading past columns from my website www.calgolftech.com.)

My point is that your discovery process should also be to know your swing, study your options and test as many clubs as you can, preferably indoors with electronic equipment and finally at a range or on the course. Then, make a choice, be satisfied with it and concentrate on practicing and playing the game. You can always be interested in new equipment, but you won't fall victim to random purchases. If you test a new club, you will know what it is and how it relates to what you're currently playing. That method should apply to every club in the bag.

Amateurgolf.com's Christmas Classic at Del Monte

I love playing golf in competition, even when it leads to personal embarrassment. I suffered a little at Del Monte but ended up OK which goes to show that you just have to take your punishment and keep playing.

If you are thinking of taking your game to the next level, check out the Amateurgolf.com website. Pete Wlodkowski has created a fabulous site for amateur golfers looking for competition. He has the definitive database of amateur tournaments across the country and virtually every tournament in California. You can enter most of the tournaments right from the website. Amateurgolf.com also sponsors its own tournament series, one of which is the "Christmas Classic" at the Del Monte Golf Course December 7th and 8th.

You really need to know and respect the Del Monte Golf Course if you plan to do well there. On the scorecard, it looks like a pushover. It's just over 6300 yards from the championship tees. But there are white stakes all over, many set inside the fence line. It's not that hard to bounce a little wedge over the green and out of bounds. The greens themselves are sneaky fast with big breaks. I saw several players three putt from two feet above the hole. The rough can cause problems. The pars 3's are killers. Overall, pretty dangerous if your tournament game is a little rusty.

Because of the season, the Christmas Classic is a shotgun start. There is no range so you might start a little stiff. My start was on the twelfth hole. It's a par 3, about 165. I hit a slightly fat 6 iron short of the green, chipped above the hole and hit my first putt fifteen feet past. Double bogey. From there I stabilized for twelve holes. I leaked a little oil getting acquainted with the greens by three-putting four times and then spoiled the round with a nuked seven iron twenty yards over the green for a double bogey on eight and a conservative 3 iron tee shot out of bounds on 10. 82, oh well . . . That put me about the middle of the pack of seniors.

In analyzing my round I thought about three problem clubs. For a few months, I've been unhappy with my fairway wood play. I'm susceptible to sculling my fairway wood shots to the extent that I usually lay up on par 5's with a long iron. Playing in serious competition reminded me that this was unacceptable strategy. I was giving away too much. The top seniors were quite capable of reaching at least one of Del Monte's par 5's. It's much easier to hit a chip shot than a nine iron from the fairway. The fairway woods I hit on Saturday were not good. Low fade off the tee on 5 with a 3 wood. Same low fade on 11. Same on 13. Same with a 5 wood on the par 3 14th. I never hit a fairway wood a par 5. I was obviously losing strokes. The symptoms indicated that the shafts were too stiff. Ironically, my fairway woods have been in the bag the longest - over three years. They are KZG CH-1's with Proforce 65 stiff shafts.

The other problem club was my 3 iron. Del Monte makes you play long irons off the tee on short par 4's and on the par 3's. On Saturday, I hit a weak pull left of the green for bogey on six and then yanked a lay up tee shot out of bounds on 10 that I already told you about. Two lay ups on the par 5's were also low fades. It wasn't all bad, I had a very good 3 iron tee shot on 15, but it was left of my aiming point. These symptoms also pointed to a shaft that was too stiff. It's a fair question to ask why I wasn't worried about these clubs sooner. I must have been preoccupied with finding the Magic Driver.

If this analysis is confusing, let me explain. The classic symptom of a shaft that is too stiff is a low fade. A good player should be able to produce a draw at an appropriate trajectory. Over the years, I've come to know that better players frequently play shafts that are too stiff. To start with, a low fade might not be that bad a shot. It stays in play and out of trouble and for a better player, doesn't turn into a slice. You can get away with it. But the same shaft that is too stiff also produces a pull. Your body knows that a good shot with a club that is too stiff requires you to hit it hard. A solid shot might fly well, but it's going left. If you catch it good, you hit the left side of the green. Not good, and you miss the green left. Two different results, same cause.

Saturday Night at the Golf Lab

You might think it's an advantage to have a workshop and a shelf full of shafts. It's not all perfect. After a sushi dinner on Saturday night I had to tell Bonnie that I was going into the shop to "work on a few things". She was thinking about a movie. You don't have to use your imagination to know how that came out.

It's embarrassing that with all the work I'd been doing on drivers I can't remember testing my fairway woods. When I got into the shop I stripped off the grips and put them on the Digiflex frequency machine. Professional Clubmakers' Society (PCS) Equalizer system measured them at 7.0, a solid X. I should have known.

The 3 iron was only built this Spring and was part of the set I used all summer. I knew that it was built to flex a little north of 6.0 on the PCS Equalizer system which was toward the low end of X.

I put Apache 40+, SST PUREd shafts in the fairway woods flexed at 6.0 and a 40+ in the 3 iron flexed at 5.5. I was planning to dial my swing back for consistency on Sunday. I thought the answer would be softer shafts.

Del Monte Golf Course, Sunday December 8

I was expecting a nice relaxing day on Sunday since I was buried in the pack. Then I got a surprise. Pete was accommodating his players with personal requests and I found myself re-paired with a different group of seniors, three players who were definitely "in the hunt". After three doubles on Saturday, I was hoping for a better start. Alas, it was not to be.

The lead groups started on 18, a very short hole with a very big tree right in the middle of the fairway a little too far out. I hit an OK drive with all of the "guns" watching but it ended up behind the tree. Chipped out too far into another tree. Chipped out again but still behind a tree. Chipped toward the green but it wouldn't crawl on. Chipped long and two putted for a seven. Can't we just rewind this movie?

I backed the triple up with bogies on one and two. I was five over after three and not feeling all that good. But I've always believed that a real player shuts up and sticks with the game. I played the next nine holes even par with two three putts. I was just feeling like I might pull the round out when I came to the 12th, the scene of disaster on Saturday.

I took my eye off the ball and hit it short into the rough. Chunked it into the fringe, chipped on and three putted. Six. The 13th is a reachable par 5 and I was steaming so I forgot my game plan which was to put a 3 wood in the fairway and tried to crank a driver. The white stakes are a little close on the left and I rolled it into the flowers. Eight. But the golf gods rewarded virtue with two birdies in the last four holes. Another 82, this time with three triples. I guess you could say I didn't have my tournament game turned on.

The Silver Lining

The good news was that the Saturday night changes worked. Good straight 3 iron on two. Perfect 3 wood on 5 off the tee. Three iron for a birdie on the difficult 6th. Another perfect 3 wood off the tee on 11. Perfect 5 wood off the tee for a birdie on 14. Perfect 3 iron off the tee on 15. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if my fairway woods and 3 iron didn't deliver.

Here's what I learned. First, don't waste all your time thinking about your driver. Your other clubs can be just as important. Second, make sure you know the flex of all of the clubs you're playing. I'm kicking myself for letting my fairway woods go for almost four years without checking them out. I think you should play your fairway woods a little softer than your driver because you don't swing them as hard. I also went with a shaft that had a softer tip, feeling like the fairway wood wants a smoother swing with a sweeping motion. Ironically, I chose the same shafts that I play in my irons.

Also, if you're having trouble hitting your long irons, it's a very reasonable move to soften them up. I was looking for the softest possible flex without losing distance or control. The difference between too soft and too stiff is subtle. Most misses go right, but a shaft that is too soft will send the ball on a higher trajectory. Therefore, if you're missing to the right, you have to pay attention to trajectory. Low right is too stiff. High right is too soft. Most players think that a shaft that is too soft will only produce hooks. Not true. The fact is a good player can hook any shaft. An experienced clubmaker with electronics and a full set of test clubs can help you find the point where flex turns too soft (or too stiff).

Wedge Work

One of the most interesting things about playing golf and working on clubs all the time is discovering the multitude of ways that the "conventional wisdom" is wrong.

I'm very superstitious about changing a club that is working. If you've been sticking with this story through the Summer and Fall of 2002 you know that I've been playing better than I have in many years and I attribute that to finally figuring out the mystery of equipment that fits my swing. I went to graphite in my irons this spring and never looked back. Handicap down, winnings up. Perfect.

But I played all summer with Ping wedges out of a custom set of I-3 O Size that I ordered a couple of years ago. The sand wedge was responsible for a few amazing shots so I stuck with it and the lob wedge got me up and in from all over. I left the wedges alone with Rifle shafts that were too stiff (6.0's testing out to 7.0 on the PCS Equalizer system). It was all motivated by the belief that "if it's working, don't fix it."

With the main competition season over, I decided to try some Apache 40+ shafts in the wedges. This was a totally counter-intuitive choice since the conventional wisdom about golf clubs says that wedge shafts should be "heavy". It's also interesting to know that about half the golf world believes in wedge shafts "stiff as a pipe" and the other half, lead by Dave Pelz, believes that wedge shafts should be flexible to promote feel.

I put 90 gram Apache 40+ shafts, flexed at 6.0 (stiff, same as my irons) in my sand and lob wedges. I had the best weekend for distance control and direction with my wedges in a long time at Del Monte. The only change I plan to make is to try the Apache 115's to test out the heavier feel theory. I'm now sorry that I didn't make that change sooner. If you think you can't play graphite in your wedges, think again.

BTW: I have seen a few players with the Pelz wedges hit some pretty nice shots so I bought a couple for myself just to see what they were all about. I ordered them 36.5", about 1" over length. The first time they came in standard length. Return. The next time they came in the right length but the 4.5 Rifles tested out at around 7.0 on the PCS Equalizer system. Solid X's for a shaft that's supposed to play soft. When I tested swingweight and they were both in the F range. Real, real heavy. I'm going to hang on to them and work on them instead of sending them back but if you're thinking about Pelz wedges, a good watchword is "buyer beware".

Last Month's Magic Driver

Thanks for sticking with this story to the bitter end. Last month's Magic Driver was a SMT Shinnecock with an Apache 65N shaft flexed to a PCS Equalizer 6.3. It beat everything indoors and at the range.

The Shinny got the start for the Palo Alto Golf Club Four Ball Tournament at Pacific Grove in November. Reed Majors was my partner. We didn't expect to win because we both have pretty low handicaps, but we usually plan to get in the money.

If you're like most Bay Area golfers, you might be frustrated finding a place to play and getting tee times. A very good option is to join one of the clubs associated with any Muni. I joined both Palo Alto and Shoreline. For an annual investment of $180 I have a choice of tournaments to play virtually every weekend. You get competition, preferred tee times and you can make some new friends. Todd Rich is the Shoreline membership chairman. Reach him at ebenefits2001@aol.com. John Frykland is the Palo Alto membership chairman. Reach him at john@wosweb.com. Almost all public courses have similar clubs. Highly recommended.

Back to the story. The Shinny was great on the third hole, a fabulous high draw over the trees. But it snapped left on four. On five, it dove right. Six into the trees again. Seven was OK. Eleven went way right. Now I'm like a lot of players. When the tee ball goes crazy, I blame the driver. I kept it one over on the back nine, the fabulous links layout that makes you think you're in Scotland. Shinny was pretty good when the scenery was beautiful. But the final insult was a miss into the trees on 18 costing us a third place finish. But we did get in the money (barely).

I still don't know exactly what happened but the Nicklaus went back in the bag for Del Monte. For next month, I'm going to retest the new heads and I'll have a chance to compare the Apache 65 series against the Fujikura in the Nicklaus. We also have the new Assassin 2 from Accuflex that did so well at the Long Drive Nationals. But for now, I'm back to the old, stock Nicklaus that I bought on closeout at the Golf Headquarters in Reno. A little embarrassing for a clubmaker but, hey, "whatever works."

Leith Anderson is a partner in the Golf Lab in Palo Alto
Send questions or comments to leith@calgolftech.com.