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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2008 (Part 7)

Counter Weighting Coming of Age

“Donate Your Swing to Science”

by Leith Anderson

You can play better golf this year without resorting to desperate measures like taking lessons or “getting fit”. You don’t have to buy new golf clubs. You can use the clubs that you already have. If this sounds like some crazy infomercial – read on.

I have kept the Golf Lab on the “bleeding edge” of clubfitting and clubmaking for eight years. I join all of the professional organizations, attend all of the meetings and shows and haunt the Internet looking for the latest trends that might extend the state of the art. And I get to know the people behind the inventions – and those who run the companies.

Recently, I’ve reported extraordinary results – confirmed with launch monitor testing – from the emerging science of counter weighting golf clubs. We’ve got a plan to bring some discipline and order into figuring out how to actually fit a player for counter weights.

I also have information about a new shaft design that will be of interest to golfers who play standard steel shafts in their irons. If you’ve been watching the PGA Tour lately, it’s impossible to ignore the incredible success of Kenny Perry. In the last six events he won three and tied for first and lost a playoff in another. He changed the shafts in his irons in March. Is his breakthrough performance a coincidence or is equipment the reason that he owns the winner’s circle at age 47?

Balance Certified and Tour Lock Golf

Counter weighting your driver adds 2-3 MPH of ball speed for most players. That translates into 6-10 yards of additional carry distance. More importantly, other metrics are likely to improve: consistency of ball speed, launch angle, swing path and face angle at impact. If you hit more balls on the center of the club face you gain control.

Counter weighting a driver at the Golf Lab is usually accompanied by a little “hair cut”. Time and again we prove with launch monitor data that a driver that is 45” or 45.5” long does not produce any more ball speed than a driver that is 44.5”. That doesn’t sound like much, but there might be a reason that a high percentage of PGA Tour professionals play drivers that are 44.5”. They need to stay in the fairway.

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.

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 counter weight that can be located at any point in the shaft. He calls it a “power weight”. The power weight 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 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.

Proving the Case

There is very little real science in the golf industry. There is very little quasi-science. Most of the time, players grab a club from their playing partner and give it a few swings. If they get lucky, they go buy a copy. The Internet is swamped with questions from golfers asking for recommendations and there is no end of strangers willing to give their opinions, without ever seeing the player they’re telling what to do. That’s a bad way to make a purchase decision.

Thinking that it’s about time to try to understand counter weighting - what works, why, and for whom, we signed up with John advance the state of the art with our sophisticated electronics. That’s where the “Donate Your Swing to Science” line came from. We needed test subjects. So we did the logical thing, we sent an email to our client list inviting them to participate in a “free fitting” at the Golf Lab to run an orderly test. Our clients responded very well. Within two hours we filled sixteen available slots on Thursday and Friday the 24th and 25th of July and we opened up another day of testing on Saturday the 26th. In one weekend, we’ll get good data from thirty players. That’s not a huge test, but we ought to be able to discover some repeatable trends. In the end, custom fitting golf clubs is really about efficiency. Random experimentation takes a lot of time and doesn’t work very well. A launch monitor can be a very good friend. Look for a detailed analysis of our findings in the next Golf Equipment Chronicles.

Methodology

We will start with a detailed player interview. We want to know how much and how seriously a player approaches his game. What is his index? How often does he play? Does he practice? Does he play tournaments?

We will then measure and test the player’s clubs – and the player – to see if they match on paper. We’ll record length, lie angle and flex so we’ll have a benchmark. Then we’ll test the player’s swing with his own clubs so we know the metrics in original condition. We want to know if he’s a good ballstriker.

Then, we’ll test a variety of counter weights first under the grip and then down the shaft. At each step, we’ll record the results with our launch monitors – looking for increased ball speed and improved consistency. That should find the scheme that works best.

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 – sign on to the Golf Lab email list at www.calgolftech.com and watch for a repeat of the testing sometime in August.

I mentioned that John has multiple inventions. The second is a prototype putter shaft and putter. If you want to try something that’s really new and untested, plan a visit to the Golf Lab to try out the latest in putter shafts. It’s a heavy weight graphite model with enough interior dimension to accept a moveable weight at any point in the shaft. If you’re interested in exotic putter shafts, you can compare John’s with the Balance-Certified “Frequency Filtered” shaft or the True Temper heavy weight steel putter shaft. Isn’t putting all about feel and balance?

If you can’t make it to one of the test sessions, 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. It takes about an hour. Besides, with three more days of intense practice, it might be worth paying for. Counter weighting is the closest thing to a miracle that we’ve seen in golf clubs.

Shaft Test 2008

We like the idea of organized testing so well that we’re offering another interesting program in August. For two days, Thursday and Friday, August 14th and 15th, we’re running “Shaft Test 2008”. Here’s the program:

We’ll measure and test a player’s own driver. We’ll have a player hit some test shots on the Achiever launch monitor to get a profile of his swing including swing speed, ball speed, launch angle, swing path and face angle. That will set the benchmark.

Then, we’ll test the player’s swing with the Max Out Shaft Max to determine tempo, acceleration and swing efficiency. Finally, the player will hit some shots with his own driver utilizing the Max Out Launch Max launch monitor to discover his precise ball speed, launch angle and spin rate. After that preliminary testing, we’ll know the metrics we’re trying to beat.

For testing purposes – because we want to know how the shaft affects performance without worrying about different head styles – we’re going to use the new Nickent “Evolver” driver system. Nickent is one of the three companies that released an interchangeable shaft driver that is USGA legal to take to the course. The important thing about the Nickent system is that they are supplying the heads AND the connectors so we can fit any shaft in our inventory to any Nickent Evolver driver head. That eliminates one variable of a different head. We can also align the shaft in its most stable plane with our SST PUREing system. We will be testing shaft performance only.

With what we find out in the preliminary testing, we will be able to choose the correct driver loft and head weight. We will also be able to supply the correct shaft length.

In addition to the tried and true premium shafts like the Mitsubishi Diamana and the Fujikura Rombax, there are several new manufacturers on the scene. Some of them have designed their shafts with specific player types in mind. One example is OBAN – a company founded by a former Graphite Design executive – has released a shaft intended for “swingers” – defined as senior players with slow to medium swing speeds. We will have all of the exotic new shafts represented as well as the old favorites.

Most interesting might be a comparison of the very expensive premium shafts against the lesser-known but credible shafts from companies that don’t charge $300 for a single shaft. A key question to answer is “what is the measurable benefit of a premium driver shaft?”

If you would like to take part in “Shaft Test 2008” give the Golf Lab a call to reserve a convenient time. Details will come out by email to our client list. There is no cost to program participants.

Kenny Perry’s Success

Was it just a coincidence that Kenny Perry started winning golf tournaments? Did the fact that he changed iron shafts in March at Bay Hill have anything to do with his success? In May he tied for first at the Bell South Classic and lost the playoff to Ryuki Imada. After the Bell South, he won three out of the next five weeks. He’s 47. What happened?

I’m sure that the lowly shaft company wouldn’t want to claim all the credit but I’m also sure that they’d like you to know who they are.

Here’s the scoop on Kenny Perry’s new iron shafts. They’re the “KB Tours” by FST. The “KB” in the name stands for Kim Braley. Kim is the son of Dr. Joe Braley - the father frequency matching. Kim was the designer of the immensely popular Project X shaft at Royal Precision.

When Royal Precision failed and True Temper bought up the intellectual property they decided that they didn’t need Kim Braley. Kim joined up with FST – also known as FEMCO. FEMCO is a conglomerate based in Taiwan that made its mark manufacturing machine tools – specifically the tools that make “tubular structures” – which includes golf shafts. FEMCO made its mark as a low cost supplier to major OEM’s.

The KB Tour is different from the most common steel shafts. Thanks to the engineering expertise at FEMCO – building custom machines to manufacture the KB Tour shafts – Kim Braley was able to design a shaft with a constant wall thickness through its entire length. True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts and Dynamic Gold SL shafts are designed with a reinforced tip section that has a much thicker shaft wall.

The net effect of the single wall thickness is that the balance point of the shafts is moved up, toward the grip. Where did you hear that before? (It was just moments ago in the discussion about counter weighting.) If you install KB Tour shafts in a set of clubs that was shafted with TT Dynamic Golds, the swingweight will decrease by 2-3 points. That’s a bunch.

So, how do they work? The KB Tour rep reported that Kenny Perry noticed a significant increase in distance when he tested KB Tour shafts. That is unusual for a Tour Pro – so unusual that Kenny insisted that the Taylor Made Tour Van install the new shafts in an old set of heads just to be sure that the increase in distance was real. The increased distance was reported at up to seven yards. Posters on some online forums have said that Perry noticed that his draw straightened out. That claim appears to be fiction.

Perry was still playing the KB Tours while he was winning the John Deer Classic in July. His shafts were surely not responsible for the bladed and chunked chip shots the last few holes that made the tournament close. For technical information on KB Tour shafts, go to www.kbshafts.com/technology.php.

Personal Experience with KB Tour Shafts

When a new trend starts, I make sure to do my homework. I bought a couple of sets of KB Tours and set out to test them and play them.

Step one was to test the shafts for frequency at standard and inch over length. By frequency, the KB Tours test very stiff. Keep in mind, frequency is a measure of “butt stiffness” – the area of the shaft roughly fourteen inches from the shaft butt. It is not uncommon for shafts to test very stiff on a frequency meter yet play much friendlier. Nevertheless, I was influenced by the high frequency readings and chose the “R” flex shafts for myself. Alas, that was a mistake.

KB Tour shafts are distributed by PGMC, a Canadian company that specializes in supplying custom golf shops. The anomaly in using frequency testing with the KB Tour shafts to interpret flex and playability was noticed by PGMC management. To avoid confusion, they dropped the flex designations 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5 in favor of the traditional “R”, “S” and “X”. That is an admission that KB Tours are going to test very stiff by traditional frequency analysis.

But how do they play?

First, let me explain my mistake. For years I have been playing over length irons, usually an inch over the current “standard” – or a 39” five iron. It’s been a long time since I played heavy steel shafts. Consequently, I hoard iron heads that weigh less than standard – one such set was some Miura Tournament blades that were ordered from Japan six grams under weight with the expectation that one day I would mount them on some heavy steel shafts and not face a swingweight in the E-0 range. When I built the set with the “R” flex shafts (target weight 110 grams), the swingweights came out D-2. At first, I didn’t understand why the swingweight came out so light.

I think that D-2 swingweight is too light for clubs built at one inch over length. Most good players do better with swingweights that are a little heavier. Tour professionals seem to end up in the D-3 to D-5 range in standard lengths with their wedges up to the high D or even the E range. All other things being equal, adding an inch of length to an iron raises the swingweight six points. I have come to believe that a “natural” swingweight for me is D-6 to D-9 at one inch over.

The Miura Tournament blades lacked head feel. I played them for a couple of rounds, including a round at Poppy Hills and I was underwhelmed. That’s when I discovered the weight distribution “problem” in a conversation with Gawain Robertson at PGMC – a little too late.

My next step was to build out a couple of Bobby Jones wedges for my annual Fourth of July trip to Indiana. There’s a great short game area at the Golf Club of Indiana on the north side of Indianapolis. I usually spend several hours there during my trip just practicing. Being from California and playing at Muni’s, I crave grass ranges and practice greens that you can hit wedges to.

The wedges were fabulous. I found myself hitting wedge after wedge and knocking down the flags. It seemed like my wedge shots were flying a little farther. It was exciting. I moved up to the “Stiff” flex despite the shafts testing out to “XXX” by frequency. Once again, the lesson is: don’t be fooled by relying on butt frequency to determine shaft fit.

Bottom Line

I never thought I would play heavy steel shafts again. I’m going to give it another go with the “S” flex shafts at 120 grams and not even put the shafts on the frequency meter. I don’t want to know. Given my experience with the wedges, I think that the primary benefits touted about the KB Tour shafts might actually bear out. The “lively” tip section delivers much more feel than you would expect from a shaft that tests so stiff. And, the dispersion seems to be at least as good as any shafts I’ve played.

My next set of irons will be standard weight heads (or maybe just a couple of grams light) mounted on stiff flex KB Tours.

For players who are anxious to try something different KB Tour shafts might be a game changer, we can add weight to iron heads in standard lengths and maintain familiar swingweights. You will have more mass in the head so that’s a scientific reason to expect more distance from your irons.

More Evidence

The KB Tour phenomenon has reached Europe. In the first half of this year, Darren Clark, Peter Lawrie and Jeev Milka Singh have won tournaments playing KB Tour Shafts. This is a very unusual development. Tour players might change their driver shafts as frequently as their socks, but they rarely change their iron shafts.

Testing Required

For players thinking about trying KB Tour shafts, I recommend not buying a “pig in a poke”. We have a variety of test clubs at the Golf Lab including two complete sets that are available for fitting customers to take to the range and the course. (A nominal rental fee applies for the full sets which is credited against a reshaft or new set of irons.)

In addition, we have the Bobby Jones wedges shafted with the KB Tour shafts in the cool black finish. This is not a paint job or powder coat that will peel off. The black color is applied under the chrome and is permanent. Coolest wedge shafts on the planet. Ask Darren Clark.

Don’t be afraid to make a change that will improve your game.

Leith Anderson is a Partner in the Golf Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
He will answer any and all questions about club fitting and club making. Contact: Leith@calgolftech.com. Or by phone (650) 493-1770