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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2009 (Part 8)

Copyright 2009 by Leith Anderson
All rights reserved
Originally appeared in July 2009 issue of Golf Today

Fitting Women, Seniors and Juniors

Create Your Own Magic Driver

by Leith Anderson

Golf Equipment Manufacturers build their clubs to “fit” the average American male.  If you’re 5’10” tall, weigh between 165 and 185 pounds, you’re not too strong, not too weak, you can probably buy a set of clubs off the rack that will work OK for you.

Not so if you’re a woman, a man over 50 or a junior under 18.  In the last few years we’ve learned a lot by working with golfers who are not part of the “target demographic”.

After conducting club fittings for all types of golfers for ten years, I have some recommendations that will help all golfers who are not “average”.

This article discusses unique club fitting factors for women, seniors and juniors.  Common mistakes in choosing golf clubs can be avoided.  In addition to the “universal truths” – I have specific tips for each group.  Maybe you’ll be inspired to create your own “Magic Driver”.

Club Length

By far, the most important “variable” in clubfitting is club length.  Most golfers think that they should play the longest golf club that they can swing.  That is a very common misunderstanding.  Golfers think that the longest club that they can swing will produce the most distance.

Not true.  Most amateur golfers make the mistake of buying golf clubs “off the rack” that are too long for their size and strength.  Almost all drivers these days are between 45” and 46” long.  Why would an amateur golfer expect to do well with a driver that is longer than most PGA Tour professionals play? 

Good golfers generate power from a late release after a strong wrist cock.  Think of that as a forceful “right forearm over left forearm” release move.  If a golf club is too long it creates enough centrifugal force to pull away from a player’s body – leading to an early release.  That’s a very common “power leak”.

It’s not the longest club that you can swing; it’s the longest club you can control.  Control can be measured.  Launch monitors reveal consistency by recording swing path, face angle at impact and launch angle.  Impact labels can be employed to show “center contact”.  Golf club performance can be compared.  The best performing club can be identified.

One of the key fitting factors in golf is the “smash factor” or “power transfer ratio (PTI)”.  That is the ball speed divided by the club head speed at impact.  It is the ultimate measure of efficiency in a golf swing.  If a player’s ball speed is 140 MPH and his club head speed is 100 MPH, his PTI is 1.4.  There is a PTI that is “theoretically perfect” – 1.5.  With the advent of launch monitors reporting statistics at PGA Tour tournaments on television, we have all become familiar with professional driving distances that seem to be unusually long.

There is a simple reason.  Professional golfers hit the ball squarely on the center of the club much more frequently than amateurs.  The longer the golf club, the less likely that a player will make a solid, on center strike.  The three key words are control, consistency and center contact.  Make sure that your clubs are the right length for you and your swing.  If you hit the ball better, you will hit the ball longer.

Juniors are especially susceptible to suffering from “long club disease”.  Parents tend to like the idea that kids can “grow into their clubs”.  That’s a bad idea.  Raise your hand if you want to win next year – not right now.

Quick Check on Club Length

The key measurement to determine the correct club length is “wrist to floor”.  The measurement is from the crease in your wrist just above your palm to the floor when you’re standing straight, chin up.  You can use a yardstick with a little help.  The so-called “standard” for irons is a 35” wrist to floor measurement.  Plus or minus one inch and a “standard” five iron club length of 38” might be appropriate.  If your measurement is less than 33” or more than 36” you should be very wary of standard length golf clubs.

The most prolific club designer today is Tom Wishon.  In addition to filling a catalog with his club designs, he has written a series of books on club making and club fitting.  Here is the chart that appears in his “Search for the Perfect Golf Club” – highly recommended.

The notion of wrist to floor is not an absolute rule.  Some players stand up to the ball in a more erect position and require longer shafts.  Just the opposite for players who “get down to the ball”.  A good idea is to get some help from a club fitter who can use his “eye” to supplement the measurement.

Beware.  Some manufacturers make their graphite shafted iron sets longer than steel shafted sets by an inch.  Do not fall for that.  It is just a lazy way to use the same head weight in both sets and keep swing weight the same.  Only one length fits.

Exceptions to the Anti-Club Long Length Rule

We have learned a lot from the Long Drive Contestants.  For a player who can control the club, a driver with a SIGNIFICANTLY longer shaft will produce more distance.  We will always favor 44.5” over 45” – we never detect a significant ball speed increase from half an inch.

Women, seniors and junior girls frequently get up to 20 yards in increased distance from longer drivers with ultra lightweight shafts.  Keep in mind, club length is proportional.  If you stand 5’ tall, a 45” driver shaft is the equivalent of 47” for a player who stands 6’ tall.  There is no reason to guess at the best length.  You can test various lengths, in half inch increments and record the center face contact and ball speed.  You need a partner who can help by supplying test clubs and electronics.  It’s way better to spend a little time and money to find out precisely the driver setup that works best for you.  The alternative is inefficient, expensive random trial and error.  You may never get the best fit.

Although longer and lighter shafts in drivers is a good thing, we have never seen a situation where the same holds true for fairway metals, utility clubs or irons.  For clubs where accuracy is paramount, make sure you find the length that you control the best.

Shaft Weight

Most golf club heads weigh the same – within a few grams.  Head weight differences are almost impossible to detect so the most significant difference in overall club weight – termed “static weight” in club fitting jargon – is the weight of the shaft.

The heaviest steel iron shafts weigh around 130 grams.  The lightest weigh about 80 grams.  At 28 grams per ounce, that’s less than two ounces.  You wouldn’t think that such a little weight difference would make much of a performance difference – but it does.

Very good graphite iron shafts are available down to 75 grams in irons for men and to a little under 60 grams for women.  Driver shafts are very good in weights down to 45 grams for both men and women.

Most players think that the reason to play lighter shafts is increased distance.  You might get more distance, but probably not all that much.  In comparison testing at the Golf Lab, lighter shafts increase ball speed about 3 MPH with a driver.  With irons, most players get up to half a club extra distance.  But the best reason to use lighter shafts is to gain more control over the club – very important for players who have the skill and finesse to shape their shots.

For women, seniors and juniors, the importance of lightweight shafts, especially in their drivers and long fairway clubs cannot be underestimated. 

The next best reason to use lighter weight shafts is feel.  My favorite lightweight steel shafts are manufactured by Nippon.  Compared to True Temper steel shafts Nippon shafts have a much “livelier” feel. 

Graphite is a little different.  The graphite feel is much more muted.  Some players appreciate the “softer” feel of less vibration.  In either case, you can get a much lighter overall weight that you can control better with the added benefit that you will like the feel of lighter better.

Players who want to understand the differences in feel among shaft choices should find a custom club maker who can provide test clubs built to exact specifications for testing.  It does no good to ask opinions about how a certain shaft will feel or play for you.  The only reliable test is to hit the club.  Then, you’ll know for sure.

In eight years of comparative performance testing at the Golf Lab, only a handful of “non average” players have chosen heavier golf clubs.

Fitting for Shaft Weight

Most club fitters employ some kind of tempo test in their analysis.  The conventional wisdom says that the faster the tempo, the heavier the shaft.  The rationale is that the heavier shaft helps the player with the quicker tempo “stay on plane”. 

In our experience, “that depends”.  A player who has a quick tempo but is not very strong will do better with lighter shafts.  Sometimes, players who have difficulty staying on plane will do better with longer and lighter shafts – especially in drivers – that help them feel the position of the club through the swing – and put a little “governor” on the tempo.

Most junior boy tournament players “graduate” to heavy weight shafts by the time they hit sixteen years old.  On all of the mens’ world Tours, there is nearly total dedication to heavy steel shafts in irons.  True Temper S-300, X-100, Rifle PX and lately KB Tours account for nearly 100% of mens’ Tour play.  It’s hard not to follow your idols.

It’s worth keeping an eye on Matt Kuchar, currently playing Aerotech 95 gram Steel Fibers and making cuts.  As time goes on, I think that more male tournament players are going to discover the benefits of lighter weight shafts.  Alas, that will be a slow transition.

For junior girls, the best choices are Nippon 850 (90 gram) and 950 (105 gram) lightweight steel shafts.  A high percentage of LPGA Tour players choose lightweight steel shafts.  In almost ten years of fittings, we have never found a case where junior girls performed better with heavy shafts.  The heaviest shafts we have ever fitted for a woman were 115 gram Project X 5.0.  She was very strong.  Her six iron carries 165 yards without stepping on it.

In the last couple of years, ultra lightweight shafts have started to appear in complete sets marketed by the major golf club manufacturers.  There is such a thing as too light.  I’m not in favor of 50 gram shafts for women and seniors.  Couple ultra light weight with soft flexes and you are going to have a club that’s hard to get on the ball squarely.

Shaft Flex

Four or five years ago, golfers almost never came into the Golf Lab with shafts that were too flexible.  In those days, it was axiomatic that all players chose shafts that were too stiff.  That’s the way it was.

Then, the golf magazines and online forums began to tell that story.  Golfers read the articles and began to think that they might do better with softer shafts.  Club designers at the major manufacturers also read the articles and began to think that they could change their specifications to softer shafts for golfers who could not be trusted to think for themselves.

Today, at least half of the golfers who come into the Golf Lab for shaft fitting find that their shafts are too soft for their swing.  That is a major in understanding shaft flex.

It is even more likely that women, seniors and juniors will choose shafts that are too flexible for their swings.  Seniors and women who buy complete sets off the rack should be very wary of light weights in soft flexes.  You will know that your shafts are too soft when you seem to lose distance and your distance control is unreliable. 

Just like “consistency” shaft flex can be measured.  Once flex is measured, performance of different shafts can be compared.  A major breakthrough in shaft fitting occurred with the advent of “interchangeable shafts” in golf clubs.  Now, it is possible to change a single variable, the shaft.  The performance and feel of different shafts can be compared, side by side, in just a few minutes.

There is no better way for a player to spend an hour or so over a couple of afternoons comparing driver shafts with a system like the Nickent Evolver, Callaway I-Mix or the Taylor Made R-9 series.  The trick is going to be to find a club maker with enough test shafts to be meaningful.  That’s were the Nickent Evolver system shines.  Nickent is the only company that sells the proprietary fittings that allow players to use their own shafts, or inexpensive shafts that they buy with their interchangeable shaft drivers.

Fitting for Flex

The traditional way to measure flex is to use the “frequency” method developed by Dr. Joe Braley in 1974 at Royal Precision.  The concept is to clamp the butt end of the club, oscillate the shaft with a clubhead temporarily attached to the shaft and count the “cycles per minute” or CPM.  The faster the shaft oscillates, the stiffer the flex.  Once you have a club length and CPM reading you locate a point on a “slope chart” and that tells you the flex value of that shaft.  That’s where the “4.5” for regular, “5.5” for stiff and “6.5” for extra stiff comes from.

The “rule” says that 80 MPH with a driver is “senior”, 90 MPH is “regular” and 100 MPH is “stiff”.  At 110 and over, you’re pretty much on your own trying to find a shaft that will hold up.

There are two problems with fitting for flex with frequency analysis and swing speed.  First, there are two completely different “systems” – the original Royal Precision method and a later revision developed by the (now defunct) Professional Clubmakers’ Society.  Each uses different clamp lengths and interprets CPM differently.  Consequently, you can’t know for sure what your flex value means unless you know the underlying system that was employed to complete the testing.

There is also no good way to tell if the shaft you are testing actually plays “true to flex”.  There is no standard way to compare flex designations from manufacturer to manufacturer.  Even if there were, it is not a sure thing that two shafts from different manufacturers with the same frequency will play the same.  It would be great if you could say that, after testing, your best frequency with a driver shaft was 250.  Alas, it’s not so simple.  You might find that you hit an OBAN Devotion just fine at 250 Cycles Per Minute (CPM) but you need a Fujikura Speeder at 240.

Shaft Load

If you’re a senior with an 80 MPH swing speed you might faint if your club fitter recommends extra stiff shafts.  At the Golf Lab, that happens pretty frequently.

The most reliable way to fit for flex is by shaft load.  The Max Out Golf Labs Shaft Max measures shaft deflection and plots that against a timeline.  The result is a graph of a player’s acceleration and a “power rating”.  It is very common for senior players with short swings and quick transitions from backswing to downswing to “load” the shaft very heavily.  That is particularly true for players who have been very good in their younger years.

It is also common for women to register surprising load values.  If you really want to be sure you have the right flex, find a club fitter who can give you an opinion about shaft load.

Driver and Irons Head Weight

Most drivers that come “off the rack” have heads that weigh between 198 and 202 grams.  That is the manufacturing tolerance that gives a D-1 swing weight (or pretty close) at a driver length over 45”. 

We have learned a lot from competitive long drive contestants about how to get maximum distance from your driver.  Even the strongest of the long drivers know that their best results come from the lightest weight shafts and lightest heads that are available.

Keep in mind, the ability to “move” the club is much more important than the weight of the head.  If a player could swing a driver with a heavy head as fast as a driver with a lighter head, the energy delivered would result in longer drives.  The problem is that no golfers can swing a heavy driver head as fast as a lighter head.  Most of the long drive contestants that we have worked with are searching for driver heads in the low 190 gram range. 

Some component manufacturers will supply their driver heads in low weights.  You will have to order them.  The easiest way to get a lightweight driver head is to buy a head that permits you to change the weights such as an Adams or a Taylor Made R7 or R9.  Get a weight kit and replace the heavier weights with lighter.  It will be a simple matter to bring the weight down to the low 190 gram range.

The situation is just the opposite if you want to play irons with lightweight graphite shafts.  In that case, you have to find a way to add weight to the heads – or get heavier heads – to maintain a good balance.  Some manufacturers, like Miura supply heads in heavier weights thinking about proper balance for graphite shafts.  Others, like Tom Wishon, supply their components with “weight ports” that permit easy adjustment.  Competent club makers can create correct club balance by adding weight at the tip of the shaft. 

Driver Head Size

For the last few years, drivers have been manufactured in a 460 cc head size.  There have been very few exceptions.  One exception is Miura – after studying the problem – the company concluded that the “proper” head size was 390 cc.

For players who are small in stature, a 460 cc driver looks like a balloon on the end of a shaft.  That is especially true for juniors. 

Lately, there are concerns about the “wind resistance” generated by large size drivers.  In 2008 a trend (back) to “aerodynamic design” was lead by Adams Golf with their Speedline Driver.

Recently, one very good junior girl player chose the Miura driver after testing virtually every driver in the universe.

Many component manufacturers – including KZG – have “old inventory” of smaller driver heads that are very good quality.  Juniors are likely to find that they work better than their larger cousins.

Driver Loft

One of the “universal truths” is that golf clubs “train” the golfer, not vice versa.  An inappropriate club choice can cause a player to develop swing faults that are harmful.

The most serious example is senior men who buy drivers with loft that is too low.  The result is a swing move that “blocks” or “scoops” the ball into the air.  That is the way to kill power.  Practically all of the seniors that I see at the Golf Lab who are losing distance have a very weak release move or no release at all.  That swing flaw is frequently caused by a low loft driver that has trained its owner to change his swing to gain trajectory. 

When a player who is hitting the ball too high with a low loft driver (a sure sign of a serious, power-leaking swing flaw) I suggest a higher loft driver.  The higher loft driver is a great training aid, forcing the player to figure out how to hit his drives lower – or bring rain.  The “fix” for high ball flight is not always lower loft.  Sometimes you have to fix your swing.

The opposite is frequently true for women.  Most women are “fitted” into high loft drivers with very flexible shafts.  The conventional wisdom says that women need to carry the ball farther.  In the real world, it is very common for women to get much better driver distance with lower loft driver heads – sometimes down to 9.5* - and stiff – but very lightweight shafts.  For women with swing speeds between 70 and 80 MPH the lower loft driver and stiffer shaft can produce less spin and a lot more roll.  For many women, the only way to get acceptable driving distance is to make sure their drives run out.

There is one nearly foolproof way to know that you have the right driver loft.  The launch monitor is your friend.  It will measure the ball speed, launch angle and spin rate and compare those numbers to “theoretically perfect”.  If you are leaving distance on the table because you hit the ball too high or too low, spin it too much or too little, you will know the exact distance you are losing.  If the differences are small, you might correct that with a shaft change.  If you need to change a lot, your alternatives will be to change your driver head loft or go to work on your swing.

Counterweights

In the last year, a lot of attention has been focused on “balancing” golf clubs.  As a custom shop we spend a lot of time working with players to figure out what combination of head weight, shaft weight, grip weight and flex produce the best performance.

The most important innovation in the last year is the invention of counterweights that allow the distribution of weight down the shaft.  Although counterweights that fit into the shaft have been available for years, the latest breakthrough is to locate more of the weight under the lower hand.

The two players in the counterweight game are Balance-Certified and Tour Lock.  Balance-Certified’s latest invention is a counterweight that allows a player to adjust the weight distribution on his own. 

For some players, particularly women playing extra long drivers, counterweights have proven to be nothing short of a miracle.  We have seen distance improvements up to fifteen yards of carry distance for a few players.  When that happens, it looks like a miracle.

Most players can expect 2-4 MPH increase in ball speed from counterweights.  That results in a small increase in carry distance – usually around ten yards with a driver and half a club with irons.

The major benefit of balancing clubs is not increased distance.  Rather, it is better control over the club that results a more consistent swing path, face angle at impact, trajectory and center face contact.  If this sounds preposterous, you can find out for yourself with any club fitter who utilizes launch monitor technology to compare the performance of golf clubs – with and without counterweights.

Very few players do not see a benefit from counterweights in their drivers.  The change in iron performance is more subtle.  The major benefit is more solid feel and better consistency.  Junior girl tournament players seem to get the most improvement from counterweights in their irons.  Counterweights make weaker players stronger.

Your New “Magic Driver”

You will expect a couple of recommendations for a driver that might have a chance to change your golf game for the better.

I’m in love with the new generation of lightweight shafts.  There are plenty of good choices.  Aerotech makes the Powercoil – the lightest weight is 50 grams and it comes in .335 and .350 tip sizes which makes it a good replacement candidate for most consumer drivers.  In heavier weights, the Powercoil is a credible long drive shaft.  ACCRA was our winner in 2008 – the 40 gram ACCRA Tour – now replaced by the 45 gram S-1.  It has the best paint job, hands down – full of “pixie dust” that catches the sun.  Not good for conservatives.  OBAN has hit the charts with a bullet – picking up a lot of Tour “buzz” with their Devotion model – due to Jim Furek putting the shaft in his bag.

The key to making a lightweight shaft work is to play it in a stiffer flex than you think.  There is no need to gamble.  With today’s interchangeable shaft systems, it is a simple matter to test indoors for ball speed and spin rate with a launch monitor (and good golf balls) – and then seal the deal at the range or on your own course.

If you’re going for distance, you should find the longest ultra lightweight shaft that you can control.  But there is no free lunch.  For even the best players, long drivers are a little like playing Russian roulette.  It will be a rare round that you don’t suffer at least one catastrophic miss.  That’s the reason that we’re reluctant to encourage tournament players to adopt the long driver strategy.

The biggest breakthrough POTENTIAL will come from pairing an ultra lightweight shaft and a driver head that is SIGNIFICANTLY lighter than off the rack.  Your best option to find a lightweight head is to pick up a driver with adjustable weights.  Adams and Taylor Made are good candidates.  In the super-cheap range, find an old Adams 460D – still a good performer after five years.  I also like the R7 line – the original Quad if you want a smaller head size – better for juniors – a Super Quad – or even an R9.  Both Adams and Taylor made have stuck with their standard weight kits so you can get a few weights and a wrench and you’re good to go.

How heavy?  The quick answer is something around 193 grams.  If you wanted to do your own testing, a few grams at a time, you could have your club maker weigh the head with no weights before installing the shaft.  Take notes.  It’s a simple matter to keep track of the head weight as you add and subtract weight to give you the best control over the club.

Biggest Winner this Month

 For the last month we’ve been working with PowerBilt to see if we could find a formula for fitting the PowerBilt Air Force One (AF1) driver.  If you’ve missed the story, the AF1 is a different approach to driver head construction.  It is filled with Nitrogen gas under pressure.  The original idea was to manufacture a driver head that would not break.  The current story is a “thinner face” with a “larger sweet spot” because there is less reinforcement behind the face.

We’ve conducted almost a hundred free fittings and supplied dozens of custom built AF1 drivers for players to test on their own course.  Overall, the results have been good, but not miraculous.  Roughly 30% of the testers liked their new driver enough to buy one. 

There is one story that borders on miraculous.  For the last five years I’ve been working with a senior player that I feature from time - “the pilot”.  He’s just that.  Flew a bomber for the Air Force and then jets around the world for years.  He’s retired in his seventies.  We’ve tried every trick with him.  Longer lighter, every head we have.  He’s a fairly common case.  His swing speed is 85 MPH and that gives him 185 yards of carry on a solid strike.  Pretty average for a senior.

We set the pilot up with a 45 gram ACCRA S-1 in the M-3 flex with a 12* AF1 head.  It’s in his bag and he’s confident that it added 15 yards to his drives.  That’s a very unusual result for a player who has made a serious hobby out of finding the “Magic Driver” for five years.

The experience also goes to show that there is no guaranteed result, no matter how good the idea seems to be.  Some players will find that a certain combination will work, for another the same setup is a waste of time. 

The only way to figure out what will work for you is to keep trying to find the Magic Driver until you do find it.  You have the advantage of launch monitors and fitting tools that help you discern the difference – even small differences – in performance.  Look for a little improvement from your shaft, a little from your head, a little from proper balance, a little more from improving your technique and you’ll have your own Magic Driver.

Good luck in the hunt.

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