.
Common Sense Clubfitting
and Shotmaking Accuracy
One of the most helpful aspects of TWGT’s book, Common
Sense Clubfitting, is its ability to isolate which of the 23
different fitting specifications in a golf club are going to
have the most visible effect on improving a golfer’s quest
for more distance, better accuracy, more consistency, a different
trajectory, or different club/shaft feel. Not all of the fitting
specs are going to have an effect on each of the five areas
of game improvement. Common Sense Clubfitting is all about finding
which of the five areas of game improvement are most desired
by each golfer, then focusing only on the fitting specs which
will bring about a visible change in the desired areas of game
improvement.
When it comes to improving shot accuracy for golfers through
clubfitting, only those fitting specifications which can affect/correct/offset
mistakes in the golfer’s swing path, on-center hit percentage
and delivery of the face to impact are pertinent. Of all the
23 different golf club specifications, following are the ones
which if changed, can bring about a visible improvement in the
golfer’s accuracy.
Most Effect on Accuracy (A Effect Fitting Specs)
- Lie Angle (More for the Irons, Wedges and Putter than the
Woods)
- Face Angle (woods only, sometimes hybrids)
- Length
Important, But Less Pronounced Effect on Accuracy (B
Effect Fitting Specs)
- Face Progression/Offset
- Clubhead Center of Gravity Location
- Clubhead Moment of Inertia About the Shaft Centerline
- Shaft Weight (Total Weight of the Club)
- Shaft Torque (Woods far more than Irons)
- Grip Size
- Set Makeup
- Swingweight (or MOI of the assembled club)
Through Common Sense Clubfitting, first focusing on the three
fitting specs which will have the Most Effect on Accuracy (A
Effect Specs) will bring about the most dramatic accuracy improvement
for the golfer. While none of the Less Pronounced Effect specifications
(B Effect Specs) on their own can bring about as much of a change
as the A Effect Specs, in combination the B Effect specifications
can deliver a solid improvement in shot accuracy for some golfers.
A. EFFECT FITTING SPECIFICATIONS FOR ACCURACY IMPROVEMENT
Lie Angle ( Irons, Wedges and Putter)
• The greater the loft of the clubhead or the smaller
the target for the shot, the more important it is to fit the
Lie Angle correctly to the golfer’s actual swing/stroke.
Lie angle must be fit dynamically for the irons and wedges to
take all swing and shaft bending factors into account to ensure
the center of the sole is the point of contact with the ground
during the shot. Lie can be fit statically for the putter.
Face Angle (Woods only, sometimes Hybrids)
• No question, Face Angle is the number one most influential
fitting specification for improving the accuracy of the shot.
It earns this distinction because at a carry distance of 200
yards, each degree of Face Angle change brings about a 5 to
6 yard difference in the sideways misdirection movement of the
shot. Because hybrid clubheads do have a wider sole than conventional
irons, it is possible for hybrid heads to be fit for Face Angle
as well.
Length (effect is greater with Woods than Irons)
• The shorter the length of the club, the less pronounced
a golfer’s tendency will be to swing over the top and
generate an outside/in swing path. A change in length is not
nearly as effective for golfers who hook the ball because of
a deep inside/out swing path, but reducing length is a strong
way to combine with Face Angle (and offset) to help a golfer
reduce a slice.
B. EFFECT FITTING SPECIFICATIONS FOR ACCURACY IMPROVEMENT
Face Progression/Offset
• For golfers who slice the ball, changing to an offset
driver/woods can allow the golfer just a little more chance
to continue rotating the clubface back around to be less open
at impact. In combination with Face Angle, an offset driver/woods
can definitely reduce a golfer’s degree of slicing shot
curvature. Do realize the effect is more pronounced in the woods
than in the irons.
Clubhead Center of Gravity Location
• When the clubhead’s CG is located on the heel
side of face center, or can be moved such through a heel side
headweight movement of >30 grams , a slight reduction in
the tendency to fade the ball is achieved. Key words here are
slight and fade. When the golfer slices the ball, Face Angle,
Length and Offset become the key fitting parameters. A heel
located CG is something to think about only for golfers who
wish to reduce a tendency to fade the ball, or to turn a straight
shot into more of a gentle draw.
Clubhead Moment of Inertia About the Shaft Centerline
• The farther the clubhead’s CG is away from the
shaft, the more tendency for a golfer to leave the face slightly
more open at impact to result in a fade or an increase in the
tendency to fade the ball. Here again, this effect is slight
and in no way will a longer heel to toe head size be a major
reason that a golfer may slice the ball. This is only a fitting
factor for golfers who wish to reduce a slight tendency to fade
the ball with the driver, for golfers who hit the ball straight
and wish to see a slight draw on their ball flight with the
driver, AND, who are acceptable to a change to a smaller size
driver head. Golfers with these desires and tendencies who wish
to play a large driver head are advised to think about a heel
located CG.
Shaft Weight (Total Weight)
• Shaft Weight is the number one way to control the
total weight of the club. Playing with a total weight (shaft
weight) that is too light for a golfer of great physical strength
and/or fast/forceful downswing tempo/transition can make the
tendency to slice/fade the ball or pull the ball worse. At the
same token, playing with a total weight that is much too heavy
can increase the tendency to push the ball.
Shaft Torque (Woods far more than Irons)
• It’s almost hardly worth mentioning this fitting
parameter with respect to shot Accuracy because so few shafts
are made today with a high enough torque to ever be a problem.
Golfers with a very fast/forceful downswing tempo/transition
should not play with shafts that have >4 to 5 or more degrees
of torque. In short, the more fast/forceful the downswing tempo/transition,
the more the torque has to be chosen to be lower than 4°.
Grip Size
• Grip comfort can be a key element in developing a
consistent release of the wrist-cock angle for some golfers,
but not all. The best rule of thumb is simply to fit all golfers
with the grip size that promotes the most relaxation of the
hand and arm muscles in the swing.
Set Makeup
• Off-center hits bring more mis-direction to the shot.
Set Makeup can affect shot Accuracy simply by replacing clubs
which the golfer has far more tendency to hit off-center with
clubs that fly the same distance but are easier to hit solid
and on-center a higher percentage of the time.
Swingweight (Or Moment of Inertia of the Assembled
Club)
• As with the total weight, when swingweight/MOI of
the assembled club is too light for the golfer’s downswing
tempo/transition, there is more of a tendency to swing over
the top with an outside/in swing path. In turn, this typically
results in more off center hits and/or a greater outside/in
path for a worse pull or slice/fade. Swingweight/MOI too high
for the golfer typically means more of a tendency to push the
ball.
By focusing on the A Effect Specifications first, but watching
all of the B Effect Specs as well, Clubmakers can have a very
visible effect on any golfer’s ability to improve their
shotmaking Accuracy.
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.
Expanded Myths Book
Manuscript Complete
Come April 2008, the ideal book to convince golfers that professional
custom fitting is far superior to buying standard made clubs
off the rack will be on all major bookstore shelves.
Tom Wishon’s latest book, A Good Club Spoiled: Equipment
Myths That Could Wreck Your Golf Game, is now written and in
the hands of the publisher for layout and printing in preparation
for its debut from all major booksellers for the spring of 2008.
Based on the 32-page booklet, 12 Myths That Could Wreck Your
Golf Game, the expanded Myths book will be just over 100 pages
in length, and written so each myth will be easy for ‘attention
challenged’ golfers to be interested enough to read.
From our standpoint at TWGT, more copies in the hands of more
golfers is what it’s all about. We know the more golfers
who see and read our Search and 12 Myths books, the more golfers
end up contacting a custom clubmaker in their area to be custom
fit. So TWGT welcomes the change of the first Search book into
softcover form.
“In lieu of a big consumer marketing budget, which we
don’t have, the future of professional custom clubmaking
lies in how many golfers we can get to discover the equipment
truths in the consumer books we have been writing,” said
TWGT president and book author Tom Wishon.
“We realize in today’s fast paced world of the
internet, not nearly as many people take the time to sit down
and read multi-hundred page books,” Tom continued. “When
the publisher of our search books came to me this summer and
said all of the major US booksellers loved the concept of our
little 32-page 12 Myths promotional booklet but wanted it expanded
to 100 pages, I was thrilled that we might have hit on the ideal
book format to attract more golfers to read and learn why custom
fitting is so much better for their equipment dollars than continuing
to buy the standard made clubs off the rack. There is no question
when golfers read the facts of clubfitting in our books, a very
high percentage realize their equipment needs are far better
handled by custom Clubmakers.”
TWGT wants to thank all the Clubmakers who contributed ideas
through the thread on the TWGT Clubmaker Forum for new Myths
to be included in the book. While we could not include every
suggestion, we did choose a lot of the new myths presented and
factualized in the book from the contributions of the Clubmakers.
Following is a list of the golf equipment myths included in
the new book, A Good Club Spoiled: Equipment Myths That Could
Wreck Your Golf Game.
I. CLUBHEADS
1. Modern golf clubs hit the ball farther than the older ones.
2. The lower the loft on your driver, the farther you’ll
be able to hit it.
3. The harder or higher strength the material on the clubface,
the more distance you will get.
4. The bigger the head (or the stranger it’s shape), the
better a driver will perform.
5. The spot that generates the greatest distance is at the top
of your oversized driver’s face.
6. Your new driver has a larger sweetspot.
7. You can change the flight of the ball by putting lead tape
on your clubhead.
8. The second longest hitting club in your bag is your 3-wood.
9. There is no way a club’s design can reduce your slice.
Only lessons can do that.
10. To hit the ball higher, use a club with a low center of
gravity.
11. The higher a clubhead’s moment of inertia, the straighter
the shot.
12. The loft and lie angles on your irons are okay. They were
set at the factory.
II. SHAFTS
13. You are using stiff shafts (or any other flex) in your
clubs. It says so right on them.
14. The shaft is the engine of the golf club.
15. The shaft acts like a buggy whip. It gives additional speed
to the ball with its last second snap.
16. The faster you swing, the stiffer your shaft should be.
17. If the flex of your shaft is too soft, you’ll hook
the ball; and, if it’s too stiff, you’ll slice it.
18. Graphite shafts hit the ball farther than steel.
III. THE ASSEMBLED CLUB
19. The longer the length of the club, the farther you’ll
hit the ball.
20. Men’s clubs should always be longer than ladies clubs.
21. Graphite shafted irons need to be longer than steel shafted
irons.
22. The higher the swingweight, the heavier the club will be.
23. The only way you can have matched clubs is by swingweighting
them.
24. The more expensive the club or the shaft, the better it
will perform.
25. A proper set of clubs consists of: 1-3-5 woods, 3-9 irons,
pitching wedge, sand wedge and putter.
IV. FITTING
26. I was “custom fitted” at the driving range
(or retail golf store, or pro shop).
27. Lie angle fitting of the irons is only for good golfers.
28. I just bought a new set so there’s nothing I can do
now about my clubs.
V. GRIPS & GOLF BALLS
29. If you slice the ball, use smaller size grips; if you
hook the ball, use larger.
30. There are significant differences between golf balls.
VII. SPECIAL POPULATIONS
31. Women’s clubs are designed for women.
32. Senior golfers need to play with senior clubs.
33. I’ll just cut down a set for my son or daughter; that’s
good enough.
34. If you are handicapped, you can forget about playing golf.
VIII. THE GOLF INDUSTRY
35. My clubs are just like the ones the pros use.
36. Any club that is not a “brand name” is junk.
IX. AND THE MOTHER OF ALL MYTHS!
37. I am not a good enough golfer to be custom fitted—besides,
it’s not the arrow, it’s the archer.
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As a Clubmaker, What
ARE You Selling?
In the two years since TWGT introduced its Search series of
books aimed at telling regular golfers the truths about golf
equipment, a very obvious point has surfaced which clearly spells
the difference between the Clubmakers who have been able to
grow and increase their fitting business and those who have
not.
Plain and simple, the Clubmakers who are enjoying an increase
in their business make it a point to sell the golfer on the
benefits of professional custom fitting. The Clubmakers who
are not experiencing an increase in business are still trying
to focus on selling golf clubs to golfers.
Don’t understand? No question, when the golfer hands
over their credit card or signs the check, they do walk out
the door with golf clubs. The difference is that for the Clubmakers
who are increasing their business, the sale all starts and is
all focused on the fact that what the golfer is buying is a
professional custom fitting session which results in a set of
golf clubs that the golfer knows will perform and play better
for him/her than any standard made set of golf clubs carrying
a well known, heavily marketed brand name.
Successful custom Clubmakers SELL THE FIT as being far better
than buying a set of brand name, standard made clubs off the
rack. Struggling Clubmakers lose their differentiation by continuing
to debate the benefits and quality of golf clubs with a brand
name unknown to the golfer vs. clubs which carry a name with
which the golfer is completely familiar.
Just about every clubmaker who tries to tell a golfer that
the clubs he/she can build are as good as or better than the
heavily marketed brand name clubs is fighting a very steep,
uphill battle. Brand marketing is designed to convince consumers
that the brand name means the best product quality. In the case
of the golf industry, several of the big golf club companies
spend upwards of $50 MILLION each year to indelibly burn this
point into the minds of consumer golfers.
No matter how technically proficient you may be at debating
the merits of the clubs you build, you cannot win that debate
with 98+% of the golfers you encounter because $50 million times
year after year is too difficult for you to upstage. You might
as well be trying to build cars in your workshop and try to
tell everyone you make a better car than Ford, Toyota or Mercedes-Benz.
On the other hand, the giant clubmaking companies and their
$50 million/year in marketing DO have an Achilles’ Heel.
The weakness of every big golf club company that IS being exploited
and exposed with real success by a handful of astute Clubmakers
is their practice of doing nothing but selling standard made,
one size fits all, golf clubs off the racks of every pro shop,
retail golf store or internet golf retail site.
If you want to be successful in growing your business as a
custom clubmaker, everything you say or do has to be aimed at
making the golfer realize that no matter how good they believe
the brand name clubs to be, there is no way they can possibly
achieve all they can be as a golfer unless they take the time
to be professionally custom fit.
This is precisely what the Search books and 12 Myths booklets
are designed to do – but they need your follow up conversation
with each golfer to drive home the clear point that as long
as golfers are all different and all make swing mistakes, no
standard made set of clubs can ever perform as well for the
golfer as a set that is custom fit to each golfer’s individual
size, strength, athletic ability and swing characteristics.
Sell the FIT FIRST and the sale of the golf clubs will easily
follow.
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The Latest and Greatest
"Pearls" from the TWGT Clubmaker Forum
Following are just a few of the more recent subject threads
from the TWGT Forum.
My brother just bought a new Titleist Vokey Spin Milled
58 degree wedge and that thing spins like crazy. I was wondering
what the difference between the Wishon CX Micro and Spin Milled
are. Are they practically the same grooves? I was just curious.
Welcome to our Forum and thanks for your question. To my knowledge,
while both the CX Micro and Vokey Spin Milled wedges have a
CNC milling on the face, the Vokeys have conventional scorelines
while the CX Micros have scorelines that are more narrow but
closer together.
Vokeys and virtually all other wedges have scorelines that
are 0.8mm wide and 2.8mm spaced apart. The CX Micro scorelines
are 0.6mm wide and 2.0mm spaced apart. What this means is that
at impact, the Vokeys put the edges of THREE scorelines on the
surface of the ball while the CX Micros put the edges of FIVE
scorelines on the surface of the ball.
Backspin is a product of 1) swing speed, 2) friction between
the face and the ball.
The higher the swing speed, the more backspin will result.
This is a function of the golfer, period.
The more friction between the face and surface of the ball,
the more backspin will result. Friction is a product of 1) surface
roughness, 2) sharpness of the edges of the scorelines, 3) the
golfer’s angle of attack with the clubhead down into the
ball.
SO, if you mill the face, you increase the friction between
the ball and the flat areas between the scorelines. If you make
the scorelines so that you have more line edges in contact with
the ball, you increase the friction. And if you hit down and
through the ball strongly, you also get more friction.
So the Vokey milling and the CX Micro milling do the same thing.
But the Vokey’s conventional scorelines don’t add
as much more friction to the impact as do the smaller and closer
together CX scorelines. Of the two, face roughness and scorelines,
the face roughness will account for the majority of the spin
because the area of the face between lines is greater than the
area of the line edges. But having more line edges in contact
with the ball does add some more spin to the shot.
Bottom line, the Vokey’s spin the ball more than any
wedge that has a conventionally sand blasted or glass bead blasted
face surface between scorelines. But the CX Micros spin the
ball a little more than the Vokey’s or any other wedge
because they have both the surface roughness from the CNC Milling
and the closer together scorelines to put more line edges in
contact with the ball.
Both the Vokeys and the CX Micros are USGA Conforming.
What is the difference between the carbon steel alloys
of 1020 and 1035 when it comes to quality and carbon steel make
up? I had the question asked to me.
Virtually nothing. In the nomenclature of the AISI (American
Iron and Steel Institute) the first two numbers “10”
always means the alloy is a carbon steel. The last two numbers
dictate the percentage of Carbon in the steel. So 1020 means
a carbon steel with 0.2% C in the composition, while 1035 means
a carbon steel with 0.35% C in the composition.
The higher the % of C in the carbon steel, the harder and less
bendable it will be in relation to ones with lower % of C. In
golf club performance this means nothing. In manufacturing,
it means that very slightly less force is required in the forging
to hammer a 1020 into the desired shape. About the only thing
that would show up would be that after a year of play, a set
made from 1020 would be dinged more on the surface than a set
made from 1035, and if the golfer hit a lot of balls from mats
or hardpan, he’s be wise to have the lofts and lies re-checked
a little more often. But in terms of performance, feel, etc,
NO DIFFERENCE whatsoever that any human being could ever perceive.
I am just curious what others think/know about the
effect of backspin on sidespin, or, more specifically, EFFECTIVE
sidespin (i.e. how crooked yo’ ball goes). I’ve
heard opinions ranging from “more backspin means more
time in the air which gives the ball more time to curve with
the sidespin it was hit with” to “more backspin
assists in steering and holds the ball online despite still
having appreciable sidespin”. I am especially pondering
this since my 919 wants to go so dang straight, and appears
to have a little more backspin than other TWish designs I have
played. Wonder if that’s a big reason, along with the
hefty MOI. Maybe the fact that you can’t see the results
of sidespin as much on a 9 iron as on a 4 iron explains it all...not
sure?
There is no such thing as sidespin. There is only backspin
and how much the axis of backspin rotation has been tilted to
the right or left from the golfer’s delivery of the face
to impact with the ball.While there are launch monitors which
output a number for sidespin, this to us is not a “real
world” situation and really tells us nothing. Since obtaining
our Trackman launch monitor, which does read backspin in a number
of degrees that the spin axis is tilted, this makes a whole
lot more sense in the proper analysis of shot data.
Off line curving shots result when the axis of backspin rotation
is tilted to the right (slice for RH golfer) or left (hook for
RH golfer). In a slight fade or hook for example, the tilt is
in the order of 4 to 8 degrees. In an outright slice or hook,
you’re looking at a tilt of the backspin axis to something
in the area of 30+ degrees. We’re talking driver heads
here by the way.
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