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Is it really true?
A few
years ago I had a representative of a club company tell me
their driver was the only driver that gives the ball over
spin. He said it had to do with the head shape, and the
bulge and roll of the face. I was stunned to think, here
was an individual representing a golf club company and he
had no understanding of the physics of a golf club. If he
does not understand what happens when a club is swung and a
ball is struck, how can the general public. There are a lot
of myths out there and a lot of misinformation.
Let’s
clear up a few right now. No club made can be hit with over
spin. None…this includes the putter. The typical amount of
backspin for a driver swung at about 100 mph is well over
2,000 rpms. Yes, even a putter, at the millisecond of
impact, generates backspin.
On the
subject of spin, the grooves on the club do not produce
spin. The loft of the club and the roughness of the face
produce the spin on the ball. Studies over the last 25
years using identically lofted clubheads, with and without
grooves, produced the same relative amount of backspin. It
should be noted, at very slow clubhead speeds, such as those
generated by a short pitch shot, it is possible for grooves
(in particular square grooves) to generate a noticeable
amount of backspin over the same club without grooves. At
the slower speed of a short pitch shot the ball slides so
little up the face that it can be grabbed by the edges of
the grooves. So keep your clubs clean and the faces rough.
Also, keep the grooves sharp on your sand and lob wedges.
We hear
a lot of talk about bend point (or flex point) and its
effect on the shot. In tests conducted with a mechanical
golfer using drivers constructed identically in every way
except for bend point, it was discovered the difference in
launch angle from the lowest bend point to the highest bend
point was 1 degree. This is pretty insignificant. Bend
point has more to do with feel than trajectory. To a point,
the lower the bend point, the better the feel. The higher
the bend point the harsher the feel. If you wish to give
yourself a higher shot, have the lofts of your clubs
adjusted weaker by a qualified clubmaker.
Each day
I hear more individuals talking about downswing acceleration
and how the faster the golfer accelerates the club into
impact, the further the ball will travel. It is definitely
possible for two golfers to have the same swing speed, but
swing with different rates of acceleration. However, just
because one golfer may have a greater rate of acceleration
does not mean the ball will be hit further. It is pretty
clear that the individual with the greater acceleration will
need a stiffer shaft flex, but if the two golfers have the
same swing speed at the ball, it makes no difference what
the downswing acceleration is, the ball velocity leaving the
face of the club will be the same. Shot distance is
determined by ball velocity and launch angle and has
absolutely nothing to do with swing acceleration.
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