Questions We've Been Asked   Updated 5/3/08

Interesting Clubmaking Facts does not describe what this is intended to be. Below is a compilation of things we have been asked about on a fairly regular basis.  Some are rather general questions and others are very specific. We hope they will help you understand why being fitted can improve your game.

Shaft Length and Distance

     I'm in my 60’s and I'm noticing that I am not hitting my irons as long as I used to.  I know that I'm not swinging as fast as I used to and I'm assuming that's the reason for loss of distance.  I am thinking about adding 2 inches to the length of my shafts, hoping that would compensate for the loss in distance.  What is your opinion?  Would that solve my problem?

Adding 2 inches to the shafts on your irons will not only increase the swing weight by over 12 points but will increase the MOI of the club itself requiring considerably more energy to generate the increased clubhead speed to obtain the increased distance you are looking for.  This increase of 2 inches per club will also significantly decrease your accuracy equivalent to the difference in accuracy from a 7 to a 3 iron.

The best advice if you are experiencing a decrease in distance with your irons is to join a local gym after checking with your doctor and work on your strength and flexibility. This will increase your range of motion and based on research allow you to increase your clubhead speed on average approximately 5 mph which should generate at least 10-12 yards increase in distance. You’ll not only enjoy golf more but your quality of life off the golf course will also improve significantly.

If your clubs are more than 2 years old we would recommend you check the lie angle and lofts to make sure that they have not changed.

Extinction of the 2 Iron

In my existing set of clubs I have a 2 iron that I just love.  I have had these clubs for 25 years and know that technology has moved forward.  When looking for a new set I am finding that most do not have 2 irons nor can you get a 2 iron.  Is it possible they could take a 3 iron and make it a 2 iron? 

They already have made a 3-iron a 2-iron.  Twenty-five years ago the loft of a 3-iron was 23 degrees the loft of a two iron was 20 degrees.  A one iron would have been lofted at 18 degrees in 1980.  Today a 4-iron is 23 degrees, a 3-iron is 20 degrees and if they made a 2-iron it would be 18 degrees.  When you are comparing clubs of different ages you cannot go by the number of the club you need to measure the lofts of the various clubs to determine what clubs they would relate to in a new set.  A part of every iron fitting is comparing the lofts of the individuals present set to what a new set would be, so we can determine what clubs the person needs in a new set. 

Sole Width

Does the width or size of the sole on irons have any if any effect on the shots? 

Some of the more forgiving clubs have a wider sole that prevent the club from digging into the ground creating a very fat shot. As an individual’s skill level improves the width of the sole can be decreased in most cases. A very wide sole generally has more bounce and may be a detriment when playing off hard pan fairways.

Bigger Grip

Oversized/midsized grips feel much better to me than regular size.  Will it be a problem if I put oversized grips on my clubs?

It would be in your best interests to find out what is the correct grip size for you.  It maybe that you need a grip that is bigger and that is why a bigger grip feels better.  However, if you where to put on a significantly bigger grip than you need, it would restrict the rotation of your wrists pushing a ball to the right.

Swing Weight

    What is Swing weight?  

    Swing weight is how heavy the head feels when the club is held out in front of you. It is a relationship of weight.  It is the relationship of the butt 14 inches of the club to the rest of the club.  Because of this it is influenced by club length and weight. Swing weight is a static balance which was introduced about 80 years ago based on balancing Francis Ouimet's -- US Open champion 1913 -- clubs. It was found that the same weight could be added to the butt end of each club in his set and they would balance on a fulcrum 14 inches from the grip end of the club. This is still the system used to swing weight clubs. 

   It has been thought that women need a swing weight between C-4 and C-8, while men need a swing weight between C-9 and D-2.  We have found this not to be true.  We have found that individuals with a fast back swing will prefer and need a heavier swing weight than individuals with a slow back swing. 

      A club, e.g. a driver, will change by one swing weight point if you added a 2 grams weight to the club head. This is equivalent to two one dollar bills or two hundred dollar bills -- they both weigh the same, its just that your wallet feels heavier with hundred dollar bill in it.  Very few people can tell the difference between two clubs which have a difference of three swing weight points i.e. D0 to D3. 

Perimeter Weighting in Wedges

    It seems odd to me that retailers stock few perimeter weighted wedges other than those that match full sets of perimeter-weighted irons. Is perimeter weighting that much less advantageous in wedges as in the longer clubs?

    It is not easy to design a wedge with a perimeter weighting (higher MOI) which is more effective than the present classic designs. The reason why we see the same cavity back style of perimeter weighting, even though it is reduced in the PW is because this is part of the set and, is in fact a nine iron of old with different --PW -- stamping on the sole.

     The real PW used to have 51 degrees of loft and was considered a true wedge, but these are now about 46 degrees and thus a continuum of the set with a true wedge now being a utility club which we now call a Gap Wedge.  The forgiveness factor you can build into real wedge compared to the classic designs we see in the stores is so small that you should not even think about trying to take advantage of this property.

Most of us can hit Tiger's wedge (not his Lob wedge) without too much of a problem, but lets not even think about hitting his 3-iron. You are exactly right in your assumption that, perimeter weighting is much less advantageous in wedges than in the longer clubs.

Picking a Sand Wedge

    What Should a Person Look for When Selecting a Sand Wedge?

     You really don’t have much of a choice or the need to be concerned when it comes to the selection of a Sand Wedge (SW). Even though you may find some more aesthetically pleasing than others, because of, for instance, a curved leading edge rather than a straight one etc., they are all very similar. The differences in Sand Wedge design is relatively small compared to the choices you have in irons which, run the gambit for Ultra Game Improvement (extreme cavity back) to classic (blades).

      Sand wedges are almost all blade-like in design and about as forgiving as a wedge can be. I have said on numerous occasions that almost all of us can use Tiger’s sand wedge with some degree of success but few – very few – of us can play with his three-iron, which requires a great deal of skill.

      For about 98% of us the specs of our SW should be a loft of 55 degrees and a bounce angle of 12 degrees. These may vary by a degree but 55/12 is a good choice. I recommend you stay with the above unless you are an accomplished player and through experience know a loft of 55 and a bounce of 12 degrees does not suit your sand game.

     The lie angle should be checked and adjusted to your need through a quick lie check.  The sand shot will require that you open or close the face depending on conditions and the type of shot you want to play, and this will alter both the effective loft and bounce, which you should be aware of, especially when using your sand wedge from shots outside of the bunker.

Will a Shorter Driver Effect Loft

  If I shorten my driver from 45 1/2" to 44" will it have any affect on the loft? Would the ball go higher or lower because of the change in length?

    If you shorten a driver from 45 ½ to 44 it will not change the loft of the driver, nor will it affect the stiffness of the shaft.  It might change your attack angle thus the launch angle of the drive.

     This decrease in length will definitely affect the swing weight by about nine points making the club head feel lighter.  If you have a club head with weight ports, increase the weights to bring the swing weight back partially or if needed, all the way back to your comfort swing weight zone.  Lead tape may be added to the head to bring back the feel you require.  We would recommend that you have the driver re-shafted with a shaft of the correct weight for the shorter length.

     If you want to lower your scores and stay in the fairway more often, we highly recommend you shorten it.  What you will find with the shorter driver is that you will start building confidence in your tee shots, stay in the fairway more often and will most likely make a better swing and certainly hit the sweet spot more often. Hitting the sweet spot will increase the ball speed and you will get the same distance or more than you did with a 45 ½ inch driver, but will not be spending as much time looking for your ball in the rough.  Tiger, when he played so well in his early days used a 43 1/2 inch driver.  Ernie Els is swinging a 44 inch driver.  The average length of a driver on the PGA Tour is 44.5 inches.

Old Iron Head vs. New Iron Head

     I have been playing Ping Eye 2 + for about ten years. I play to a ten, but my golf became easier when I gave up forged blade irons.   How do the Ping Eye 2's stack up against the more modern versions? These are reasonably forgiving, the heads are modest in size and I get sufficient feel especially with today’s golf balls. What might I gain from irons with newer technology?

     There is no doubt that you can still enjoy your game very much with your Ping Eye 2 irons. Your irons are classics and the very club that started the cavity-back revolution. Few iron sets are more user-friendly than your Eye-2s. This does not mean that you should not look around at some of the latest technology in irons but don't get too excited or expect your game to improve significantly if you decide to make the change.   What may create a more significant difference in your game would be having the clubs re-shafted and loft and lies set to your present needs.  This can be determined through a fitting.  Iron heads have not changed significantly over the last 10 years.  Yes, they look different, but the playability has not changed in any discernable way. 

 Changing Wedges

     There was an article in a leading golf magazine that recommended changing wedges on a regular basis. They stated that wedges begin to loose their bite and efficiency in spinning the ball after about 40 rounds of golf. How often would you recommend that the average 12 to 25 handicapper change their wedges? I realize that these are probably the most important scoring clubs in the bag, but at what point does this begin to make a difference for players at this level?

     The fact is that most of us not able to make my wedges do fantastic tricks on the green the same way Tiger can even when they were brand new. What you should be concerned about is the correct loft, lie, and bounce on our wedges. 

      Some manufacturers tried to convince us that their irons were better than those of their competitors, because the same numbered iron hit the ball farther.  This was accomplished by making the loft of the club stronger.  As a result we have had to live with a change in unwritten loft standards.

      The lofts were changed without changing the number on the bottom of the club. The Sand wedge has remained at about 55 degrees, but the Pitching Wedge moved up with the rest of the set and is now about 46 degrees compared to 50 degrees that it was before the cheating started. This has forced us to add a wedge between the pitch and sand called the Gap wedge.

      Both the Gap wedge and the PW are really a continuation of the sets of the past and don’t need a bounce of more than about 8 degrees. The Gap wedge (50 degree loft) should have a bounce of about 8-10 degrees with the SW having 12 to 14 degrees of bounce.  The Lob wedge  (60 degree loft) should have a bounce of about 6 degrees.

      These loft, lie, and bounce properties are those you should be concerned about with your wedges and once you have them sorted then start working on your short game technique. The grooves are important but will have very little affect your game.  The roughness of the face will have more effect of the amount of spin placed on the ball than the grooves.  If you find the face of your wedges are smooth and worn they can be sandblasted to bring back the roughness.  

Time to Change?

     I am an older golfer who has been playing golf for over 40 years, I now have a set of Callaway X-14 irons with 5.0 Rifle shafts. I am thinking of changing to either the Callaway X-20's or the new Ping G10's. I am a 10 handicap player. Will I see any changes?

     If you think it is time to change then this means one of two things:

a) You are not very happy with your present set and have lost confidence in the way they perform and/or b) You are caught up in the net of hype and marketing directed at those of us who are gullible and believe in magic -- most of us. This belief in magic is augmented by implications, which imply that last year’s model doesn’t work as well anymore because the latest new model has wonderful enhancements that will significantly improve your performance.

     If it is a) then yes, I think you should start looking around. I don’t think it will be the new head that will affect performance as much as a better fitted overall club including the shaft, correct lie angle and grip size. A new set will certainly improve your outlook and give you a new sense confidence. The new clubs, after all, haven’t hit any bad shots so why wouldn’t you trust them especially if you paid a lot for them.

       If it is b) then be careful because there are few technical improvements in irons, which will significantly enhance your performance. You may be better off reconfiguring your set by dumping the long irons and including a couple of hybrids and check to see if you have the right loft, lie and bounce on your wedges. These are your scoring clubs.  You have changed and your clubs can be changed to continue to serve your needs.        

     Whatever you purchase should be correctly fitting to you by professional club fitters.

The Wie Effect  

     As a golf instructor and fellow club fitter, I have occasionally been asked by parents of teenagers to do whatever it takes to take their son/daughter through the High School, College, and Pro levels of golf instruction. The world now knows the adverse results of what can happen when a very good teenager golfer is given financial and notoriety options based on their early performance. I want to protect my students, but also give them sage advice. Do you have recommendations on what to read, who to consult with, and how to proceed.

     We have experienced similar problems. Unfortunately, many parents are trying to live out a fantasy through their children. This, in most cases, is very innocent and they may not even know the long term effect. Many truly believe pushing their children is in the child’s very best interests. This is sometimes very destructive.

     A very good reference guide to help both parents and children keep things in perspective is “Golf Parent for the Future”, which can be found on www.vision54.com.  Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson, the authors have done a super job in helping parents in this respect.

Forged Blade irons vs. Cavity Back irons

     With all else equal (swing speed, loft, shaft, hitting the exact sweet spot, etc), do forged blade irons provide more distance than other irons such as cavity backs?

     Your question pre-supposes that all else is equal. If this is the case, then the answer is NO. There will be no difference in distance. The fact that a club is forged does not make any difference to the ball speed, launch angle or spin rate. If you hit a forged blade on the sweet spot and all else is equal, at impact the cast cavity-back club will not produce any different results. Likewise, a cast blade and a forged cavity back head, with all else being equal will not produce any different results.  The problem is that all else is not equal, because in most cases the center of gravity of the two clubs is in a slightly different location, and so the way the club head is presented to the ball will almost always be a little different.
    If, however, the design and shape of two clubs, one forged and the other cast, is identical then the answer remains no. Back in the early 1970s, a manufacturer made up two iron clubs with identical shapes. One was created by a casting method, and the other was forged. Both were chrome plated to avoid any observable differences.  Pros were asked to hit each club to determine which was forged and which was cast; the manufacturer concluded from the tests that even these golfers could not tell the difference. Nor will you.

Is the driver shaft more important now than it was 10 years ago?

    With the club manufacturers reaching the limits on drivers, how important does the shaft become, and how can a person determine the correct one?

     The question recognizes that there are some limitations that nature controls in golf, not the USGA. We are reaching those limits when it comes to drivers.
     Even if there were no limitations on clubs and balls in the Rules of Golf, I would estimate that equipment innovation could add only about 8 to 10 yards from where we are today, as long as golfers keep swinging clubs at the same speed. Faster head speed will always give you more distance, even if the gains are diminishing as head speeds increase. Golfers on average may simply be getting better -- although Jack Nicklaus 45 years ago had a clubhead speed comparable to that of Tiger Woods today. He could have driven the ball the same distance as Tiger if he had had today's equipment.
     The average driving distance on the PGA Tour (one of the best golf test laboratories in the world) has increased about 25 yards (from 265 yards in 1995 to 289 yards in 2006) over an 11-year span without any measurable increase in skill on the part of the players.  This has been the most significant increase in distance over such a short period of time in the history of the game. The reason for this is primarily the spring-like effect in clubs permitted by the USGA, and secondarily the performance of the multi-layered ball that has allowed golfers to launch drives at or close to their optimum conditions. This could not be achieved with a wound ball and persimmon head.  To answer your question, the shaft is not any more important now than it has been in the past.  This does not mean it isn’t important, just that its influence is no greater since the recent leveling off in performance of driver heads.
      Find a shaft that allows you to feel where the club head is (flex and weight), and that you are in control of it during your swing (length), and stick with it. By far the most important specifications in a shaft are its flex, weight and length; many golfers use shafts that are too stiff, too light, and too long, because they believe that’s what better players use. 

     You need to get fitted so the driver can be developed to your specific needs.

How to get More Distance

How do I get more distance with my driver?

     This will be a long explanation.  When a golf ball is launched from a club, it follows a trajectory dictated by its speed, launch angle and spin rate. While this is true for all clubs, this discussion will center around the driver.  With most other clubs, we are concerned with distance control, but with the driver we usually want to get as much distance as we can.  The three-wood is also a distance club, but when the ball is on the ground we don't have the same options as when we can place it on a tee.  So the question every golfer wants answered is; ‘How can I get the maximum the distance I get off the tee…overall distance, not just carry?'

    First, consider the ball. In the 19th century, golfers noticed that their solid gutta-percha golf balls went further after they'd been used for a while and acquired some nicks and scrapes. This observation is the reason golf balls have dimples today. Those dimples create a roughened surface, which has significant effects on a ball in flight. Where a dimpled ball will travel 250 yards a smooth ball will only go about 125 yards.
      Dimples reduce the "drag" or resistance on the ball when it's traveling through the air. This is not intuitive because generally, smooth things travel through air and water better than rough things. This would be true even for a golf ball, if it were traveling at speeds less than about 50 mph. But in any normal trajectory off a driver, the ball is traveling considerably faster than 50 mph. before it hits the ground. The reason for this reduced drag is complex, but conceptually it is similar to going through a force barrier. The barrier is broken at a specific speed because the size of the turbulent air tail is reduced in size, and the resistance is cut almost in half.

     A ball with dimples, but without spin will only travel half as far as a ball with dimples and spin.  Every golf shot hit into the air has backspin.  No shot leaves with over spin.  Even a putt has backspin. The dimples create a turbulent layer around the ball so that when it spins, it drags the air over the ball, creating lower air pressure on the top of the ball than on the bottom producing a lift force greater than the weight of the ball. This allows the ball to glide, rather than to take on the trajectory of a bullet, in the same way that an aircraft wing provides a lift force to get and keep the plane airborne.

So, dimples and spin are key factors in determining distance along with ball speed and launch angle.  The question becomes, How can we optimize these factors to get maximum distance?

     You can't do anything about the dimples, as these come with the ball you selected, and the shape, number, and size for all balls are very similar.

     Next is ball speed. This is also something you have little control of if you are already swinging as efficiently as you can within your physical abilities. So there are only two things left for us to consider: spin and launch angle.

     Spin and launch angle are linked, because to get a higher launch angle you need more loft, which increases spin. Is this bad? Well, it could be if you are already getting too much spin but not a high enough launch angle. This increased spin will increase the height of the trajectory and also increase the drag on the ball, slowing it down. It will make you feel like you are hitting the ball into the wind. The goal, then, is to find the best compromise of lowest spin with highest launch angle. Unfortunately as one goes up, generally so does the other.

    The closer the combination of the loft and the angle of attack are to the desired launch angle the less spin placed on the ball.  The higher/lower the combination of the loft of the club and the angle of attack are to the optimal launch angle the more spin placed on the ball.

      After 400 years of trial-and-error experimentation, along came computer analysis of trajectories using aerodynamic properties of spinning balls to help answer the question. It has now been shown that to get maximum distance out of all the club head speed that most of us can muster – around 90 mph without having to tighten our shoe laces – we need to launch the ball higher than we originally thought. The optimal launch angle for that swing speed is between 13 and 14 degrees. Our three wood will often do this better than the driver, and as a result we sometimes find that we actually hit the ball farther with our 3-wood than with the less-lofted driver, which doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, because the length of the three wood shaft is less than the driver and its loft is higher, that club does not project the ball with as much speed AND will cause a higher spin rate. How can we take advantage of the driver's additional length and lower loft to maximize our distance with what should be our longest club?
     Our goal with the driver should be to increase its loft to launch the ball at 13 to 14 degrees, while also lowering the spin rate to about 3,000 rpm. We can accomplish this with the aid of the latest generation of big titanium drivers. Most all of them are good clubs and have the trampoline effect which lowers the spin rate so the choice of brand name is almost entirely a matter of personal preference.
     Since the driver is the one club in which we are actually swinging up at the ball at impact, we don't have to create all of that 13-to-14 degrees of launch angle with the club face. The loft of the club should be about 10.5 or 11 degrees, or possibly more as your swing speed goes down. To help create the optimal spin rate of about 3,000 rpm we should:

     Choose a ball that has low spin properties off the driver. Titleist NXT or DT Solo, Callaway HX Hot or Big Bertha, Maxfli Red Max or Noodle are some examples of low spin balls.

     Tee the ball a little higher to take advantage of the vertical gear effect by hitting the ball a little above the sweet spot. This gear effect, a vertical cousin of the horizontal effect that causes a draw if you hit the ball towards the toe, allows the club head to twist under the ball, decreasing the spin and also producing a higher launch angle. These improvements in the launch conditions make up for the slightly lower ball-speed that results from imperfect sweet-spot impact.

In other words:
Hit it high and let it fly

Lie Angle

    What is the effect of an incorrect Lie Angle?

     The lie angle of the club is the angle the shaft makes with the ground, when the club is in the proper address position with the grooves level. There is a de-facto or nominal "standard" lie angle for each iron. If a club has a higher lie angle than standard, it is called "upright"; if lower, it is called "flat". For instance, the normal lie angle for a 5-iron is 60 degrees. A 5-iron with a 58-degree lie would be called "two degrees flat". A player with a particular size and swing will require a particular lie angle in order for the clubface to be level at impact. And it is important for the clubface to be level at impact. The reasons?

Direction of clubface

     The more toe-down the club, the more the clubface will face to the right (for a right-handed golfer; we'll use the right-handed convention from now on). The result will be a push, but the right-facing clubface will also impart some slice spin that will magnify the effect.

     The figure should help you visualize this. Take a well-lofted club (a short iron) and hold it with the shaft perfectly vertical. This will simulate a seriously exaggerated too-flat club (i.e., toe-down) for the very upright position in which you're holding it. Notice how the face is pointing not just up, but well to the right as well.

     Conversely, if you hold the shaft horizontal, the clubhead is toe-up, or "upright". And the face points well to the left.

By the way, this is the same reason that a side hill lie with the ball below your feet is a "slice lie" and with the ball above your feet is a "hook lie".

    How much of a directional error will you get from an error in lie angle? The greater the loft, the greater the angle of error. But the greater the loft, the less the distance -- so the angle of error doesn't matter as much in yards. Here is a table of total directional error (in yards) for a variety of clubs, due to each degree of lie error.

Twisting with Ground Contact

     A club with the proper length and lie will, at the bottom of the swing where the club meets the ball, have the head perfectly level. An important consequence of this is that the club strikes the ground at a point directly under the sweet spot of the clubhead; this is also directly under the ball, assuming the golfer has managed to strike the ball on the sweet spot.

But what happens if the club is not the right lie? Let's consider the too-flat or too-short club, which is toe-down as it strikes the ball. The toe will strike the ground first, and twist the clubface open.

     If you hit the ground before the ball (that is, hit it fat), this twisting of the clubface greatly multiplies the small directional error we had before due to the flat lie. Now you don't have a small push or slice; you could have a disastrous one. If the club is too long or has a too-upright lie, the opposite is true. The club will face left at impact, encouraging a pull or a hook. A fat hit will further close the clubface, giving a potentially disastrous pull or hook.

BUILDING A SET OF CLUBS BY MOMENT OF INERTIA

    Why should a golfer consider setting up a set of golf clubs by MOI?

     No custom fit golf club company has been building clubs by MOI in Minnesota longer than Pat Ryan Golf and no one has the knowledge or technology to develop a set as precise and accurately as we do.

     First, it is helpful to gain an understanding of what is meant by moment of inertia, or MOI, when we refer to the fully assembled golf club.  We know that when we try to move any object, it resists our efforts according to its weight or mass.  If a mass is attached to the end of a rod and swung from one point to another point, it offers a certain resistance to our efforts.  If the rod is lengthened, it is more difficult to make the swing in the same time as before because the MOI of the entire mass and rod as one object has been increased.  Therefore, if we consider the object in our example to be a golf club, the MOI is a measurement of the golf club’s ability to resist our efforts and skill to rotate the golf club around our body from the top of our swing to impact with the ball.

     MOI is the parameter that resists our efforts to swing and rotate the club around our body in the swing.  The MOI can be increased by increasing the length through which the mass of the club is rotating and/or by increasing the mass of the club itself.  In addition, altering a combination of the length and the mass of the golf club can change the MOI.

     A golf club that has a large (high) MOI will require more effort to swing than a golf club that has a smaller (low) MOI.  The proper MOI of the golf club for the golfer thus has a direct bearing on the golfer’s strength, swing speed and the amount of control that the golfer has on the golf club when accelerating during the downswing.  This generates the energy potential needed to propel the golf ball some distance away and along a desired trajectory.  Adjusting the MOI of the golf club to suit a particular golfer’s swing characteristics can therefore optimize the energy potential of the golf swing.

     One of the goals in the fitting process is to determine what MOI is best for each golfer.  When that is identified, the Pat Ryan Golf Fitting System can develop the information necessary to enable its clubmakers to build golf clubs to a matched MOI, so that all of the clubs in a set will require the same effort to swing.  When this is done, the golfer should experience an improvement in consistency in being able to strike the ball on center a higher percentage of the time; and optimize there swing speed, which in turn will translate into greater distance and better accuracy overall.

Cold Weather & Graphite Shafts

Does the cold weather have an effect on graphite shafts, and would it be better served playing steel shafted clubs until the weather warms up? 

      Graphite shafts will not be detrimentally affected by low temperatures. Cold temperatures will affect your game because of your personal decreased range of motion more than the effect on your equipment. The air temperature will affect the distance a ball will carry by about 2 to 3 yards per 10 degree change in temperature, and if the balls are cold count on another couple of yards. So you will need at least one extra club when the temperature gets down to the mid thirties, for those shots you play the same distance in mid summer.   

Irons-How Big Can the Faces Get?

     With the recent advances in technology and materials, one would expect iron heads to get a lot larger than they have. They have gotten slightly larger in recent years but it pales in comparison to the growth of driver heads in the past decade.  Would a larger impact surface area in iron heads make irons a lot more forgiving?

     Bigger seems to be better. Well, that is the case with most things and certainly when it comes to driver heads. The first Big Bertha was a whopping 190 cc and now because of the limit all drivers are 460 cc. The reason for drawing a limit at 460 cc was because the USGA thought that this was a way to demonstrate that it was doing something about the distance problem, which has been a subject of much debate for about 110 years. “Professional and elite golfers are hitting the ball too far so we must do something.”

     When it comes to irons bigger is not better, certainly not by increasing the dimension from sole to the top line or crown as in the case of woods. The large size in woods is to increase the MOI or forgiveness and easily demonstrated when making contact over a wide area on the face, which most of us do, when the ball is launched from a tee. When the ball is lying on the fairway there is little room to maneuver the ball up or down on the face and the upper portion of the clubface very rarely comes in contact with the ball.  When more mass is moved higher on a iron head the center of gravity (sweat spot) also moves higher.  It makes it more difficult to get a ball in the air.  So the size for irons is self-limiting and as such the USGA has not “yet” decided to limit the overall size of irons.

Can a Driver Lose Its Pop

     Some think drivers lose their pop after a certain amount of time. They've come up with some possible causes, but aren't really sure (loss of trampoline effect due to metal fatigue, or the shaft loses flexibility).  Would it be expected that a driver would lose distance over the span of about a year (assuming the golfer’s swing doesn't change)?

     If we are talking about drivers that have been around for a few years, all of which are designed to the limit of COR (trampoline effect) at .830, and your swing speed is in the normal to high range (85 mph to 105 mph), then you should not be concerned about it losing its POP.

      I’m assuming that the club head and shaft are not production anomalies that should have been rejected on their way through the quality control department, and that the club is otherwise designed to specifications. If it is from a reputable manufacturer, then it should last for at least five years under reasonably heavy use. This means playing 30 to 40 rounds of golf a year and going to the driving range about once a week.

     The face will not lose its “pop” -- i.e., resilience or ability to spring back during impact. The shaft will not lose flexibility in any gradual manner. When a graphite shaft fails, it is a catastrophic failure that ends up with the grip still in your hands but the head somewhere in the bushes or down the fairway. The fatigue properties of shafts are very good. Even steel shafts made of high strength steel will not lose their rigidity.

     You can test to see if a driver face has started to collapse.  Place the straight edge of a credit or business card against the face. The face should have a noticeable bulge and roll…be convex. If the face is flat and a little concave, then you do have a potential problem. Nowadays this is very much the exception, though that was not the case in the very early days of titanium drivers.   We would be happy to measure the bulge and roll of your driver head.

Temperatures Effect on Ball Flight

      How does temperature effect the ball? Is there an ideal temperature range that golf balls are designed to be played in?

     Many golfers -- even the pros -- don't pay enough attention to the air temperature when selecting a club for a particular shot. The ball temperature also affects its resilience properties, but not as much as the air temperature. As air temperature increases, the air becomes less dense, and this is why it is more difficult for airplanes to take off on hot days than cold days. The lift forces are reduced in hot (less dense) air, as are the drag forces -- and the overall effect is that balls will travel farther on hot days than cold days.

     A general rule of thumb is to estimate a 2 to 2.5 yard difference for every 10° F.  So at 40 ° F, the ball will travel about 10 to 12 ½  yards less than at 90° F. In combination with your decreased body temperature, which will have some effect on your swing, this could add up to something significant -- at least one to one and a half clubs’ difference in your selection. 

The Price of a Shaft

     Will an individual really be able to tell the difference between a $250 to $400 shaft as opposed to a $60 to $90 shaft, assuming the individual gets fitted for the correct length, flex, etc?  Is there more technology in the higher-priced models, and will an individual be able to appreciate the difference? Will it be worth it to spend the extra money?

    This is definitely a case where individuals have been lead to believe that very expensive shafts must be better (much better) than the more affordable ones, only because they are so expensive. The closer the shaft fits your swing needs the better it will play for you.  There are shafts that suit 98 percent of all golfers needs in a very reasonable price range.  Will a $400 shaft make a make a difference to the game of an 18 handicapper and play better than a $69.00 shaft?  The answer is NO.

     If you are going to drive in the Indy 500 at 250 mph then super high speed tires are a must, but if you are driving back and forth to work you really don't need to get the tires that are good at 250 mph.  There are many manufacturers making very good shafts at reasonable prices.  We can help you find one that fits your needs.