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Originally Posted by Simon Woo Assuming you swing the same speed, a longer club definitely has a faster speed since it is wider outside the circle and is therefore travelling at a faster rate than a clubhead that is nearer to the centre of the cicle. |
But you can't make that assumption, Simon. It's because of the conservation of angular momentum, the same thing that makes a figure skater spin faster when she draws her arms or leg closer to her body. When you say "same speed", you mean RPMs or degrees of arc per unit of time. When you swing a club, you apply a force to it. If that force is the same, then when you swing a longer club it'll move at fewer RPMs, so even though the club head is moving a greater distance, it's traveling a bit slower.
Of course, people aren't ideal machines, so this theory isn't going to apply perfectly. Theory says that if you apply the same muscular force, you'll swing a 9 iron at higher RPM than a driver, but since the club head doesn't travel as far through space, it's speed will be about the same, but in reality that higher RPM swing with a 9 iron may throw you off balance, so you *won't* apply as much force to it, and in that case you'd end up with a slower club head speed. Balance is another variable of the human swing that doesn't apply to ideal machines. I think most people *do* swing a driver "harder" than they swing a 9 iron, i.e., they apply more muscular force to the club. One reason is that when they use the driver, the shot is all about distance. There's really no reason to try to hit a bill as far as you can with a 9 iron, when you could get the same distance with another club without putting everything you have into it.
But I do think that for many golfers, maybe most golfers, there is one iron in the bag that they feel most comfortable with, and that's because that iron's length is just right for their posture and typical swing force, so they swing it in a balanced and smooth way.