Golf Club and Clubmaking/Clubfitting terms (part 2)

8. Bounce angle. There are three distinct areas of the iron head that play pivotal roles in getting the ball airborne and inline to it’s intended target. The leading edge helps the club move into the through the turf in a descending blow. The sole of the iron stabilizes the club head through the turf and prevent the club from digging to deep into the turf. The bounce angle is part of the sole design and is the “stabilizer” of the club head. Bounce is measured in degrees, the degree of bounce determines how much / deep the club will dig into the turf. Once the leading edge of the club contact the surface; the club will “bounce” up from the surface keeping the face in a horizontal plane toward the target. The higher the bounce angle, the less the club will dig into the surface. The opposite is true with low bounce angles, the lower the bounce angle the deeper the club will dig into the turf. It is important to realize the type of courses you tend to play and the condition of the surface. Hard pack fairways are easier to play out of when the club has a low bounce angle, the club gets to “dig” into the turf and this prevents “thinned” shots from occurring. A thin shot is one where the club bounces off the turf into the balls equator and produces a low running golf ball that stays a few feet off of the ground. Since the ball in “running”, there is little control in the balls distance or direction. Soft or soggy fairways where there is little resistance to digging require higher bounce angles to keep the club from digging to deep and producing “fat” shots. Fat shots are cause by the club hitting the turf just prior to ball impact and digging into the turf. Fat shots don’t travel very far since the ball is hit with turf and not the club head mass. Bounce is you friend, choose the correct bounce angle for the course conditions you play to maximize you ball striking potential.

9. Wide sole verses thin sole. Looking back at bounce angles, the wider the sole the more stability the club head will have at impact. The biggest swing fault in most higher handicap golfer is an early release of the club in the down swing. An early release of the club head results in the club impacting the turf just prior to impacting the golf ball; this is the “fat” shot. Ever wonder why most anyone can hit good shots while hitting off practice mats? The practice matt has little give and an early release of the club head along with club head bounce allows the club to impact the ball cleanly producing good ball flights and in most cases extra distance. Wide sole irons help gofers who tend to release the club earl in the downswing, weaker golfers who can’t maintain wrist cock and “pickers” of the golf ball, people who don’t hit down on the ball but intern “pick” the ball off the turf. The opposite is true with stronger golfers who have a late release of the club head and hit with descending blows, thin sole irons provide just enough turf penetration to it a clean shot.

10. Head volume. Head volumes is the total size of the club head in CC’s. if we filled a graduated beaker with ~ two liters of water and then submerged the club head in the water, the rise in water would be equal to the heads total volume. Driver heads are limited to no more then 460cc’s of total volume Per PGA specifications. Iron heads currently have no volume restriction but due to their weight sizes are kept to a “standard” with the exception of heel to toe length.

11. Head weight. Most irons heads are designed with a 7 gram differential weight from head to head. For example, a three iron will weigh ~ 7 grams lighter then a 4 iron head. Irons heads decrease in weight as the loft gets weaker and overall club lengths get longer. Lower lofted iron heads don’t require the same mass as a higher lofted iron head; remember that higher lofted iron heads are designed to impart more spin on the ball thus they have taller faces. Lower lofted club are designed to produce lower spin rates for additional distance. In a perfect world, there would be a 7 grams overall weight difference between each club in your bag (irons). The shortest club would also be the heaviest club, the longest club would also be the lightest club. Longer clubs require more energy to swing die to their length, a long mass requires more input power to set in motion where as a shorter club does not. It all has to do with uniform circular motion; the longer or wider the circle, the more energy it takes to get the object in motion. But, a longer or wider circle also increase overall speed of the object due to centripetal force. This is a fancy way of saying that longer clubs will generate faster swing speeds. We will get more in-depth about this topic in later discussions.

12. Driver head weight. Driver head weights are in the range of 190 – 210 grams. The sheer volume of the driver head pretty much dictates the overall static weight of the head. Although manufactures use the strongest and lightest material available, don’t expect to see driver head weights change significantly over the next few years.

13. Tempo. Tempo is a measurement of “real time”, that is the time it takes from starting the back swing until the head impacts the golf ball. A typical swing tempo is ~ 1.0 second. The higher the number, the slower the tempo and visa versa.

14. Flex. Flex is just that; the amount of flex for a given length of a material. Different materials have different flex rates. We will concern ourselves with graphite and steel since these are the material used in our golf clubs. Flex is the amount of “bend” in a given material in relationship to it’s over all length. In the golf industry, flex is categorized by the denominations of L, A, R,S, and X. The flex “L’ is designated “ladies” and the martial has the most bend when compared to other flexes. A is designated as senior flex, R is regular, S is stiff and X is extra stiff. There is no set specification with regards to flex, one manufactures R flex could be equal to another manufactures S flex. The only commonality among flex rating is swing speed. The slower the swing speed, the more flex is necessary and visa versa.

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True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.