Musings

**THE FOLLOWING IS MERELY PERSONAL CONTEMPLATION. IT SHOULD IN NO WAY BE CONSTRUED AS A PATH TO FOLLOW, NOR CONSTRUED AS ADVICE, OR CONSTRUED AS A RECOMMENDED WAY TO DO ANYTHING. This is more like a conversation I've been having with myself, and I've decided to let you in.**


I've been learning about shaft flex. What it is. What it does. What it doesn't do. What it can do, and what it can't. Things like, a golfer with an early release isn't able to take advantage of things like kickpoint - they've thrown it away at the top.

I've learned that with proper release, a shaft will kick through impact - adding loft and velocity to the ball. But is this a good thing? Sure, if your swing is repeatable. Why not take advantage of the added loft and extra clubhead speed? But what about us hackers? The guys who release early this swing, then don't release at all the next? Which shaft should we be using?

Conventional wisdom tells us to play the whippiest shaft we can control. Why? For the distance, of course. Every golfer likes to hit a long ball. Every golf commercial is geared towards making golfers longer than ever. Where are the commercials looking to make golfers more accurate than ever?

Why do tour pros play X or XX stiff shafts in their irons? For the control, obviously, but at the cost of distance. Yet, it's been documented that shafts that are too stiff feel that way, or 'boardy'. But I'd think that giving up the distance to gain the accuracy is a good trade. If the pros are swinging shafts that are 'too stiff' to gain accuracy, then shouldn't the average hacker?

The bag makeup I'm contemplating is a stiffer-shafted bag. Forgo the distance, but find more fairways, attack more pins. As we all know, the longer a ball is in the air, the longer it has to go offline (if it is indeed headed that way).

I find that personally, I find with a soft regular I can feel the clubhead better. Of course, I need to quantify 'soft regular', but that's another ball of wax. What I'm not sure about is if this feel is important. It would seem to me that with my inconsistent swing, with my inconsistent release, how can I truly dial in my yardages? If, because of shaft kick, I can be +/- 7 yards swing-to-swing, should I be happy with this for yardage?

I currently play a Rifle Spinner 4.5 in my wedges (52,56,60,64). My 52 is what I pull when I'm around the 100 yard marker. Using a GPS rangefinder, I find I put balls between 94 and 102 yards - an 8 yard deviation. I also know that I lose 20 yards if I chunk it. Is this acceptable? I guess the answer is 'it depends'. It depends on the types of greens I'm hitting into. It depends on the types of pin placements I'm attacking. Do I have room to land it short and let it roll up (because my swing does NOT produce check at this point)?

To me, if there is a way to close up that distance gap - 8 yards as it is - I'm up for it. I'm not sure how tight I can get it, and I feel like it's probably going to cost a penny or two to make the demo clubs to find out.

I guess the crux of my wonder is that in golf, using equipment to manufacture distance at the expense of accuracy really going to help to lower your score? Or is it the other way around - maximize accuracy at the expense of distance? Being a relative short knocker already (average 1W drive is 240 yards with a 10.5° driver; 7 iron from 150 yards), I'm a little concerned to pursue my theory. However, if it's a way to get my scores to drop, because my yardages will be tight, then I may very well have to do it. If more flexible shafts increase distance, as well as the range for any given club, I don't see how it can be possible to really go after pins. After all, you can't post a low score without some one putts to offset the inevitable three putts!

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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.

If I may ride up your blasphemous post , I contend that distance is not all it's cracked up to be, especially by those of us who are weekend golfers at most.

The extra distance that one gets from one's drive is one thing. The extra distance one might get from an iron is another. You can get away with a drive that's somewhat wayward, but approach shots need to be accurate. If a 7i with a more flexible shaft goes 150 yards and a 7i with a more stiff shaft goes 140, I'd rather use a stiffer 6i for the 150 yard shot that's more accurate. The score card doesn't record what club you used to hit the green.

I think you're on to something, but it would be interesting to hear from those with more experience than I have.

Bill

My two cents:
Pros are hitting 300 plus yards with X or XX shafts. These guys have the most repeatable swings you can find (next to Iron Biron) and we should never compare their abilities and choices to the once-a-week hacker. My thought is that if you can not hit as far as the pros with a 'R' flex, then the 'R' flex is plenty stiff. Remember, just like playing a flex that is too soft can affect your accuracy, so can playing a shaft that is too stiff. Not being able to load, or not being able to unload the shaft because it's too stiff is also a cause for concern. Add in the swing flaws and inconsistancies, and you add more fuel to the disaster flame. There is a reason that there is a flex recommended for a certain swing speed - it works best for that swing speed. It's not the case 100%, but most of us will not go wrong by sticking to what is recommended by the manufacturers.

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Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall