Optimum Shaft Length

Club length is a key factor in selecting a golf club to help you get the most from your swing mechanics. The way to find what's right from a clubfitting perspective is to fit for the longest shaft length that allows you to contact the ball in the center of the clubface consistently. An off-center impact can reduce substantially both distance and accuracy.

The average length of drivers played on tour is 44.5 inches - 45.0 inches. Few players can control longer clubs with sufficient efficiency to benefit from the increased length. However, off-the-rack retail drivers are typically 45.5 inches or longer. Why are OEM drivers marketed to amateur golfers longer than what the best players on the planet use on professional tours? It's marketing, pure and simple.

Modern driver sales are based in part on convincing golfers that if the club is longer, they can hit ther ball farther. But it's easy to overlook the need for more effort (energy) and a more consistent swing with a longer club to achieve efficient ball contact and higher clubhead speed. And it overlooks the significant effect of club length on swing mechanics.

For golfers who play drivers that are too long for their swing, a recommended adjustment is to shorten the shaft. Typically trimming up to one inch from the butt end of the club will yield a driver that you can hit more easily, and weight can be added back to the clubhead or subtracted from the grip end to restore swingweght feel. Trimming from the tip will increase stiffness feel, but adding back weight at the clubhead will restore much of the flex that was changed by trimming. The effects on shaft performance are minimal if any at all.

To adjust the length of your current driver, your local clubfitter can do it inexpensively, and check the weight balance and other key club properties -- there may be other club properties that need to be adjusted to get the performance you seek. If you are buying a new club, make sure you get the correct length initially -- it should be part of the fitting process. Your evaluation should include the use of impact tape and a launch monitor to know to measure performance. Banging a few balls on the driving range is not useful here.

2012 US Open Qualifier

2012 US OPEN SECTIONAL QUALIFIER at LAKE MERCED GOLF CLUB on June 4 is here. A diverse field of 130 players will be competing for 7 spots for admission to golf's toughest major at nearby Olympic Club. With a field this large, neighboring Harding Park will share the honors in hosting the qualifier. Each player will have a tee time scheduled on both courses for the 36-hole Monday event.

The southwest corner of San Francisco has arguably the best quartet of independent challenging golf courses in the country: Olympic Club -- the Lake course, Lake Merced Golf Club, Harding Park, and San Francisco Golf Club. They are located within a couple of miles of each other. You can stand on the elevated tee of one of the par-three holes at the Olympic Ocean course and see all four competition courses spread out before you. The western half of San Francisco forms a gorgeous backdrop to the East, and the Pacific Ocean to the West is nearly at your back. When the afternoon sun burns off the morning fog, the views are spectacular.

The courses at LMGC and Harding have hosted their share of pro tournaments over the years, with Lake Merced hosting a men's US Open qualifier nearly every other year.  At the last qualifier held at LMGC, a score of 4 under after 36 holes put a cluster of competitors on the road to Torrey Pines. Likewise, when more than 50 of the best players in the world played at Harding in the American Express tournament, a score of 10 under sent John Daly and Tiger Woods into extra holes and one of the most memorable tournaments we've seen.  Nobody beats these courses up. 

LMGC and Harding have a feel that's similar to Olympic and SF Golf Club while retaining unique qualities that make the courses stand apart as distinct experiences. To put it in perspective, each course is a Northern California masterpiece with classic design features that have stood the test of time. The layouts fit the terrain to perfection, and no housing developments intrude on the pristine golf vistas. These courses have a big bold quality to them with unique ways of drawing you in and challenging you to play your best.

Players who make the select qualifying group of six will do it because they have a complete game. Bomb-and-gouge does not work as a strategy here. Understanding the optimum shot placment on each hole will be needed. And putting talents will be put to the test at LMGC where the undulating greens require both technical skills and careful reads to track the dominant slope interactions on each hole. We've posted our perspectives on many of the LMGC holes here on our website along with the ways we like to play them. We'll be watching the competition at our favorite holes -- and taking notes.

Follow the Money

Stock factory shafts on OEM clubs often have the same colors and graphics as aftermarket graphite shafts offered to clubfitters for custom clubmaking. The trend for most OEMs now is to move away from the house color scheme that looks good on television and use the same colors and graphics that are on the aftermarket shafts used by clubfitters. It's because knowledgeable golfers usually don’t want to play a “cloned” shaft.

But does it matter whether the “Application” shaft in your new “Ideal” irons with the heavily discounted price is the same model or a cloned version of the aftermarket premium-priced custom model? The answer is complicated. Sometimes the same shaft is used and the only thing that’s missing is a proper fitting and, perhaps, craftsmanship in OEM club assembly. However, stock shaft “clones” are often made in large batches with lower grade materials and perhaps with simplified production methods to keep costs low. An OEM buying 100,000 or more units will look at every dollar of production costs.

When the OEM stock shaft is a low-cost clone with high-end graphics, then someone is getting fooled. A good example of this was noticed at a recent OEM demo day. The sales rep made a point of telling anyone who picked up one particular set of factory clubs that its graphite shaft was being used on the PGA tour now. The same shaft? 

Well, having profiled and fully characterized the aftermarket version of that shaft, I noticed that part of the graphics was subtly different on the OEM shaft than on the aftermarket shaft. Hitting a few balls on the range confirmed a difference in feel. The cloned OEM shaft was noticeably softer with a feel of less control. Million-dollar professional players don’t remain on tour by playing shafts with those qualities. Regrettably there was no launch monitor at the demo day to reveal the performance details I like to see.

Having raised the question, it’s fair to say there are a few fitting situations where the stock off-the-rack shafts are a good value for the money. In those cases, I am quick to advise that the golfer keep those clubs unless there is a significant measurable difference in performance. However, most of the time the shafts are an alternate version with degraded performance. If you want new clubs to help improve your game, we think it's best to buy fewer clubs of higher quality than a full set of questionable clubs at the same price.

When I’ve asked shaft companies about the shaft issue, the bottom line answer was “follow the money”. If you can buy the whole club for the same price as the aftermarket shaft alone, then you are probably not getting the same “tour” aftermarket shaft in the off-the-rack set. Smart people run these companies, and they do it for a profit. 

OK, what’s the point of all this. First, we like getting full value for anything we buy -- we don’t want to play clones. Second, golf is a complex game and “alternate-version” (the most polite way we can say it) shafts seldom yield the performance improvement expected when new clubs are on the table. Most of us need all the help we can get. There’s more to say, but it all comes down to the same recommendation: stay away from clones if you want to give yourself the best chance at getting a better game with your new clubs 

Driver Face Design

The shape and thickness of the driver face affect the loss of ball speed that occurs in off-center hits. Driver faces are more forgiving when their shape is more rounded and less asymmetrical, and when they are thicker in the middle region than around the perimeter. Other design features of the clubhead affect how the design of the face performs. However, it is safe to say that a driver head with a wide heel to toe design and a narrow crown to sole distance requires a high level of swing precision to play well.

Several factors influence the performance of a driver face with an optimal shape and thickness. Metal alloys in use require maximal strength with minimal elasticity. Curvature of the face in the heel-to-toe dimension (bulge) and crown-to-sole dimension (roll) affects face deflection, but other design considerations are more important. Bulge (horizontal curvature) minimizes the tendency of a ball to hook on a heel hit or fade on a toe hit. Roll (vertical curvature) also affects shot dispersion, but the effects of roll design are complex and are a topic for another blog.

Body design, how the face is welded to the body, and overall maufacturing tolerances also affect face performance. Foundries with high manufacturing craftsmanship and tight adherance to specifications will produce driver heads with the most consistent performance. Translation, use premium clubheads from the best sources to benefit your game. 

We've touched on only one part of driver clubhead design that is important in overall shot-making performance. But conclusions still can be made. Drivers with flat elongated faces will be less forgiving and more difficult to hit than the alternatives. Modern metal drivers outperform older wood designs overall. A properly designed large metal wood offers design benefits not found to the same extent in smaller heads. Take a close look at your driver specifications if your performance off the tee is not what it should be.

Use a Launch Monitor?

Why use a launch monitor in clubfitting? The cliche "If you don't test it's just a guess" sums it up nicely when it comes to the key data you need to optimize a club's performance. You require an unbiased, reasonably accurate test instrument if you want to know why one shaft/clubhead combination is better than another for your swing. 

The best launch monitors will measure ball speed, clubhead speed, ball spin, launch angle, path of the club through impact. Good instrument software will make some reliable calculations based on that data including carry distance, angle of attack, spin axis, angle of descent, smash factor, shot dispersion, and other parameters that help you think about what's important in evaluating clubs and balls. 

Your eyes are not as accurate as a launch monitor, and sometimes they tell you what you want to hear not what actually happened. The proof is in just about everyone's estimate of the distance they hit a ball with their driver. And that's the easy measurement to make. 

We thought the use of launch monitors by professionals in the industry was well-established, but we were surprised to find that OEM demo days often don't use the technology. We have a couple of funny stories about it. One sales rep we asked said he could tell everything that was important just by watching the trajectory of the ball. That's why he didn't bring the company's launch monitor with him. Too much trouble to set up and use.

Another sales rep had a high end launch monitor on the range, but after he made some unexpected recommendations to a couple of golfers who were testing drivers I was curious about the data. That's when I noticed the launch monitor and the computer with the software were both off. Maybe the batteries ran low and lost their power. It's probably best to show up early at demo days.

Unless you are just rummaging around the trade-in barrels for a bargain, we think it's best to use a good launch monitor for evaluating or fitting any clubs if you want to maximize distance, accuracy, consistency. That's why most golfers buy new clubs. We also recommend that golfers take a look at the launch monitor results and ask a few questions. It's helpful to have a sense of what's being measured and how the feel of the club matches with the data. It's part of the enjoyable experience you should have in getting new clubs.