What is Your Total Club Weight by Ed Weber

Total Club Weight is really not talked about very much when discussing clubs, yet it can really mess up your swing when it’s not the correct weight to fit your swing. So let’s say you are in the market to purchase a new driver, as so many of us look at each year. Maybe you’ll go to a demo day, or try hitting drivers at a golf retail store, and like the Goldie Locks Story, some are too heavy and some are too light. Yet you may find a few that feel just right, but you aren’t sure which one will really improve your game. That driver maybe have just the right feel when you try it, yet when you get it out on the course it may not be the real game improvement for you. The total weight of the club should correlate with you swing specifications. First point is how strong are you, because that strength comes into play when you swing the club, also do you have a quick or smooth transition in the backswing. Do you have an aggressive or smooth tempo in the swing. Do you release your wrist position that you had at transistion,early, midway or late during the swing. These are the important items to understand when considering which club weight is best for you. A below average strength person with a smooth tempo shouldn’t purchase a Driver that has a shaft weight over 65g, yet a very strong person that has an aggressive tempo needs to have a shaft that isn’t lower than 75g. The shaft has the most influence on the total weight of the club which affects your feel and controlof the club for your ability to impact the ball in the center of the club face consistently throughout the round of golf.

Swingweight is a relationship of the weight distribution throughout the club. Most iron male clubs are rated D2-3, and female clubs are rated C4-5. This changes with different shaft weights. Grip weight will affect the swingweight especially when using larger grips and weighted grips such as a Boccieri grip ©.

Custom fitted clubs are not always the standard “D2 or C4”. Your swingweight is singular to your swing abilities and should be checked so the entire set of irons are within your swing specs.

Balance Point is a very hard thing to find out about because it doesn’t show up on any shaft stats. Yet if the balance point of the club isn’t set to your swing, it will mess with your swing, In the irons if a few of them are not consistent with the rest of the clubs, some of them will feel good, and some will feel off and  may produce an off swing. Thus producing an off center or miss hit and will taking you out of your swing plane and tempo, because you have to produce more or less effort to maintain your swing tempo. If you have ever tried to balance yourself on one leg and slowly swung you arms around your body, you found that your bodies center of gravity was harder to maintain, but if you swung just at the right tempo you could maintain balance. The same goes for swing a club around your body. If you swing too fast, it is very hard to maintain your center of gravity (balance) and a correct swing plane that will impact the ball correctly. Changing your swing tempo too much will impact you swing plane, and may causes off center, and miss hits.

So when you are looking for a new driver or irons, here are some things to consider besides the “look” of the clubs. What are all of your swing specifications and how do they relate to these clubs. Do you really want to spend that much money on just great looking clubs. Wouldn’t you want this new club(s) to be fitted to you and not having to fit your swing to the club(s)?

The Secrets of Loft & How it Can Effect Your Game by Ed Weber

How many of you really know what the lofts are on your Irons? Even when it is stated on a new wedge, it still may not be that exact loft. The exact loft +/-1* on one club isn’t a big deal for most recreation golfers, but if you have clubs with only 1-2* between then you do have a problem. Loft separation is important, and should be checked.

There has been what some of us in the clubmaking industry called “Vanishing Loft Disease^”! This happens when club manufacturers about every 2-3 years would tell you that their new clubs hit the ball farther that your old clubs can. You SHOULD hit the ball farther, why, because the loft has been lowered. In the ‘70s did you ever hear of a gap wedge??? Never existed, never needed one, because there was the correct 4-5* between the PW and the SW. Late in the ‘70s the disease started, until we found ourselves with a huge gap between the PW & SW what to do, what to do, the manufactures thought. Hey! We’ll make a new type of club, who will know, golfers will just think it’s a great idea! Most golfers just took out the club that they were having a hard time hitting anyway (3i was 24* now 21*), because they could only have 14 clubs in the bag, so now again they had a complete set that they could “play” with. If you really think of it, you are now playing with the same lofts golfers played with in the 60s just different numbers. OUCH! Do you think it might be a good idea to check out the Iron specifications on the manufacture’s web site before you buy your next set of clubs? So I’ll ask the same question, do you really know what the lofts are on your Irons?

Do you seem to hit some of your lower lofted clubs just about the same distance? Say your 3 or 4 iron, and sometimes even your 5 iron. This maybe due to your swing speed (SS). If your SS is below 70mph you probably getting just 3yds between your 21* 3 Iron and 24* 4 Iron. You need to have about 4.5* between clubs not the normal 3*. What is surprising everyone thinks their new clubs must be made with the correct lie/lofts as the manufacturer specifies on their web site. I have checked new clubs right out of the box. Sad to say not every club is correct, most of the time just 2-3 clubs are just what the specs sheet states.

If you use your clubs 3-4 times a week (include the driving range), you should have them checked every 2 years. The springtime is best, not after you have played the season with the wrong lie/lofts. If you want to self check the lie angle of your Irons. While you’re at the driving range, have a white board black DRY marker (never a permanent marker). Mark the practice ball with one vertical line a few times to allow the mark to be wet then place the ball on a tee, set for iron height, with the vertical line facing away from the target so the iron will impact the line and imprint on the face of the iron, which you can just rub off with a cloth. If the top of the line is tilted to the toe, then you will need to have it bent more flatter, opposite if the line is tilted to the shaft. To be sure, you will need to have an impact board test for all the irons. If the irons are more than 2* off the ball will have an off line tendency.

^ p7 “The Search for the Perfect Golf Club” by Tom Wishon

Get a Grip! by Ed Weber

The grip is one of the most personal pieces of equipment on the club. It gives us our feel of the club not just at address, but throughout the swing. The grip can aid us, or can really put a cramp in our swing. It is also a psyche tool that can give us confidence in our swing. Bottom line “How Does The Grip Look and Feel”.
Grip Cost have gone up in price in the last few years. So I went looking for a  distributor that will give me more competitive pricing.

 Golf Pride Grips  - STD/Mid-Size/Jumbo                                                    
Tour Wrap 2G Std  - $6.50/$7.00/$750
Tour Velvet Std  - $7.00/$7.50/$8.00
All Std Multi-compound Decade  - $12.00/$12.50

Winn Grips
#5 Excel Black  - $7.50/$8.00/$9.00
Dri-Tac Std  - $8.50/$9.00/9.50

Lamkin
Performance Plus R.E.L. 3Gen  - $7.00
Perma Wrap Classic  - $6.50
Crossline  - $6.00

Wishon
V-Series - $6.00
Tac-Trac - $7.00

Please Call: to get your grip pricing per your grip type. I can preorder the grips, so they will be there when you drop off your clubs, I will contact you by a text, email or a phone call. If you have the time you may wait in my “Man Cave” and watch the Golf Channel®, while I complete your clubs. If I have the grips in stock, you may wait or I will have them ready for you the next day.
Winter Time is the best time to get grips installed. Don’t wait until the season is about to begin!

MOI Matching vs. Swingweight Matching by Ed Weber

A good golf swing is the ability to have a consistent good golf swing that is repeatable. A golfer needs to “feel” the club, so they can control the club from address, transition, tempo, wrist release, impact, and follow through. Swing feel is a major factor for a good golf swing.
Clubs that have been Swingweight matched have a different swing feel for the longer clubs than for the shorter clubs. That can lead to inconsistency in the swing, because the golfer has to use more force for the longer clubs than they would use for the shorter clubs. That means they would have a different swing effort and feel for just about every club in the set.

Motion Of Inertia (MOI) matched clubs incorporates your particular swing feel and favorite club to matchup all the other clubs in the set. This will give you a sameness in your swing and feel no mater which club you are using.

Have you watched the Pros take 4 or more practice swings before they take their swing? They are trying to get a “feel” for that particular club, so they can control the club face and hit the ball correctly. Do they have MOI clubs? I don’t think so. So what would happen to that Pro if they had MOI matched clubs. Probably just take a couple of swings and then hit the ball, because they would have a sameness feel for all their clubs. Which would lower their score. So why aren’t the Pros using MOI? Simple what happens when a Pro uses a new club? There is a run on the golf stores for that club (s). It would cost to much to have  the store personal trained, in advanced custom club fitting, above anything other than what they do now. “If we have it, it’ll fit you”

So let’s say you know your distance for each of your clubs, but you want to get distances for a 3/4, 1/2, or even 1/4 swing, to close the distance gaps you may have in your full swing, to get on the green. Each of you clubs have a different effort, that’s 8 different swing feels. Now you're going to add 3 additional swing feels for each club. Ouch! Just thinking about that makes my head spin.

Swingweight matching was a very great happening around the 1930’s with the advent of steel shafts over hickory a decade earlier. Golfer’s swing drastically changed when they went to the steel shaft. It was like night and day. Well now we have a great technology in MOI Matching, the ability to have a sameness and consistency in your swing for the wood set, iron set and wedges. That is a “WOW”!

Please call me 339-221-0361 to talk about MOI and what it can do for your game.

 

Does you Driver Really Fit You? by Ed Weber

Now that playing a round of golf has ended for most of us in the New England area. That is unless you like to play golf in the snow. This is a good time of the year to think about how your Driver actually did during your season of golf. Were you really able to make good contact with the ball? Did the ball land most of the time, in the fairway, or end up in the rough? Did you getting the distance you thought you would get? Hopefully you got everything out of your Driver you desired. If you didn’t, then this maybe the best time to take a reality check of your Driver, or you swing, or maybe both. Most of the time in this situation the Drivers specification do not matchup with your swing specifications. Most golfers that have bought a Driver “off the rack” don’t realize that they may have just purchased a heap of problems for their golf game. Maybe it really looked and felt great when you hit it in the golf store, but when you got out on the course you only got the ball in the fairway some of the time (less than 50%), and the distance was ok at best. If only you had gotten custom fitted, you would be looking at a different scenario now! The Driver is one of the most important clubs in your bag, it gets you on the way to a positive scoring situation for the long par 4s and par 5s . So what are the important factors to look at when getting custom fit for a Driver?

1. Swing Speed (mph) at contact, Dynamic Loft Angle (Static Loft + Angle of Attack + shaft bend at impact), the Backspin of the ball will help determine the best Loft and Face Angle (opened, closed, or neutral) on the club.

2. Swing Specification are: your Transition Rating, Tempo Rating, Wrist Release Position, and Strength Rating along with Swing Speed will determine the type of shaft best suited for your Driver.

3. Proper Grip measurement is to insure a greater control and feel of the club.

4. Driver Length is one of the most important parts in the fitting process, but is usually overlooked, when buying a Driver. This factor will directly affect your ability to hit the ball closer to the center “Sweet Spot” of the club face consistently. This will give you greater control and distance from your driver which is usually why you purchased the Driver in the first place. For most golfers it’s hard to believe that Pros use a Driver that is shorter 44.5” than the one they purchased at the golf store.

Does Your Shaft Really Fit Your Swing? by Ed Weber

It is extremely difficult for most golfers to really know which shaft in a club will perform best for them. It’s almost like the story of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears©,“this one is too hard, this one is too soft, this one is just right”. Usually a golfer goes to a retail golf store and tries a few clubs, by hitting a number of balls until they find one that “feels just right”, and then buys it, not really knowing if it will perform out on the course, as good as it did in the store. There are factors in the makeup of the shaft that determines if it is just right for you. Unfortunately it’s not always on the label. Some shafts only have a Flex Rating letter (L,A,R,S,X),which is really basic and doesn’t really indicate what the shaft will or won’t do for your swing. Other shafts will have a Swing Speed,  Bend Point, and Tip Stiffness, Ratings. These are all good features if you know your swing specifications so that it will match-up with the shaft’s labeling system. There is one major flaw when it comes to shaft manufacture’s labeling system. There is NO standardization from one manufacture to the next, as of this date. There is one shaft manufacture, Tom Wishon Golf Technology, that has a Shaft Profiling System Software, that profiles the entire shaft to indicate what each shaft will do. Some shaft manufactures have sent their shafts to them for analysis, so now there is a way to find out which shafts are best suited for your swing, from the very large 2,000+ shaft data file.
A Custom Club Fitting Session is the best way to find the shafts that will best match your swing.

The Necessary Swing Factors for Shaft Fitting are:
1. Your Swing Speed. This is done with a launch monitor with special software.
2. Your Downswing Transition, Downswing Tempo, Wrist-Cock Release Position, and Strength is checked with the aid of a hi-speed (240fps) camera for the correct ( 1, 2, or 3) rating.
With this information, your correct shaft profile can be determined, and  then you can know, “Which is the Best Shaft for You”.
With the TWGT Demo Driver you will be able to test all the correct shafts, and see why this shaft is the one for you! Give me a call for a Fitting, to really know which shaft is “just right” for you.