“The Value of Equipment Evaluation”
Do you have a favorite iron or wood? Conversely, do you have a club which you know you should hit well but just don’t very often? It could be that your favorites have some characteristics which complement your swing and maybe the ones you have trouble with do not. For example what happens if your irons do not progress in length equally from club to club? Are the swingweights what they should be? Do the shaft flexes, loft angles and lie angles progress normally? If you are wondering if your mass-produced clubs are built to perfect tolerances perhaps it’s time to bring them in for a checkup.
Most irons have a one-half inch progression from 9 iron to 1 iron. If the irons in your set do not follow a precise length progression then you might see variances in flex (the longer the softer/the shorter the stiffer) and swingweight. The swingweight specifies the balance of a club or how heavy the head feels. Half an inch variance in length adds or subtracts 3 swingweight points! An improper club length can also lead to a poor impact pattern on the face of the club which won’t help your distance and direction control either!
Checking the flex involves clamping the club in a Frequency Meter and oscillating the shaft to measure the CPM (Cycles Per Minute). With some graphite shafted clubs the shaft oscillates so wildly – sometimes doing loop-de-loops - that I am barely able to get a reading. What we would like to see is a FLO (Flat Line Oscillation) – the shaft moving back in forth in a straight line. During assembly, a professional clubmaker can orient the shaft to achieve a FLO. Is this important? Only if you think it might be helpful for your shaft to load and unload in a predictive manner.
But let’s assume that a set of clubs have good FLO. The next step is to measure and record the CPM for each club on a graph. Remember studying slopes in math class? Same deal here. Different golfers may require different slopes (change in CPM for successive clubs) but we would like to see a nice consistent plotting of CPM values for which a line can be drawn through versus a Dow Jones Daily Average plot. Do some of your clubs feel more solid than others? Differing flexes could be the reason.
Finally loft and lie angles should be measured to ensure that there is a consistent progression from club to club (especially irons). Inconsistent lofts can wreak havoc on distance control while irregular lie angles can cause problems with direction (too upright = pull; too flat = push).
Blair Golfworks can evaluate all your clubs at little cost in a one on one setting. You may find out that all your equipment is on the money or that some might need tweaking but it is worth to time for the peace of mind you will gain. Call or email for an appointment.
Patrick Blair
Blair Golfworks
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