It seems to be the next big revolution in club design. Unlike some of the club design atrocities from the past, I think this one is here to stay. Remember the Top-Flite Magna soup ladle? Ugh. Well, the square headed drivers are coming on in a big way, and frankly, they look kind of neat if you can get over the initial “new things are bad” feeling. Since the creation of metal drivers, manufacturers have been toying with ways to increase the “more factor”: more distance and more straightness (and let’s not forget – more money). In recent years, the trend has been to make the heads larger. The USGA limit of 460cc for club head volume has been the norm for a few years now. The final frontier, at least for the time being, is the shape that is employed in the club head. There are some limitations there too. According to the USGA’s Rules on Clubs and Balls: When the club is in a 60 degree lie angle, the dimensions of the clubhead
Understanding Golf Club Gooves
Grooves on the faces of our golf clubs are something that we might take for granted. With irons, especially wedges, the grooves help put spin on the ball when it is struck. This allows us to hit shots into greens that stop in a controlled manner. When we strike the ball with a descending blow with an iron, the ball becomes briefly trapped against the turf and is “pinched”. The grooves on the club grab the cover of the ball and impart maximum spin. That allows the shot to land softly and stop quickly or even back up after landing. There is no question that equipment has changed the way the game is played at all skill levels. Players have gained distance, accuracy, and the ability to stop the ball quicker. Consequently, all aspects of club design come under scrutiny and regulation. Club grooves are no different. There has been debate for a long time about square (or, u-shaped) versus v-shaped grooves on irons. According to a United States Golf Association news release from February
Do You Have Adequate Wedge Coverage?
I’m not talking about insurance coverage here. What I’m referring to is the number of wedges you carry as well as the gaps in loft between all of them. As I’ve said many times, I’m a fan of Dave Pelz’s 4×3 system, where the idea is to carry four wedges and to groove three distinct swing lengths that give you a total of twelve easily repeatable distances within 100 yards. It’s clear that scoring happens within 100 yards. Your goal on approach shots should be to get the ball close enough to the hole to make the next putt. To do that, you need to take out the guess work. Grooving wedge distances that are easily repeatable makes it much easier to achieve that goal. To do all this effectively, it’s imperative to have the right tools for the job. First, this means carrying four wedges. That will give you maximum coverage within 100 yards. I carried three wedges for a long time and considered getting a fourth, but couldn’t decide which club to ditch.
Hybrids: Hope or Hype?
I think I’m late for every significant movement in golf. I started playing golf in the early to mid 1990′s and used persimmon woods, when metal woods were already big. I was using a steel shafted driver long after graphite became the norm. And I’m not even considering one of these “in style” putting grips like the claw or the dozens of other variations. Once again, I’m late for the hybrid revolution. When I’m hitting the ball well (unlike now), I wouldn’t trade my long irons for anything. Senior players have been using woods in favor of mid and long irons for a long time. I’ve actually seen an 11-wood. It really helps them to get the ball airborne and land it with a little softness. Now, hybrids are the next evolution of that trend. They combine the better characteristics of irons and woods together in a single club. They have the distance and control of irons, with the low center of gravity found in woods that helps get the ball airborne. Their wider soles
Moment Of Inertia?
As I tuned into the final round of the Memorial tournament on Sunday, I noticed something as I watched the commercials in between play: the scientific engineer buzzwords and acronyms are becoming more and more mainstream. In one commercial, they actually explicitly called out the club’s M.O.I. How many people even know what that is? I thought I’d lay out a couple of the technical buzzwords so when you tune in, it’ll be familiar territory. MOI, or Moment of Inertia is a fancy way of describing how a club torques or twists both in the downswing and at the moment of impact. The club head is affixed to the shaft at a single point. The MOI is really a measure of how the club resists torquing. If you hold your driver by the grip in one hand and grab the head in the other hand and give it a twist, you’ll notice that the head turns a little. At the moment of impact, the force on the club is tremendous. The center of gravity of
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