Last week I asked How does loft impact spin? We isolated it down to just these two pieces. This week, let’s add in a few more pieces. Shafts and heads.

One of my favorite things that I hear is “the shaft is the only thing that matters”. I’m not offended. Haha. At each event, I have a masonry mini sledge hammer on hand. I have it for a reason – more than just driving tent stakes. I could use any hammer, but I use this one to prove a point. When I hear the “shaft is the only thing that matters” comment, I reach for my trusty mini sledge hammer. I hand it to the player and tell him to use this to nail shoe molding. If you don’t know what it is, Shoe molding is the small quarter round piece that goes in front of base board on hard wood floors – it uses tiny nails, and it’s very easy to destroy base boards, your floors and your fingers if you’re not good with a hammer. If he knows what I’m talking about, he’ll say “WHY would I do that??” I say “what’s the difference? The shaft is all that matters. The shaft in this hammer is the same shaft as in a trim hammer – the head doesn’t matter, right?” 😉 The truth is the both the shaft AND the head matter. You will not get the optimum performance out of a golf club if BOTH are not right for a player.

HEADS

That week, we talked about how loft impacts spin on a shot. Let’s dive deeper. Can Head designs have an impact on spin as well? Absolutely!! For example, Callaway introduced the Sub Zero family a few years ago. It was designed to reduce spin (which it did by about 600 rpm vs. a standard head). How did it do that? Simple. It moved mass down low and forward in the clubhead. The more forward the mass in a driver head, the less the ball will typically spin – all other things being equal. So why aren’t all driver heads made with weight forward in the head? Easy one. The more forward the weight, the less forgiving the head. Mass forward = more responsive. This means that the clubhead will react (and enhance) hand action more than a rear weighted head. Good for Tour Players, not so good for the rest of us. You’ve heard of MOI, right? MOI is Moment of Inertia. It measures how resistant a body (clubhead in this case) is to twisting. the further forward the mass, the lower the MOI. So, as a manufacturer, we walk a fine line between weight forward to reduce spin and weight backward to increase MOI. Precisely the reason why we don’t just have one driver head. Modern engineering marvels allow us to use different materials to manipulate where the mass is so we can reduce spin AND Increase MOI.

The Rogue MAX LS, for example has an MOI higher than most anything else on the market, while delivering spin numbers that are frequently too LOW for many players. It’s truly an engineering wonder. The MAX D, is a similar shell, but it is focused more on higher MOI than spin reduction, but the end result is pretty similar to the MAX LS, but in the opposite direction – the difference is the internal weight biasing (Max LS is more anti-left, while MAX D is more anti-right, and MAX is neutral). We build all the heads with LOW spin AND High MOI, and then weight them so they guard against a players tendencies. With ONE head, we can’t take care of everyone. There is no “One Size Fits all” in clubhead design. 

You can take the same approach with Irons. Forged or cast? Game Improvement or Super Game Improvement? and the list goes on.

We are able to do things in manufacturing, R & D, and with materials that did not exist 18 months ago. All of these things are used for the betterment of the game. Simply put, they aid in a players enjoyment of this recreational activity. 

SHAFTS

Last week, I mentioned that Loft doesn’t have much of an effect on Launch angle. Shafts, however do. shafts have Torque (rotational spin), different stiff and soft sections, different kick points, and different bend profiles. A club manufacturer will tell you that the shaft merely returns the head to the ball. A shaft manufacturer will tell you that the shaft returns the head to the ball correctly or incorrectly for a player. As a fitter, I’ll tell you that having the right combination is vital to performance.

Almost any player can feel the difference between different shafts. Some have a feel preference, some just know they feel different but don’t care. Trajectories will be different for sure. The ball will curve more or less depending on the weight and/or make up of the shaft. So, choose wisely. A good shaft choice will make a real difference with the right head choice.

Shafts can greatly optimize launch characteristics. Launch angle, apex height, face angle at impact, shaft angles at impact, etc. Much of this can be viewed by eye. If a player is hitting hard hooks, try a heavier shaft or a shaft that has more stability in the tip section, or less torque. Hits it too high? Try a stiffer tip. Experience will tell you where to go with any ball flight.

Finally, the weight of the shaft can have a major impact on the shot. The heavier it is, the less likely the player will be able to manipulate the club with his hands during the swing. I continue going heavier with a player until it straightens out. Once I find a good weight, I try to go slightly lighter and try shafts with different properties to find the optimal blend.

Yes, the shaft merely delivers the clubhead to the ball, BUT, if it doesn’t do it correctly for a player, it will be impossible for that player to optimize the performance of that club. Consider this real world example:

I recently fit a player who was playing a 10.5* driver (other manufacturers head) with an 70 gram X stiff shaft. He said “You’re not going to beat this thing. I kill it.” Challenge accepted. I asked him why he liked it. He said “I love this shaft”. His father was nearby and said “you should have spend the $300 you spent on the shaft on lessons”. We all chuckled, but perhaps a valid point. I asked him to hit a few. Clubhead speed was in the low 100’s. Low launch (I suspect this is why he selected the 10.5*), and a 3* negative attack angle. He hit it decent, but it was way too low spin (1400 on a 5 shot average). He LOVED the low spin and couldn’t figure out why I was concerned. 235 carry for 290 total. I told him it didn’t carry far enough. He said “290 is 290 – that’s more than I should get out of a driver”. I said “You might be right, but the path to 290 could be better”. I asked him where all the hazards are on the golf course. In the air or on the ground? He started to understand. I told him if his max distance was 290, a shot that carried 280 and rolled 10 was a better shot than one that carried 235 and rolled 55. There are 45 yards worth of bunkers, creeks and ponds, rough and mounds just waiting for your ball. He was learning. I gave him a Rogue Max in a 10.5* (because I wanted more spin) with the same shaft he had in his driver. Launch went to 11*, spin went to 1800. Carry jumped to 250, but he was hooking it. I moved him to Max LS to give him a head that was harder to hook. That helped the hook and raised his spin and launch, but he still missed it left when he missed it. I got a different shaft that was heavier and more stable in the tip and butt section. Hook was gone. Launch was still hovering around 11*. Spin was still right at 2000. I added 1* of loft on the hosel. Spin bumped to 2200. Launch to 12*. 270 carry for 295 total when I was done with him and no hooks. The moral of the story is this – hitting it better doesn’t have to mean hitting it further OR hitting it straighter. Hitting it better is OPTIMIZING the flight while it goes as far as it can and as straight as it can.

There is some degree of a challenge here. We typically think of a faster swing speed player as needing less loft. If they swing it correctly, this is true. (As a fitter, I’m there to work with a player and the swing he brought with him to the golf course that day. As a PGA Professional, you can work with him on the golf swing AND the golf club). In this case, I added loft to get his spin rate up AND to get his apex height up. Both of these things maximized his carry distance. I chose a head to guard against his mis hit tendencies. I also chose a shaft to guard against his mis hit tendencies. All in, I worked in several different areas to try to optimize his ball flight while limiting the bad misses. Using Trackman, I was able to identify WHY he hit hooks (what in his swing caused it, so I was able to get something in his hands that was more difficult to replicate that move). and what was creating problems for his launch (attack angle). I was able to find a better match that actually aided that problem. After the fitting, I talked with him and his Pro, and we discussed what we found. The pro could come up with a teaching plan, and the player was fit to a driver that optimized his potential while minimizing the damage caused by his mistakes. 

Putting it all together… Simply optimizing spin rate is not enough. We care about more than just how far it goes. Conversely, simply optimizing direction is not enough. We also care about how far it goes. Finally, optimizing launch conditions is not enough. If it looks perfect on the launch monitor, but doesn’t fly long and straight every time, it will not help a player shoot better scores. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to optimize all three. Are you up to the challenge of putting the right pieces together and solving the Head and Shaft puzzle for each player?

Hope this helps. Until next time – happy fitting!!