I had something interesting happen last week. This happens from time to time, but it always catches me by surprise. Why? Because I generally expect someone to hit it poorly when they want me to fit them for something new.

What if the player hits it too good and wants to be fit? Say he gets a 1.40 smash factor with a 7-iron and he wants more distance. Now what?

That’s what I got last week. The player had a 67 mph club head speed and ball speeds that were in the mid- high 90 mph range. The ideal smash factor with a 7-iron is 1.35. Do the math. A 67 MPH club head speed should be a 90.5mph ball speed on a “perfect” strike. 97 MPH ball speed at that club head speed is a 1.45 smash factor. Not common. He had his swing speed get up around 69 mph, and had a couple where his ball speed was 100 MPH or slightly higher. He came to me because he wants to hit it further.

When we started, he was carrying the ball 127-130, and it was rolling to 145.

I literally said to him OK, put the club down and come on over here and have a seat. Let’s work the math backwards… The ideal smash factor for a 7-iron is 1.35. Yours is 1.45. I explained to him what Smash Factor was, and I showed him that, on average, he was getting 7 MPH in ball speed EXTRA from what we would call “perfect”. Each mph of ball speed should equal about 3 yards of carry distance. That means you carry the ball 2 full clubs longer than you should already. Finding MORE distance under those conditions was going to be challenging if not impossible.

Now what? is a good question…

I dug deeper into his numbers. Attack angle -3*. Face to path was good. Less than 2* right (in-to-out). A tiny draw. Spin was low – perhaps 4300 – 4700. Apex height was low – most were 53-55 feet high. I told him I see two things.

First, the apex is low because the spin is low. There isn’t enough spin to make the ball climb. This robs him of some apex height, which will rob him of some carry distance. The lower apex will not allow the ball to slow down sufficiently before it hits the ground, so it’s travelling too fast when it lands. That will make his roll distance after the ball lands higher than it should be. I told him we need to increase the spin. It won’t go further (it might go shorter), but it will be a more optimal/ playable shot. He asked “how do we increase the spin?” I said try a different golf ball (He was playing Chrome Soft). We were inside, so I went out to my truck and got a Chrome Tour X ball for him. In one swing, his spin went to 5200. Apex went to 64 feet. His carry distance went to 139, and the total distance went to 149. There was no change in club head speed or ball speed. This was inside, so it does not account for improved aerodynamics of the golf ball, so the gain might have been larger. He gained 10 yards of carry distance and a couple yards of total distance by optimizing the spin off the iron, which was done with a BALL change, NOT a CLUB change.

Interesting how a ball could make that much of a difference, eh? He has the Rogue Pro irons in has bag. We tried Apex AI300, AI 200, and Ti Fusion. No big gains with any of them. Withe the Chrome Tour X, there were big gains with ALL of them, including his own.

I told him I saw two things. I said this If you want the ball to go further, there are only a couple ways to make that happen. In his case, with impact numbers optimized, the only way is to increase club head speed (since he couldn’t increase ball speed with the club head speed he already has – he’s already maxed out). He has to increase club head speed . This can be done by either… Exercising to get more fit, or play a longer golf club. The former isn’t an option, so we tried a club that was an inch longer.

In the end, he hit some longer, but most were the same, and some were shorter. He couldn’t control the length, and the trade off wasn’t worth the extra 4 yards he was going to get when he hit it good.

Ultimately, he stayed with his own clubs, but bought 3 dozen Chrome Tour X balls on his way out.

A golf ball change won’t always make this big of a difference, but sometimes it will. Many times you might look at a player with a 60-something MPH club head speed and dismiss the idea of a Chrome Tour X golf ball – “He doesn’t compress it enough” Try it… You never know. I would have bet the ranch that he was a Chrome Soft player walking in – maybe even ERC, but the data didn’t support it.

He asked a question that was a great one. He asked what about the spin with the driver? I said it shouldn’t be much different, but let’s try it. We did, and it was about 150 RPM higher – still great and within his window. He asked why isn’t it higher? It’s because the 7-iron has more loft. With the increase in loft, and the extra layer inside the ball, the ball is more responsive to more loft. It get’s disproportionately higher as we add loft. Meaning he will get even more spin benefit from his wedges. We tried those too, and it was crazy the difference there. He added almost 700 RPM of spin with his 56* wedge on a full swing.

The moral of the story? Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. The data will tell you more than the 67 MPH club head speed. Look at ALL the data. In the end with this player, he didn’t get new irons, but he got much better playability with his current set. In a way, that’s a win too.

Happy Fitting!!!

Jim Yeager, PGA