It’s interesting how one thing leads to another. Last week I wrote about our fitting system and changing the loft on an iron. I stated how it was a bad idea, and why I didn’t like it. Sure as the day is long, I ran into this situation on Thursday. Here’s the scenario:

This player had been fit for a set of irons. He loved the look and the feel, but not the performance. They wet plenty far enough, but he couldn’t get them to stop. He wanted out and I got the call. The player explained all of this to me, then he told me that he went to a big box retailer to hit some other options. The fitter there correctly said that he was only hitting the ball 30 feet high with his 7-iron, and this was why the ball didn’t stop when it hit the ground. I agreed with this. The fitter then went to a higher lofted iron to try to gain height. He also went to a lighter shaft (we were already in graphite) to try to get a softer tip section to help launch the ball higher. I also would have tried that. The player was ready to switch into the Ai Smoke HL.

He landed with me because he had a fairly new set. What do we do with those…

I listened to him recount the story above. I asked him to him some shots for me. He was right. The 7 iron would peak out at about 35-40 feet high. Often times, this is a result of a low spinning launch. That was not the case here – he was about 5,000 RPM of spin with the 7-iron. I retraced the steps that the fitter at the big box retailer tried – I went to a higher launching head with the same shaft and then a lighter weight shaft. We gained about 8 feet. Not insignificant when you consider it was almost 20% higher. The spin didn’t change, and the roll out went from 18 yards to 13 yards. Better, but still not good. I thought (and told him) that this was better, but still not great. I thought we could do better.

Here’s a little recap…

What peak height are we looking at for a 7-iron? We take the driver club head speed for the player, and we use that number in feet to get the players ideal apex height. As swing speeds slow down, we can lower that number a little, but you have to analyze the data to see how much we can lower it and still be OK. The driver swing speed for almost every player will be about 15 MPH faster than the 7-iron swing speed. In this case, he was right at about 70 MPH with the 7 iron, so I figured 85 MPH with the driver. That means about 85 feet high is a good apex height for him. We are at 35 feet. Cool.

What is the optimal spin rate for a player? For a tour player playing blades, we would want 1000X the iron number. 7-iron = 7,000 RPM of spin. As swings slow down, and lofts get stronger, we lower that number accordingly. Experience will tell you how much is OK. For me, for example, I’m about 85 MPH with the 7-iron, but closer to 105 with the driver. I like a spin rate in the 6,000-6,200 range with a 7-iron. This player was 70 MPH with the 7-iron, so I’m thinking 5,000 RPM on the low side, maybe 5,500 on the high side. We are there, and it still doesn’t fly high enough. Cool.

It must be in the golf swing. I took a video of his swing. I fully expected to see a bowed left wrist with a de-lofted head at impact. The launch angle was 14-15* (for him, I’d like to see 19-20*), so that would support the low launch. This player was 70 years old, had been playing 65 years, and used to be a 4 handicapper. He shot in the 60’s a couple times. I knew this was it, so I took a video of his swing to show him. Nope… Nice golf swing. Flat left wrist at impact. Good body rotation. This wasn’t it. Cool.

Now what?? Why doesn’t the ball go higher? I had to talk it out with him. We worked it backwards. He was getting 18 yards of roll out. His apex height was 35 feet. His launch angle was low. Despite the spin number being good, it wasn’t allowing the ball to create enough lift to get it to climb high enough. This made the apex of the shot too low, which made the angle of descent way too low. In English, there wasn’t enough to slow the ball down as it came back down to the ground. Ok, now that I know what we need, I need to figure out WHAT I can use the get it there. ANY thoughts?

With this player, he simply doesn’t flex the shaft. It is straight at impact. There is very little lag coming through the downswing. The hands are slightly ahead, which accounts for the slightly lower launch angle. I’m not changing this golf swing. I just have to find him a head/ shaft combination that will allow him to hit it further. He’s currently in a regular flex, so a light flex intrigues me. A head with a deeper cavity/ heavier sole is attractive to me, but wasn’t to him.

My first thought was I need to try Apex Pro. He needs more loft to create more spin and height. Then I thought he also needs distance, so that will make it much worse. I went back to the truck and grabbed the new Apex Ai300. Logic would say to add loft, right? I did not. I went to the same type of shaft in a similar weight range. The shot was 50 feet high. It increased the carry distance while the overall distance stayed the same. hmmm.. progress!! Let’s try something else. I put a light flex shaft in there. Even better!! Up to 55 feet high. His old club was +1″ in length with a heavier steel shaft in it. I knew that that length will add about a full flex, so I thought what if I go heavier (so it doesn’t feel super soft) and longer, but stay in a light flex? He loved it. One more tweak. I added 1* of loft. 62 feet high and 5,600 RPM of spin. I loved it. Ultimately, the distance stayed about the same, but the carry distance increased. The divots were still shallow, he is a little bit of a digger, so this was an OK compromise. This was a nice win.

Could I have changed the loft? Yes. Should I have changed the loft? Possibly, and probably. Would I have been OK if I didn’t do that? Probably, but this got it right where we needed to be. If there was a player to do this for, he was it. I know that adding 2 degrees of loft will only get him about 6 to 8 feet in apex height. That would be upwards of a 20% increase – not insignificant. It was the other things that I wanted – the increase in launch angle, and the increase in spin – that I also knew I would get if I added loft. In this case, I went to 1* weaker and everything fell into place.

There are a couple key takeaways here. Carry distance is king. Don’t fall in love with Total Distance. It doesn’t tell the whole story. A ball that rolls too far is out of control and will be hard to play golf with. When you are trying to compare an old club vs. a new one, the old one might give a flyer and have a lot of yardage on the ground. Compare carry vs. carry. Most players don’t know their carry distance yardages, so if you go by that number, they assume it will be shorter than they are used to and you don’t have to have the “I hit it further than that” conversation.

In this case, the head AND the shaft BOTH made a difference for him. Remember your protocol. Fit the big variables first (length, head), and follow that up with the next biggest ones (shaft, lie). When you change heads, you probably have to start over with shaft. When you change flexes, you DO have to start over with shaft, and maybe with the head. If you get stuck, take a video of the players swing – you may find what you are looking for in there (you generally can). If you get him close, but you think you can do better and you are out of other options, give loft a try. I wouldn’t go stronger, but maybe weaker is OK in certain scenarios.

I hope you liked this one. It was challenging. It also forced me outside my own comfort zone, and I had to think outside the box. That’s a good thing…

Happy Fitting!!!

Jim Yeager, PGA