Why Guess When You Can Measure?

How do you recommend a set makeup for a player? Do you look at swing speed or ball flight and say, “Here’s what I would do…”? That might get you close. But using Dynamic Loft? Now you can make that claim—and actually base it on data, not a hunch. This is where Dynamic Loft becomes more than just a number on a screen. It becomes your tool to hedge the fit—especially when you don’t have every club in the fitting cart or every head in the demo bag.

How to Read Delivery Like a Pro

As a Master club fitter, your job is to determine if the change that needs to be made can be done by a lesson, by a club head change, or by a combination of both. This is how you do just that – and how you do it quickly:

If you know how the player is delivering the club—and you know what dynamic loft you’re getting— you can understand very quickly what is happening at impact. Remember, launch angle tells you how the ball reacted off the club face. Dynamic Loft tells us how the player presented the club face to the golf ball at impact. If Dynamic loft looks good, but launch and ball flight look bad? It’s a club issue. If Dynamic loft looks bad it’s either a) a swing issue, or b) a terrible fitting golf club. As the fit gets better, Dynamic Loft will get better. If the results are still poor, it’s a swing issue.

You can start to make very informed guesses about what type of club will optimize their ball flight after this quick round of discovery. You’re not just reacting to what happened. You’re projecting what will happen if they deliver a similar swing with a different club head, shaft, or club head/ shaft combination. Dynamic Loft lets you bridge that gap between what they’re swinging and what they should be swinging. It helps you fit with fewer swings, fewer clubs, and way more confidence.

Dynamic loft is like a fingerprint – it doesn’t change much with equipment (unless the fit is waaaay off). This means you can look at one swing with his current club and get a feel for his Dynamic Loft DNA. By making changes, you can see if his DL DNA changes. If it’s moving, keep working. If not, call a teaching pro over for an assist.

What 7-Iron Delivery Tells You

Let’s say a player is hitting their 7-iron and delivering just 16° of dynamic loft. That’s not a 7-iron delivery—that’s more like a 5- or even 4-iron profile. If you’re trying to help that player find a longer iron or a gapping club at the top end, you can confidently steer them toward a utility iron or even a strong-lofted traditional iron. They don’t need help launching it—they need help controlling it. On the flip side, if a player delivers 30° of dynamic loft with their 7-iron? That’s a 9-iron delivery. Adding a 5-iron or 4-hybrid probably isn’t going to help them bridge the gap. That player needs more dynamic loft support, not less. You can confidently hedge toward a 9-wood, a 7-wood, or a hybrid with a higher-profile face and a draw-biased design that helps them square it and launch it higher.

Xander vs. the 80 yr. Old lady

I watched a video on Xander where he was hitting 7 irons. They showed his launch conditions. Launch 14*. Dynamic Loft 18*. Think about that. Many people can’t get a driver down to 14*. He does that with his 7 iron. Perhaps even more impressive? 18* Dynamic Loft. Why? Because he does it with a 34* golf club with an X Stiff shaft designed to minimize his lag. A 34* golf club that presents 18* of loft to the golf ball at impact…. Attack angle is about -5*. That gets him to 29*. Wheel does the additional 11* come from? Shaft lean and Shaft lag. That is incredible.

Does this work for everyone? The answer is a hard NO. Very few players on the planet can swing it like Xander. He gets away with 18* of dynamic Loft because he is able to generate spin and lift even with the launch conditions he generates. The slower the swing, the more the player needs to lean on the loft of the golf club to get the ball up into the air.

Your 80 year old member can’t swing it like he does, so that player needs to utilize the loft of the club to get the ball into the air. The extra loft will add spin, which creates lift, which increases the carry distance. The slower the swing, the more this is needed. Light bulb just go off??

How much Dynamic Loft is appropriate? It’s difficult to say, but at the slowest swing speeds, the Dynamic Loft should be close to the stated loft of the iron. Say you move to a Men’s Senior Flex Shaft and a 30* club head – perhaps 28* is good. Men’s Regular flex? Maybe 25* is good. Men’s Stiff – maybe 22* is good. The faster the club is swinging, the less spin needs to be generated by the loft because the swing will do it naturally.

The decrease in Dynamic Loft as swing speed increases, will give a disproportionate level of ball speed and distance. As a scratch player and a golf professional, when I see numbers like Xanders, and the distance he gets’ it is difficult to comprehend how he is able to do it. Conversely, it is very easy for me to see how a slower swing will need more Dynamic Loft to get distance.

Club Selection – Hedging With a Plan

And here’s a practical guide: if a player is delivering less than 18° of dynamic loft with their 7-iron, you’re likely looking at a player who compresses the ball hard. That kind of delivery comes with forward shaft lean, lower launch, and lower spin. It’s not a signal to add forgiveness or help—it’s a signal to lean into control. You might opt for a more compact head shape, possibly a blade or player’s cavity, and maybe even a slightly higher-launching shaft if green-holding is an issue. These players don’t need hybrids or high-lofted woods—they need precision tools.

If a player is delivering 18°–21° of dynamic loft with their 7-iron, they’ll typically do well with a 5-iron. If their 7-iron dynamic loft is 22°–25°, a 5-hybrid is usually the better choice. And if they’re delivering 26° or more, that’s when you lean into high-lofted fairways—a 9-wood, 11-wood, or even a 7-hybrid might give them the best chance to get the height, spin, and descent angle they need.

The reason is simple – these head styles play into the strengths of what the player CAN do, and they help the player do it better.

Let Dynamic Loft Lead

This is how you hedge the set makeup without even seeing the ball fly. You’re fitting the delivery, not just the ball flight. And it doesn’t stop at set makeup. Let’s say a player is delivering extremely low dynamic loft with their driver—say, 8° or 9°. That might suggest a player who’s de-lofting through impact, swinging hard with hands ahead. It could influence how you look at their iron shafts—maybe you stay away from tip-stiff, low-launch profiles and opt for something that adds just a touch of height. Or say a player is delivering a 7-iron with high dynamic loft, but their driver dynamic loft is still in a good range. That tells you it might not be a swing issue—it might be how they deliver irons specifically. Maybe they need more help from their head design, or maybe the set should transition into more hybrid-style irons sooner.

And, finally, the opposite…. What do you do if you have a player who gives you a 20* Dynamic Loft with the Driver? Say the driver is 9*, and the attack angle is +4*. That adds up to 13*. Where does the extra 7* come from? As a fitter, perhaps you shouldn’t be concerned with this if he hits it well. As a teaching pro, this is a major red flag. That 7* of additional loft has to come from either the shaft unloading prior to impact, and/ or a premature hand flip on the downswing. And this is a bad one. 7* is a LOT of power lost. Yeah, it he hit’s it good, so is it even worth it? That’s up to you and the player, but it could be 8-9 mph in club head speed lost, which is about 12MPH in ball speed lost, and at 2.5 yards per MPH of ball speed, that’s about 30 yards of carry lost. I’m thinking it’s worth looking into. Do you see how this single spec can give you insight into the golf swing without ever seeing a shot? How powerful is that??

Dynamic Loft gives you the breadcrumbs. You just have to follow them.

Next up: Spin Loft. If Dynamic Loft tells us how much loft was delivered, Spin Loft tells us how efficiently it was used. We’ll break it down next week.

Happy Fitting!!!

Jim Yeager, PGA