Duffers Corner

Has technology helped or hurt the golf club industry?
Heads are bigger, shafts are lighter, drives go farther, consumers are buy more equipment over their lifetime than their parents or grand parents who golfed ever did, I’d say technology has helped quite a bit over the last 20 years.

Are golf companies over hyping their products by using engineering jargon to make their clubs out to be more than what they are?
You bet they are!

Moment of Inertia (MOI), Coefficient of Restitution (COR), Center of Gravity (CG) are just a few of a long list of technical keywords used by club makers to help hype their products performance. What does it all mean? If I have trouble hitting it past the ladies tees, is a high MOI driver going to help me?

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“COR” is an acronym for “coefficient of restitution.” Coefficient of restitution is a measurement of the energy loss or retention when two objects collide. The COR measurement is always expressed as a number between 0.000 (meaning all energy is lost in the collision) and 1.000 (which means a perfect, elastic collision in which all energy is transferred from one object to the other).

The current USGA rule limiting the coefficient of restitution of a clubhead states that the COR cannot be higher than a measurement of 0.830. This means that when the clubhead impacts the ball, there cannot be more than an 83-percent transfer of the energy of the head to the ball.

“Moment of inertia,” or MOI, is a property of physics that indicates the relative difference in how easy or difficult it will be to set any object in motion about a defined axis of rotation. The higher the MOI of an object, the more force will have to be applied to set that object in a rotational motion. Conversely, the lower the MOI, the less force needed to make the object rotate about an axis.

Center of Gravity (CG) of any object is the one small point which represents the intersection of all the possible balance points of that object. In a golf clubhead, the CG can be determined by balancing the head on its face, sole, or any place on the head – the intersection inside of the head of all these different balance points is the center of gravity of the clubhead.

From golf.about.com/

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Who gains from all of this? Is this information for real? Will golfers benefit from a driver with a high COR and low Center of Gravity?

Answer – You betcha.
But here is the kicker. Since there are very specific rules and measurements that designers and club manufacturers must abide by, the playing field has sort of leveled out a bit, meaning that most of todays drivers should be of equal performance, so to speak. No, your $39.99 Wal-Mart special driver cannot be compared to a TaylorMade Tour Burner driver, but the gap is narrowing. Shaft quality is now the focus for a lot of players that are looking for a little extra yardage and control. This is why when some you go to your nearest golf shop in search for a new driver or fairway wood, you end up having 5-6 different options of shafts to choose from per model. It’s not all about flex anymore, there are kick points, torque and shaft weight you also need to consider, all playing a key role with your drives trajectory and ball spin.

MOI, COR & Center of Gravity – yeah, they all say it, but they all need to stop saying it!

Note to all club manufacturers

You’re boring the every day golfer with these pointless acronyms that mean nothing! I say to you all (Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, etc.), adopt the caveman approach to marketing your new equipment – “Club real BIG, ball go far!” Now I’d buy that approach!

Next topic I might try tackling – Offset clubs: Can they help my slice?

Do you constantly hit the ball thin? Do you take a larger than average divot? Are your shot patterns consistently going right? These are all signs that the clubs you are playing have not been properly fit to your unique swing.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to have your irons properly fit to your swing. Most of the time your averaged sized weekend duffer won’t need any major adjustments, a tweak here or there will do, but you will be amazed with the results.

A few years back I was having issues with my short game, so I thought I should consult my local pro for some chipping advice, maybe a tweak or two might save me a couple of strokes. After hitting a few dozen balls he notices a consistent enough pattern and decides to put me on a lie board to see if he could pinpoint any issues. “Your clubs are too flat.” Now I have been around golf for 30+ years and I never thought for a second that my irons weren’t a perfect fit for my game. “Are you sure?”

Lie Board - Special hitting surface material leaves a small temporary mark on the sole of the clubhead indicating lie angle at impact.

Fitting on a lie board is about the simplest and most accurate way to determine your irons proper length and lie angle. What my local pro was able to tell me is that due to my height (6’6) and short arm length, I needed irons that were 5 degrees upright, not 2 degrees like I have had them since the beginning of time. I called instant BS. No way. Don’t attempt to convince me that my short but perfect swing needs irons that are off-the-chart-upright. I just can’t envision that mutilating my clubs is going to make that much of a difference to my game. But I was still curious, so I had my pro only adjust my pitching wedge. I thought to myself, “my clubs are forged, I can always bend them back, no harm no foul.” Honestly it felt pretty good. My shot pattern was perfect! Straight on target with a slight draw, just like the good old days. But I was still reluctant to have my complete set adjusted, so I told my pro that I would practice with the pitching wedge some more before I decide to have my complete set bent upright.

A couple of days later I am out on the golf course, first hole, par 4 385 yards, after a perfect drive that left me about 95 yards to the pin, I pull out my pitching wedge. It didn’t even cross my mind that I was about ready to hit a shot that I had been struggling with for months with a club that I thought my pro had butchered by bending it 5 degrees upright. With a slight open stance and a short three quarter swing (I’m just hoping to make it somewhere on the green) I watch with complete amazement as my ball, with a smidge of a draw, barrels in on my target line and after hitting the green, on its 3^rd bounce, it rolled right in the hole. I KID YOU NOT!

Let’s just say that after the round I couldn’t get to the pro shop fast enough to have the rest of my set adjusted.

The long forgotten era of club naming; Brassie, spoon, mashie, jigger, spade. If your grandfather played golf 50+ years ago, you bet he had a brassie or spoon in his tiny little canvas carry bag. The old tools of the game sure have evolved from simple, handcrafted designs of persimmon, plastic and steel to complex works of engineering using aeronautical material like titanium, as well as tungsten & lightweight stainless steel.

I just heard through the grapevine that Cleveland Golf will be introducing in the fall a kind of ‘short-iron hybrid’ called of all things, a NIBLICK.
Click HERE for a high resolution image.

From the British Golf Museum

Definition: The “pitching niblick” was the historical golf club (wooden-shafted, pre-20th Century) whose short shaft made it the club of choice for chipping and short approaches. In the way it was used, the pitching niblick was most equivalent to today’s wedges.

That doesn’t mean the pitching niblick was necessarily a high-lofted club, however. With antique golf clubs, loft could dramatically differ from set to set among the same clubs. That’s why you’ll sometimes see this club also compared to a 4-iron under its alias, the “jigger.”

It’s sometimes not the loft of an antique club that is used to equate that club to modern ones, but how the club was used. And the pitching niblick – a k a jigger or lofting iron – was used to approach and chip.

The Niblick hybrid chippers are the length of a standard putter (35”) and the loft of your typical 8 & 9 iron.

What would the Niblick be used for?
Mainly for chipping around the green. Perfect for pitch shots where the pin is some 30+ feet away. You could also use it for low running shots where you might be stuck under a tree or group of trees.

Is the Cleveland Niblick ‘NEW Technology’? No. The Odyssey Maxman chipper is similar in design.

Is the Cleveland Niblick a gimmick club? A big NO!

When this club comes out in October, for those who struggle with their short game, you need to give this club a try. I mean it. Personally I have used chippers in the past and the Niblick looks like the best design I have seen. The Odyssey Maxman felt great but is limited to just chipping close to the green. The Niblick is built more like a iron due to it’s traditional hosel compared to the putter like hosel of the Marxman, which will open up more possibilities (longer shot range).

If I demo a Niblick anytime soon I will let you guys know.

Have you ever heard of a club designer named Don White? Up until about 5 years ago I hadn’t and I thought I know every nonsensical tidbit about the golf industry. All I knew about Don was that he worked at MacGregor Golf as a pretty well respected designer, doing custom grinds on both wedges and irons. Then just a couple of days ago, due to all the press that Greg Norman received for his play at the British Open, I find out that he has been with MacGregor since 1971, and has been their chief club designer since 1980, and I hadn’t heard of him? You’re telling me that Don White designed all the great Muirfield and VIP irons of the 1980s when he was only in his late 20s to early 30s? Are you kidding me? A guy that was originally not an engineer and had no previous knowledge of golf or club design was customizing and building irons for Jack Nicklaus? This Don White character should be in some hall of fame or something. Oh wait! HE IS!

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Interview with MacGregor’s head club designer Don White.
Great insight into club making, custom grinds and the various tour pros he has built clubs for.

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Then just a couple of days ago I finally got to see a close up picture of what looked like ‘retro’ irons Don built specifically for Norman to play in the British Open. I swear I’d seen these before. After some digging I had a lookie-what-we-have-here moment:

Eerie similarity aren’t they? Rumor has it these irons (2009 VIP Pro Diamondbacks) might be introduced this coming fall/winter.

Don White, my friend, I commend you for your continued preservation of the classic forged blade and the name MacGregor, ‘The greatest name in golf!’

A funny little side note: Just yesterday I purposely attached the picture below to my refrigerator to send a little hint to the wife that I might have my eye on some new irons and within minutes she comes barreling around the corner doing her best Soup Nazi impersonation – “NO CLUBS FOR YOU!”