Alan, I agree with a lot of what you said below. My long drivers (47" and 48") are easier for me to hit, and hit more accurately, than shorter ones. My 1" over graphite length irons (39" 5-iron) are as easy to hit as any shorter versions that I've tried. Each extra inch at same total weight appears to be worth about 8-10 yards.
Total weight seems to be the key to controlling the longer club...for most senior men, a 48" driver at 300 grams or less is easy to swing and control. All my senior ladies seem to do well with clubs at 290-295 grams. With good control, it's not difficult to adjust your tempo and timing for a higher swingweight. Swingweight seems to be the key to getting the head square from release point...and every player is a little different in what swingweight works. A late release just doesn't work with a high swingweight...head never gets square. There is a slower tempo, earlier release point and timing change necessary for most players over D5, but it's not too difficult to make the adjustment on the practice tee. Once the timing is found, it is remembered and as easily repeated (most days) as making the adjustment from a PW to a fairway wood. I've found that stepping down the wood swingweights as clubs get shorter helps to make the timing adjustments almost a "no brainer" and makes the clubs feel very similar...E0 in 48" driver, D8 in 47" driver, D6 in 45" 3W and D5s in the other fairway woods. My irons are D5 also. That's all assuming your swing is reasonably good and reasonably consistent....and most of my seniors up to a 15 handicap seem to fall into that category. To me, the old axiom of "shorter is more accurate" is an old wife's tale. The only truth in it that I see is that because the distance is shorter with a shorter club, a slightly off-line hit might stay in the fairway. But, I'd much rather be hitting a 7-iron to the green than a 5-iron. (GIR is the most important scoring stat in golf.) With a similar total weight and club control, the directional error seems to remain the same with both clubs, and those with less flexibility in the wrists seem to feel the head on a longer club better and hit the ball straighter. The problem for younger, stronger players seems to be that they hit the ball too far with longer clubs...just a little error at over 300 yards puts the ball in trouble on most courses. I have one 30-something with a 125 mph swing speed who can't go over 46" and keep the ball on the course. Would be nice to have that problem. Bernie Writeto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan Brooks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Shop Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 10:01 AM Subject: ShopTalk: Club length > OK Collected Guru's (new meaning of 'cg'), can somebody explain to me the > emphasis on club length. This question has been floating in my mind > somewhere for a while and the post is prompted by Dave T's graphite shaft > question and his desire to not make the clubs more than 1/2" longer. I > guess I see finished club length as an output of the design/fitting process > driven by desired swing weight (and all the things that go into swing > weight), not an input. Our clubs vary in length from about 35" to about > 45" and it is not clear to me why the length of any individual club in the > middle of the set should matter that much. > > The convention wisdom seems to suggest that 'longer clubs are harder to > hit'. True, but longer clubs also have heads that are smaller, lighter > (lower club head inertia and a lower club head to ball mass ratio and a > lower club head to shaft mass ratio), with lower loft. All of these will > make the longer clubs harder to hit and it's not clear to me that length > alone is going to be a dominant factor, or maybe even a very important > one. I put graphite shafts in my long irons, kept the swing weight the > same which made the clubs maybe an inch longer, and they are EASIER to > hit. The fact that my 4-iron is more than an inch longer than my 5-iron > doesn't seem to bother me at all. I would think (naivety is such fun) that > the club building process would go: cut the tip for the right stiffness, > put the head on and cut the butt to get the right swing weight. Component > weight variations mean length will be a bit random if you strictly match > swing weight so I make sure I have even club length increments and let the > swing weight float a bit, but I don't see overall club length as being > important enough to move the club head cg around with tip pins or tungsten > powder in the shafts. > > Am I missing something here? > > Thanks, > > Alan Brooks > > >
