At 10:03 PM 2/17/03 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I'd be a little careful about that 15 degrees. Yes, there is lots of talk now about higher lofted drivers being a much more useful means to longer drives and certainly 15 degrees would help some people. Right now I'm using a High Launch Ruger head (I believe it measured to 11.5 degrees. The ball flight is certainly high enough and if I'm unfortunate enough to hit the ball on the upper part of the face the effective loft is increased. That results in a shorter than desired distance and I'm not talking about the "dummy mark" high on the face either. :-). I'm a big advocate of the higher loft bandwagon so don't get me wrong. 12 or 13 degrees might be more optimal than 15.I've corresponded with John privately in a lot more detail, but I'd like to respond to Rich in the forum.
I don't think we're talking here about a club for you or for me. But seniors, and especially senior women, just plain need more loft off the tee. (Bernie has his solution. I'm prepared to believe it works for the people he knows. Most of the seniors I know either will not practice enough to master a long club, or never had and never will have the clubhead speed with any length to get away with a 12* loft.)
If you look at the curves in my Club Design Notes (http://www.clubmaker-online.com/physics3.html), you'll see that, for lower clubhead speeds, you just plain NEED more loft. My wife, her aunts, and any number of other senior women I know will get more distance from EVEN MORE LOFT than 15*. I have a lot of success making them tee clubs of a big-headed 5-wood at 21*.
So I think this suggestion has a lot of merit. A 12* driver head would be ho-hum, yet another. And there is a real need for a tee club of a higher loft than that.
Cheers!
DaveT
