On Mon, Feb 17, 2003 at 10:39:57PM -0500, Dave Tutelman wrote: > > 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*.
I would say that even for the average golfer (15+ handicap) a 3-wd that's the size of a driver would significantly benefit their game. I currently have 2 woods in my bag. 1 is a 12* Bang SF360 at 44" on DGS steel. I'm thinking of adding some lead tape and cutting off another 1/2" to get it down to 43.5". The other is a 18* Hireko XDS2+ 5wd at 42.25" or so on a TT Lite XL shaft. On my good hits with no wind, I carry around 260 with the 12* SF360. Normally carry around 240-250. With the 5wd, I carry around 230 on solid shots. That's plenty long for the majority of courses. I only find myself wanting a longer driver for the long (430yards+) par 4s, and that's only because I'm not very accurate hitting anything longer than a 7 iron. My buddy who plays about the same as I do doesn't even use his driver anymore, it gets him into too much trouble. He'll hit 3wd and usually be within 10-15 yards of my ball, and a good amount of the time even or even ahead of my shots with driver. I'd bet that with a 15* 210gm 350cc+ driver we'd be in the fairway a lot more often, hitting closer to the sweetspot and give up maybe 20yards max on our best drives with the driver. On average we'd probably be at the same distance, but in the fairway a lot more often leading to less scrambling. Think of the club as an oversized 3 wood, not a driver. I think it's a great idea. Golfworks just came out with a heavier driver (the Hero) but it's still at 10* loft. Too low for the average guy. A number of guys on the GEA have built up the 14* Bang Mellow Yellow on shorter shafts, but have to add lead tape to be able to use a shorter shaft that's easier to control. -Dave
