Before we get to your question...
At 01:12 AM 6/28/2011, Harry F. Schiestel wrote:
Even my MX-23's with their cheated lofts, I bent them back to a more
traditional loft of 40* for the 9 iron, followed by 44 (9), 49 (PW)
and wedges at 54 (SW) and 59 (LW) with no GW. All wedges made
identical frequency and length as 9-iron.
From what you write here, it sounds like you have two 9-irons: 40*
and 44*. I'm sure you don't mean that. What do you mean?
If you mean that the 40* iron is an 8-iron, your loft lineup is a
fairly typical lineup from the first half of the 1990s.
I like my irons about that, too. But I have to start by buying
clubheads not too different. Bending irons more than a few degrees
isn't a great idea. I'm not just talking about cracking the hosel in
the bending process. Bounce angle is changed by bending. And vertical
weight distribution, offset, etc are designed for the loft angle.
On to your question:
Let me ask this of the members.
What do you feel is more critical, the head or the shaft and why? I
am not suggesting a 15* high loft driver when a player needs 8*'s or
L flex when he needs an XX flex shaft. What factor head or shaft
should you pick first to begin to optimize performance?
You qualify the question with a reasonableness test on the clubhead:
loft. Before I take on the question you ask, I'd like to put a little
more flesh on the reasonableness test.
* Let's assume we're talking driver here, because the
question was asked in the context of a discussion of a 116mph clubhead speed.
* We're going to assume that the loft is properly fit to the
golfer. You already said that.
* We're going to assume that a bunch of other parameters are
typical of a modern driver head, specifically:
- Max allowable COR.
- Reasonable bulge and face roll.
- If the player doesn't have a very tight impact
pattern, let's also assume that the COR is maintained over a pretty
large portion of the face, and that the clubhead MOI is pretty high.
Most good driver heads these days are quite OK in both regards.
Let's assume all these pass the reasonableness test for a driver head.
Beyond that, the only critical factors about the head are:
* Weight (a fitting issue that can often be remedied with
tip weight, screw weights, lead tape, or rat glue)
* How it fits the player's eye (important but mostly subjective).
After that, it's all shaft. Designers have gotten very good in the
past 7-10 years at designing fairly novel distributions of flex and
weight, torque and hoop strength, using carbon fiber. Before that,
carbon fiber was a competent shaft material; now it's almost an
artistic medium.
Cheers!
DaveT
