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Swing weight vs club weight

  • 8:42AM - Sep 19, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    avilla, you do not have a lot of options here. First of all complete mistake to lower swingweight with counterbalancing. This definitely only makes matters worse and is simply fooling the swingweight scale while the total weight goes up (all in the wrong place) and the club becomes less playable. My recommendation is to take 3/4” off the driver’s length and at least get back to 45”.

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  • 11:31AM - Sep 17, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    Question for Ralph or anyone with info.

    I have a Ping g15 driver with a graffaloy axis red shaft (45 3/4) the swingweight is E, I wanted to get it down to D 4. In order to get the swingweight down they (Roger Dunn) put a weight in the grip end which did the job. Problem is the plug weighs approx. 30 grams which makes the club feel much heavier, my question is if there is a different or better way to accomplish this without adding the 30 grams or cutting down the shaft?

    Thanks to anyone who can help,

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  • 10:50AM - Sep 8, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    keyser, I just finished measuring both the Dynamic Gold S300 41” iron shaft and the Dynamic Gold SL 41” iron shaft for the balance point location. From the shaft tip the Dynamic Gold S300 is 20.796” and the Dynamic Gold SL S300 is 19.937”. The difference is that the Dynamic Gold SL S300 has a balance point .859” lower than the Dynamic Gold S300. You were correct. I next checked the swingweight on both shafts installed without trimming into the same #2 iron head. I also trimmed the shafts to the exact same length and installed them into the same exact #5 iron head. In both cases the difference in swingweight was between 1 and 1 1/2 swingweight points less for the SL shaft. This would mean that if it was desired to maintain the exact same swingweight, 2 to 3 grams of weight would need to be added to the head when changing to the Dynamic Gold S300 shaft. Note that the clubs total weight would still be reduced by around 17 grams. So, the golfer would get the advantage of a lighter total weight, but not the full advantage of a heavier head weight.

    Thanks keyser as this was a good exercise and proves that when changing out shafts that one of the things to do is always check for the raw shafts balance point differences combined with the shafts total weight differences.

    Here’s the rule of thumb; when changing shafts in the same club, as the lighter shafts balance point moves lower it reduces the amount of head weight that will need to be added to maintain the same swingweight. Personally, I would usually want the full benefit of a lighter shaft which is both a reduced total weight and a greater head weight.

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  • 4:40PM - Sep 7, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    keyser, I will check this out tomorrow and post it. I did this back when the shaft came out as True Temper touted it as a lighter replacement for the regular heavier Dynamic shaft with similar playability characteristics. I simply cannot remember the results and I did not record them so I will post the raw balance points. If you are correct on this one I’ll have to give you two credits for finding two errors in one day. By the way a credit has no monetary value, but it does give you bragging rights. Thanks for being vigilant.

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  • 10:06AM - Sep 7, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    Ralph, if you are referring to the SL vs the normal DG, even though it’s about 20g lighter, I think it maintains pretty much the same swingweight because it has a much lower balance point. Correct me if I´m wrong.

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  • 2:22PM - Sep 6, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    takafam, thanks for the nice comments.

    Here’s the deal on this one. The DG SL S300 is about 20 grams lighter per shaft. This means that after a reshaft at the same length, the swingweight will go down by approximately 3 points. My recommendation would be to put at least 2/3 rds of the swingweight back which would be 2 swingweight points. You should be able to swing this lighter overall weight club a little faster and coupled with a little more head mass (weight) you should get 3 to 6 yards additional distance. This is theoretically how it works. However, the big factor here on what will happen to you exactly will depend on what trajectory change, if any, you get. This asks the question; is your trajectory with the ball your using the ideal trajectory? Only you can answer that.

    I don’t think the GS 75 will help you since it is very tip weak (soft tip). This would be a radical change for you, however, once again are your current shafts too tip stiff for you? If yes, you may want to try this. You would also need to add some serious weight to the driver head because of the greater shaft weight differences.

    Note that the SL shafts are also tip stiff and play close to the heavier Dynamic but with the advantages above.

    Let me know what you do and what the results are.

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  • 10:57PM - Sep 5, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    Ralph could changing my S58’s DG S300 to a DG SL S300 generate 5 to 10 yard increase or would I need to try a lighter shaft like the GS-75. Maybe a steelfiber or prolaunch red for the 5 and 6 irons. Just trying to fill the gap from my 5 iron to 4 hybrid.

    Jonag you were right I tried hard to play them but in the end the S58’s are just better for me. Ralph even told me in a earlier post to stay away from a club with more than .175 offset due to my hook tendancies which is pw and above on G15’s.

    Ralph: THANK YOU!! In 2 years my index has dropped from 18 to 10 and your site, golfworks and both forums have been a great benefit. You sir ROCK!!!!

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  • 4:29PM - May 21, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    My answer is: There is no reason golfers should have to adapt to new clubs. They should alwasy work equal or better than the old clubs, or you should stay with the old stuff.

    There is no better swingweight than another. There is a swingweight for you and I am sure it is closer to D4 than C9 based on your info below.

    Now skip the thought “new” or “old” . Choose the ones you play best golf with and enjoy and do not change it until they are broken ;-)

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  • 9:06AM - May 17, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    Ok, I’ve spent some time hitting them and can tell it is easier to feel the club and make contact with the S58’s but the G15’s are starting to come around. I seem to notice it the most on half shots for some reason.

    Yesterday I had the swing weights checked – G15’s = C9 S58’s = D4

    I put lead tape on the back cavity on the sole and weighted them to a D4 before my round yesterday. It did seem a lot easier to hit the ball and I could certainly feel the club head.

    Question to Ralph by sending my clubs to Ping to have them change the swing weight is D4 a ridiculous number and does this some how effect my club in a negative way? I’m starting to think I just need more time to adapt to the major differences in the clubs but once I do is the C9 a better number or doesn’t it affect the performance at all?

    Thanks Ralph I really appreciate your help.

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  • 6:36AM - May 6, 2010RE: Swing weight vs club weight

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    In fact I argue slightly with Ralph, but not based on a lot of experience, rather just my own and some physical understanding.

    A pendulum will change the natural tempo when the pendulum weight is changed. For a robot that can controll the clubhead speed, head weight does not matter. For a real player at least the feel of a different club heft or “weight” in the swing can influence timing and release.

    So if the swingweight or club MOI is very different between the sets, I think hitting fat or not could be influenced. If the difference is low, this is not the reason.

    Another reason could be large difference in flex and flex profile. That is at least a problem for me.

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