Heavy shaft and swingweight

[dkdraven]

Ok Clubmakers here is the question.

 

You have a 90gram shaft and a driver head that weighs 202grams. If you cut it to length where the over all length of the driver is 44.5 inches the problem is that it comes in under desired swing weight. The club comes out betwen c6-c7 due to the player preference of a midsize grip and three layers of extra tape. Outside of lead tape on the sole of the club (assuming hot melt is not avaliable) is the player just SOL on swingweight unless they use lead tape or does the player have another option? Desired sweing weight is D4.

[thewitt]

Lighter shafts result in lighter swingweights. Don't artifically add weight to the head and soften the shaft flex just to bring the swingweight up to an arbitrary number.

 

Swingweight is NOT an indicator of weight, it's a relationship between the components that make up the club.

 

C7 is just fine for a club made from ligher components. If the shaft flex is matched to the player, there will be plenty of head feel in a C7 iron.

 

-t

[dkdraven]

That I could understand. However, if the player can run high swing and ball speeds (which I should have stated) then the low swing weight results in a lack of feel of the head. Then what is the option if any?

[stage1350]

Pull the shaft and add a tip weight. A 5g slug will get you to about a C9.5

 

Find a lighter Midsize grip. Lamkins get into the 60g range. Some of the Golf Pride and Winn grips can stay in the mid-high 50g area. Every 4g you lose out of the grip gains another point.

 

Tell us the brand of shaft. If it's counterbalanced, you may want to see if you can find a shaft with a similar profile that isn't counterbalanced. Fujikura Pro 95 is counterbalanced, but Vista Pro 90 is not. The profile is similar, but thy yeild much different swingweights.

 

Given that you are trying to add 7 swingweight points, you need a minimum of 14g at the head. You'd be best off getting it hot melted. Otherwise, tape it.

[oceansunfish]

Lighter shafts result in lighter swingweights. Don't artifically add weight to the head and soften the shaft flex just to bring the swingweight up to an arbitrary number.

 

Swingweight is NOT an indicator of weight, it's a relationship between the components that make up the club.

 

C7 is just fine for a club made from ligher components. If the shaft flex is matched to the player, there will be plenty of head feel in a C7 iron.

 

-t

 

 

Thanks to the search option, I was able to find some info provided by "thewitt" regarding my situation.

 

I recently changed shafts in my R7 TP from DG R300 to Nippon 950 S (95 gram shaft). (Same weight grip was used) Per the explanation above, the lighter shaft meant I got a lighter swingweight. Also, from what the club builder told me, the R7 TP heads turned out to be pretty light, which didn't help. Although when I inspected the tips of the pulled R300 shafts, there was lead slugs inserted as well.

 

So, the result was a lot of lead was placed into the NS Pro 950 hossel to achieve a D2 swingweight. I don't feel that the shaft flex was softened significantly as the flex feels similar to my old irons fitted with the same shafts and step pattern.

 

However, the overall club feels heavier vs. my older irons. I don't know how to explain the feeling, but it's as if I'm slower through impact vs. my older irons. Odd, because the swingweight is the same. Is this a product of all the added lead to the head to achieve D2? I don't have a scale to weigh irons properly, but I probably should get one.

 

Honestly, I was disappointed with the outcome as I thought I was going to achieve the same 'feel' using the same shafts and grips on my R7 TP as my old TM 320s. Maybe I should follow "thewitt" advice and remove some lead and lesson the swingweight.

 

I'll probably drive the club builder I use crazy if I have him pull the shafts again and drop some weight. Therefore, I'm going to have to learn to do this stuff on my own, I beleive.

 

BTW, is this necessarily a poor club design if club builders have to add a bunch of lead to the hossel for even a pretty standard shaft like the r or s 300?

 

Feel free to add comments, they will be appreciated. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the situation and getting way too technical for my own good.

[thewitt]

What length clubs are we talking about here?

 

-t

[Hoover98]

Kind of related, but this stumped me. I have a Rescue head meant for a steel shaft. Didn't know it until I put a Diamana 83 in and the SW was C8. Pulled it and put in a Project X 2 iron shaft which is about 40 grams heavier, and the SW still wasn't even D0. Now, it is about 1/2" shorter overall than with the Diamana, but I figured it would be at least D2. What gives?

[GolfPro64]

I just installed a XPP8 into a 9032LD Head

Head 202
Shaft 88 grams / 82 after install to 44.5"
2 wraps of tape and a 54gram Midsize Tour Velvet

=D4

[Awalkspoiled]

Lots to think about here, but the central question is whether weight in the grip area does anything predictable to head feel. I prefer to think of them completely separately. All clubs are swingweighted with the same 51 gram grip, then the grip area is built up if need be and the desired grip installed. If it's a jumbo GP then final swingweight will be low, if it's a Winnlite then swingweight will be relatively high. Club will load the same, though.

Then, as a separate issue, we'll think about backweighting. Some players will just get better contact with a club which has some heft under the hands, be it by means of a weight or a heavy grip - nothing whatever to do with the practical aspects of swingweighting.

Balance point of the shaft is another matter. Once really exotic materials became available for golf shafts, it was no longer necessary to have the tip section extremely heavy just to get stability, so designers are now able to counterweight their shafts relative to older designs. this means that swingweights may be fairly low even with fairly heavy shafts. This DOES play a role in head feel and load, and really needs to be considered. Few players will be equally successful with the counterweighted Code 6 and the relatively tip-heavy XCon 5, for instance.

I agree with Tim that if you assemble a club with very light components it's dangerous to go chasing a swingweight number - a very light shaft and grip with a very heavy head is going to feel and perform weirdly. Likewise, if you have a 90 gram shaft in your driver, and build it to 44", it's probably going to give you plenty of feel even at C9.