Are you more sensitive to swingweight and, shaft and grip weight as you age?

[Ol_Pardner]

What thoughts do you folks have on swingweight and aging? In the last couple of months, I've become more sensitive to swingweight and shaft weight than ever! I've gone from D-0 or D-1 max in irons to min D-2 prefer D-4. In my misspent yoot didn't pay much attention to it, of course most clubs 40-50 years ago tended to have heavier swingweights as their standard. I've also been paying more attention to shaft and grip weight than ever. Any comments? Thanks!

[ScooterMcTavish]

Yes, noticed it in my early 40s when my back and shoulder were getting chewed up by playing DGS300 and D3 swing weight. My two favourite sets to play right now are my aluminum shafted Hogans and my eye 2s, both of which are in the D0 range.

For me, shaft weight and feel are important. I like to feel the clubhead through my swing, and just can't keep the speed up enough to do thiis with a heavy shaft. Stiffness seems to be less important than feel. Grips? Haven't gotten that granular yet - something to look forward to in my 50s I guess.

[lovetosurfngolf]

I'm very particular about swing weight. I use lead tape to get all my clubs to D2

[fluffy265]

As far as shafts go, I like heavy and stiff, too light for me breeds inconsistency, too soft somehow leaves me with a weak ball flight.

With SW's If I go any lighter than D4 my swing becomes very much all arms and hands and as a result tend to be more prone to injuries playing in this range. If my SW is too heavy (D7) in the long irons I start "slinging" the club.
I find that these days that I'm most consistent and my swing is at it's best playing around the D6 range.
I set my gear up progressively, D5-D6 in long irons, D6 mid irons, D7-D9 with the short irons and my wedges play anywhere from E0- E8. I play my FW's at D5.
My driver plays at .... E6, don't ask me how or why, even I can't figure that one out..... but it works for me.

J

[Fellaheen51]

Shaft weight - absolutely
SW - not so much, as long as it doesn't get above D4
Grip Weight - pay no attention to it. All about how the grip feels.

Never was a fan of heavy iron shafts (i.e. DG) or stiff shafts. Took to much effort to swing them over the course of a round. My first club build was with Rifle 5.0 and I like them until.........I didn't. Then went to graphite because I thought I was suppose to (age, swing speed, nagging tendonitis, etc.). Never really got along with them, the dispersion was at best erratic. Went back to steel (CFS) when I obtained my i20 moderns. Light enough in weight, playing 1" over and at D2, accuracy was much improved. Didn't feel I had to "muscle" the club. Flights the ball higher than desired, but it is what it is.

Picked up a set of '99 Apex's over the winter that had Nippon 950's installed. Really like the shaft/club combination. Nice medium trajectory (even though their labeled as high launch). Swinging them is a breeze. Plays to a D2 after extending them out to my preferred playing length (at 6'2", I more sensitive to proper length than anything else as I address the ball more upright than typical). Just a really nice shaft (for me) that well suits my swing abilities.

As for preferred grips, always have been a Lamkin fan. Crosslines, Perma-Wraps, 3 Gen's. With that said, tried GP CP2 Wraps on the Pings and they've become a preferred grip. Just the right amount of softness, they've been wearing exceptionally, and are good in the damp (I play sans glove). No idea of the weight of them without looking it up.

And for what its worth, I'm realtively vintage as to my age. My take on the topic FWIW.

Note: This is based on simple trial and error. My subjective impressions only with no substantiating emperical data (i.e. Trackman). I'm not good enough to overly muddle my feel of things with an excessive amount of information.

[scomac2002]

I am sensitive to swing weight perhaps more so than static weight, but i don't really have enough experience swinging enough different clubs to know with certainty.

I found that I had to tape my i25's to bring the swing weight up a bit as I had a tendency to overswing them at the std. C9 for graphite shaft. I brought them up to D1 and that solved the problem.

For me the single overriding factor has to be consistency of swing weight across the bag. Throw in a club or clubs with excessively high swing weight and I will struggle with contact. My modern driver is a Callaway Diablo Octane that was cut down to 45" and the swing weight on it maybe only D0-D1. I had an older driver -- TM R7 425 -- that swing weighted about D4 and I became very inconsistent with it as the extra weight seemed to create more lag in my swing resulting in leaving the ball habitually out to the right. I had similar contact issues with Cleveland wedges that played to a D6+ versus the Nike's that I currently use that play to a D3.

I haven't checked the swing weights in my vintage bag, but the feel seems similar and relatively consistent across the bag. My Dictator irons with Precision FM 5.5 shafts are only a couple ounces heavier than my Pings in static weight. The feel in the swing is similar. Even with steel shafts in the woods, the balance is there and the clubs don't feel excessively heavy (or light) in the swing. It allows me to go back and forth between sets without too much trouble.

[scruffynick]

Same with me, lighter clubs for me and boy I feel it more I age! Think it's the fact I grew up playing ping eye 2s, which were light

[Wriggles]

I've been playing golf for 50 years, starting at age 12. I never really concerned myself with swingweights and other technical stuff. D this and D that, I just don't worry about it

I worry about whether my back is going to hold up. I can barely get out of bed in the morning or for bathroom breaks. Today, I walked 18, and my back feels it. Some Advil is getting me through the day.

Play well!

[TimV]

I think as I age and especially the last couple years that I have become more instinctual with my swing so no, not really.
However, because I'm getting older and play 1 or 2 rounds a week overall club weight has had a major impact. Last February I built a new set of modern forged clubs and sold my old set that only had about 100 rounds on them. Why? The old set was steel shafted and I went with a lighter all graphite shafted for the new set. The old set was wearing me out!

[BIG STU]

I have always been sensitive to feel. Now like Wriggles I have never concerned myself with exact numbers on swingweight for my clubs. I have a SW machine but never use it on my clubs. I just lead tape for my feel. Now I experimented the last couple of years with lightweight shafts for my clubs could not get the feel back. Ended up re engineering my old Macgregors after a lot of thought and it worked out actually added 1 inch over stock specs and had to pull the lead tape out of some of the irons actually all the long irons that I had it in. But all is well still hitting those old beauties good. They feel good even when I miss them

[bullrambler]

Great thread and it's about what are we doing to our clubs to get the feel that works with our swing. It's a good thing to try different sets / designs and the vintage stuff is so reasonably priced - so why not try a few designs. When one considers the costs of shafts alone - one can try different clubs from various manufacturers who sometimes use different shaft designs in their products. I'm sure many here have checked the price of one new shaft like a KBS, Project X, Nippon, Dynamic Tour Gold etc and can see how pricey it can be for shafts alone.

I think that a lot of shaft profiles / designs have been developed and used in the past - yet today's shafts are quite pricey to say the least. And the idea of tweaking clubs is an important consideration in the set-up. For some it's a chore to practice as one matures and this is one reason why swing speed decreases. But, age does contribute to a loss in swing speed as well. So the set-up of the clubs - while it has always been important, is just as important now.

So it's good to read that many vintage fans are looking at the club set-up and tweaking them to get the best performance that one can have. I think it's time to take the Hogan Bounce Soles out today with the Rocket shafts and see how the ball flight works out with this classic set.