Long-Term Improvement: Blades Only, Or Blades And Persimmons?

[Walter]

I posted this in Rants and Raves a few days ago...

 

"In just a few weeks I'll start solely playing my Staff Button Backs and we'll see what happens then. I'm guessing there will be another adjustment period. Especially when moving from "the white driver" to persimmon. I will play them all summer then move to my Mizunos which I consider my transitional set in October, Play them until December then move to my Pings for peak season. Hopefully I'll have a set of the G700's to play this year as I'm saving up for them and they should be on sale by then. Then back to the Mizunos to transition back toward Classic play starting in March. So For me it works like this... June thru September Staff Button Backs, October& November Mizuno Set, December to mid-March Modern Pings, March thru May Mizunos. Around and around I go. lol "

 

Now the reason I do this is simple. Playing blades and persimmon requires better ball striking. By doing what I do by the time the "Snow Flakes" and Tourists show up in mass and I bring out my Ping G10's (Hopefully G700's this year) I am really centering shots and can rough them up. By the time Peak Season is ending I've gotten lazy and I'm not near as precise. I can feel the difference and my results show it as well. I then transition back and get my skill set back on track. Works for me anyway.

I like your thinking / strategy !!!! Looks like great fun!!

[birly-shirly]

Need some explanation. I ditched my slightly newer technology this season in favor of more vintage clubs. My last few rounds I have been living on the fairways. Can someone explain to me why the persimmon drivers and fairway woods I have been playing with are so much straighter for me? I've never hit so many fairways. The 5 wood I have, I can stripe it down the line every time. Loving it, but trying to understand it.

 

 

When I first took my persimmon dive about 13 years ago, I noticed the same thing. I've never been a particularly straight driver of the golf ball, but I was considerably straighter with persimmons and laminates. And that's continued whenever I've used them.

 

A decade and more ago, Louisville Golf used to have something on their website, showing test results of their club versus a Callaway Hawkeye driver (it seems to have been run by someone else, with the limited info I could find). It showed the Smart Driver was straighter than the Callaway. Louisville Golf touted the gear effect as the reason.

 

If you've ever hit a persimmon towards the heel or toe, you probably know about gear effect. :)

 

[ ]

 

I guess it's no more misleading than most other manufacturer's "technical" claims, but it always bothered me that Louisville seemed to be claiming that gear effect was a property of the clubhead material.

 

Of course, if you hit any driver out of the heel or toe, you'll experience gear effect. The difference is, with a hollow, metal driver, there's more of the heel area that will give you a spinny-cut as your miss. With a wooden club, once you miss the insert, you're in grave danger of not getting a heely cut but a horrible diving hook as the clubhead turns right over.

[HoldenCornfield]

Need some explanation. I ditched my slightly newer technology this season in favor of more vintage clubs. My last few rounds I have been living on the fairways. Can someone explain to me why the persimmon drivers and fairway woods I have been playing with are so much straighter for me? I've never hit so many fairways. The 5 wood I have, I can stripe it down the line every time. Loving it, but trying to understand it.

 

I have a much easier time squaring the face of the persimmon than I do the giant weapon of mass dispersion. My misses with the modern tend to be way right, something I almost never do with persimmon.

 

I really don't know what to attribute it to. I have some guesses. But I just know that its real. And it drives me nuts. So 95% of my rounds are persimmon.

[NRJyzr]

I would also suggest that smaller heads on both woods and irons makes one tend to focus more and try to 'smash' less.

 

 

It sounds good in theory, Brother Tim, but speaking for myself, I can say my results haven't always originated from anything less than max effort. LOL

 

I went out of my way to find a driver and 3w with Dynamic X, after all, and nearly bought a set of Ram persimmons with 7.5 shafts a couple years ago...

[NRJyzr]

Need some explanation. I ditched my slightly newer technology this season in favor of more vintage clubs. My last few rounds I have been living on the fairways. Can someone explain to me why the persimmon drivers and fairway woods I have been playing with are so much straighter for me? I've never hit so many fairways. The 5 wood I have, I can stripe it down the line every time. Loving it, but trying to understand it.

 

 

When I first took my persimmon dive about 13 years ago, I noticed the same thing. I've never been a particularly straight driver of the golf ball, but I was considerably straighter with persimmons and laminates. And that's continued whenever I've used them.

 

A decade and more ago, Louisville Golf used to have something on their website, showing test results of their club versus a Callaway Hawkeye driver (it seems to have been run by someone else, with the limited info I could find). It showed the Smart Driver was straighter than the Callaway. Louisville Golf touted the gear effect as the reason.

 

If you've ever hit a persimmon towards the heel or toe, you probably know about gear effect. :)

 

[ ]

 

I guess it's no more misleading than most other manufacturer's "technical" claims, but it always bothered me that Louisville seemed to be claiming that gear effect was a property of the clubhead material.

 

Of course, if you hit any driver out of the heel or toe, you'll experience gear effect. The difference is, with a hollow, metal driver, there's more of the heel area that will give you a spinny-cut as your miss. With a wooden club, once you miss the insert, you're in grave danger of not getting a heely cut but a horrible diving hook as the clubhead turns right over.

 

Louisville Golf's claim wasn't that the Ti woods didn't have gear effect, but that the nature of perimmons, specifically their CG location, provided a greater accuracy with said gear effect than seen with the larger Ti drivers.

 

Sorry, should have clarified that earlier

[birly-shirly]

Need some explanation. I ditched my slightly newer technology this season in favor of more vintage clubs. My last few rounds I have been living on the fairways. Can someone explain to me why the persimmon drivers and fairway woods I have been playing with are so much straighter for me? I've never hit so many fairways. The 5 wood I have, I can stripe it down the line every time. Loving it, but trying to understand it.

 

I have a much easier time squaring the face of the persimmon than I do the giant weapon of mass dispersion. My misses with the modern tend to be way right, something I almost never do with persimmon.

 

I really don't know what to attribute it to. I have some guesses. But I just know that its real. And it drives me nuts. So 95% of my rounds are persimmon.

 

There IS a problem with oversized drivers, whereby if the clubhead CoG is at too great a distance from the axis of the shaft, then it is physically harder to square up the face. And I have to assume that the problem is exacerbated by a relatively high torque graphite shaft.

[birly-shirly]

Need some explanation. I ditched my slightly newer technology this season in favor of more vintage clubs. My last few rounds I have been living on the fairways. Can someone explain to me why the persimmon drivers and fairway woods I have been playing with are so much straighter for me? I've never hit so many fairways. The 5 wood I have, I can stripe it down the line every time. Loving it, but trying to understand it.

 

 

When I first took my persimmon dive about 13 years ago, I noticed the same thing. I've never been a particularly straight driver of the golf ball, but I was considerably straighter with persimmons and laminates. And that's continued whenever I've used them.

 

A decade and more ago, Louisville Golf used to have something on their website, showing test results of their club versus a Callaway Hawkeye driver (it seems to have been run by someone else, with the limited info I could find). It showed the Smart Driver was straighter than the Callaway. Louisville Golf touted the gear effect as the reason.

 

If you've ever hit a persimmon towards the heel or toe, you probably know about gear effect. :)

 

[ ]

 

I guess it's no more misleading than most other manufacturer's "technical" claims, but it always bothered me that Louisville seemed to be claiming that gear effect was a property of the clubhead material.

 

Of course, if you hit any driver out of the heel or toe, you'll experience gear effect. The difference is, with a hollow, metal driver, there's more of the heel area that will give you a spinny-cut as your miss. With a wooden club, once you miss the insert, you're in grave danger of not getting a heely cut but a horrible diving hook as the clubhead turns right over.

 

Louisville Golf's claim wasn't that the Ti woods didn't have gear effect, but that the nature of perimmons, specifically their CG location, provided a greater accuracy with said gear effect than seen with the larger Ti drivers.

 

Sorry, should have clarified that earlier

 

Even so, it's still just a problem of geometry. Remember, gear effect doesn't itself straighten your misses. It's the curvature of the face that compensates for the gear effect spin that results in straighter shots.

 

Back in the day, the bulge and roll of a driver would vary - depending on whether the head was backweighted, neutral, or fitted with a gamma-fire insert which was heavier and moved the clubhead CoG forwards.

 

It would be surprising to me if there wasn't a face radius that would compensate for whatever gear effect is imparted by a hollow head.

[EmperorPenguin]

Need some explanation. I ditched my slightly newer technology this season in favor of more vintage clubs. My last few rounds I have been living on the fairways. Can someone explain to me why the persimmon drivers and fairway woods I have been playing with are so much straighter for me? I've never hit so many fairways. The 5 wood I have, I can stripe it down the line every time. Loving it, but trying to understand it.

 

I think persimmons are more accurate than modern drivers because of club length. Back in the persimmon days, the standard length was 43", versus today's drivers which are now 45". Shorter clubs, quite simply, are easier to hit than longer ones. The longer the club, the harder it is to catch the ball with a square face. You sacrifice distance for accuracy.

[Nard_S]

Need some explanation. I ditched my slightly newer technology this season in favor of more vintage clubs. My last few rounds I have been living on the fairways. Can someone explain to me why the persimmon drivers and fairway woods I have been playing with are so much straighter for me? I've never hit so many fairways. The 5 wood I have, I can stripe it down the line every time. Loving it, but trying to understand it.

 

I think persimmons are more accurate than modern drivers because of club length. Back in the persimmon days, the standard length was 43", versus today's drivers which are now 45". Shorter clubs, quite simply, are easier to hit than longer ones. The longer the club, the harder it is to catch the ball with a square face. You sacrifice distance for accuracy.

 

Also the mass makes them easier to feel/find in the swing leading to better rhythm and contact.