M5 Driver - weight adjustment and loft sleeve adjustment really work to cure a fade/slice

[khalespace]

I have been playing with my M5 driver for a year with the weights in the max forgiving position and standard 9 degree loft. I have a fade (80%) of the time but sometimes it turns into a big slice(15%). 

 

Yesterday I put the weights into the max draw position and increased the loft to 9.75* which resulted in a 1.5* closed face. I went to the range and magically there is no more fade or slice. I hit 60 balls and had 5 or 6 fades and no slice. The majority were straight, a little higher ball flight. I had 5 or 6 draws when I got quick. I thought these adjustments were gimmicks but they really work.

Edited September 22, 2021 by khalespace

[TallGuy90]

Results unlikely to work for a majority of people 

[khalespace]

1 minute ago, TallGuy90 said:

Results unlikely to work for a majority of people 

Why do you think it doesn't work for others? I hope it is not a fluke. Usually my fades moves about 10 yards to the right. I always play the left side of the fairway. I miss to the left side of the fairways about 1 in a round but the big slices (20 to 30 yards right) result in about 2 to 4 misses to the right.

[Cwebb]

Fine details in face angle at address and what it leads to at impact, is one of the most important things to experiment with

[Valtiel]

1 hour ago, TallGuy90 said:

Results unlikely to work for a majority of people 

 

31 minutes ago, Cwebb said:

Fine details in face angle at address and what it leads to at impact, is one of the most important things to experiment with

Agreed, and while weight movement is less likely to work for others because it demands consistent strike location, which statistically is going to be less likely in the very people using the weights to try to cure ballflight problems, face angle changes will absolutely impact a majority. 

@khalespace assuming you have a decently consistent strike pattern, here is what happened when you made those changes:

1) Moving the weight on the M5 to the draw position actually neutralizes the default fade bias of the head. In its neutral setting, the M5 has a sweetspot slightly toe side of center, which means that visually center strikes are actually fractionally heel side of the sweespot, which produces the subtle gear effects that tilt the ball slightly towards a fade. Lots of qualifying adverbs there, and this is because in order to functionally see this difference, your strikes have to be consistently in one area. By moving weight into the draw position though, you have basically made the driver dead neutral in terms of CG bias, hence why this setting was popular with guys that wanted to work the ball both ways (Rory and Tiger specifically). Similar strikes to before will now have less of that gear effect, or none at all. 

2) Closing the face obviously......closed the face lol. Assuming you did not override this when addressing the ball, you would have increased the chance of the face coming through impact slightly more shut. It only takes a degree or two to make a difference here. 

So yeah, two small-ish adjustments that added up to a tangible difference. I hope that explains why this stuff isn't gimmickry. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Valtiel

[Stuart_G]

5 hours ago, TallGuy90 said:

Results unlikely to work for a majority of people 

 

Its' VERY common that changes to the face angle will alter the ball flight shape in the way it worked with the OP.   More closed face angle = less fade.

 

Moving weights tends to be much more unpredictable for all but the best ball strikers (the ones with extremely consistent face impact).