Shorter shaft / thinner grips impact on swing weight

elwhippy · April 3

Hi,

Just purchased a set of Blueprint S irons. Ping fitter set me up with AWT R, half inch short, and aqua grips. Clubs have arrived and feel way too light to be playable. How much impact would a lighter aqua grip and half inch shorter shaft have? Will be sending them back to Ping UK for re-shafting as I cannot see myself using them. Previous irons were standard length TMs, DG105 R, tour velvet 580s.

gdb99 · April 3

Just wondering if you spec'd out a certain swing weight? Or is it the overall weight that feels light?

Ping irons generally are light swing weight to start, going back to the owners belief that light stiff clubs benefit everyone.

They must have worked in the fitting. I'm sure your fitter will make it right.

elwhippy · April 4

Played a few holes this evening. Longer irons are dreadful. Weak flight and hard to time. However, the short irons work fine with the AWT. I may need shafts with a similar weight and kick point through the whole set. Taking my old clubs on a weekend trip and have a trackman session booked for next week.

Stuart_G · April 6

On 4/3/2024 at 2:18 PM, elwhippy said:

Hi,

Just purchased a set of Blueprint S irons. Ping fitter set me up with AWT R, half inch short, and aqua grips. Clubs have arrived and feel way too light to be playable. How much impact would a lighter aqua grip and half inch shorter shaft have? Will be sending them back to Ping UK for re-shafting as I cannot see myself using them. Previous irons were standard length TMs, DG105 R, tour velvet 580s.

The half inch short could potentially have a significant effect - but it depends on how the factory might have compensated for that length change. You'll have to actually get the swing weight measured to get an answer to that question.

Generally grip weight changes should initially be ignored in the context of the effect on swing weight - but it can have an possible effect on how good a fit the static weight of the club might be - and therefore what shaft weight might be a good fit.

And any change static weight could possibly dictate the need to be refit for swing weight. So the swing weight might still be the 'same' value as the club you tested but still not be a good fit with the new grips.

So if you're having problems - get some lead tape out and go to the range to see if adding it incrementally (2 gm increments) to the head might help. If it doesn't help - then the problem is somewhere else completely - likely an issue with the static weight fo the club, not the swing weight.