Anatomy of a Shaft Change on the Champions Tour

Understanding the positive impact of a properly fitted shaft can elude not only everyday golfers, but even successful tour professionals. The natural tendency for better players is to use their incredible talents and abilities to "overcome" ill-fitted equipment specifications. Average golfers also do this. For regular golfers, this adds a few more obstacles to their round. For tour professionals, in an intense competitive arena, this easily can be the difference between success and failure.

In the case of one such Champions Tour Player, a late season shaft change brought immediate results in the form of his biggest payday of the year.

Before we continue the story, please understand that it is not appropriate to list names and faces when discussing players- they own their celebrity name and likeness. We respect the legality and ethical nature of the situation, and anyways, it is not crucial to the telling of our story.

So this player was having a good season with $600,000 in earnings with 2 events left on the Champions Tour schedule. In a phone conversation with Chuck Taft, a Nippon Shaft Champions Tour Representative, our player reported that he was using the Rifle Project X shaft model, but was looking for something better suited to his swing. He tested the Nippon Shaft NS PRO 1150GH Tour model, but found this shaft to be a bit loose towards the bottom of the club, at impact. The 1150 model has a slight counterbalance of weight in the butt end of the shaft, and this is a common comment for golfers who prefer a more traditional balance. Next up, he tested the NS PRO Superpeening ORANGE shaft model, (pictured above), and found that it was excellent for his body and swing. He installed a set of 'S' flex NS PRO Superpeening ORANGE shafts into his iron and played with them at the AT&T Championship, garnering a top ten finish, and a check for $39,000.

In the next event, the season ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, our player kept the ORANGE model in his bag and fired four rounds of 69-66-68-68, good for a 2nd place finish, and his best payday of the season at $255,000. He told Chuck that with the Superpeening ORANGE shafts in his irons, all of his iron shots just go, "right at the flag". A quick check of his stats at pgatour.com show that his GIR, greens in regulation, were 16, 15, 14, and 16, which is way above a normal tour player's count for hitting greens in regulation.

These results are a testament to the quality of the player, and the quality of the shaft model, but in my opinion, the quality of the fit and the quality of the installation. This story is an example of an important ingredient of what it takes for golfers to achieve their best performance. We will have great days playing this game, but we will only have our best day, when our equipment allows our bodies and swings to reach our highest level of performance.

Clubfitting for Human Golfers = Comparing Options

To begin any clubfitting session, we must first agree that golfers are human. We experience the weight of the club, we sense the flex properties of the shaft and we feel the contact of the sole into the turf. Eventhough many mathematical fitting formulas abound in cyberspace, it is impossible to adequately quantify a golfer sensing and interacting with a golf club in motion, via a math equation.

This startling idea that golfers are human, requires us to intentionally design the optimum fitting assessment in a manner so that the human golfer, (with the help of an educated clubfitter, and maybe even some computer data), is able to make a determination as to what is the best weight, flex and sole, for their needs. This is best accomplished via live, comparative testing.

Live, comparative testing, means that the golfer being fitted, is able to swing, hit, and test a variety of head, shaft, and specification options, so as to feel, interact and compare the different choices available to them. Most golfers do not initially believe that have the ability to feel the variances in equipment specifications. However, after 25,000 fitting assessments, I have learned that if you give golfers appropriate comparisons of heads and shafts, every golfer is able to soon verbalize what their bodies and swings are telling them. Utilizing this testing format allows the golfer to discern which head, shaft, and buiding specification is optimal for their body, swing and game. The advance of head and shaft connector technology, means that no golfer should ever settle for being less than a human being, and therefore should demand nothing less than an intentionally designed, live, comparative, interactive fitting session.

During a live, comparative fitting session, a golfer may test different weight classes of shaft models and find that one is heavy, forcing them to start their swing with a lunge in an effort to get some speed to their swing. Another shaft class may be so light that this golfer has a lack of sensation as to the whereabouts of their club during their swing, resulting in a lack of coordination of their swing muscles, and thus, inconsistent contact. However, the correct shaft weight class yields a feeling of natural comfort, and a body and a swing that is balanced and powerful.

Pursue, choose and engage in a clubfitting session that is live, interactive and comparative, and you will experience the feel and the flight of a champion golfer.

Select a Putter Designed for Modern Greens

Four decades ago the average length for a putter was 36", and the average loft was 5 to 6 degrees. Fast forward 40 years to contemporary times, and the average length is 34" and the lofts have decreased into the 3 degree range, with some of the RIFE and YES! putter models, pictured here, measuring in at 1 degree of loft. What happened?

The biggest impact to putter specifications is the result of the modern green surfaces. Our greens have evolved from slower carpets, to closely shaved table-tops. This has caused a shift in the optimum putter head delivery mechanics. A longer grassed, slower speed green, requires more of a wristy-pop stroke, and a good amount of loft, to aid the ball up and out of its resting place and rolling onto the surface of the green. Thus a longer club, that encourages more wrist, and a loftier face, to a help with the initial launch, was the right fit for most golfers a long time ago. View any PGA Tour video from the 50's and 60's, and you will see putter strokes that matched the greens of the times.

However, as the greens became like pool tables, golfers found that they only needed to start the ball rolling on its way, which came from a shoulder controlled, one piece, putter stroke. This type of putter swing is most efficiently accomplished with a putter length an inch or two shorter than what is required of a more wristy-pop stroke. Also, the loft requirements have evaporated as the ball is no longer resting down into the green grass, but already sitting on top of the surface of the green.

The Problem - Adapting old technology putters to new greens
The trouble is that many of the institutionalized older companies still sell putters with longer lengths and high lofts, which forces golfers to manipulate their stroke and their hands at impact, in a effort to adapt the old style to modern greens. The results are a constant battle with issues of direction, speed, and solid contact.

The preferred option is to select a modern technology putter so that you no longer have to adjust your stroke to play on today's modern greens. Find a putter length that allows your arms to hang down comfortably from your shoulders, with the center of the head lying on the ground directly under your eyes, or just outside your eye-line. Also, choose a putter loft in the 1 to 2 degree range. At first, you may encounter some inconsistency as your body, aim and stroke are not used to the proper specifications. But soon, you will find a greater degree of aim, contact, and consistency, due to a natural learning of a more efficient stroke. Regards, Mark

The #1 Goal of Clubfitting- "No swing concessions"

The benefit of any clubfitting session is to equip the golfer with a set of
specifications which allows them to achieve their highest level of performance- without the need for compensation.

If your set is too long or short, too heavy or light, too stiff or flexible, or too much of anything, then you must alter your body, swing or game in order to compensate for the ill-fitted equipment.

The #1 player in the world recently said that his Dad never let him play with clubs that did not fit him. He was interested in having him develop a proper swing. He urged all golfers to find a proper fitting, or the alternative is that you will be forced to make swing concessions.

I believe that if a golfer understand the relationship between properly fitted equipment and sound swing fundamentals, this game becomes easier to play.