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Date Posted: 15:20:08 04/28/06 Fri
Author: David Lake
Subject: Re: My thoughts and opinions re: 1iron clubs
In reply to: Steve 's message, "My thoughts and opinions re: 1iron clubs" on 13:23:17 04/27/06 Thu

Steve,

Great questions followed by excellent responses. To answer your question concerning fairway wood length I can only say that I have experimented with fairway woods as short as 37" in length to as long as 42" in length. What I determined from this type of experimentation on myself and other golfers over a number of years is the fitting formula that we use. It is true that the shorter the club the easier it is to hit; however, there is a point of diminishing returns where distance, control, and accuracy are negatively affected. This negative affect is the result of a club length that negates the inherent design function of a fairway wood, more on that later. The vast majority of the problems that golfers have with fairway woods are due to swing flaws.

Many golfers have a hard time hitting their fairway woods with any consistency and the primary cause is the same in each case – swaying to the right during the backswing and swaying to the left during the downswing (right-hand golfers). It is of note that the longer the club the greater the tendency to sway during the swing. My guess is that the culprit for this swing killing fault is the oft repeated instruction to make a weight shift to the right side on the backswing and to the left on the downswing. Believe me; nothing will devastate a good swing faster than this weight shift ideology. At address, regardless of which club is being used, the weight should be evenly distributed between your feet. During the swing this weight distribution should not consciously change (although as a practical matter it will shift slightly). By consciously incorporating a weight shift you will unconsciously create the swaying motion mentioned above and eliminate any chance of a good swing. The main problem with a swaying motion is that instead of being able to bring the club around and behind during the backswing the sway to the right forces you to bring the club directly out to your right side. This destroys your power potential and creates an outside to inside swing path through impact. As well, the forced sway to the left during the downswing makes it virtually impossible to bring the clubhead through the ball on a consistent plane.

Power in a golf swing is produced by the torque created between the torso and hips as your upper body rotates clockwise around your lower body during the backswing. This brings the golf club behind you instead of out to the right which allows you to fully unleash the built-up power during the downswing and starts you off in the correct plane through impact. Any sway or weight shift to the right-side during the backswing will completely negate the possibility of this from happening and result in inconsistent performance and a distinct lack of power. The next time you watch a golf tournament on television notice the hips of the golfer during the swing – their relative position never changes during the backswing on downswing but remains stationary throughout. Try this at the range and you will see a definite difference in your fairway wood play. I will caution you that it will feel very strange at first but once you see the results your comfort level will increase dramatically.

It is also necessary to remember that the design function of a fairway wood is not the same as that of an iron. Whereas an iron is designed to pinch the ball using a steeper swing arc in the downswing, a fairway wood is designed to sweep the ball from the turf using a much flatter swing plane. These respective swing planes dictate their own respective club lengths – shorter for the irons and longer for the fairway woods. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between these two swing planes and respective club lengths when using one or the other of these clubs. Personally, I like to feel as if I am pounding in a tent stake when I hit a ball with an iron and skipping a stone with a side-arm motion when hitting a wood.

After saying all of this, some golfers do prefer a shorter length in their fairway woods. If this is the case then it is simply a matter of removing the grip and trimming the butt-end of the shaft to whatever length is desired. It is very easy to do this at home, but I cannot imagine that a pro-shop would charge more than $4 or $5 dollars to do this.

David

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Replies:

[> [> Re: My thoughts and opinions re: 1iron clubs -- Patrick Morris, 05:02:25 04/29/06 Sat

So what might be the result of shortening the driver to the same length as the fw woods? Pat

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[> [> [> Re: My thoughts and opinions re: 1iron clubs -- Danny, 06:42:38 04/29/06 Sat

>So what might be the result of shortening the driver
>to the same length as the fw woods? Pat

Having tinkered with this subject, I hit a 43" Python offset driver. At one time though, it was on a 40" steel shaft. Great increase in accuracy, 25 to 30 yd loss of distance from where I'm hitting it now

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[> [> [> [> Re: My thoughts and opinions re: 1iron clubs -- Pat Morris, 08:14:50 04/29/06 Sat

I don't get it, if, and only if I hit the drive just right and it doesn't happen often, I am only about 30 yards farther than the 3w at best. So if the 3w and 1w are the same length, shouldn't the 12 degree loft of the driver propel the nasty little white thing farther than the 16 degree 3w?????

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[> [> [> [> [> Re: My thoughts and opinions re: 1iron clubs -- Danny, 10:16:08 04/29/06 Sat

Well from what very LITTLE I KNOW ABOUT GOLFSMITHING, I've heard there is about 2 1/2 yards of distance per degree of loft for distance. So with my little pee brain, I would say there should be some distance difference. The problem this thread is getting at, could a 3w deliver enough distance at 7 iron length to out hit you "1 Iron golf 3 iron"? But the problem with cutting a driver down that far and I believe is what David is saying and what I have found out by doing so, is, you just lose so much distance with your driver to make it almost in effective. It becomes very, very accurate, but very short. I'm not a long hitter by any account, but at my home course ther're are 2 holes that I have to hit my tee shot 210 or 220 to make the fairway, and with my 40" driver, I can't get there, with the 43" at least I can. I think that's why David's drivers are that length, like he said, there is just a point of deminishing returns on accuracy and distance. When I get my next order from David it will include a 38" 3w for a co-worker, which I will borrow immediately, I will let you know about the results.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> Re: My thoughts and opinions re: 1iron clubs -- Patrick Morris, 12:40:27 04/29/06 Sat

Doesn't matter now, regripped the driver with a jumbo Lamkin crossline, fw's and some of the irons with mid-size lamkins as I had switched to standard size grips. Hit three buckets today. Went back to the Graves brothers system with the exception I ten finger instead of overlap. I had forgotten just how accurate and long single plane golfing can be. Just had to move the ball slightly forward, well a fair amount forward and do the Moe Norman thing with the driver. All irons centre stance and fw's just a little forward of centre. It all fell into place. Everything felt right, whereas with the conventional swing I always felt out of place even when I was hitting them lights out. So I will regrip all with midsize and the wedges with jumbo and go back to what I enjoyed before. A swing of ease. I had a game friday where I just couldn't hit the ball on about 90% of the shots, I went from High 70's low 80's to over a hundred, slashing at the ball, and then depression set in........ This winter was an experiment going back to a conventional swing, doesn't hold up for me. Pat

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: My thoughts and opinions re: 1iron clubs -- Jim Winiarski, 17:38:25 04/29/06 Sat

Well,I GUESS ITS JUST ME... how true. I went to the range today with the new 7 and 5 woods and hit them just as well or a little better than the CER's Therefore, its ME. Some days you feel like a nut and some days you don't and some days to hit better and some days you don't.

My problem was, I had a swing problem, my left arm was braking down on the take away. Charles, my coach saw this, and voila, it straightened me out. Charles quote, "Anything you change on the back swing you also have to change on the follow through; therefore keep the back swing simple as possible to allow the follow through to be easier on you." Isn't it why single axis is popular with us older wanna bees???
David mentioned this a few replies before.
Low and behold , I got a bottom line report, they want me back. with "How to improve your golf game if you're over 50", 3 tips:
1- Hold the club lightly, we are always tought this with the lower 3 fingers of our hands, but its a reminder to reduce the tension in our swing so that we will follow through stronger. 2-" Put your weight on your right foot, especially on full swings with woods and longer irons, Result: A head start on your swing and less weight shift." isn, this what David just said, and it seems to work, extra distance. 3 - "
Turn your chin to the right, for right handers as you start your back swing. If it throws you off, cock your head before you start". This one I would say is to cock your head and not turn, because the motion will result in a weight shift and bad results.

David, sorry about saying the CER's were better than the new woods, its just me!!!

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