WTH? This article about driver loft true?

He is stating the loft is labeled one way but the club is lofted the way the manufacturer feels it is best suited for use. If this is true, how in the hell are you supposed to get your set up?

http://ralphmaltby.com/357

I would like to know what companies implement this practice if it is the case. Does shaft matter more than loft? I know I hit a better trajectory with my 8.5 loft vs my 9.5 but the shaft was different also.

Most manufacturers don't care about existing standards. There is a good chance they might not survive if they did, with all the technologies and the competition out there. Nowadays, it is normal for Club Manufacturers to produce irons with less lofts (ie; A 9 iron has the loft as strong as an 8 or even a 7 iron in ordinary set). It's kinda funny, though. They are bragging about their latest innovations/technologies-----but they just design ugly iron sets with strengthen lofts, just to make customers feel that they can hit it.

All I'm saying is, everything that is labeled on golf clubs can not be hold as a standard. This includes shaft flexes, weight, length, and lofts.

I believe Ralph. Ralph Maltby is highly respected and his findings are backed up by many club-makers and equipment designers. When you think about how driver heads are made it's amazing that heads come out even close to the target loft. When the foundries contracted by Taylor Made, Titleist, whoever make a run of 10* heads they're going to have some that are 10* some that are 10.6*, 9.4* all around the target. They're not going to throw all those heads out and accept only the ones that are zero error, the manufacturing costs would skyrocket.
What I suspect they do is shoot for 11* for their 10* heads so that the errors are mostly on the high side on the theory that most golfers can use more loft than they think they should have. But that's speculation on my part, I don't know if that's how they handle the errors or not. I do know that they claim that their QC is so good that there is zero error in their stated lofts, and that is quite frankly, impossible.
Component manufacturers by the way usually show a driver head loft as being plus or minus 1*, often with the option to hand measure and get you the exact loft you want for a small fee.

db you may very well be right on in your assessment, on the other hand robotic equipment cutting and shaping metal can meet amazing tolerances. When reading or researching something I always consider the motivation of the person. In this case to me he is talking like
is the only one who has the answers and if you want to get the right equipment then you need to buy it from him.

Not saying he is wrong just suspect in my eyes because of self interest. Would mean a lot more if he had nothing financial to gain from what
he is saying. Having said that, the old wooden drivers definitely would play different, one Macgreagor model driver might our perform another
driver of the same exact specs. But then wood is different from medal in grain patterns, density and the fact that a lot of them were hand carved. So I can believe it in wood heads, not so much metal heads.

Just my two cents and I'm sure many out there will disagree with me which is fine.

It can indeed, but that's not how driver heads are manufactured. They are cast and/or forged and welded and that's a much more imprecise process. But regardless of how they are manufactured, they are still being routinely measured as out of spec by club-makers and club-fitters who have the equipment to measure them. If it doesn't measure 10*, it isn't 10* regardless of Ralph Maltby's motivation, or the motivation of any number of other equipment designers who talk about this.

Robotic and cnc machining is cool stuff. I reject parts every week that come off of various types of cnc machines. The parts cost any where from $20 - $1000, and sometimes far more. If they don't measure up within the tolerances I need then they don't get used. The foundries that manufacture driver heads only get about $3 a piece, (this is a speculative figure, it's a number I've seen thrown around by people that should know and it makes sense from what I know about manufacturing costs, however getting an exact verifiable number seems impossible), and that's not nearly enough money to stay in business and turn out heads within .10*-.25* given their production environment. Please feel free to disagree, looking at the elephant from someone else's vantage point is usually helpful.

You ideally should tryout the club and see if it gives you the ball flight you want. When you've settled on the one you want, don't go over to the rack and get another one of the same model and loft and buy it expecting it to be the same as the one you demoed, it might be, it might not. Make them a deal on the demo club with the scratches or have them tape up the new one to try. Drivers of the same model and loft can feel surprisingly different. If it is doing what you want it to then it really doesn't matter what the numbers say.

"I would like to know what companies implement this practice if it is the case. Does shaft matter more than loft? I know I hit a better trajectory with my 8.5 loft vs my 9.5 but the shaft was different also." The shaft does affect trajectory, how much is a matter of argument. The combination of the shaft, head, even how the paint job and decals line up will all affect the way you set up and get your dynamic loft and angle of attack. Just make it an enjoyable experience to try them out. Just my opinions, lord knows I've got a lot of them.

No wonder hackers everywhere are buying a new driver every other Tuesday! I kind of find the article funny. I play a 8.5 that I hit very well, but it's not because of the number on the bottom of the club. It is about the driver and shaft being well suited to my swing, and me making any small adjustments so that I can fit it as well.

Any player that is hung up on the loft figure on the bottom of the club or gets excited because he can hit his brand new SEVEN (which is really a 6 or 5 1.2 loft) farther than my SIX is not going to beat me anyway.... And I'm no superstar, I've been as low as a four but don't play enough anymore and am about a 9 at this point. I've played the same irons for 16 years - they have traditional old school loft of course. Have you ever heard a good player (single digit capper with the likelihood of a round in the 70s good each time they play) crow about how they hit their NEW 8 iron so much farther than their old 8 iron?

I haven't.

I agree, getting fitted is the key to having the right club. The problem the article covers effects high handicappers like me more who test and get fitted for a 11* driver and purchase one off the rack that is really 10* due to manufacturing variances and don't see the same results on the range or course they did during the fitting.

I've never been fitted in my life, or had a lesson. I played 4 years of varsity HS golf, made it down to a 4 handicap, and played one year of Div I college golf as a walk on (but didn't really play, admittedly). I suppose I have a rather simple swing that I can make work well with off the rack clubs? Don't really know though.... I can see the benefit of fittings for a lot of golfers.

Irregardless of production tolerances, the differences in clubhead design, shaft bend and tip characteristics can result in two clubs of the exact same loft with significantly different launch characteristics. Stated loft just allows you to narrow things down a bit. My maximum driver distance of 235, with medium trajectory. so looking at clubs with stated lofts of 8.5 is a waste of time. I have read that manufacturers do tend to err on the up side, since many of us, and I think this is more common among we middle aged types, let our ego prevent us from admitting that we need more loft than 20 years ago. I do think this attitude is gradually fading, but if you sell clubs why take the chance?

Well put Allin... I'm curious, how would YOU clarify "significantly different launch characteristics?"

I don't have the data to make a scientific conclusion, but my personal experience has led me to believe that a super game improvement driver with a soft tip and lower bend profile plays 1-2 degrees weaker than a mid bend firmer tipped shaft in a club aimed at lower handicap players. Since I don't have the swing speed to try them I can't guess how much difference some of the shaft profiles aimed at 105+ bombers would make.

A number of years ago, Ping tried selling their drivers with the 'Effective Loft' on the clubhead. As if to say, 'we know that the loft on this club is X, but it plays like Y.' Obviously this didn't catch on and they went back to stamping the 'regular' loft on their clubheads.