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Adjustable Drivers and Effective Loft ?

post #1 of 5
2/12/11 at 2:32am
Thread Starter 

I bumped into an article on Adjustable Drivers and Effective Loft ( http://www.addicted2golf.net/?p=674 ) and it says :

 

"The effective loft of any club will change if you open or close the club face by:

 

1) Not returning it to square at impact, or

2) Adjusting the face angle of an adjustable face driver

For example, let’s say you bought a 10.5 degree driver and change the setting from square to 2 degree closed.  For every degree closed, the effective loft increases by 1 degree.  So now, you’re gaming a loft of 12.5 degrees.  Now those manhood robbing  moon shots become a little easier to understand…

Of course, the opposite is true if you play an open face angle as most better players do.  The effective loft of a 9.5 degree driver with a 1 degree open face is 8.5 degrees.  That may be OK for some players but a good number will lack the club head speed to generate enough spin to lift the ball and optimize distance at that launch angle."

I feel it is the opposite way, closing the face would reduce the loft and opening would raise the loft

Or am I wrong ?

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post #2 of 5
2/12/11 at 2:46am

Closing the face on an adjustable driver (or if you just manually close the face of your driver) increases the loft, opening the face does the opposite.

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post #3 of 5
2/12/11 at 3:02am
Thread Starter 

Hmm .... math is not my thing, but I don't understand, can you explain ...... bc when I open the face I would expect the loft to increase ..... or has it something to do with first having to understand what effective loft means ..........

 

Currently with hitting the ball more in the upswing with my 10.5* Cobra S2 Driver I have a high ball flight, would like a lower ball flight. Now it is in N (neutral) ....... what would be the outcome if I would put it to C (closed) ...... according to the Cobra website this would decrease the loft by 1.5* but as I now read it is the other way around ?????

 

So if I want a lower flight it should be in O (open) ..... according to the Cobra site increasing the loft by 1.5*, but actually the other way around......

 

very confusing !!!!!!

 

What a ball flight is to be expected with the C or O settings ?

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post #4 of 5
2/13/11 at 9:46pm

On any normal non-adjustable club wether it's a driver or a 5i, opening the face will increase loft, closing it will decrease loft.  On an adjustable driver like my R9, (I don't know for certain about other brands but they are likely the same), rotating the club head actually does increase the loft because the head is not rotating on the shaft.  The head is rotating on a tip that's glued to the shaft.  The tip of the tip that the club head rotates on is not in line with the center line of the shaft, in other words it's "bent", so that when you turn it to another position it's turning "uphill" or "downhill" so to speak.  That's how the loft can increase or decrease.  Wether or not it's "closed" or "open" depends only on how you orient the grip in your hands, you can grip it anyway you like.

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post #5 of 5
2/14/11 at 8:22am

This issue is a bit difficult to grasp, but does make sense. Remember, the only reason you would open or close a club face is because your swing does not square the club face at impact. Don't think about what the loft of the club looks like at address, but rather at impact. Here is my best shot at explaining:

 

If you have a hard time squaring your driver, you are either closing it at impact or leaving it open AT IMPACT. Let's start with leaving it open at impact. Closing the club face should help you square the club at impact, given you have the same swing. It is true that closing the club face at address looks like it de-lofts the club. But, you need to look what the club face is doing at impact. If in fact the closed club face is square at impact (which was the only reason you adjusted the club face to begin with), you had to have rotated the club face in the open direction compared to address, and you have added loft.

 

Here's how it work. A 10.5* driver that has a 2* closed face still measures 10.5* at address. If you return the face to the same position at impact as at address then the loft is still 10.5* (for simplicity sake not taking into account angle of attack or dynamic loft here). But if you square the face at impact you must have rotated the head 2* open which adds about 1.2* of loft. So the effective loft is then 11.7*.

 

The opposite is true for opening the club face. Yes it will decrease the loft.

 

Hope that helps!

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