David Lake

I am not a believer in switching sets of irons every few years like some golfers advocate. Nor do I keep switching drivers trying to find the Holy Grail.

I agree with Moe Norman on this: "The closest distance between two points is a straight line". Consequently, I do not try to "shape" a shot but aim straight at the pin.

Personally, I have always preferred a 1/8" oversize grip that allows more hand to grip contact for better power transfer and additional control.

Buying golf clubs "off the rack" is the worst mistake any golfer can make.

There are two main concerns: Good equipment Proper club fitting Both are equally important if you are to reach your true golfing potential.

I congratulate Bryson DeChambeau on his outstanding play at the World Amateur Team Title competition.

Obviously I am biased. However, Bryson DeChambeau (NCAA) plays single-length irons as well as Moe Norman did throughout his entire competitive career, and many others as well. Single-length play is nothing new and is the way golf clubs were fitted and made up until the advent of mass production. Prior to that all sets of golf clubs were custom fitted to a single length - mass production did away with that and the result was the 1/2" length progressions and 0.5º lie angle progressions between successive clubs that you see today.

The fact is that most golfers would probably experience greater distance and more fairways hit if they teed off with their #3 wood instead of their driver. Fred Couples did it for years.

Personally, I would not play a set of golf clubs where the inherent flex plane of the shaft had not been determined and oriented correctly in relation to the clubface.

Titanium/metal driver heads are generally filled with a foam that deadens sound. In the old days this was not the case and is how Ping got it's name - through the distinctive ping sound it made at impact. I can only guess that your driver head does not incorporate this foam. Unless your driver head is otherwise defective, this does not affect performance whatsoever. You can purchase a can of this foam from any component supplier (GolfWorks, Golfsmith, Hireko, etc.) and fill the clubhead through a small drilled hole.

Generally speaking, what the pros play and what you buy are two different things. Personally, I have never met a professional golfer whose equipment was not significantly modified from stock, and in some cases were never stock to begin with. A case in point is that when Golfsmith purchased Lynx, part of the inventory received was special clubhead molds for Fred Couples. These molds varied significantly from what Lynx was selling to the public. In fact the only similarity was that the Lynx name was on them. Another instance was back in the early 90's when a premier player at the time was being paid a big endorsement contract to play graphite shafted irons from a major brand. Half way through the season it was learned that his shafts were actually steel painted to look like the graphite shafts that came with the set. As far as drivers are concerned, other than shafting, weighting, club length, etc. there are not a lot of modifications that can be made. However, I have seen numerous instances where roll was eliminated on the clubface of a pro's driver.

onthehunt526, You would have to ask Phil Scott (Adam Scott's father) as well as Jaacob Bowden (European PGA Tour) as well as 100+ golf pros playing single-length clubs throughout the USA if they would agree with you. Although it is too late, you could have asked Moe Norman who is considered the best ball striker who ever lived and played single-length golf clubs his entire competitive career if he would agree with you.

We are led to believe that longer golf clubs produce greater swing speeds on a linear scale and thus more distance. This is the explanation given for the 1/2 inch increase in club length between the individual irons and woods within a conventional set of golf clubs. In actuality, the only static factor that results in distance changes between clubs is the difference in the loft angle of the club-head. Our testing has shown conclusively that there is absolutely no measurable difference in distance due to the standard 1/2 inch incremental shaft length increases between clubs. The only affect of the standard length increases between clubs is to make each successively longer club harder to hit. The armchair physicist will point to the radial arm length in a golf swing as being the prime determinant of swing speed stating that the longer the radial arm the greater the swing speed and resultant distance. A common misconception is that club length alone is used to define this radial arm length. Regardless of how many hinging points and resultant secondary arcs/planes are involved the true center of a golf swing is a point somewhere between your shoulders (this center point moves laterally between the shoulders during the swing). Hence, you must include your arm length into the radial arm length equation for any meaningful analysis. Therefore, assuming a 37 inch iron length and an arm length of 24 inches, the actual radial arm length in your golf swing is 61 inches. This means that a 1/2 inch change in club length results in a radial arm length change of only 1/122 or 0.008197. A 1.0 inch change in club length results in a radial arm length change of only 1/61 or 0.01639. Even a 2.0 inch change in club length results in a radial arm length change of only 1/30.5 or .0328. As you can see, these fractional changes in radial arm length will not produce any measurable change in swing speed or distance whatsoever. Our testing of hundreds of golfers (including professional golfers) has shown that your highest swing speed with an iron is attained when you are hitting your favorite iron. Every time you switch to an incrementally longer or shorter iron your swing speed will decrease. The reason for this is that you have the greatest degree of confidence with your favorite iron (the only one in the bag that comes close to actually fitting you properly) and this high confidence level allows you to make your most fluid and powerful swing. Every time you move up or down one or two clubs (increasing or decreasing club length from your "favorite") your confidence level decreases and you will unconsciously slow down your swing in order to make good ball contact. This decrease in confidence level translates directly into the unconscious decrease in swing speed and applied power. With a set of single-length irons that are custom fitted for you you will experience an overall increase in power as well as a decided increase in your control and accuracy. You will be as comfortable with your #3 and #4 iron as you are with your #9 iron or wedges and you will gain distance and accuracy with every iron in your set over your old irons. Club-head weight . What most golfers do not realize is that in a conventional set of irons the club-head weight progressively increases in 7gm increments from the #3 iron through the wedges. Therefore, a conventional #3 iron club-head weighs approximately 240 gms while a conventional PW club-head weighs approximately 292 gms. Since the club-head weight in a set of single-length irons is 273 gms you will be hitting the ball with the #3 iron incorporating more mass than a conventional #3 iron for increased ball compression and additional distance. Ball striking consistency . Regardless of what you may have heard through advertising concerning "expanded" or "extra large" sweet spots, in actuality the sweet spot on a club-face is only the size of a pin head (the intersection of the horizontal and vertical centers of gravity) and certainly cannot be artificially enlarged. The fact is that if you miss this sweet spot by 1/4" either way you will lose 10 yards in distance and have an off-line shot. When playing a set of irons that are identical throughout the set and where you are using the exact same swing and ball position with every club and on every shot, your consistency in hitting the sweet spot increases dramatically. The combination of using your maximum swing speed, hitting the ball with greater mass, and striking the sweet spot on the club-face every time guarantees an increase in distance with every club in your bag.

You might find the following article interesting concerning grip size: Grip Sizing