Driver Loft Specs Tolerance?

[Island Par]

I've read somewhere that the loft indicated on the driver head is not often true and that it's slightly higher? Is this true? If there is a "+" tolerance what's the normal difference from the one indicated on the club?

Say for example a 10.5* loft is indicated on the driver, and if the actual is indeed higher what is acceptable limit 0.5*? 1.5*? 2.5*?

If this is true, isn't that a bit unfair? After all you wanted to get, say a 9.5* driver and in actual you got a 10-10.5* one but was indicated as 9.5*

Thanks in advance

[Laxplayer201092]

Indeed there is, some are very close, say a 9.5 might play to 9.7, whereas other may say they are 9.5, but play to 10. i know my old SQ said 10.5, but played more like 8.8 degrees. so some can be pretty drastic.

[Island Par]

Indeed there is, some are very close, say a 9.5 might play to 9.7, whereas other may say they are 9.5, but play to 10. i know my old SQ said 10.5, but played more like 8.8 degrees. so some can be pretty drastic.

8.8* wow! But what if it were the opposite say 10.5* then is actually 13*? can this be actually cause fopr complain? Anyone out there who had actual experience and was actually responded to by the company?

[glebert]

From what I've heard the tolerance is about +/- 1 deg (maybe 1.5), but the OEMs want to err on the side of giving people more loft (and stroke their egos about playing a low loft driver) and label the club as 1 deg. lower than nominal, making the tolerance more like +2/-0. Sometimes it is ridiculous; I hit a Macgregor 8.5 deg driver on a sim and it had to be more like a 12 based on the launch angle (you could even tell at address that it was a higher loft). I've heard of some Clevelands labeled 9 deg and measuring at 16!

[cigarnut81]

The manufacturers have to be allowed a tolerance range. Normal is +- 1*. It is impossible for the foundry to make every clubhead to spec. The big companies don't really care if your driver loft is what it claims to be. They just want to sell it to you.

[e-man]

I personally spoke to Ping about this, and here is what they said.

I was buying a G10 driver, 9 degrees. A Ping customer service representative told me that the loft on the 9 degree heads range anywhere from 9.3 to 10.8 degrees, with most falling right around 10.2 degrees. They told me that the same holds true for the 10.5 degree heads -- they can range anywhere from 10.8 to about 12, with most being around 11.5 degrees. Hope this helps.

e

[Timothy D Watson]

I buy and restore/rebuild/modify a great deal of old golf clubs mostly as an out of control hobby. I always measure the loft of my driver heads before deciding to buy the parts to build a complete club. Most of the time, the loft is 0.5 to 2.0 degrees higher than stated on metalwoods. A loft less than stated is very rare. The farthest off I have ever seen the loft specification on a driver is 3.0 degrees higher than the stated "9.5 degrees" at an actual loft of 12.5. The club is a clone of the 1990 J's (Jumbo Ozaki) Professional Weapon by Bridgestone. It says J Preferred Wood instead.