Forget the swing weight, static weight is king!

[fRzzy]

I did some homework and found out that:

1. Swing weight doesn't mean anything if the static weight of the club doesn't allow you to achieve your normal tempo. Let's say, some crazy guy can make a club with a swing weight of D5 but weight 500 grams, now try swinging that, I bet you will feel like its swing weight is off the chart.

2. Swing weight is all about balance, it allows you to feel the clubhead, this confuse me first, but I try hitting the ball with the club holding backward and understand, you need proper balance of the club to swing it properly.

Then again, I find it very very strange that none of the manufacturer that I know of openly state the club weight of their driver on the specs sheet.

Why do I care about this, you may ask. Here's the story...

I'm 5'7", and weight 114lbs, I'm slim, as you can tell from my avatar, and my physically strength is, well, weak. I can hit the irons very good (for a newbie like me) and have great confidence hitting thems, but I can't drive, I just can't. The best I can manage to hit the ball straight is like 180yards, 10 yards further than my 4 hybrid. No matter how hard I try, slow and easy, hard and fast...

Yesterday, I read around the internet and found a thread on another forums, a guy complained about today drivers being too light for him, he need to increase the static weight to around 330 grams to swing properly, then I weight my driver, wow it's 324grams. Earlier, today I went to the driving range and borrow a driver from the pro shop, it's Cobra ZL or something that weight 310 grams (I brought the scale hahaha)

After warming up, I tried some drives, after 3 or 4 slices and hooks, I managed to hit 3 in around that go straight to where I aim, the balls drop right before the 200 yards mark and roll some more.

What I noticed is, my tempo is greatly faster than with my driver, although it is not as fast as with my irons which I feel comfortable with. I then ask to try hitting the Cobra Long Tom, which is 269 grams. Let's not talk about the accuracy, it's a 48" long driver, but my tempo is achieved, or I believed so at least.

Then I leave with a $38 more in the wallet, my old driver is with the pro shop now and I'm looking for another driver that weight around 270-280 grams. Maybe I'll buy something that weight 300 grams, widely available, and then cut it down 1.5" and regrip with Winn Lite 22 grams grip. Same swing weight, save around 30 grams, shorter shaft, and no more confusing about my drives.

[Ernest Jones]

I believe Cleveland makes nice and light drivers.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by fRzzy

1. Swing weight doesn't mean anything if the static weight of the club doesn't allow you to achieve your normal tempo. Let's say, some crazy guy can make a club with a swing weight of D5 but weight 500 grams, now try swinging that, I bet you will feel like its swing weight is off the chart.

If the swing weight is D5 the swing weight is D5. It won't "feel like the swing weight is off the chart."

Your second point kind of invalidates the subject line, no?

At the end of the day, BOTH the swing weight and the static weight matter. My wife's clubs feel light, but the swingweight is still okay.

[fRzzy]

@Earnest Jones: Thank you for pointing me in the Clevecland Classics direction, but I can't swallow their coloring, black works for me. Also, I'm not sure I can control a 45.75" length driver, I prefer something shorter, If I'm going to shorten the shaft, I'm afraid I can mess up the swing weight/static weight.

@iacas: Yes, you are right, swing weight is very important and should never be "forgot" like the thread title said, I was over exaggerating, hahaha...

I'm looking at the Callaway RAZR X Black driver, which the shop clerk confusingly weight it up for me at 312 grams, stock length is 46" and stock swing weight is D5, I'm hoping that I can lighten it down to around 285 grams at 44.5" length and D2 swing weight by cutting the shaft off 1.5" and replace the stock grip with Winn Lite 25 grams grip. All can be done for free if I purchase the club for $140, I'm tempting.

[glock35ipsc]

MOI is king.

If you cut the Razr X down 1.5", that will lower the SW by 9 points.  You'll gain 5 back with the grip (not really, since the weight is in your hands and behind the 14" fulcrum, but that is what the scale will read.  MOI won't change though.), then you'll end up adding 8g of weight to the head.

I imagine you will dislike the club once that is done.

[LuciusWooding]

If you think total weight is all that matters, flip the club around in your hands and grip it just below the head, swinging the grip. Same weight, same club, but totally awful feel. I somewhat agree though.

I don't put a great emphasis on swingweight, because I would be playing roughly C8 irons if you took it as gospel. Yet, when others try my irons, they generally say they feel heavy with 130g shafts, midsize grips, standard lengths. My old set were over length, light SGI irons that swingweighted to about D3, but feel much lighter.

[fRzzy]

Originally Posted by glock35ipsc

MOI is king.

If you cut the Razr X down 1.5", that will lower the SW by 9 points.  You'll gain 5 back with the grip (not really, since the weight is in your hands and behind the 14" fulcrum, but that is what the scale will read.  MOI won't change though.), then you'll end up adding 8g of weight to the head.

I imagine you will dislike the club once that is done.

Yes you are exactly right, I have just found out that what I'm trying to do is matching the MOI of my driver to my irons (I thought all irons in the set are the same but I was wrong)

Can you please tell me what is the right way to achieve this? Make the MOI of the driver roundly the same with my irons and shortening the length to 44"-45"?

Or this is a bad idea trying to match MOI of the driver to the irons?

Originally Posted by LuciusWooding

If you think total weight is all that matters, flip the club around in your hands and grip it just below the head, swinging the grip. Same weight, same club, but totally awful feel. I somewhat agree though.

I don't put a great emphasis on swingweight, because I would be playing roughly C8 irons if you took it as gospel. Yet, when others try my irons, they generally say they feel heavy with 130g shafts, midsize grips, standard lengths. My old set were over length, light SGI irons that swingweighted to about D3, but feel much lighter.

No I was over exaggreted in my thread title, is there any way to edit it?

[boogielicious]

fRzzy,

My club fitter, a Golf Digest Top 100, agrees with you that static weight should be a key in fitting.  Swing weight should be balanced throughout the set, but static weight is very important and should be fit to the golfer.

Secondly, don't get down about your physical size.  As you play more, and get better technique, you will hit the ball farther.  You will also get stronger.

Best of luck.

[fRzzy]

@boogielicious: thank you for your kind words.

I bought the RAZR X Black yesterday, it's an 46" long 10.5 degrees loft R-flex shaft driver, in stock form it weights 312 grams with a swing weight of D5.

After shorten down to 44.5" and re-grip with Winn Lite 25 grams grip, it's now weight 285 grams (right on my calculation, yay) with a swing weight of D3.5.

I tried to hit a bucket of balls later, after the grip solvent has dried. At first, I was thrilled with the lightness and spraying balls all over the place with crazy tempo (long-drive-championship-fast tempo, haha) but got one go straight as a bullet and hit right on the net at the end of the driving range, I guess that ball can carry at least 230-240 yards.

After a short break, I slowed down to my normal tempo and got very impressive results, 200 yards carry is the norm now. I tried to hit last ten balls as if I'm on the tee box, 3 right on the target, 3 off by 15 yards, 2 off by 30 yards, 2 OB.

And the most important thing is I can hit a bucket of 150 balls, all with my driver, I couldn't do that with my old driver or else I may need to go to the hospital.

Great first impression, I'll report back in a week to see if it last.