PING S55 irons: Sneak Peak

[saevel25]

Originally Posted by Pretzel

Ball flight, yes. Distance, not necessarily. You will gain distance if you change to a proper flex from an improper flex usually, but otherwise you likely won't unless your spin/launch are way out of whack.

If you're launching it too high, then you could look into a higher kick point shaft such as the C-Taper or get something hard stepped/half a flex stronger.

If it balloons in the air, then you also would want to get a lower spinning shaft, which would increase distance in that case.

Also depends on ball speed. For a lot of slower swings, spin rate will keep the ball in the air longer so they can maximize carry, for irons that is important. so there is a balance there.

For irons i am not sure if kick point matters that much. Look at Adam Scott, he uses a driver with a mid kick point. I think as long as you nail the spin rate to your swing speed, then kick point is just preference. I am not sure the kick point launches the ball to higher or to lower.

Maybe i will find a demo day coming up, and go hit the same iron with three different golf shaft, see if i can tell the difference. Though having a trackman would be nicer. I wish someone would put together a conclusive golf shaft list based on swing speed, giving actual numbers to launch angle and spin rates.

Cause i always wondered, what kick point will do is change the dynamic loft. Basically increase it, not sure by how much. But this means at least for a driver, a lower kick point should increase spin and launch angle. Though i wonder how it effects angle of attack as well. If you have a lower kick point wouldn't that increase angle of attack for the same swing?

[Jakester23]

So if I hit my driver high now I'd like a mid or higher kick point?

[Pretzel]

So if I hit my driver high now I'd like a mid or higher kick point?

It depends on your spin rate. Looking at your ballflight, does it start low and then rise before falling steeply with little rollout? If so, you may just need something with a stiffer tip. If it just launches high and has a fairl flat flight with rollout, then you're going to want something with a higher kick point. In response to the kick point questions, kick point mostly affects the ballflight more than spin I believe. You won't see a lot of difference between a mid-high and a high kick point, but a high and low kickpoint have a large difference between them. However, a low kickpoint will likely end up having a softer tip since those in combination will give you a highe overall flight, which is what those shafts are designed for.

[Jakester23]

It pretty much starts out high and stays there but I don't really get roll out at all. I want to lower the ball flight because when I play in wind I get about as much distance out of my driver as my 3 wood. I probably hit my driver as high as my 3 wood.

[Pretzel]

Originally Posted by Jakester23

It pretty much starts out high and stays there but I don't really get roll out at all. I want to lower the ball flight because when I play in wind I get about as much distance out of my driver as my 3 wood. I probably hit my driver as high as my 3 wood.

If that's the case, it's likely that you have high spin and higher than preferable launch. If you could get to a launch monitor or Trackman (trackman is preferable) and give us the key numbers of launch angle and spinrate we would be able to help you much more. Also, what shaft is currently in your driver, just to give us a reference point.

[Jakester23]

Its the fujikura blur 60 stiff. I have a r11 10.5 degree driver.

[saevel25]

Looks like from the website you got a Mid Kick Point with a Mid Spin shaft there. Plus you have it at 10.5 degrees. If you want a lower golf ball. go with something that's a higher kick point, lower spin shaft. See if that helps, if its not enough then you can take your loft down bellow a 10.5 degrees, that should drop some spin as well.

Trackman has spin rate as

2.3-3.0 x club head speed x spin loft

So lets say you have 100 mph club head speed, for ever degree of loft you take the club down your looking at loosing about 250 rpm of spin. That's a pretty good drop. If your at 3000 rpm, that's a 8% decrease.

[Pretzel]

One nice shaft that you could try out (without breaking the bank) is the Graffaloy Prolaunch Red. I may be slightly biased on this (I use them in all my woods/hybrids) but they are the best bang for your buck shaft that I could find that fit my swing. The Diamana's are great if you are willing to drop $300 on a shaft, but I believe the Prolaunch Red is still only around $80 now. I have it in a Ping G10 10.5* driver that gives me a launch angle of 13-14* with about 2500 rpm of spin. I can upload a picture of my launch monitor numbers (from ball testing) if you would like.

[Jakester23]

That would be great. I already have it dropped down to 9.5. Im going to look at the prolaunch for sure that's what I was hoping to spend on it around $100.

[Pretzel]

I like them. I don't have the new kind with the "speed coating" on them so I can't comment on that aspect, but they certainly work well enough for me. Only regret is that I have a little bit of a mixture between stiff and regulars (3-wood and 3-hybrid are stiff, driver and 4-iron are regular) depending on how recently I got them reshafted and I'm not sure I want to change out the other two with the price raised since I got the older style.

[Jakester23]

Golfsmith by me has them for $49.99 I think I'm going to get that one this weekend. Its a nice upgrade for not much $ if I still hit it high I can always get fitted next year.