Beginners glossary/tech reference

[myndcraft]

Hey all, as we have seen from some of my other threads I'm fairly new to the game (playing after a 12 year hiatus and barely even played back then) and could use some help with terminology etc..

For example when referring to clubs what do the following mean?

Offset, loft/lie angle, bounce.

Then theirs different flexes in the shaft and different shaft materials all together.

Well frankly it seems like a lot. So while I could go look all these terms up I was wondering if anyone here could gve some insight on both to meaning and how they all relate to each other.. if at all.

So any help / additional information would be greatly appreciated.. even if it's to stop being lazy and read a book! … though maybe in that case you could recommend a good one LOL

[ettsn]

Offset is the spacing of the front of the face's relationship to the hosel.
Loft is the angle in degrees from vertical that a clubface is.
Lie is the angle of the shaft to the clubface.
Flex is usually termed as L/Sr/R/S/X for ladies, senior, regular, stiff and extra stiff. There are others as well, but these are common. This means the shaft falls into the range of flexibility set. Stiffer shafts offer more power transfer, where less stiff shafts can aid in distance with the "whip" effect.

[ettsn]

Clubface: the part of the club that should contact the ball
Hosel: where the shaft goes into the clubhead
Sole: The part of the club that lies on the ground at address
Bounce: The downward angle of the sole, measured in degrees from flat. More bounce helps keep a club from digging in, especially useful in sand.

[myndcraft]

And in general a more forgiving iron has more offset where as a players iron has less offset for better shapping of shot?

Just making sure I'm following along here :D

[ettsn]

Grooves: the lines on a clubface. These impart spin on the ball and create a little "bite" into the ball at contact.
Graphite Shafts: a generic term for composite shafts, made of boron, carbon, aramid and other synthetic fibers. These are commonplace on most drivers and many fairway woods, and are common on irons especially with senior golfers.
Steel Shafts: Replaced hickory as the shaft of choice quite a while ago. Still common on irons as used by typical players and most pros. Rarely found on woods these days. Nearly all putters use steel shafts.

[ettsn]

Hybrid: A generic term for a new generation of iron-like woods or wood-like irons. Meant to replace long irons and fairway woods.
Blade: On irons, it refers to forged, classic style irons. Much less forgiving, and generally harder to hit, forged blades are preferred by some for their ability to "shape" shots (deliberately imparting sidespin to create a draw or fade, for example). On putters, blade refers to a more classic style of putter, as opposed to...
Mallet: this style of putter is a more engineered putter designed to place mass in areas that aid in ball rolling and forgiveness. These are the "spaceship" looking putters.
Belly Putter: Once the realm of seniors, becoming a little more common among younger players. The long shaft encourages a pendulum-like swing.

[ettsn]

Cavity Back: Popularized by Ping, the cavity back iron places more mass on the sole and perimeter, making the iron much more forgiving on imperfect hits. Often referred to as "game improvement" irons.
460: The displacement limit, in cubic centimeters, of legal drivers.
Stand Bag: Popular with players who carry their clubs, this style of bag integrates a retractable set of legs that allow the bag to stand on it's own.
Cart Bag: A much larger bag, with more pockets and features, designed to be strapped onto a power or pull cart.
Staff Bag: A large, leather or vinyl bag, usually embroidered with the golfer's name and sponsors (or favorite brands). Much heavier and less common among amateur golfers, this is the bag style of choice among professionals.

[myndcraft]

ettsn, you are my personal hero of the day =)

[ettsn]

Anytime! I'll see if I can't hack out a few more this afternoon.

[gr8hntr]

gr8 thread for us beginners

[myndcraft]

gr8 thread for us beginners

A value administered by golf associations/clubs that measures a players ability. A players handicap takes a number of factors into play and can vary from course to course depending on said courses difficulty.

So if I said I have a handicap of 26 and I shot a 126 gross then my actual net score for the round is 100. For a much more in-depth look check out the wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_handicap

[myndcraft]

Where was the update ettsn?

Just kidding you did a tremendous job and I can't thank you enough =)

[ettsn]

First thing, I think I'll go back and clean up the earlier posts. I was just kinda hacking them out, so a little more formatting (space between entries, same style, etc) would probably make the posts more useful.

I'll try to add some more shortly as well.

Edit: Whoops. Looks like edit capability disappears after a short while, so they are what they are I'm afraid.

[ettsn]

How about golf balls?

What do the numbers mean? Purely for identification purposes. For example, two golfers both decide to play HX Tours. Later, how do they know if the ball by the cup or the one in the trap is theirs? Simple. One golfer would use a ball numbered differently than the other golfer (say, a 3 and a 4). It's common to share what you're playing at the start of a round "I'm playing a Titleist #2" with the others in your foursome. The most common numbers are 1-4, but you can sometimes buy 'high number' sets that are 5-8, and rarely you'll also find sleeves with 0 or 9 on the balls (some pros love to play 0 balls for superstitious reasons). In better brands of new golfballs, you generally have a sleeve each of three balls numbered 1-4.

[ettsn]

Two-piece, three-piece, multi-layer? Golf ball technology can be confusing, and this topic could fill a whole web page itself. In the interest of making some simple generalizations, a two-piece ball will be less expensive, fly longer with less spin, but give up some control around the green. A three (or more) layer ball won't really give up anything to the two-piece balls in terms of distance (maybe 2-3%), but will have lots of control greenside. What does control mean? The ability to impart spin on the ball and get it to check up (slow down, stop or even spin back) on a wedge shot, and soft, predictable putts. These balls are much more expensive (~$40-50), so probably not the best bet for a beginner who hasn't mastered the skills required to use that feature anyway.

[ettsn]

Dimples. There are a myriad of dimple patterns out there. First, why are golf balls dimpled in the first place? Aerodynamics. Without getting too nerdy and talking about boundry layers and laminar attachment, suffice it to say that the dimples make the ball fly dramatically farther than they would without them. The specific pattern of these can do much to affect the flight of a ball as well. Significant advancements in fluid dynamics and computer-aided modelling have made dimple patterns that can help a ball get lift, spin less on driver shots while spinning well with wedges, fly farther and faster than ever before and much more. So, how do you figure out what's right for you? Good news is, you don't really have to. Buy a ball for it's feel and how it fits your swing. Most balls have vastly improved aerodynamics over even the best pro balls from the days of Jack, Lee and Arnie. Some could even be considered groundbreaking, like Callaway's HX dimple pattern. But that's only part of the story that includes the construction, cover and core as well.

How many dimples should a ball have? Enough to cover it. But seriously, you'll see all manner of dimples in the 3-400 range. This is due to varying size, shape and placement. Not really much to lose sleep over though (see above).

[myndcraft]

wow ettsn! Thanks again =)

[supercow]

These should be helpful...

http://www.worldgolf.com/wglibrary/r...ce/dictionary/
http://www.pgaprofessional.com/golf_glossary/
http://www.where2golf.com/golf_dictionary/all.asp
http://golf.about.com/od/golfterms/a/golfglossary.htm