Perplexed

[dufferifick]

I am perplexed. With my driver, I most usually make pretty fair contact.  I get a pretty high upward angle of attack. My last swing speed check was a couple of years ago; 105. May have slowed a bit.

People ooh and aah when I hit my driver...... only on launch.  After all is said and done, some gorilla with a 3/4 swing will out drive me.  I have hit 300 yard drives before with my 7.5° Dot Com This. Not norm.

I bought a SLDR in 9.5 and hit it fairly solid.  Only get about 250.  Think I'll crank it down to 8° and see what happens.

Question: With say a 4 or 5° upward angle of attack with a 7.5° driver, will it decrease spin more than a 9.5° driver with same AOA.

A fellow golfer, a bit better than I am, stated I could use a 4° driver, a bit sarcastic I think and he may play golf better than he knows equipment.  But he said I hit it harder and more solid and get less out of it than anyone he's seen.

My ball goes high, higher than anyone around, even with the ;7.5°.  I have a bit of secondary axis tilt. I'm thinking I may be running out of spin and the ball is just falling out of the sky.  Possible?

I get absolutely no run out of my drives.

I need some launch monitor time, but am 70 miles away and I know.................................post a swing.

Any one with any ideas?

[Rainmaker]

No specific idea but a general one.  Driver loft isn't the same thing as it was 20 years ago.  The days of the 4 degree driver are fading.  In the last 10 years or so, average driver loft on tour went from around 8 degrees to over 9.  This is because CG has changed in metal woods and now higher lofted drivers can create less spin.  So a 9.5 driver could spin less than a 7 degree driver - if the CG was further forward. 

" But he said I hit it harder and more solid and get less out of it than anyone he's seen. "

That does not compute to me, lol. 

One time a guy I got paired up with told me I had close to a "tour quality swing".  I think he must've meant the Barnum and Bailey Tour. 

Here is a video from Mark Crossfield on driver loft.  If you watch his videos - he's really big on dynamic loft and adjusting the dynamic loft with your swing.  Sounds like golf pro stuff to me - but it's interesting. 

 

 

 

[Dinoma]

This is the trackman optimisation sheet from a year or two ago. As long as you are controlling spin, it says more loft is better. My guess would be that your spin is much higher.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Dinoma

[dufferifick]

8 hours ago, Rainmaker said:

 

That does not compute to me, lol. 

 

 

 

Does not compute to me either, hence the thread. I hit the ball solid with positive AOA.  The ones off the sweet spot a bit, I discount and am not talking about.  But the ones that feel crushed don't get the distance they MIGHT ought to.  Maybe my swing speed has fallen off......

Spin maybe be too high, but I can't see how it could be excessive.  I'm using a SLDR, built for low spin, a mid-high flex shaft and a positive AoA, do not hit down with the driver.  But like I said, I need a session on a launch monitor to know for sure.

I'm gonna take my 7.5 and the SLDR with 3 different shafts up to Dallas this weekend and see if  I can find some numbers.

[saevel25]

10 hours ago, dufferifick said:

I bought a SLDR in 9.5 and hit it fairly solid.  Only get about 250.  Think I'll crank it down to 8° and see what happens.

Do you know your launch numbers? 

What is the launch angle, spin rate, and angle of attack? 

If you crank a 9.5 SLDR down to 8 degrees you will drop a lot in spin. It will not effects height as much as you think. 

If you have 105 clubhead speed you should be around 270 yards carry under optimal launch conditions, 

Even at 11 degrees of launch and 1200 rpm spin you should still carry the ball 260 yards or so. 

The only way I see you getting in the 250 range is if you are causing too much spin with too low of a launch angle. Meaning you are hitting down on the ball with a low launching driver. 

At 10 degrees of launch with 3700 rpm spin you get in the 255 carry range. You wouldn't see much roll under these launch conditions. I know you said you hit up on the ball. Even under extremely low spin and low launch conditions you should be carrying the ball farther than what you say your actually getting total distance. 

I would create a My Swing thread and post a video of your driver swing from the face on view. 

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

[dufferifick]

saevel, no don't know my numbers.  Going to see if I can get some this weekend.

I already have a pretty high launch angle.  My drives take off and gets high pretty quick then levels off and drops.

I really wasn't expecting too much height difference at 8°, just some spin change.

I have a 7.5° that I hit pretty high already. Way higher than anyone else I play with.

[natureboy]

15 hours ago, dufferifick said:

Any one with any ideas?

A good launch monitor will most definitively answer you questions.

In the meantime you could do a simple and easy check on one aspect - your contact. Get some impact tape or foot powder spray to see where you are hitting it on the face - even the ones that feel good. Your contact could be lower than you think. If contact is high on the face with a low loft driver and high (positive) AoA it's possible you aren't generating enough spin to keep it aloft, but that's not as likely as too much spin from contact lower on the face.

[dufferifick]

low or thin is usually my miss, but I discount those not expecting as much.

Thanks.

Finding a launch monitor hasn't been easy.  Be browsing the net and haven't found any real answers.

Golfsmith, Golf Galaxy, PGA superstore??????????????

[dufferifick]

just got home and did some measuring where I hit into my net.

Tee is 13' away from target and I hit the face of the target right at 3.5' high.

On my calculator that equals a 15° launch angle.

EDIT: Maybe I need to go to 10.5 with the SLDR to get closer to 17°

Edited April 29, 2016 by dufferifick
afterthought

[natureboy]

Knowing how much spin you are generating is pretty critical to know what's going on.

It's possible that even though you are hitting with a lot of secondary axis tilt that you are still getting your hands well ahead of the ball for a relatively (compared to your Axis Tilt) steep AoA and more than optimal spin. In that scenario, you'd be starting the ball on a 'high trajectory' due to your axis tilt away from target and then the ball is ballooning a bit to go even higher and robbing you of potential distance.

A possible non-launch monitor way to test (a bit) if this is going on, try moving the ball further forward in your stance to see if you end up with a bit less height, but more distance.

Edited April 29, 2016 by natureboy

[dufferifick]

already play it off my right toe(lefty)

[natureboy]

7 minutes ago, dufferifick said:

already play it off my right toe(lefty)

Just for kicks, play it further forward and see if you can still get solid contact. You could be sliding a lot which would allow you to still get your hands ahead of the ball. Or the forward ball position could be too far forward for your swing and you are ending up hitting a bit 'thin' on average with more than desired spin even though it may feel solid to you. The latter seems more likely to me.

Experiment.

Edited April 29, 2016 by natureboy

[dufferifick]

yep, got some experimenting to do.  Been raining all day here, so hopefully, I can find some facilities in the morn to get some numbers and see what's going on.

Sometimes I play it a bit further forward........when I want to cut/slice the ball.....my swing starts back in by then.

 

Appreciate the input.  When I can get a swing recorded I'll see about posting it.

[dufferifick]

Well, I confirmed my worst fears..........I'm getting old.  Swing speed averaged around 93, a few over a few under.

Swing change may have slowed me down a bit.  Always said I'd trade 20 yards for the fairway.......may have been wrong!:)

Launch angle between 15 and 18 for most part....a few under and a few over. Spin 2100-2550

Ball speed 137 for the most part. Did hit 144 once with 97 swing speed and 267 yards.

Carry distance 245-250 and a few yards of roll.

Didn't really matter if I hit the 7.5 or the 9°.

Guess I'm gonna have to live with it and get better in other areas.

[natureboy]

3 hours ago, dufferifick said:

Well, I confirmed my worst fears..........I'm getting old.  Swing speed averaged around 93, a few over a few under.

Swing change may have slowed me down a bit.  Always said I'd trade 20 yards for the fairway.......may have been wrong!:)

Launch angle between 15 and 18 for most part....a few under and a few over. Spin 2100-2550

Ball speed 137 for the most part. Did hit 144 once with 97 swing speed and 267 yards.

Carry distance 245-250 and a few yards of roll.

Didn't really matter if I hit the 7.5 or the 9°.

Guess I'm gonna have to live with it and get better in other areas.

Did you get a measurement for the peak height?

[dufferifick]

22 hours ago, natureboy said:

Did you get a measurement for the peak height?

no, didn't catch that.

did show a profile and it seamed like a nice smooth arc with apex about 3/5 to 3/4 way out.

Edited May 2, 2016 by dufferifick
after thought

[saevel25]

On 4/30/2016 at 7:23 PM, dufferifick said:

Well, I confirmed my worst fears..........I'm getting old.  Swing speed averaged around 93, a few over a few under.

Swing change may have slowed me down a bit.  Always said I'd trade 20 yards for the fairway.......may have been wrong!:)

Launch angle between 15 and 18 for most part....a few under and a few over. Spin 2100-2550

Ball speed 137 for the most part. Did hit 144 once with 97 swing speed and 267 yards.

Carry distance 245-250 and a few yards of roll.

Didn't really matter if I hit the 7.5 or the 9°.

Guess I'm gonna have to live with it and get better in other areas.

 

137 ball speed from a 93 club head speed is striking the ball pretty well. 15-18 launch angle with 2100-2500 ball spin is pretty solid as well. You are pretty much maxing out your possible distance with those numbers.

 

[natureboy]

40 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

137 ball speed from a 93 club head speed is striking the ball pretty well. 15-18 launch angle with 2100-2500 ball spin is pretty solid as well. You are pretty much maxing out your possible distance with those numbers.

For his club speed the Flightscope and Trackman optimizers I saw indicated his spin is a little low.