Range balls causing crack?

[Davie81]

Just a random thought, I had 2 callaway xr 5 irons crack on me. Exchanged them for steelhead irons but just wondering if battered range balls could cause the cracking? I was told that the xr faces are thin. Just before I hit the range with the new clubs, I'd like to know if there's a chance I'll do it again.

[iacas]

I've never heard of such a thing. What temperature was the range at which you were hitting?

Golf balls are hard, but so is metal.

They probably were, but are you sure the original clubs were authentic?

[Davie81]

It's never freezing cold when I was hitting them but maybe a cool evening if that helps. Might not be the issue bit if I'm swinging hard at them with the thinner faces would this cause a crack possibly? The range balls felt quite hard and cheap. Some were a bit battered and chewed up.

[iacas]

  On 10/19/2016 at 5:52 PM, Davie81 said:

It's never freezing cold when I was hitting them but maybe a cool evening if that helps. Might not be the issue bit if I'm swinging hard at them with the thinner faces would this cause a crack possibly? The range balls felt quite hard and cheap. Some were a bit battered and chewed up.

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But… golf clubs are designed and built to hit golf balls. Even range balls.

[Davie81]

Appreciate that but what I'm wondering is with the faces being thinner, would I really have to be going hard to crack the face? As I said 2 5 irons cracked on me but I don't know why. 

[Lagavulin62]

2 five irons and maybe its time to return for another model? Been playing golf since I was 8. We used to hit rocks with them. Are most clubs now made in China? 

Edited October 19, 2016 by Lagavulin62

[Hardspoon]

  On 10/19/2016 at 5:48 PM, iacas said:

They probably were, but are you sure the original clubs were authentic?

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This was my first thought as well.  Where did you buy them?

Thinner faces might make them more lightly to crack, but still...they're golf clubs.  If they thinned the face down to the point where you can't hit golf balls with them (even range rocks), they're useless.

[newtogolf]

The XR's have the 360 Face Cup technology so they might be more susceptible to cracking, especially if you're hitting frozen golf balls and you have a very high swing speed. 

I'm assuming the irons are authentic since you were able to exchange them.  

[Vinny Cap]

This is strange.  Do you have a picture of one of them?  I would like to see the crack.

I could maybe see one, bad day for someone in production and or QC but two 5i's cracking???

You didn't say if they were fakes or not.  Like above, I have hit rocks with some el cheap o clubs and have never broke or cracked them.

[Davie81]

I don't have them now as callaway replaced them with the new steelheads so they were definitely not fakes. Just don't want to hit the new clubs with the range balls and risk another breakage.

[Jeremie Boop]

  On 10/20/2016 at 1:03 PM, Davie81 said:

I don't have them now as callaway replaced them with the new steelheads so they were definitely not fakes. Just don't want to hit the new clubs with the range balls and risk another breakage.

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I've hit thousands of range balls, probably well over a thousand this year alone, and never once had a club crack because of it. The one and only club I had that cracked was a Bazooka driver probably 18 years ago that I had left in my trunk through the winter. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[Lihu]

  On 10/20/2016 at 1:03 PM, Davie81 said:

I don't have them now as callaway replaced them with the new steelheads so they were definitely not fakes. Just don't want to hit the new clubs with the range balls and risk another breakage.

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If you're in Scotland, I would at least wait until the spring before hitting any balls outdoors. Or get really soft ladies golf balls.

I've read about this happening on various forums about people hitting range balls in the northern states in the winter and putting a hole in their club faces. Haven't verified any of these posts, but if you have a high swing speed you could possibly put a hole in the club face or even hurt your hand.

Actually, in retrospect, I'll put in a plug for using forged clubs with soft metal. Never had anything close to this happen to me and my Mizuno MP-52.

[natureboy]

I have an old lowish end model driver (Walter Hagen) that I use as a practice driver early in the season or working on a swing change to avoid grounding my better driver. I replaced it because after a couple of years of range balls the weld on the bottom/sole portion of the cup face split/ruptured and it switched from a pleasant metallic ping sound on contact to a harsh crack.

What does this sort of defect do to ball flight typically? Would it help or hurt performance?

This is cup face in case some don't know:

Edited February 21, 2017 by natureboy

[1badbadger]

  On 10/20/2016 at 1:03 PM, Davie81 said:

I don't have them now as callaway replaced them with the new steelheads so they were definitely not fakes. Just don't want to hit the new clubs with the range balls and risk another breakage.

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I've never heard of range balls causing a club face to crack.  But, if it does happen again, they should replace it under warranty like the other two, so I wouldn't worry about it.

  On 2/21/2017 at 3:05 AM, natureboy said:

I have an old lowish end model driver (Walter Hagen) that I use as a practice driver early in the season or working on a swing change to avoid grounding my better driver. I replaced it because after a couple of years of range balls the weld on the bottom/sole portion of the cup face split/ruptured and it switched from a pleasant metallic ping sound on contact to a harsh crack.

What does this sort of defect do to ball flight typically? Would it help or hurt performance?

This is cup face in case some don't know:

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Any time there is a crack in a clubhead or if a weld fails it will cause a loss in performance.  It's impossible to say how much of a loss because every instance is different, but it's never a good thing.

[phillyk]

  On 2/21/2017 at 6:36 AM, 1badbadger said:

I've never heard of range balls causing a club face to crack.  But, if it does happen again, they should replace it under warranty like the other two, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Any time there is a crack in a clubhead or if a weld fails it will cause a loss in performance.  It's impossible to say how much of a loss because every instance is different, but it's never a good thing.

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I'm pretty sure (not 100%) that very cold range balls are bad to hit with woods, even irons to some degree.  I assume it's because the temperature effects elasticity and makes the bouncy-ness less and the face taking slightly more impact force than normal.

If you hit a rock with zero give, even one that is round and smooth, it won't be good for a club head.  

  On 10/20/2016 at 2:16 PM, Lihu said:

If you're in Scotland, I would at least wait until the spring before hitting any balls outdoors. Or get really soft ladies golf balls.

I've read about this happening on various forums about people hitting range balls in the northern states in the winter and putting a hole in their club faces. Haven't verified any of these posts, but if you have a high swing speed you could possibly put a hole in the club face or even hurt your hand.

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This happened to my friend who swings at 150mph. He cracked his krank driver while hitting cold range balls.

[Lihu]

  On 2/21/2017 at 8:09 PM, phillyk said:

This happened to my friend who swings at 150mph. He cracked his krank driver while hitting cold range balls.

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Yeah, subsequent to this post, one of the really long hitting scratch golfers on my home course told me he caved in his driver. I didn't ask which brand of driver, but he doesn't hit range balls any more.

[natureboy]

  On 2/21/2017 at 6:36 AM, 1badbadger said:

I've never heard of range balls causing a club face to crack.  But, if it does happen again, they should replace it under warranty like the other two, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Any time there is a crack in a clubhead or if a weld fails it will cause a loss in performance.  It's impossible to say how much of a loss because every instance is different, but it's never a good thing.

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I thought I might be getting an increase in characteristic time or forgiveness sort of like a flex face driver. That's encouraging, then. I guess I can attribute the extra distance to technique improvement.

  On 2/21/2017 at 8:09 PM, phillyk said:

If you hit a rock with zero give, even one that is round and smooth, it won't be good for a club head.

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True enough. I have a permanent ding in the toe of my 7-iron from hitting a buried rock trying to play out of a hazard.

[1badbadger]

  On 2/26/2017 at 3:06 AM, natureboy said:

I thought I might be getting an increase in characteristic time or forgiveness sort of like a flex face driver. That's encouraging, then. I guess I can attribute the extra distance to technique improvement.

 

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That's correct.  If a clubface cracks or a weld splits open, even if it is just slightly, the performance will not get better.  If you are seeing an increase in performance from a club it would be from swinging it better.  Cosmetic damage won't affect anything, but structural damage almost always results in a loss of performance of a driver.