Vanishing Loft Disease

[Hacker James]

The conspiracy theory is more than that . First TM kept wanting people to "loft up", especially when the SLDR mini came out. Then as they started moving the CG around, trending away from moveable weights and going towards hosel adjustments that really do not do all that much other than mislead buyers concerning "non-loft" changes. Fitters are starting to complain that all this technology is hurting their business, but I am starting to think that the opposite will occur as buyers get educated and start to see the real value of a true fitting (maybe not though). The  best setting I have found on my newly acquired adjustable driver is the 9.5 static loft it comes with, but I will agree on the convenience of swapping shafts out. The next new thing will be adjustable grips where you "dial in" the right reminder rib/graphic  or something to help you adjust for swing path.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Hacker James

[WUTiger]

On 6/13/2017 at 8:46 AM, Midpack said:

Boogie: I don't claim to know better, I am still trying to figure out what's real and what's marketing nonsense these days with club(maker)s.

 

On 6/13/2017 at 8:31 AM, boogielicious said:

I think you are misinterpreting static loft. Static loft is only one part of club design. Launch angle, ball speed, spin, etc. all factor in to selecting the loft of the set to maximize distance. Clubs now have lower static loft because they launch higher and create more ball speed that muscle back irons.

This all goes back to the previous century. Ping introduced perimeter weighting to iron clubhead design in the late 1970s. In the early going, perimeter weighting created a good-news / bad-news situation for Ping:

• Perimeter weighting greatly increased the ability of the average golfer to launch the ball with irons.
• Perimeter weighed irons did not go quite as far as other irons of equivalent loft. So, Ping engineers make their iron lofts two degrees stronger to recapture lost yardage.

Then, marketing gurus get hold of this idea of stronger lofts, and the loft wars began.