Question about adjustable drivers and how they work

[cutchemist42]

I got an M2 and was so far playing with the standard setting. Last night for the 1st time I actually looked into what the various settings actually do. I then read this website about how they actually work. 

Im kinda confused about how you make them work. If you add loft,  Its still a 10* degree with a closed face. The loft is then added because you alter the face during the swing to act as a 12* driver? Do you see the closed face at address and then twist it, thus turning it into the higher loft?

https://pluggedingolf.com/how-to-adjust-your-driver/

Quote

When TaylorMade launched the R9 family of drivers, they talked about hosel adjustments in terms of left and right, i.e. closing or opening the club face.  Six years later, the conversation has changed to adjusting loft.  Here’s what you need to understand: adjusting the loft means changing the face angle and vice versa.

Here’s the simple version of the loft/face angle relationship:

When you add loft, you are closing the face.  When you remove loft, you are opening the face

This is counterintuitive, but if you experiment with your own adjustable driver you’ll see that it’s correct.  Set the driver to the highest loft and you’ll see a closed face.  Set it to the lowest loft and the face will be open.

For those interested in the “why,” here it is: the driver you bought only has one loft.  If it’s a 10 degree driver, it will always be 10 degrees, no matter how you twist it.  By twisting it (changing the face angle), however, you are taking what was a 10 degree driver with a square face and making it a 10 degree driver that is, for example, 2 degrees closed.  Now, to get that face square at impact, you need to open that 10 degree driver a couple degrees, thus adding loft.

 

[Mr. Desmond]

Yes.

Increasing loft will have the head closed and may not even increase it a full degree.  Decreasing loft opens the face. I've found that adjustment does gives you a higher or lower flight, so it does what it's supposed to do. If you adjust the grip on a closed face, that's a good question. Seems as if you are opening it. I don't like to adjust a driver more than 1 degree either way.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, cutchemist42 said:

If you add loft,  Its still a 10* degree with a closed face. The loft is then added because you alter the face during the swing to act as a 12* driver? Do you see the closed face at address and then twist it, thus turning it into the higher loft?

Yes. You can't change the loft of the driver (it's fixed to the clubhead) by adjusting the hosel. What it does is change the angle the shaft goes into the head, which causes your club to be open or closed, which you would then rotate to square, effectively changing the loft.

This video is a bit lengthy, but it explains how it works.

 

[cutchemist42]

5 hours ago, billchao said:

Yes. You can't change the loft of the driver (it's fixed to the clubhead) by adjusting the hosel. What it does is change the angle the shaft goes into the head, which causes your club to be open or closed, which you would then rotate to square, effectively changing the loft.

This video is a bit lengthy, but it explains how it works.

 

So when you square the face when it becomes closed/open at address, are you supposed to simply rotate the shaft in your grip? Or push the handle forward or backward?

I'll admit I tried watching the vid but it was a little hard to get through. I understand though about the bore of the hosel and how it changes the shaft.

Edited January 15, 2018 by cutchemist42

[Mr. Desmond]

13 hours ago, cutchemist42 said:

So when you square the face when it becomes closed/open at address, are you supposed to simply rotate the shaft in your grip? Or push the handle forward or backward?

I'll admit I tried watching the vid but it was a little hard to get through. I understand though about the bore of the hosel and how it changes the shaft.

Just take your normal grip, see what happens, and adjust if needed.

[tomvk77]

I think you should not focus on the settings. 

For as far as I know Titleist is the only brand that can change lie and loft separately.

When I was fitted for my 917 D3 I had 3 sessions. so before I bought I was on trackman 3 times and not on the same day. We could see my almost standard miss is a hook / snap hook. so we worked on that. my setting is D4 so some extra loft and a slightly open setting. Indeed you can see that the club face is just slightly open, but for me this makes me more confident that I will not miss left.

I can change a weight sleeve in the back also, this is put in a fade setting also. This is what I was fitted for and I will not change the settings.

To make things clear, this doesn't mean I can only hit fades of the tee, I'm still able to work the ball with a draws and fades. I needed to work very hard for that with my old woods. specially the fade was not easy.

hope this helps

[billchao]

13 hours ago, cutchemist42 said:

So when you square the face when it becomes closed/open at address, are you supposed to simply rotate the shaft in your grip? Or push the handle forward or backward?

Rotate the grip to open and close the face as needed, same way you do with a wedge.

[Kalnoky]

My understanding is this: If you square the clubface after taking your grip, you are changing the trajectory (loft). If you take your grip and do not square the clubface (open or closed face at address) that is not changing the loft - that is only changing the shot shape. 

So as others have said here, you have to square the club face when you take your grip to change the loft. FWIW I don't mess w/ the lofts because I like to ground the club normally. I just want to eliminate as many variables to screwing up as I can. I do play it in the upright setting however, which does not change the loft, only the lie.   

BTW I also have an M2. Excellent choice.

[Mr. Desmond]

I don't know - with the Epic, it is 10.5. I lower loft to -1 and put it in D setting to adjust lie. Seems to work fine. I don't pay attention to the opening or closing. Line it up and hit it.

Golf is soooooo much in the head. Hit it and go. If you think it will go high, guess what - it will probably go higher. But whatever I do, it seems to have some effect on trajectory. I mean, I have maybe a 90-94 swing speed with a high launch, low spin shaft set the loft at 10.5 at -1 and D setting, and ball goes high. I pound that front foot into the ground, jump off it, and get the belt buckle into the sky to launch that sucker. And it does. Don't overthink it.

I'd work more on technique than worry about a degree. Hit ball, see what ball does, adjust loft, hit ball, adjust, then hit ball, adjust lie if needed. Callaway has a video on its site about making adjustments if you have one of their drivers.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Mr. Desmond

[cutchemist42]

47 minutes ago, Kalnoky said:

My understanding is this: If you square the clubface after taking your grip, you are changing the trajectory (loft). If you take your grip and do not square the clubface (open or closed face at address) that is not changing the loft - that is only changing the shot shape. 

So as others have said here, you have to square the club face when you take your grip to change the loft. FWIW I don't mess w/ the lofts because I like to ground the club normally. I just want to eliminate as many variables to screwing up as I can. I do play it in the upright setting however, which does not change the loft, only the lie.   

BTW I also have an M2. Excellent choice.

Yeah I saw the upright (from 56 to 60) option on the chart and thought id try it next. Does the upright slightly push it more right? Is it meant for a taller player? What reasons did you go to that settibg?

Ill try it this weekend when i head to the golf dome.

And yeah, so far I like the feel of the M2 but bought it in Nov so I havent hit it outside once. My golfdome has about 100 yards of travel and so far the flight seems good.

[billchao]

17 minutes ago, cutchemist42 said:

Does the upright slightly push it more right?

For a righty, upright will tend to start the ball more left. The opposite is true for flatter. Think about sidehill lies, with the ball above or below your feet. Same concept.

[cutchemist42]

24 minutes ago, billchao said:

For a righty, upright will tend to start the ball more left. The opposite is true for flatter. Think about sidehill lies, with the ball above or below your feet. Same concept.

Yeah got it, I was thinking the reverse as I thought of it as the shaft angle going up. I now understand it as thinking if the toe is up or down.

[Kalnoky]

@cutchemist42 Exactly what @billchao said, the upright setting promotes more of a fade (left to right). 

This was not addressed when I was fitted. However, since I play my irons 2* up, I have on my own adjusted my hybrids and drivers to the upright position (I believe the upright position is 1* up for TaylorMade). If you push/lose shots to the right, it's worth experimenting with the upright setting. I haven't gained any distance from doing this by the way. 

 

 

[Mr. Desmond]

I think +1 on lie angle means it will draw more -- which is why Callaway has a "D" setting for draw.

[Typhoon92]

Like Mr. Desmond said, don't overthink this.  Hit it, change the loft, hit it again.  Set up like u normally do...same grip, same swing.  Just change the loft.  Otherwise you're defeating the purpose of using your normal setup

All the websites that have adjustable drivers have instructions on how the settings work...don't overthink it...just do what it says.  

[tinker]

Adjustable drivers don’t change loft at all. Just a way for companies to cut down inventory. You have got to buy the loft you think you need.