Bobby Clampett Clubfitting Comments

[1badbadger]

23 hours ago, billchao said:

I think the last part of what you wrote is exactly what he means: making very uptight clubs that don't actually fit a person's swing for the purpose of pointing the loft to the pull side.

You'll end up with someone who strikes the ball with the club toe up and the tendency there would be to miss low on the face simply because the sweetspot ends up higher in relation to the ground and the ball than it should be.

As an extreme and slightly OT example, I played a round with a guy once with a really upright putter. He hit all his putts off the heel because he literally was unable hit the ball with the center of the face.

Again, I think he's talking about manipulating the lie of someone's clubs so that they're striking the ball with the club too upright or too flat.

GI clubs are designed to launch the ball higher and with more speed which is beneficial if it's on the same horizontal axis as your target, but if the face angle is tilted you end up with more ball speed off-line which isn't necessarily "game improving" at all.

It's not that the clubs stop working as designed if the lie angle isn't right, but rather that they stop helping the player using them. At least that's what I think he means.

Distance is a form of accuracy 😉

I'm of the opinion that you should get as much distance as possible as long as control and the ability to hold greens isn't sacrificed. It matters what distance you hit your 8i because it's easier to hit an 8i than a 6i so being able to hit the 8i from farther out is beneficial.

I'm not sure why he thinks accuracy and consistency suffers just because the clubs hit the ball farther. There will be an adjustment period certainly, but that will pass.

Again, you shouldn't increase distance at the cost of everything else, but to assume that increasing distance in iron designs results in less accuracy is overly simplistic IMO.

This is what the article says regarding why trying to increase iron distance can hurt your game:

 My pitching wedge is set at 49 degrees, and my 9-iron is 44 degrees (about the standard loft for today’s pitching wedge). The only two clubs in the bag that should be designed for distance are your driver and your 3-wood. All the other clubs should be set for proper gapping and designed to improve consistency and proximity to the hole. That’s why my pitching wedge is at 49 degrees and I only hit it 120 yards (exactly 16 yards farther than my 54-degree sand wedge). Most of my students hit a pitching wedge 20 yards farther than I do, but I drive the ball 30-40 yards farther than they do. When they get into the 7-irons through 4-irons, their gaps narrow. They have a 175-yard shot, and they don’t know what club selection to make since the 7, 6, 5, and 4 irons all go somewhat similar distances.

When I dig a little deeper, I start to find significant differences in spin rates. Like most pros on the PGA Tour, my 7 iron spins about 7000 rpm, I launch it around 17.5 degrees and carry the ball about 158 yards with 88 mph of clubhead speed. OK, I’m retired from playing competitive golf and I’m 58 years old, so I don’t have that youthful club head speed anymore. When I try some of the new products that are the top sellers today, I start launching the ball slightly higher but my spin rate drops below 6,000 rpm. Suddenly, I’m hitting my 7-iron 170 yards like my 6 iron. But is this better?

Yes, my peak height gets slightly higher (I do like that), and the ball won’t roll out much differently, even with the lower spin rates. So, what’s the problem you ask? When I start to look at distance control numbers and proximity to the hole, I clearly see higher distance dispersion and thus proximity to the hole gets worse. Learning to hit the ball flag high is one of the key separators between top PGA Tour Players and those a notch or two below. It’s also a key element in lowering scores. So, greater distance with my irons actually makes my game worse and it does the same with my students, too, because accuracy and ability to get the ball consistently closer to the hole is negatively impacted.

[Jack Watson]

I think if a golfer does not have an established game it’s best to play something pretty much standard but with flexible shafts if they want to learn to swing better.

If you are swinging too quick and hard in transition and average 90 imo you absolutely should not use clubs that are stiff.

I played a couple years with early 80’s Titleist and Wilson blades bent  around 5-6 flat or so (pro gave me specs).  IMO if I had simply gone to really soft shafts I would have learned much faster.

[WUTiger]

On 7/23/2018 at 8:56 PM, Club Rat said:

...As one who has fiddled with equipment for years, I feel equipment is a small beneficial to the average golfer and yet very beneficially for those who have the skills to play fine tuned persay, clubs. ...

For average golfer, club fitting is damage control: Get clubs that won't hurt your game.