Adam C

If you are doing this with a vise by hand I think the best you can hope for is to get within 1 degree accuracy. That being the case, I would recommend this as you probably already have one.

Just find something around 75g mid trajectory. There is really nothing special or noteworthy about that shaft and honestly even something in the $30 range will be a step up in quality.

I guess if you wanted to be like Rickie these are the clubs you buy. Though based on recent form, not sure that's much of a selling point. These clubs look good from the back but I found the top down view far less attractive. Similar to the Hogans where the hosel look disproportionally thick versus the top line of the blade. Just my opinion.

Hopefully it keeps on working. SW is always personal so whatever the final balance came out to, sounds like it worked.

Since all the new equipment is being released in the next couple weeks, I am sure some people are planning on setting up a fitting. Just finished this video with a few tips you might not have considered before. Hope it offers something new.

Ideally you would want something with more weight change ability. Even pulling the 3.5 all together isn't going to get you much change in SW. I ended up dropping about 8g to get where it felt right in my Epic Flash I used. But if it's all you've got and don't want to spend more on an experiment, then give it a go. I would suggest that you find a shaft as counterbalanced as possible in that case to try and even out the weight.

You don't need a fitting for this and honestly I don't think I would trust a fitter to get you any better off than you can achieve by yourself. I put a youtube link on here a couple months ago to my video about building an extra long driver. An extra long driver is not a one and done deal, even more so than the rest of the bag (which is coincidentally why I don't believe in most modern fitting practices). It's trial and error and making small tweaks to the set up. What I can recommend are a couple things to increase your chance of success. First make sure you have a driver head that you can remove weight from. Slider weights or weight screws doesn't matter but you need to be able to lighten the head when going from 45 and change to 47 or 48 both for swing weight and shaft stability. Second, go with a lighter shaft than you typically use, say 5-10g. Third I would say go with a softer shaft over a stiffer one. The worst thing you can do with an extra long driver is rush the downswing from the top. This is why you see so many people lose the ball right or not pick up any club head speed. A softer shaft in general will allow for a smoother transition as you can feel the load of the shaft and don't need to force it.

If you haven't watched this video before, I would recommend it for you and your friend. Link at bottom. As far as the answer to your 2 questions, 1) You friend is equally wrong and right. If you are talking about a Taylormade driver, then any change you make to the hosel will increase the lie angle. Doesn't matter if you loft up or down. If you are talking about a Ping, then its the opposite and any change to the hosel will flatten the lie. Again doesn't matter whether you loft up or down. You can't make a blanket statement about adjustable hosels because it will depend on the starting point for that particular brand. 2) This statement is more correct, but it really comes down to impact position on the face making the biggest difference. Increasing the loft of the head, drops the CG slightly and vise versa for decreasing the loft. The lower CG will launch the ball higher but will drop the spin slightly. Again when lowering the loft and thereby raising the CG, the launch angle would decrease and the spin would increase (assuming you make center face contact with both, which may not happen since the hosel change also moves the face slightly). However the amount that any of this changes anything is pretty tiny as evident from the fact that most tour pros will drop the loft on a driver because it makes the face fall more open and that is way more important than some very small change in launch and spin. Anyway, here is the video about adjustable hosels.

The M3 should have been far more forgiving than the R7 and likewise the Callaway should also be far more forgiving than the R7. Difference between the M3 and Callaway will be much smaller. As stated above the standard Epic will be a higher/straighter flying head than the subzero. Deeper CG means a higher MOI and that means if you hit the ball towards the toe, heel, high, or low on the face, the head will stay more stable and resist twisting and the resulting ball flight will be more consistent in launch and spin.

My bad. I read that as you were adding weight to the back with additional weight, not just moving the existing weight around. Same thing for my initial response to this thread. Not sure if OP was referring to adding or moving weight?

The question however is, was it the movement of CG that gave you the results you saw or was it the change in weight that impacted your swing sequencing and impact. If it was the first, then everyone should see similar results, if it was the second then the results will be individualized by golfer.

This is a topic with a lot of confusion surrounding it. Also has some people trying to take advantage of that confusion. So here is a video that hopefully explains what it is, and what it's not.

Yes it will move the CG back further which can increase the launch and spin and maybe makes it slightly more forgiving but in all three categories, we are talking about very very small changes that most people will never see. Far bigger impact will be the change in static weight and swing weight. That will be what really decides what the result will be.

I put this on the other site you posted on but if you want to do it yourself, here it is.

You don't need a fitting. Waste of time and money. Go with something a little heavier as suggested 5-10 in the 3 wood and again heavier (80-90g) into the hybrid. That is the key spec to worry about. I would pick something mid launch also as both the driver and iron shafts fall into that category so keeping it consistent is never a bad idea.

I've seen pros actually write distances their irons travel in sharpie on the irons.

I like the idea of just putting loft numbers on irons instead of club numbers but good old golf with it's traditions probably won't ever change club numbering. I also realize that putting lofts on heads goes out the window if you have the clubs bent.

Where did you get fit, and how did you end up on the Nippon?

The strange thing was I couldn't easily locate the instructions directly from the Golf Pride home page or even secondary page. When I first got the grips, I went to the GP website assuming I would find the instructions and the only thing I could find were the super basic 3 step instructions I refer to in the first vid. They need to be more obvious on the packaging and also on the site in my opinion.

So I did an install and review on the GP Concept Helix grip last week. Just found out that better instructions existed so I felt I owed it a second install and review. Here it is.

I wasn't exactly sure how it worked either while I was doing the review, however since then I think I've figured it out roughly. The knob on the top is twisted which clamps the inside of the butt end of the grip against the inside wall or using the inside wall of the shaft. Then the twisting of the grip just tightens it up like when you keep twisting a rubber band and making it shorter and tighter. This does seem like it will have some big limitations as far as grip patterns and designs since they need to be able to twist around. Also you can't have any grip with alignment on it with all the twisting. No Align, no ribs, no Victory arrow pattern.

That's what editing is for! The Directors cut of this video is NC17.

Not sure if you have seen these yet, new prototype golf grips from Golf Pride. Just got some and tried them out. Here it is.

You need to remember that the fulcrum for a swing weight scale sits at 14 inches from the butt end of the club. That means that the majority of whatever shaft you are using will be out past the fulcrum. Therefore the shaft weight plays a greater influence on the head side of the club vs. the grip and why a heavier shaft will increase SW more than a lighter one. Of course there are also shaft balance points to take into consideration but for this example I am assuming our hypothetical shafts are the same other than material and weight. Your example above would depend on the weights of the two shafts since 38.5 to 39.5 would usually equal 6 SWP. Your weight difference breakeven would be around 54g to tip the scale either way.

Depending on the OEM, different brands will have either matching lengths in steel and graphite or go with the 1/2 over with graphite. However when they match them for length, the SW is usually 3 or 4 points lighter with graphite. SW can be tricky because it's not just the head weight, it's the relation of the head to the shaft and grip while also factoring in the shaft length and balance point. This means that for every 1/2 change in length, you get a 3 SWP change (longer=heavier). Also for every 9 grams of shaft weight change, you get 1 SWP change (heavier=heavier). Since the average stock graphite shaft is around 30g lighter than the matching steel, 1/2 longer shafts balance things out at least on a swing weight scale.