Distance issues

[DQ Daddy]

Hi TGN Nation,
wondered if I could get some advice...
I got new irons over the winter and hit them a few times(indoor)everything seemed fine...since the weather has been nice I have been to the outdoor range.:mad: :mad: :mad: nothing but frustration... I am hitting my 5 iron about 15-20 yards shorter and find that my 3 iron is what my 5 iron used to be...ball flight and swing speed seem to be the same.

any advise would be helpful :help: :help:
DQ

[Grass Roots Tour]

Check the lofts as the new irons may be weaker (more lofted) leaving you short.
Also, if the shafts are too stiff you will not generate enough speed to have the shaft kick for you causing a loss of distance.
It takes some work to get the golf muscles back in shape early in the season if you've been bumming around for the last 6 months.
Call your pro and have the true flex measured on a frequency metre and determine if they FIT you. Shaft bands have been known to lie and the true flex may be something entirely different to what the sticker suggests.

Good Luck.

[DQ Daddy]

Thanks GRT,

when I got my irons I was told by the salesman that I would benefit from a stiffer shaft given my swing speed... that might be my problem. :confused:

Anyone know of a pro(in Richmond Hill area) that could assist me with finding out if I really need a stiff or reg flex irons.

[Jaydog]

hey dq, which clubs did you end up getting and what were your old clubs?

[Shadow]

Hi TGN Nation,
wondered if I could get some advice...
I got new irons over the winter and hit them a few times(indoor)everything seemed fine...since the weather has been nice I have been to the outdoor range.:mad: :mad: :mad: nothing but frustration... I am hitting my 5 iron about 15-20 yards shorter and find that my 3 iron is what my 5 iron used to be...ball flight and swing speed seem to be the same.

any advise would be helpful :help: :help:
DQ I know that I will get into trouble for being contradictory, but if you were to check out a good book on club making(Tom Wishon's for example) you would find that the stiffness of a shaft is more of a factor in determining shot direction, than it is in determining distance, ie., a shaft that is too stiff for your swing speed, is not likely to cause a significant decrease in distance hit. A shaft that is too stiff will cause the ball to go more to the right.

I was initially surprised at this until I conducted my own simple experiment where I hit drivers with UST Proforce 65, "R", "S" and "X" shafts and to my amazement, my Beltronics measuring device showed virtually identical swing speeds.

A shaft that is too flexible will bend at the start of the downswing but also straighten too soon, causing a hook. The opposite is true for a shaft that is too stiff.

It may not be a problem in Toronto, but another factor to consider is the temperature of the golf balls at the range. When the ranges first opened in Ottawa, the balls flew significantly shorter because they were cold, and even today with our temperature at roughly 7*C, distance loss was obvious. A good ball will fly the farthest when its temperature is around 80*F. Some ranges also use balls that fly purposely shorter than a normal ball.

As an aside, hitting very cold golf balls, with a thin faced titanium driver, is dangerous to the driver's health. More faces are cracked this time of the year, because of the brittle ball than at any other time.

You say that you are 15 to 20 yards shorter than when you hit the ball indoors. How did you determine how far the ball was going indoors?

[Ego Woods]

You say that you are 15 to 20 yards shorter than when you hit the ball indoors. How did you determine how far the ball was going indoors?
Nope I believe he noticed the distance issues when he went to the outdoor range:

since the weather has been nice I have been to the outdoor range.:mad: :mad: :mad: nothing but frustration... I am hitting my 5 iron about 15-20 yards shorter and find that my 3 iron is what my 5 iron used to be...
DQ

[Ego Woods]

Hey DQ, seems to be the ongoing advice around here, but I would agree with everyone, that perhaps you should get a club fitting.....15-20 yrds is a loss of some considerable distance and perhaps it's just the shaft since it seems that you bought your clubs off the rack and thus have stock shafts attached to your clubheads....you can explain the situation to your club fitter and also bring your old clubs so they can compare and hopefully they can find out your problem. Good Luck.

[smak]

Usually new irons take sometime to get use to. I bet the quality of the ball contact on the long irons weren't as good as the old clubs. Once you get use to the new irons, you will be fine. More practice before club fitting is my advise.

[Golftool]

isnt that trajectile disfunction?

[Ego Woods]

Once you get use to the new irons, you will be fine. More practice before club fitting is my advise.
shouldn't the new clubs adjust to you, and not the other way around? :confused:

[countclub]

isnt that trajectile disfunction?hey golftool,,this is golf season you have your hands on the wrong club,,,,,duuuuuude.

[Jaydog]

It may not be a problem in Toronto, but another factor to consider is the temperature of the golf balls at the range. When the ranges first opened in Ottawa, the balls flew significantly shorter because they were cold, and even today with our temperature at roughly 7*C, distance loss was obvious. A good ball will fly the farthest when its temperature is around 80*F. Some ranges also use balls that fly purposely shorter than a normal ball.


i've noticed the distance loss on cold days too. throw wind into the mix and you have to hit 2 or 3 clubs longer than normal. glad to see it's not just in my mind.
:D

[Grass Roots Tour]

Shadow I think you're mislead here. Soft shaft will not make you hook the ball. Take your wifes clubs out for a spin and proove this to yourself.

[DQ Daddy]

Thanks for all the advise. I will see to it that I see a club fitter. I think that trajectory is also causing distance loss.

played my first round of the year.:) What a difference paying a cource is versus a range. still have issues when it comes to distance. Not as much as at the range. Maybe 1 club difference, I think only time will bring consistency.

Thanks for all posted a comment and advice...

[DQ Daddy]

hey dq, which clubs did you end up getting and what were your old clubs?
Basically playing with a new everything. Out with the old and in with the new:)
Tommy Armour 845 irons 3-pw
Titleist 983K with Speeder stiff shaft (i love it)
Rossa putter
nike 53*wedge

[Bogeybog]

Nope I believe he noticed the distance issues when he went to the outdoor range: Not to be too nit picky, but the way I read it, Shadow was asking how he could tell the difference between "everything seemed to be alright" indoors to hitting it 15-20 yards shorter outdoors??? How could he notice a 15-20 yard differnce when he went to the outdoor range with his 5 iron unless he was hitting in what has to be the longest indoor dome in Canada??? Any dome I've been to ranges between 70 and 90 yards long. Now, I can also assume he was saying it was 15-20 yards shorter then his old clubs, but then how would he know if "everything was alright" indoors???

[Jaydog]

Basically playing with a new everything. Out with the old and in with the new:)
Tommy Armour 845 irons 3-pw
Titleist 983K with Speeder stiff shaft (i love it)
Rossa putter
nike 53*wedge

hey dq, when i got those very same irons, i noticed a higher trajectory in my shots compared to my previous set. ended up losing about a club length in my distances. don't know what changed but the distances are back to normal now.

as you said, you may just need to get used to it since it's early in the season.

[962B]

Basically playing with a new everything. Out with the old and in with the new:)
Tommy Armour 845 irons 3-pw
Titleist 983K with Speeder stiff shaft (i love it)
Rossa putter
nike 53*wedgeThis is slightly off topic, but who owns the Tommy Armour name now? Is it still the dude in T.O. or has it been sold yet again?:confused:

[golfnut2005]

hi TGN LOOKING FOR ADVICE ON THE IMPACT POSTION WILL THIS GIVE ME MORE DISTANCE

[Andru]

Thanks GRT,

when I got my irons I was told by the salesman that I would benefit from a stiffer shaft given my swing speed... that might be my problem. :confused:

Anyone know of a pro(in Richmond Hill area) that could assist me with finding out if I really need a stiff or reg flex irons.
I'm assuming you got fitted indoors. People tend to swing harder when hitting into a net or screen. It just happens. Everyone does it.

[boss of the moss]

Shadow I think you're mislead here. Soft shaft will not make you hook the ball. Take your wifes clubs out for a spin and proove this to yourself.
You got it backwards here. If a shaft is to soft or weak for a person they will turn the ball over or hook it. When a shaft is too stiff for someone they block it because they can't turn it over make the shaft kick in. Not generating enough clubhead speed. When your trying a shaft in your driver and your hitting hooks, you look for a stiffer shaft not a softer one.

[golfnut2005]

shadow need advice in the impact position-------------ottawa

[golfnut2005]

just got off the course i must have been in the bunker 10 times -------------is the secret of getting out is an early release -pls comment ----otawa

[Shadow]

Shadow I think you're mislead here. Soft shaft will not make you hook the ball. Take your wifes clubs out for a spin and proove this to yourself. Therefore, a shaft that is too stiff will NOT encourage a shot to go to the right. So if what I am saying is wrong and if direction is not affected by having the wrong flex, what happens to the flight of the ball then, when a player uses a shaft that is either too flexible or too stiff? The only other choices are distance, and/or trajectory.

In doing a little club making over the last 18 years, it is my experience that too flexible of a shaft causes the ball to hook. I suggested above that a good book on clubmaking be consulted to verify my statement so I offer the following quotes from "Total Clubfitting - A Step by Step Program For Fitting Golf Equipment," by Jeff Jackson, who was VP at Dynacraft when he wrote the above.

Page 72 "A correctly fit shaft will unload with the maximum energy at impact, providing the golfer with the squarest contact possible. A shaft that is too stiff, however, will never fully unload, often resulting in shots to the right, while a shaft that is too flexible will unload too early, closing the clubface and producing shots that travel to the left of target."

As an explanation to the above, from page 73, "When the shaft is too flexible, the golfer applies more than the required force to the shaft and therfore causes the shaft to go beyond a full conversion to kinetic energy and back to a condition of partial potential energy. This situation will cause the shaft to bend excessively at the beginning of the downswing. During the downswing, the club head passes the shaft and the hands and will arrive at impact significantly bowed forward.

Therefore, I offer this as proof that my comment stating that too soft a shaft will cause a hook, is correct, however, if you can provide me with a reliable source that states otherwise, I will consider both the source and the "proof," and do a little more research.

BTW, I have hit my wife's driver and it hooks. Her irons go straight for me but that is because her shafts are 8 cpm's stiffer than mine. Even though each of my irons goes about 30 yards farther than the corresponding one of hers, it is because of the MOI matching and the method of loading from the top that she has, that requires her to have a slightly stiffer shaft than mine. The truth is that it is not how hard you swing but how you swing it hard, that is more important. Two golfers can get to the ball at 100 mph with one requiring a senior(A) flex, while the other needs an stiff("S" flex.)

[962B]

Sign me up on your side Shadow.