To explain: a tall golfer (like Matt) who stands close to the ball and has a fairly upright swing needs an upright lie (which makes the shaft seem more vertical). If he were to use a club with too flat a lie for his swing, its toe would catch the ground first and its heel would move past it, opening the club face and shooting the ball off right. (This, indeed, is what happened when he tried out Brian’s 4-iron which had a one degree flat lie.)
On the other hand, if you have a flattish swing and use a club with an upright lie, its heel would dig into the ground first and the club face would pivot around it, closing through the ball which would be pull-hooked left. This is not to imply that all tall players have upright swings, while shorter ones have flatter ones. It all depends on the length of arms to overall height and the distance a golfer stands away from the ball. But lie is very important and every golfer should know if he or she swings, say, one degree flat or upright, and make sure that the club matches the swing.
One way to find out how steep a lie you need is to hit a number of shots with different clubs from a lie board. Hitting the board marks the bottom of the club at a certain point which, if not along the centre of the sole, shows what’s wrong. If the mark is consistently towards the toe of the club, the lie needs to be flatter, while if towards the heel, you need a more upright angle.
So where can you, a club golfer, find a lie board – and how can you determine the optimum flex and swing weight for your very individual swing? Well, your Club pro should be able to help, but he too is faced with a large variety of choices and not too much advice from club makers (who seem to believe that 95 per cent of all golfers are suited by a standard set of their clubs).
WITH TOO FLAT A LIE, THE TOE DIGS IN.
Incidentally, out of eight club manufacturers contacted in mid 1994 with a polite request by a golfer for background details or literature on how he could be measured to fit their clubs, only one had the courtesy to reply. This is not good PR considering the cost of a new set. Club makers could and should do a lot more to help golfers get the clubs that are best suited to them, but of course they have to rely on the golf professional; very much depends on his ability and interest in making sure that his clients get the right clubs.
Another option for the golfer is the ‘Saville Row’ or custom-made clubs approach. A visit to a high-tech fitting centre of a custom club supplier (e.g. Petron) is an interesting (and learning) experience for one and all and the resulting clubs, tailored to an individual’s swing, are surprisingly not that expensive.
You first make an appointment and turn up at the allotted time with your own set of clubs. These are used as a ‘benchmark’ against which the new clubs’ performance can be measured. You are greeted in a reception area where detailed pre- and post-fitting out analysis takes place and while you are discussing your game with the resident pro, your old clubs are all tested for swing weight, flex, loft and lie on special machines. The results are invariably surprising.
Your driver, which you have never hit with any confidence, turns out to have a swingweight of D0 and is one degree open (no wonder you sliced) while your 5-wood is D2. What you thought was a matched set of irons is utterly inconsistent in weight, totally unmatched. The 4-iron has a swingweight of C3, the 6-iron is A6, the seven is B1 and the sand wedge is D4. There are 29 swingweight differences between them; no wonder your handicap has stayed so high!
The pro then measures you for three important dimensions. First is the distance from your fingertips of both hands to the ground when standing balanced and erect (there’s normally a difference of half an inch between them). This is to gauge the right length of club for you and it’s worth knowing that ‘modern’ irons are half an inch longer than those of the 1970s, which should lead to a wider swing arc and more distance, in theory.
Your ideal grip thickness is next assessed, which is not necessarily thicker for larger hands, by measuring how comfortably the club sits when you hold it. Grip size can affect performance and slicers could benefit from thinner grips than they normally use. This tends to make them hold the club more in the fingers, which leads to faster hand action. Conversely, the few golfers who are happy hookers should try grips thicker than their norm. They would find the club sits more in the palm, which slows down the speed the club face closes. You should try this when you next get your grips replaced by your club pro – which you should do at least every two years. Shiny, slippery grips don’t help your game and as most golfers are too lazy to wash their grips regularly (let alone sandpaper or scrape them) they have a limited effective life.
We’re talking about spending money. It’s common sense once you have spent money to look after your equipment and unfortunately golfers are very bad at that. They’ll buy a new £150 suit of waterproof clothes, and get them wet. When the sun comes out after about 12 holes, they take their waterproofs off and then, while the material’s still wet, stuff it in the golf bag, forget all about it and leave it in the back of the car. Then, of course, when they play the next week, the gear’s either got mildew on or it’s damaged in some way and they will then complain that they bought a faulty garment which need not necessarily be the case.
Finally, at the centre, you are measured up on a length and lie gauge to find the right angle for your clubs when you are in a comfortable address position. You then move to the driving range, where computers, linked to high-speed cameras, record the results of hitting a number of balls with a selection of carefully-chosen clubs. Typically, a 5-iron is used as a standard club and after a few warm-up shots (hitting balls off a mat into a net five yards away) the computer-camera machine is calibrated.
You then hit four balls, taking your time, with your old 5-iron. Each shot is displayed on a screen showing, by computer enhanced graphics, how far (and with what spin) the ball would have travelled down a fairway. The computer also measures the club speed at impact, ball carry, angle of the club face, swing path, impact point on the club – and tempo of each swing from start to impact.
Warming to the task, you then repeat the four ball series of swings with five different 5-irons, selected by the centre’s pro, and varying in flex and swingweight from D0 to C9, C6, C3 to flyweight. Then, perhaps a little impatient to see how you’ve performed, you return to reception for analysis and detailed explanation.
From the computer print-out of all your shots, the pro shows you that your old 5-iron has generated an average clubhead speed of 76 mph, giving a carry of 170 yards (which makes you feel like Ian Woosnam), a clubhead closed at impact by one degree (which, with your in to out swing, explains the hook) and an impact point in the centre of the club (well at least you’re doing something right). The C3 5-iron, with a graphite shaft, has a higher average clubhead speed of 79 mph, but its carry was less at 168 yards and the ball was generally struck near the heel. The featherweight club, strangely enough, only generated an average 75 mph speed and you didn’t really like its feel anyway.
One 5-iron in the series really does stand out. It’s a perimeter weighted club with a C9 swing weight, an ‘R’ flex steel shaft and a one degree flat lie. Giving a consistent impact in the centre of the club face, this is clearly the club for you.
So do you immediately reach for the cheque book and order a matched set? Well, there is no hard sell pressure to buy, curiously enough. Custom club suppliers generally like to sell their wares through your club pro – and prefer him to attend the fitting out sessions, if possible. What they do give the golfer is, above all, a feeling of confidence that his clubs really suit him and that if he does need a ‘Mulligan’ on the first tee, he will only have himself to blame.