CUSTOM-MADE CLUBS WILL SUIT YOUR SWING.
Armed with his personal club spec though, there are still other considerations for the golfer to ponder over when it comes to selecting the combination of clubs that he carries around. Being long off the tee, or having a short game, can make a difference. Let’s see how the members of our fourball could each pick the best mix.
Bob, who is a confirmed slicer, should probably never wield a driver in anger. There’s nothing to be ashamed about this; it’s merely pragmatic. A 2-wood off the tee, with a modern loft of 13 degrees, will reduce his sidespin and slice. It should have a metal or graphite head, with an ‘R’ flex steel (or mid torque graphite) shaft. He could also consider carrying a three, a five and a seven wood of similar materials, while his irons should have similar shafts with perimeter weighted heads to aid off-centre hits. Finally, on all of them, he should fit (having tried out first) say one sixteenth of an inch thinner grips, which should increase his hand action.
Brian, who lacks length off the tee, constantly has to hit longer second shots to the greens, needs help from his clubs to gain as much distance as possible. All his shafts should be ‘A’ flex (or high torque graphite) to give as much ‘kick’ as possible. He should use a driver and try thinner grips to increase his clubhead speed.
Doug, the rare hooker in our fourball, could consider leaving his driver behind, a 2-wood giving him almost as much distance and probably being straighter off the tee. With ‘R’ flex shafts in all clubs, he should also carry a 4-wood, which is an excellent club from light rough. He should try slightly oversize grips to help him hold the clubs more in the palm and control his tendency to end up left.
Finally comes Matt, who has a handicap of 16, the lowest of the four. He may need ‘S’ flex (or low torque graphite) shafts on all his clubs and could sport a driver, three and five woods all with persimmon heads. He could also use forged traditional irons – if he could afford them and if he played more. But then we all need to play a bit more, don’t we?
Playing more with the right equipment would benefit, if not the Tour pro. It’s sobering to note that, despite modern technology, in mid 1994 the average drive of a player on the US Professional Tour measured some 264 yards, only eight yards more than the average in 1969, 25 years previously. Average US pro scores have fallen by one stroke (to 71) during this period – though many courses have been stretched. However, this has been credited to the fact that players are fitter today, more athletic and have benefitted from more intensive coaching. There is also the considerably greater financial incentives for each tournament. None of this applies to the social golfer, who probably hasn’t changed at all in the past 25 years – but high tech clubs would have a positive effect on his game, if only he played with them a more.
But what about that vital complement to any set of clubs, the balls that make the game go round? Well, they can make (or unmake) the player too. There is an enormous choice of golf balls on the market today and you can buy a type that both suits your game and the course you are playing. Too few golfers though know how to make that choice, or even think for a moment about the ammunition they use. Rather like motor cars, there are no bad golf balls now. Some are different and feel better than others, softer, harder, some last longer, some don’t cut as easily. But it is quite important and sensible to get a golf ball that suits your game. It can make quite a difference.
The proof is seen in most golfer’s bags: a mix of balls, two-piece and wound, with a few balata covers (often cut) and with a variety of compressions and trajectories. How can any golfer hope to play with any consistency with such a mixture? There is no need to.
All the ball manufacturers, in co-operation with golf magazines, regularly publish listings of makes with details of their construction, covers and compressions. There are also charts grouping balls suitable for traditionally forged clubs and perimeter weighted ones; high trajectory balls (if you normally hit them lower than you’d like) and low trajectory types; those suitable for courses with narrow fairways and others with wide open spaces. The weather is also catered for: certain ball types are listed for windy conditions, and others for abnormally dry or very wet ones.
A golfer can gain some useful information from these charts, but there are three points you should bear in mind:
A balata cover is very soft and if you’ve got any roughness on the face of your irons or if the grooves in the clubs are a little bit sharp, every time you hit it, even if you strike the ball correctly, you will rough it up as if you’ve rubbed a file or rasp over the cover and after two or three holes a ball can look very aged indeed. Surlyn is more durable, a little bit stronger.
You would probably find the use of a 100 compression ball downright off-putting (it’s rather like hitting a stone) so use a 90 compression ball and stick with it.
When you’ve decided on the optimum ball for your game and course, don’t buy any other type. If you find any others in the rough, use them for practice at best.
To sum up and to simplify advice to the club golfer on the tools of the trade, we could say that you owe it to yourself to:
make certain that your clubs are right for your swing, in terms of swing weight, flex and lie; and
choose and use only the golf balls that suit your game and your course conditions best.
This will bring you a certain peace of mind when you next tee off. Let’s see how you should use this equipment for the best . . .
THE LAZY GOLFER’S SWING TECHNIQUE
Whenever a real golfer gets a new anything to do with golf (new clubs, a special wedge, the ‘ultimate’ secret from the latest book, whatever) he can’t wait to try it out on the course. But before you trot briskly off to the first, satisfied that at last your clubs and balls really suit you, there are some basics to consider and ponder about. Not least, what type of swing have you been using over the last ‘x’ years?
You do already appreciate that everyone has an individual swing, very individual as you will see if you scrutinise the line of players at a driving range. The world’s top Tour pros are also different, if not so divergent, in the overall appearance of their swings. Nick Price, for example, has a decidedly brisk tempo. Fred Couples, on the other hand, swings almost drowsily, lifting the club with his arms, turning his shoulders late and looping the club inside to be on plane at impact. Ian Woosnam seems to stand a long way from the ball, yet he smacks it with very little apparent effort a long way down the fairway, as does Greg Norman, who seems to stand almost on top of the ball, which he assaults with a vigourous, gut-wrenching action.
These four are instantly recognisable by their swings, even at the distance of a well struck drive. Yet they all have in common a sound swing technique which maximises their physical abilities and they are, to a man, top-notch exponents of the ‘modern’ swing. This is something of prime importance to really understand. For there are two distinct basic types of swing; the classical and the modern.
The Classic and the Not So Classic Swing
Misunderstanding the different principles of the two types (and worse, using bits of one with parts of the other) has wrecked the swings of many golfers – and even a few Tour pros.
The classic swing is more of a hands and arms action (rather than the ‘whole body’ movement of the modern swing, where the arms follow,