Greetings from Suzanne Saturday, 20 October 2012

Improvements to Fairway Woods are Coming

The longer the shaft, the harder it is to get the club back square and to make sure the sweet spot makes contact with the golf ball. And, the longer length clubs also have the least loft, making the challenge doubly difficult.

The manufacturers addressed that challenge with the Driver, and actually even lengthened the shaft! They made the head bigger, used new materials and manufacturing processes to create more “weight” they could deliberately place low down or to the extremes to expand hitting zones, raise launch angles and lower spin rates. They made the longest club in the bag one of the easiest to hit.

The manufacturers also dealt with the longest Irons by replacing them with Hybrids. The head was still comparatively small, but the shaft was a lot shorter than a Driver. The deeper Center of Gravity and larger hitting zones meant we now had #3 and #4 Iron equivalents to hit.

So what about the Fairway Wood? Expect that to be the club addressed next.

The manufacturers can’t increase the head size, but they can now deploy technologies to ensure the small head still allows you to create faster ball speeds off more of the face. If you are looking to make an equipment investment in the next 3 months, then spend some time looking at the new releases of Fairway Woods from the manufacturers and watch out for my updates.

A GOOD FIRST CHECKPOINT

In the last few weeks I have been talking about the need to understand your backswing. You should have checkpoints that you can review to make sure you are giving yourself the best chance of making a solid shot.

Let us help you understand your backswing. You can come to us and we’ll see about getting you into the perfect positions from setup and alignment through to the top; or we can take a look at the result you are getting with your shots and make fixes to the backswing to enable you to hit more good shots.

ARE ADJUSTABLE DRIVERS WORTH THE ADDITIONAL COST?

Selecting a new Driver is an investment in your golf game. Make the investment carefully and invest in the proper fitting.

I’m not sure we’ve seen the end of the “Adjustable Driver” story. We now approach the end of the year when manufacturers start to release new technology. But whatever the technology, the process for selecting a new Driver remains the same: an assessment to understand what benefits a new Driver should be delivering, a fitting to make sure all aspects of the Driver are set up for you (from face angle to grip, including shaft type, strength and grip) and then a swing check with the new equipment to check those benefits are being realized.

Selecting the right equipment is a match of your golf, technology, a perfectly fit solution and, occasionally, small improvements in technique. The end result is what counts.