Swingweight Revisited

Ever since I learned about swing weight, I have been obsessed by it and have been constantly rechecking and reweighing every new golf club I obtain to have them swing weight matched. In reality, I “think” the result is impartial to the improvement I have gained over my short life of golfing. Though, later I have come to realize that there is only a huge error in this methodology….

The huge error is: how to correctly measure the swing weight? Holding the swing-weight belief true, applying it to practical usage is the difficulty of every engineering mindset can apply. I had always trusted my in-house built balanced pivot tool, measuring ruler, scale and self-written program to do the calculating conversion. It had been working great until one day my measuring ruler snapped into two. I used a replacement and that was where the error arose. I found out that the measurement I had taken over the time, all conditions unchanged, provided me a slight difference in results… I started to recalibrate and recheck all the tools I used to make this measurement. I did not find much difference in methods except the new measuring ruler. To my bewilderment, all measurements are off by one or two swing weight points before and after! This was alarming, this was disturbing!

Eventually I got a swing-weight scale from Golfsmith. Concluded my home-made method is a disastrous method used. I have become the victim of my belief on swing weight. Over the time I have wanted to swing-weight matched my club set, in the end I have been using an unmatched set all along. How idiotic can truth make a person? Very. Conveyed this finding to a friend who utilized the same method I used, well, although very reluctantly he wanted to believe, he had the same result, off by two or more swing weight points. Worst is I had sold a set of “swing-weight matched” club to another friend, and it turned out that the swing weight points are off by one to two scales on his set.

Lesson learned? Approximation is disastrous. Ignorance is a sin. Idiotic mind is what I had employed.