Poor man shafting theory

1. Torque is the most underrated specification in shafts except manufacturers’ use.
2. For a softer feel, choose same flexibility but higher torque shaft. Lower torque by definition is to prevent the head from twisting along the shaft, yet a better feel club with higher torque will help improve synchronized rhythm and swing to square the head at impact.
3. To improve feel of control, get the lowest torque available for regular flex shaft. The “resistance-of-twisting” provides you the “square” head at all time.
4. We tend to swing with more force using heavier clubs, smoother using lighter clubs. Golfers that advise to use heavier club to stabilize swing movement are blowing horns. Opposite in Putters.
5. Shaft weight should be proportional to golfers’ weight, the heavier you are, the heavier the club in static weight should be. This does not apply to Swingweight. Test swing freely from 55g shafts to 95g shafts, the one that you could exert more force without losing feet balance would be the chosen one, pick the shaft with 5 ~ 10g off from the chosen one.
6. Golfers who like to feel the shaft “kick” usually prefer lighter swing weight, on the opposite, golfers who like extra stiff shafts opt for heavier swing weight.
7. Head size has nothing to do with distance, so is shaft flex.

Putting Breaks

Say I could putt straight, I could determine the rolling speed, say I could repetitively execute the same putting stroke, say I am willing to spend hours and hours to practice putting, but how could I determine the slope on the green? How am I able to “practice” how to read breaks? Determining slope or break on the green is more a personal intuition and experience from the combined judgments from rolling speed, grains, putting strokes and etc.

First, putt straight directly aiming to the pole / hole with the correct speed, if there is a right-to-left break, the ball will break away to the left.

Second, virtually measure how much the break is by determining the distance from the ball that comes to a stop to the hole. This distance should be how much the break is, thus on the next putt, I should aim to the right with such measured distance

Third, putt by aiming to the right with the distance measured using the same stroke from the first putt. Fine tuned the stroke or breaks if the ball does not drop into the hole

Fourth, read the green again by squatting down, from 20 feet away or from the other side of the hole, “train” the brain to recognize the break and slope-reading.

Wondering if you know . . .

1. There are only three parts to the golf club – the head, the shaft, and the grip – it isn’t a complex equipment, but if you have the wrong head, shaft or grip the equipment will be near impossible for you to play the game.
2. Your driver swing speed will determine you driver loft and shaft flex.
3. Your 5 iron swing speed will determine the flex of the shafts in your iron.
4. Every golfer looking at a driver in a golf store looks at the head first and then holds the club by the grip and waggles the club. However, he or she rarely looks at the most important part – the shaft. (Check it our next time you are in a golf store.)
5. The correct driver for you is not the one you can hit the farthest. It is the one you can hit with consistency farthest.
6. Loft is your friend.
7. The shaft is the engine of the club. Arguably, it is 55% importance of the club, the head is 40% and the grip 5%. Why doesn’t anyone look more at the shaft?
8. The average length of a driver on the PGA tour is 44.5”.
9. The golf industry has no standard flexes. What is a stiff flex for one shaft manufacturer is can be a regular flex for another.
10. Most – not all, clubheads are made in a few foundries in mainland China. So what is the difference between Titleist and TaylorMade? It is probably manufactured in different province.
11. Have not seen any Original Equipment Maker (OEM) that makes their own shafts. They are jobbed out to shaft companies, sometimes multiple companies for the same shaft.
12. The golf industry has no standard length for golf clubs. A poor man’s custom set of clubs includes a set of clubs where all the clubs are cut ½” apart, the grips are all the same, the swing weight is the same through out the irons and through out the woods, and the loft and lie are correct.
13. Lie is one of the most important physical attributes of your irons. If the lie is wrong, that is either flat or upright; your shots will go left or right, more in the wedges and less in the long irons. Why doesn’t anyone look more at the lie angle?
14. Do you know that a 10.5° driver is only 10.5° at the “sweet spot?” It can be as much as 13° at the top of the face and 9° at the bottom – that is because of the roundness of the head from top to bottom. The horizontal “roundness” of a club, from side to side, is called bulge. If you want to hit your 10.5° driver at 10.5°, you better hit it at the sweet spot.
15. Did you know the “sweet spot” is exactly a spot on the face of a club? It is not an “area”. You cannot increase the size of the “sweet spot.” You can increase the hitting area – but not the sweet spot.
16. Nearly all clubs heads are made with plus or minus 1 degree in loft and that very same driver compare to number #20 may really be a 10.5° or 12.5° club. Nearly all OEM irons are made with plus or minus 1 SW difference, 3 iron could be a D1 while PW is D3.
    

-- in reference to California Custom Clubs

New Club to the bag?

I am hooked by the new Miura Giken MD390...










Looking at my bag now...

• Driver: Nakashima NP-1 + Fujikura Speeder 757 = $300 + $250 = $550
• 3 Wood: Mizuno MP-001 = $299
• Utility: TaylorMade Rescue Mid + Banzai 83 = $180 + $50 = $230
• 3 ~ P Iron: Mizuno MP-32 + Dynamic Gold S300 = $850
• Wedges: Mizuno MPR 54 + MPR 60 = $99 + $99 = $198
• Putter: Gauge Design GAA = $250
  

Total Retail Cost: $2377

Ebay worth value: maybe 40% of retail?
Golf, can drive me nuts, really.

Golf and Photography

One of my talented colleagues, who is a good amateur photographer that I admire, told me this tips once...
"How do you take a good picture in the dark without tripod?"
"The answer is simple, breathe out slowly before pressing the shuttle, that is the time when the body is most quiet and relaxed."

Most quiet and relax.... Most the time we pull an erratic swing in golf is due to our tempo is missed or off. In other words, either we hold our breath too long or we introduce too much "force" to generate an erratic powerful swing, rather than the smooth and relaxed swing that is desired.

I tried this method on golf course the other day, breathe out slowly before I initialized my driving swing, the result is rather impressive, I managed to keep 12 drives out of 15 trials on the fairway.

Thanks to my colleague's expertise in photography and generosity to share, this is the best tips I ever received, through the art of perspective in colors...

Golf and Stocks

Always feel unjustified when golfers with the lousy swing mechanics play a better score than I do.

While I am struggling to get my shoulder turn correctly, making sure my spine angle is maintained, stable footwork, strong grip... These guys with hands way outside the left foot at address, bouncing vertically up on downswings, hands dominant rotation end up with a score unjustifiably impressive.

It is then I realize a similarity between golf and stock investing. Stocks in general go bullish over the time. A guy who is ignorant to stocks, providing that he is not too greedy and just simply purchase some fundamental strong stocks, most likely he will earn a good return over the time.

A golf swing, no matter how is it being produced, generates enough force to push the ball forward. With less distance and less airborne time from these poor swings, it actually reduces the chance of generating errors on course. It is the same that as if the same person invest in stocks, without rapidly getting in and out of market, the chance of him being dragged down by directional movements in the market is greatly reduced.

It it golfers that understand the half of it yet not skillful enough in consistency that will lead huge problems onto the golf course.

To improve and play to the full potential, full knowledge and capable of applying it on course is the ultimate challenge. Yet, knowing half the knowledge and incapable of applying it is worst.

Hot Face
...
Long drive contestants always have a bag full of drivers - names like Alpha, SMT, Bang and Ashton - built to withstand competitive abuse of swing speeds north of 140 mph. They constantly test their drivers to try to figure out which one will perform best. One of the tests they use is to lay the edge of a credit card across the face of their driver. In time, the driver face begins to flatten. At that point, the face has weakened. That's also the point when it flexes the most, when the face is the 'hottest'. Once the heads reached this stage, they are reserved for competition.
...
The flex and hot face mentioned above also known as the trampoline effect... Where USGA has limited it to 0.83 COR..So I guess keep using the same driver.... If change to a new driver, buy it used and always carry a credit card for measurement.... After all, it is true that the more and hard you drive, the further the ball goes...

*source: GolfTodayMagazine.com

USGA Limit on Driver Head Size

As manufacturers discovered how to make driver heads out of titanium balloons, the USGA decided that they had to set a size limit. They chose 460 cubic centimeters. Why?
...
A few lesser component companies had released drivers in the 500cc range that looked like something a circus clown would carry. There was no evidence that super-large drivers delivered any performance advantage. Why bother?
...
One of the most renowned designers and manufacturers of golf equipment is Katsuhiro Miura. Mr. Miura is the founder and inspiration behind Miura golf, widely regarded as producing the best forged irons in the world. Mr. Miura has planned to introduce his own drivers and fairway woods for several years. In that time, he has studied performance and workability. When his new driver is released in a few weeks, it will be less than 400 cc. Just as skirts always get longer after they get shorter, I predict that better players will be rediscovering drivers in the 400 cc size range in the near future.

*source: GolfTodayMagazine.com

Rhythm is a Hacker

If hips rotate faster than hands,
I will send the ball to the right pushing the shot.
If hands swing down faster than hips,
I will send the ball to the left producing a pull shot.

It is the swing tempo that is to blame,
Why am I busy checking my grip, spine angle and stance?
Swing rhythm is a real hacker,
It creeps in whilst I am golfing tired and asleep.

Learning from Pain

I love practicing in the winter season. Love it because the driving range that I go to provides discount on balls. For the regular "Eagle" size basket, I could get "Albatross" size during the winter season for the same amount of money.

That is a whoopy 250 balls at one shot. For a weekend golfer like me, this is a lot of practice balls. If I pre-swing averagely one swing per ball, I will easily swing 500 times during that practicing period. Swinging these many times only lead me to one result: Extreme exhaustion and muscle pain all over.

Muscle pain has become a routine that I live by on most weekends. Depending on what I am working on, I will get pain from different areas. Of course, this includes pain in areas that is not suppose to be but caused by improper golf swings. I have learned to notice that it is such a good indicator to inform myself if I have done something correctly intended or something wrong unconsciously. For instance, if I am working on spine angle for the first time, I will feel tremendous pain at the lower back afterwards. If I am working on the weight transfer, I will feel pain from the knee areas.

After some time of pain torturing every week, I start questioning what is the point of punishing myself with consistent pain and no immediate result? I was asking this until I read Tiger's thoughts in Golf Digest today: "My whole idea is I will outwork you, so that in the end, I will be better than you." It is then I get to realize the truth behind "No Pain, No Gain." I need to out-pain myself, so in the end, I will be better than myself yesterday.

This is really a painful lesson, literally.