Back weighting clubs - helpful or gimmic?

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This past weekend I tried a driver that was backweighted - it was a demo driver from a company called "Tour Lock Pro." I seemed to have a noticeably tighter dispersion on the 8 to 10 drives I hit. They said it raises the balance point of the club, which helps accuracy, decreases spin, increases MOI, etc...(and does just about everything we want to improve our driving performance). Does anyone have any experience with back weighting to raise the balance point of a driver? Is there any science behind this or just the latest gimic...I know nothing about this, or this company, so any feedback would be great!
 
The new Ping G20 series driver has a high balance point, back weighted shaft design matched to a heavier, by a few grams, head. Doesn't feel heavier. Club head speed is increased. (I have measured 3-4 mph average increase with several mid handicappers.)

Best part is ball goes far and straight. Of course some of that is due to the new head design, but if Ping implemented backweighting you can be sure there is some real science behind it.
 
This past weekend I tried a driver that was backweighted - it was a demo driver from a company called "Tour Lock Pro." I seemed to have a noticeably tighter dispersion on the 8 to 10 drives I hit. They said it raises the balance point of the club, which helps accuracy, decreases spin, increases MOI, etc...(and does just about everything we want to improve our driving performance). Does anyone have any experience with back weighting to raise the balance point of a driver?

It can be used for all clubs including the putter. The weight can be placed at different heights in the shaft and can influence things like dynamic loft and clubpath. But as with all clubfitting parameters it completely depends on the sensitivity off the golfer for these parameters if and how it works for each individual golfer.

I have seen people with 6 degree inside clubpath go to 0 with as litle/much as 12grm placed 5 inch below the grip cap but I have also seen others with almost no response with 30grm placed at the same place. Seen others go from fade with 12 grm@5inch to draw with 12grm@10. All data measured/confirmed with the Trackman.
 
I read through a review on the Nunchuck shaft and the tester said: "The Nunchuk seems to make bad swings into playable ones and the in-between swings into better then average golf shots." This was my experience with the demo backweighted driver.

This is interesting to me because I'm about an 8-10 handicap index and I typically hit 2, 3 or 4 bad drives per round that cost me at least one stroke, if not more. If I can get those to be more playable, then those good rounds could get down to the mid 70's. I know its usually "the Indian and not the arrow", but I'd be very interested in this for $50 instead of a new $250 shaft.

Thanks for the comments and any more insights that may be out there.
 
I also read somewhere that Nicklaus had weight added in the grip area...can anyone confirm or expand on this?
 

natep

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I read that Hogan's clubmaker did the same thing, supposely because he wanted his club so heavy, and he did this to counterbalance the club and make it "play" lighter.
 

westy

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F=MA

force = mass x acceleration.
So a good question is moving the mass inward does what?
Or is it just more mass, causing more stability? in that case will probably lose speed.
Or is it just fresh and so you arent steering?
 
Looks like to me if you were gonna pull up on the handle and into yourself ...it could help to have some weight in the grip end for balance/feel purposes? There was a company that made these back weight deals for putters but the basically fit into the hole in the grip cap....people were putting them in all their clubs. I know a dude that had a driver that he said was "unhittable" once he put the weight in there he said it was like his favorite club. Makes complete sense to me that if the clubhead is gonna fly out on plane independently or whatever that you'd want to have the buttcap looking back at your dingdong area rather than waaaay down plane harpooning some junk to your left....seems like the weight deal could maybe help you "monitor" that better?

This joint does it ... but I don't think this is the same place my buddy got his backweighting device...

Golf club counterweighting
 
I have some experience with this, but only in the putter. I worked with a fitter who let me try various weights in the butt-end of my putter, and it seemed to help stabilize my action pretty significatly at the time, so I bought a 90 gram counter-weight for my putter.

There are several companies that sell do-it-yourself kits online, if you just search for golf club counterweights. If you don't like it, you can take it out and you'll only be out a little bit of cash.
 
I experimented with this a couple of years back and do not remember which forum I got the idea from.

From the posters there, I got the idea to experiment by enlarging (drill out) the end of the grip and trying a hinge pin (from a door hinge), or lag bolts or screws. They can be purchased in a variety of weights and a variety of lengths at less than a dollar each.

If I wanted the weight 12 inches down, I would wrap tape around the end so it would pug up 12 inches down.

I kept it in the driver until the face developed cracks and I didn't bother doing it to the next driver. And I don't remember a difference in the putter.

The main point here is that it easy to experiment with. When you are done, continue on with the grip or replace it. My other experiment with the grip end of the club was to use larger grips. And I will never go back to store bought sizes on any of my clubs, but i digress.
 
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Backweighting Works

Balance Certified has a device called a Shaft Stabilizer. I have one in my driver and three wood. Haven't tried them in all my irons yet but I have them in my wedges. I can attest that the technology works and would encourage any of you out there looking for more accuracy with you driver install one. You can do it yourself. BC says that the SS increases clubhead speed by as much as 3-5 mph which translates to as much as 10 yards more distance. The SS in my wedges gives me more feel on the scoring shots. Tour Lock also has a weighting system that I use in fitting putters. Check 'em out.

Fairways and greens,

Linksmeister
 
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