Can somebody explain to me about the club head and shaft relative to your swing?

[jenhaoyen]

Let's say if the shaft is too soft / light for you, what would your ball flight be? vice versa if the shaft is too heavy / stiff.

Also, if the club head is too heavy or too light.

thanks

 

[Billy McKinney]

Light and soft tends to make higher and more curve.
Too heavy may slow your speed down and distance loss.
I am a fan of a little too stiff and heavy since accuracy is so much more important that a few yards farther.

 

[otto6457]

Hopefully this isn't too big of a thread derail....

But I'm going to finally replace my 7 year old irons and I've been going over the specs on some of the irons I'm considering and I've been a little surprised that every one of them comes as a D2 swing weight. I was going to go with S400 shafts which will add a bit of swing weight. But that is still a pretty light club compared to what I'm accustomed to playing.

So.....in my usual overly "wordy" way....Can a person get a higher swing weight from one of the OEM's by going through their custom departments? If not....how does one go about adding swing weight without sticking lead all over it? If it makes any difference my current irons are D5 with the wedges at D7 and I have no idea how my club maker at the time managed this feat of daring-do. (he has since gone out of business and as far as I can tell....there's not another one within 300 miles of me)

 

[spktho]

I believe clubmakers can add weight by putting iron filings or small lead shot down the shaft.

 

[Todd Dugan]

Let's say if the shaft is too soft / light for you, what would your ball flight be? vice versa if the shaft is too heavy / stiff.

Also, if the club head is too heavy or too light.

thanks

The shaft becomes bent tip-forward at impact. The more so, the more loft and clubface closure. BUT, the shaft can only bend far enough to allow the center of gravity of the clubhead to align with the shaft axis. SO, using a more flexible shaft may not alter the loft and closure during collision IF the shaft in comparison was already reaching max tip-forward bend. OTHERWISE, less bend equals lower launch and more positive/less negative spin axis.

Cochran and Stobbs showed that increasing/decreasing head weight, within the normal range, make no appreciable difference in distance. Presumably, this is because as head weight is increased, clubhead speed is decreased.