The right fit

The right fit

(The following article first appeared in the Spring 2013 online edition of PRO:Formance)

By Rick Young

Fitting can’t eliminate your slice, but can limit it. It won’t guarantee you won’t go OB on that tough driving hole when the money is on the line during your Sunday match, but it might take that hook and turn it into a draw.

Despite promoting fitting for years, there are still golfers who think fitting isn’t for them. They think they aren’t good enough, or their swing isn’t repeatable enough. “A golfer may not have the ideal swing, but they often repeat the same swing,” says TaylorMade executive vice-president Sean Toulon. “And we can fit for that. I think people are going to finally latch on to adjustability. Now we’re spending the resources to teach people who to adjust it. Because when you optimize spin rate, ball speed and all of things, you’ll get a lot more distance.”

Launch monitors with high-speed camera imagery, enhanced software applications and Doppler radar capability continue to offer all golfers club fitting salvation. They provide an entire platform for equipment optimization through thorough ball flight and swing analysis.

The best part? You don’t have to possess a PhD in mathematics, physics, geometry or any other aspect of launch monitor science to understand it. Fitting specialists can be found throughout Canada, as well as at the major manufacturers, and have the expertise and training to simplify the process and quantify all the raw data. It’s the value added proposition of any new equipment purchase.

“Sometimes you just have to step outside the box, free yourself up,” says PGA of Canada professional Nick Starchuk of Mississauga Golf & Country Club. “Golfers tend to be too closed with what they think. They don’t take the opportunity to investigate what could really work for them. That’s where the advice of a PGA of Canada golf professional using a launch monitor can be a tremendous asset. As an experience it can also be very cool.”

Cool is underplaying how intriguing and enlightening fitting can be when you understand the numbers coming off a Flightscope or Trackman. Increasingly PGA Tour pros are using these radars to develop their swings. To the uninitiated it can appear daunting, but once you understand the keys it can help you understand your swing, and your golf equipment.

Clubhead Speed
Distance off the tee is dictated by a golfer’s ability to generate driver velocity – or speed. Energy transferred from the clubhead to the golf ball at impact (based on the applied physics of the mass of the clubhead and the square of its velocity) determines the number in miles per hour (mph) you move the clubhead. For the fitter it represents an ideal start point. Clubhead speed provides PGA of Canada Tour Rep Fitter Ryan Holley of Vaughn, Ontario’s Golf Lab with a base line to begin optimizing a driver/shaft combination.

“It’s the one number I can use immediately to determine what a person’s potential for performance is,” Holley explains. “First and foremost in the fit process clubhead speed is going to help us figure out a shaft to go into that driver. The idea being we want to maximize clubhead speed without any sacrifice to control.”

Ball Speed
Critical to the driver fitting process is having a ball speed at impact 1 ½ times faster than clubhead speed. To put that into context from a club fitter perspective a golfer generating 100 mph of clubhead speed should have a ball speed of between 147 mph and 152 mph. Anything lower than 147 mph means the driver in all probability is not being hit in the center of the clubface or has deficiencies in how it is set up.

“Depending on what your ball speed is determines how fast you’re actually swinging the golf club,” says Chris McGowan, PGA of Canada professional at Golf Town in Kitchener. “If by definition you’re ball speed is lower than we’d like we might put someone into a ball that will compress more easily to help increase distance. There might also be a path issue to where the ball and driver are at impact. The best way to increase ball speed is to increase clubhead speed.”

As fitters point out: ball speed numbers during the driver fit process can sometimes lead to a golfer finding a more efficient golf ball for their particular ability.

Smash Factor
Coolest sounding of all launch monitor matrix, “smash factor” is the ratio of clubhead speed to ball speed. Of the key parameters for driver fitting it has fast become one of the most vital to the process. Smash Factor at 1.5 on the launch monitor means the golf ball is coming off the face in an optimized manner or 1 ½ times faster than the club is being swung. This is where a driver fitting often times can turn into efficiency improvements. Better ball striking and smash factor work in tandem.

“Smash factor can be the feel term but its more directly related to overall efficiency,” says Laird White, a PGA teaching pro at the National Golf Club of Canada. “Its benefit focuses on the centeredness of a strike or how solid a shot is off the clubface. Smash factor and ball speed trump clubhead speed every time even though there is a correlation between all three.”

Spin Rate
Due to its physical properties a golf ball spins backwards to stay in the air. In the driver fitting environment spin rate refers to how fast the ball is spinning on its axis through impact. According to Starchuk, spin rate is intrinsically linked with ball speed.

“You hear it all the time - high launch, low spin. That’s what we’re shooting for,” he says. “The goal for a fitter is to reduce spin rate so the ball doesn’t balloon. Aerodynamically a ball has to spin backward to get airborne. But by reducing spin rate a golf ball takes off flatter. It’s hotter. With the driver we want the flattest ball flight launched at the highest rate we can get. That’s optimized.”

Measured in revolutions per minute (rpm) spin rates off drivers range from 2,000 to 4,000 rpm and have a direct bearing on distance based on landing angle. For example, should the landing angle be too steep a golf ball will not roll out. Conversely too low a spin rate means the golf ball is not staying in the air long enough to achieve its best distance potential.

Angle of Attack
To add yardage off the driver the ideal situation is for most golfers to hit ‘up’ on the golf ball – not down at it. That’s what Angle of Attack calculates. It is the direction the golf club is travelling - either upward level or downward - in relation to the ground through impact. This parameter is exclusively a product of a golfer’s swing functionality – but its role in fitting a driver is crucial.

“The best driver’s in the world swing up and come at the ball from the inside, but not everyone can do that,” says Hoyt McGarity, managing partner of Toronto’s Modern Golf. “Angle of attack shows us how the club is moving coming into the ball. Where it becomes important is through the combination of launch angle and dynamic loft. It’s why we tell people to ignore what the loft on the bottom of the club says. Going from a negative to positive numbers on the launch monitor for angle of attack is going to increase distance – often by a lot.”

Carry Distance
Carry distance is a quantifiable measurement for how far the golf ball carries from a flat start point along a level surface to an exact landing point. Roll out distance is not taken into account.

“The best performing drivers are the ones that have a really good ratio of carry and total distance,” explains PGA of Canada teaching professional Scott Cowx of Hamilton GCC. “Again that’s where as a fitter you’re trying to achieve that panacea of high launch and low spin. Carry distance shows how far a golfer is hitting the ball from the tee to where the golf ball hits. That number can tell us a lot about what might need to be done to achieve more roll and total distance whether it’s better spin rate, more ball speed or an improved smash factor - depending on what a consumer wants with his ball flight.”