A student at a recent golf instruction session asked about swingweight. He had read one of my golf tips in which I mentioned it and it sparked his interest. Never having heard the term he wanted to know what it was and how it affected his game. Those are good questions because swingweight is among the most misunderstood concepts in golf. It can have an impact on your game and your golf handicap without you even knowing.

Swingweight is a non-technical term. Clubmakers use it a lot. The easiest way to think of it is as a measurement of club feel. The higher the percentage of clubhead weight to the club’s total weight, the higher the swingweight. As Ralph Maltby, the famed clubmaker, defined it: “Swingweight is a balance measurement and is the degree to which the club balances toward the clubhead.” Swingweight is not the total weight of the club but only a percentage of it.

Expressing Swingweight.
Swingweight is expressed by a letter (A, B, C, D) and a number (0 to 10). Measurements range from A0, the lightest, to G10, the heaviest. A club with a swingweight that measures D5, for example, will feel heavier when swung than a club with a swingweight that measures C7, even though their actual weights may be identical. Each club manufactured is weighed and labeled.

Two clubs weighing the same can feel distinctly different depending on how the weight is apportioned in each club. If you played golf with only one club, swingweight would not matter much. However, you don’t. Swingweight is important because you want every club in your bag to have a similar feel. Otherwise, you would have to get used to the feel of each club. Plus, you might play better with one swingweight than another.

Altering your clubs has an impact on swingweight. Let’s say, for example, you decide to lengthen all your clubs by one-half inch. You would change the weight of the club without changing the weight of the clubhead by raising the swingweight three points, say from D0 to D3. This holds true whether your club possess standard weight or lightweight shafts. Conversely, take the same club and shorten it by one-half inch and the swingweight drops from D10 to D7.

Adjusting Swingweight
Swingweight is adjustable post-production by adding lead tape or changing out the components, like using a larger clubhead, a different shaft or grip, or trimming the shaft. Clubmakers also adjust swingweight in some cases by adding different types of fill material inside shafts at different points or inside the clubhead,

Take a 3-iron. Imagine adding lead tape to the 3-iron. No matter where you put the tape, the actual weight of the club will be identical. That is, if the lead tape is on the club head, at the middle of the shaft, or on the grip, the actual weight will be the same—the original weight of the club plus the weight of the lead tape.

Now imagine swinging the 3-iron with the lead tape first on the clubhead, then on the middle of the shaft, and then on the grip. The weight you feel when swinging the club will be different depending on where the lead tape has been added—even though the total weight of the club is identical in all three instances. That’s swingweight.

Importance of Swingweight
Everyone has a swingweight at which they play their best. For example, research indicates that lighter swingweights are better for the average golfer. Less weight produces longer, more accurate shots for golfers with high and middle golf handicaps. Players with low golf handicaps and professionals have high swingweight speed, more control over the movements of the club, and a more acute sense of feel for the clubhead. The clubs best suited for them feature heavier swingweights.

Swingweight is used to match clubs in a set. A misunderstood concept, it’s better for clubs to all match in swingweight. If you’re happy with the performance of your clubs and aren’t anxious to make any changes, then swingweight is incidental. But if you’re looking to buy a new set of clubs or are thinking about altering your present equipment, be aware that each adjustment you make will impact the balance, feel, and swingweight of your clubs. The change may also affect your scores and your golf handicap.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

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How To Break 80 Newsletter

March 5, 2008

“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”
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In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Four Golf Tips For Generating Extra Distance
2) Curing Your Upper Cut
3) Question of the Week – Hitting It Fat
4) Article – Making Sense of Swingweight
5) Article – Creativity on the Golf Course

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1) Four Golf Tips For Generating Extra Distance
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PGA Tour pros are driving the ball out of sight. The PGA Tour driving distance average jumped from 260.4 yards in 1993 to 287.8 in 2003. That’s a 27-yard increase in just 10 years, a giant leap even for professional golfers. Judging by the tournaments on television, the average driving distance for a professional is probably around 300 yards these days. And it’s not unheard of for pro golfers to hit drives 400 yards or more.

Meanwhile recreational golfers—even those with low golf handicaps—struggle to increase their average driving distance even a smidgen. In the same 10-year period, for example, recreational players boosted their average driving distance from 193 yards to 205 yards—a far cry from the pros. Unfortunately, most recreational golfers have neither the time nor wherewithal to do the things necessary to improve driving distance dramatically.

But they can do things to generate extra yardage off the tee without investing a lot of time and practice. We offer some golf tips for gaining extra yardage below. Not all of them will work for everybody. But they will work for many. In the battle for lower golf handicaps, golf tips that produce extra yardage certainly can’t hurt, golf lessons not withstanding.

Golf Tip #1: Learn To Hit A Draw
Many weekend golfers hit a weak fade off the tee. The ball starts off well, peaks at about 200 yards, and then drops almost straight down. There’s little if any roll when the ball hits. On a really windy day, forget it. The golfer has no chance. The wind just drags his golf ball back. Hitting a draw off the tee adds distance to your drives. When a draw hits, it generally rolls more than a fade, picking up extra yardage and bringing the golfer that much closer to the green. The extra roll also helps make up for the yardage a player might lose on a windy day.

Golf Tip #2: Change Golf Balls
Among the biggest reasons the pros drive so far is the ball. Advances in golf ball technology assure the pros of maximum distance on each drive. When the majority of pros switched from wound balls to solid core balls a few years ago, their driving average jumped 6 yards in a year. Solid core balls enable you to hit farther but provide less feel. Today, however, you can find balls that provide both the feel characteristics of the wound ball and the distance of a solid core ball. Find the golf ball that’s right for your game.

Golf Tip #3: Take Advantage of Technology
Club technology is changing the game dramatically. It’s not only producing better and lighter clubs but more forgiving ones as well. That means you can swing a club harder, generating more clubhead speed, with fewer mis-hits. Take the new bigheaded drivers. Made from better materials, these drivers have more clubface area and larger sweet spots. The drivers also have lighter shafts. All this translates into longer, straighter drives. Matching the right shaft with the clubhead also generates extra distance. That doesn’t mean you have to run out and buy an expensive driver right now. Just keep technology in mind when you do buy.

Golf Tip # 4: Take Advantage of a Launch Monitor
Not everyone can access a launch monitor. But if you can, take advantage of it. A launch monitor is a relatively simple looking device that’s rather complex underneath. It measures a host of characteristics including launch angle, clubhead speed, ball speed, ball spin, distance, and trajectory, as well as angle of attack, face angle, and dispersion.

Launch monitors provide raw data on your swing. That’s big, especially with three key metrics: launch angle, ball speed, and ball spin. By making adjustments to these metrics, you can increase driving distance. A launch monitor is also helpful in choosing the right club/shaft combination. That in turn will help you gain same yardage, cutting some strokes from your golf handicap.

Of course, none of these tips will help you drive the ball as far as a PGA pro, nor are they a panacea for all your swing faults. They also won’t eliminate the need to take golf lessons for some people. But they can help you gain a little extra yardage off the tee. If you’re serious about lowering your golf handicap, gaining extra yardage is something worth attaining.

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2) Curing Your Upper Cut
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It’s common to see new golfer’s uppercutting the ball. But veteran do it as well. If you find your middle- and long-irons shots are consistently coming up short and are out of sync with your short-iron shots, you may be uppercutting. Some simple adjustments to your posture and address position cure those tendencies.

Below are five tips on curing upper cutting:

* Lower your front shoulder
* Aim your shoulder at target line
* Distribute your weight evenly
* Position the ball back
* Make a descending blow

Golfers who uppercut are often trying to help the ball in the air. They reinforce this notion by setting up with the majority of their weight on their back foot, the front shoulder inordinately low, and the back arm bent to an extreme on middle- and long-iron shots. The golfer must then spin out and fall backward, hitting up rather than hitting down on the ball. The result is a loss of power and direction.

Curing upper cutting is simple. First, lower your front shoulder low enough to allow you to turn it under your chin. Now, aim your shoulder like a gun sight parallel to the target line and distribute your weight evenly. Then, move the ball back more toward the middle of your stance, which encourages a descending blow instead of an ascending one. Make a smooth transition from the top of the backswing to the forward swing and aim for a full, balanced finish.

Players who uppercut must learn to trust the club’s loft. It will get the ball in the air by itself. They don’t need to help it. In addition, making the changes in stance that we recommend encourage a better, less-restricted shoulder turn and a descending angle of attack, propelling the ball upward. They also encourage the golfer to maintain his balance into a full finish.

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3) Question of the Week – Hitting It Fat
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Q. Hi, Jack, I have a problem hitting my fairway shots fat (irons or woods). I usually end up with a divot behind the ball and facing left. I’ve only been playing a year and would like to lower my golf handicap. Any suggestions would be great. Your tips have been very insightful.

Thanks,
Walt Hilsee

A. Thanks for the question and the compliment, Walt. Hitting the ball fat is the result of an excessively steep, V-shaped swing arc. In other words, the clubhead doesn’t travel parallel to the ground long enough through impact. When the bottom of the V falls behind the ball you get a fat shot.

To eliminate fat shots, take your normal address position. Now visualize a “U-shaped swing arc.” Imagine your swing with a wide flat spot through the impact area. Take a mid-iron or a fairway wood and try clipping the top of the grass or taking a shallow divot just ahead of where you ground the club.

With a driver, place a tee just opposite your front heel, where the ball would normally be. Now, take your normal stance and try picking the tee out of the ground cleanly with the club. That will promote the sweeping action the longer shot requires.

Also, focus on completing your swing and the feel of coming through with your back shoulder extending forward, under, and past your chin. Keep in mind that ball position—forward for a wood, back for an iron—determines when and where the point of impact occurs. Also, keep in mind that the loft on the clubface will get the ball airborne. You don’t have to help it.

Practicing these drills will help eliminate fat shots from your game and lower your golf handicap.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com and we’ll review it. I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it but if we do, we’ll make sure to include your name and where you’re from.

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If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter03052008.html
Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Making Sense of Swingweight
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/making-sense-of-swingweight.html

5) Article – Creativity on the Golf Course
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/creativity-on-the-golf-course.html

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, send a blank email to break80ezine@aweber.com

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About the Author
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Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!”. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game.

If you’re anything like the golfers who attend my golf instruction sessions, you have some courses you like and some you don’t. Have you ever wondered why? We’ll probably never know for certain why some golfers like one course and others don’t. But there’s a theory that may explain the mystery and how it impacts your golf handicap.

This theory is based on the idea of brain dominance. Briefly, some people are right-brained. Others are left-brained. Right-brained people are creative and artistic, as well as are unconventional and spontaneous. Left-brained people are analytical and precise. They are also traditional and routine-oriented. While we are all a little of each, one side often dominates. The dominant side strongly influences what we think and do, including what jobs we like, who we associate with, and how we perform a task.

Right-brained vs. Left-brained Courses
The golf course theory holds that subconsciously right-brained people like right-brained courses, that is, courses designed by right-brained people. Left-brained people like left-brained courses, that is, courses created by left-brain people. While every course has elements of both, usually one side dominates over the other, making the course either right-brained or left brained.

Left-brained courses have things like signature holes, gently flowing features, great irrigation and drainage, and a lot of flat greens. They are designed for popularity. They also test how well you’ve learned your golf lessons and play shots. Each hole is an examination of how well you can execute the correct shot. In addition, right-brained courses have ideal routes.

Right-brained courses, on the other hand, favor novel concepts, unusual features, scruffy edges, and heavy undulating greens. Often, they are an acquired taste. These courses put less stress on how well you’ve learned your golf lessons and more stress on your creativity. Wide-open, right-brained courses can be played all sorts of ways and don’t always have a signature hole. They penalize you more if you stray from the fairway.

Pine Valley vs. Augusta National
Pine Valley is classic right-brained course. It features lay-of-the-land routing, fairways interrupted by nasty sand, different use of alternate greens, and some unusual par 3s. Pebble Beach, which maximizes ocean frontage, is another good example of a right-brained course, as is its neighbor, Cypress Point, designed by Alister Mackenzie, an unconventional course designer.

Augusta National, on the other hand, is a classic left-brained course. Originally, it was a right-brained course, but thanks to modifications made by a succession of left-brained architects it now falls into the left-brained category—Amen Corner not withstanding. (Maybe that’s why Tiger does so well there.). Oakmont Country Club and Pinehurst No.2 are both classified as left-brained courses.

My Take
Interesting and unique, the right-brained/left-brained theory has some merit. It may not only explain why you like some courses and not others, but also why you shoot well on one course and poorly on another. If you’re not comfortable playing a course, you’ll lack the confidence required to play the course well. If you lack confidence, you’ll probably play poorly and that will have an impact on your scores and golf handicap.

However, other factors can also affect how you feel about a course. These criteria include things like design variety, whether, aesthetics, condition, ambiance, and difficulty, to name a few. These factors also have an impact on your course impression.

The challenge is not to let bad course impressions affect your game or your score. Study the course thoroughly before playing it. Develop a strategy specifically for that course. Then, execute it.

Golf lessons and golf tips can’t teach you about course strategy. You can only learn it by reviewing the course and developing a strategy that fits your game. Learn to develop and execute your course strategy well and you’ll minimize your golf handicap no matter what courses you play.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

Putting isn’t just about feel. It’s also about information processing. In other words, the better you are at reading greens, the more likely you are to sink a putt. You don’t need a golf tip to tell you that. Plumb-bobbing is an old-school technique for generating information that’s useful in putting. Some players swear by it. Others disregard it. The question is can it help you sink a putt.

The biggest knock against plumb-bobbing is that it tells you how a putt breaks but not how much. But a computer model developed by Fredrick Haney, Ph.D., a few years ago, is changing the way golfers think about plumb-bobbing. Haney’s model suggests that there’s more to it than meets the eye and that with a little effort you can use it to help determine how much a putt breaks. Improve your putting and you’ll slice strokes off your golf handicap quickly.

The Art of Plumb-bobbing
Before we get into Haney’s findings, lets take a look at plumb-bobbing and how to do it correctly. Here are six tips on plumb-bobbing:
1. Stand behind the ball
2. Extend one arm
3. Hold the grip lightly
4. Align your dominant eye
5. Flex your knees
6. Align the shaft’s longest point

Stand behind the ball so the hole, ball, and your dominant eye are aligned. Keep your eyes parallel to whatever slope exists on the portion of the green you’re standing on. Flex your knees slightly. Let your body tilt with the green’s slope. Holding the top of the grip lightly between your thumb and forefinger, extend your arm slightly. Let the putter hang freely in your grip.

Next, using your dominant eye, line up the putter so that the shaft’s lowest point covers the ball. Without moving your head, look up at the hole. If it appears to the right of the shaft, the hole slopes left. If it appears on the left, the hole slopes right. If it’s in line with the putter, the hole is flat. That’s all there is to it. You could learn all you need to know about plumb-bobbing in the first 5 minutes of a golf lesson.

Determining Plumb-Bobbing Distance
If you plumb-bob correctly, you’ll notice that the putter makes a point either left or right of the hole on the putting surface. The distance from that spot to the center of the hole, Haney explains, is the plumb-bob distance (PBD), a measure of slope and distance at the ball. On a level putt with no right or left break, the PBD is zero. But for all other putts, plumb-bobbing produces a discrete value. That value is an indicator of how much the ball will react around the hole.

Using PBD, Haney developed a computer model on plumb-bobbing. It takes into account varying speeds of greens, the distance of a putt, and the amount of slope (both sideways and up or down). It also takes into account the effect of friction on a putt. When you first stroke a ball, it first slides and then rolls. Both are considered in the computer model. The force of friction causes the ball to slow down. Haney’s goal was to figure out if you could use plumb-bobbin to determine the true amount of the break.

Computer Model Guidelines
After examining lots of examples and producing numerous charts, Haney concludes that for typical green speeds (9 on the Stimpmeter) and level putts (no uphill or downhill slope), the amount of break varies from slightly more that the PDB for gentle slopes to about 1-1/2 times the PBD for steeper slopes.

The above guidelines assume you’re following the Dave Pelz suggestion for leaving your missed putts 17 inches past the cup. If you like to die your putts into the hole, then you need to allow for about 2 to 4 times the PBD for steeper slopes.

For similar conditions, moderate uphill putts break as little as half the PBD. Down hill putts can break anywhere from eight to 10 times the PBD. Obviously, downhill putts break much more than uphill putts. Green speed has much the same effect as uphill and downhill putts. The break is greater for faster greens than for slower ones.

Putting is about feel and information processing. The better feel you have and the more accurate your information processing, the more your chance of being the kind of putter that sports a low golf handicap and that I talk about in my golf tips. Keep in mind, however, that there’s no magic formula for determining the break on a putt. But by experimenting and using PBD as an additional bit of information, you can improve your green-reading skills.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.