Want a sure-fire way to hit the golf ball further?
The answer is simple. Use lighter golf clubs.
Lighter golf clubs help you to generate more clubhead speed, which translates into more power, leading to longer shots than you’ve ever hit before.
Okay, it’s time to be honest. Switching to lighter golf clubs isn’t the secret way to hit longer shots; in fact, switching to lighter clubs could actually cause you more harm than good.
If you’ve not spent too much time considering the importance of using the correct weight for your golf clubs, chances are you’re leaving shots on the table.
Swing weight in golf clubs, being just right, can help you hit the ball better, and it can add yards to your game. Believe it or not, switching to heavier golf clubs could be the catalyst to adding more yards to your game, and not the opposite way around.
So it’s time to uncover the mysteries of swing weight and help you understand the benefits and disadvantages of focusing solely on this one area.
We’ll cover the following areas to give you a comprehensive guide:
- What Is Swing Weight?
- Is Swing Weight The Secret Cheat Code To More Performance?
- The Importance of Total Club Weight
- Fitting Beyond Swing Weight
What Is Swing Weight?
We can start to assess the weight of a golf club from the minute we pick it up.
Instinctively, we can feel if the golf club is heavy or light in our hands, or when we place it down in the address position and perform the waggle test with it.
Our senses play an important part in determining the weight of a golf club; however, there is also a more scientific approach to ascertaining a club’s weight.
Nine By Nine Golf fitters use the same device as those found on tour trucks to obtain the most accurate reading of the club’s weight.
The golf club is placed on a fulcrum, positioned 14 inches from the grip end, where the balance point is determined.
The visual clue for a heavier club will see the balance point found further towards the clubhead compared to lighter clubs.
If you check manufacturers’ websites often enough, when you look at the club specification section, you’ll see a swingweight column followed by a reference like “D3” if we use the Ping G440 Max as a reference point.
If you’ve ever wondered what D3 really means, here’s golf club swing weight explained in plain English.
The D3 refers to the scale that’s used universally to categorise the weight of every golf club.
There are eight ranges from the letters A to G, and within those ranges, ten values are applied from 0 to 9.
The lightest a golf club could ever be would carry an A0 designation, while the heaviest golf club would be G9.
Most golf clubs available for retail fall in the category of D1 to D3 for men and C5 to C7 for women, so our Ping G440 Max driver sits on the heavier end of what is standard. The interesting thing to note is that if you look at the Ping G440 LST driver, it has a marginally smaller head profile at 450cc compared to the G440 Max, but has a heavier swingweight of D4.
The heavier weight is a reference to the PING G440 LST driver being aimed towards better players, who need to reduce spin due to higher clubhead speeds.
The caveat here is that the overall swing weight can be altered by customising the shaft to your swing requirements.
Is Swing Weight The Secret Cheat Code To More Performance?
Swing weight in a golf club can sometimes play tricks with us.
Lighter weights can put off better players who feel they need heavier golf clubs to provide more stability for their swings, but that isn’t always the case.
Better players with smoother transitions in their swings could benefit from a lighter club, which would blend perfectly with the less aggressive swing characteristics.
Higher handicap golfers can make a strong move towards the golf ball as they try to knock the cover off it, but lack the directional control of a more skilled player. If you are this type of player, you may gain more directional control from a heavier club that will provide more stability.
Swing weight also highlights the importance of being custom-fitted for your golf clubs because our swing characteristics vary from player to player. This is simple logic; if you are an 18-handicapper, your clubhead speed, swing tempo, and delivery of the clubhead to the ball will be different from those of a scratch golfer.
The impact of these different swing conditions can affect how the golf shaft loads and unloads, and the opening and closing of the clubface, relating to strike location.
If we are looking to add more yards to our drives, one quick remedy would be to put in a lighter shaft, which could help us create more clubhead speed.
Technically, that could happen. However, you might not actually gain any more distance because all of a sudden, you have less control over the clubhead and the strike location.
If you’re really looking to gain an advantage, you have to make the transition from thinking of swing weight to the overall weight of the golf club.
So, how do you assess the differences between swing weight versus total weight?
Where swing weight looks at how the weight of the club is distributed across its length, overall or total club weight captures the weight of each individual component of the club: head, shaft, and grip, and is critical to creating a well-balanced golf club.
The Importance of Total Club Weight
Our example above of placing a lighter golf shaft in your driver to generate more speed can backfire because if the head sits on the heavier side, the overall weight of the club is out of sync, and that’s where the poor ball striking and lack of direction can come into effect.
Having any element of the shaft or clubhead out of kilter can have a disastrous impact on your swing as well.
Trying to muscle a heavier golf club when you have a smooth tempo or trying to slow your swing down if the club feels too light can only lead to poor scoring on the course and a loss in confidence as you seek swing-based solutions to get some parity back in your game.
When you have the overall weight of the golf club right, it feels like a natural extension to your swing, you have the confidence to swing in your normal fashion without having to make compensations, and that is always good news when it comes to playing golf well.
The secret to unlocking the right overall club weight comes from being custom-fitted for your clubs.
Fitting Beyond Swing Weight
We often talk about golf club fitting as a two-part consultation process.
The first element is the data that’s captured from the launch monitor during the session, which helps us understand how you deliver the clubhead into impact and the subsequent launch, spin, strike location, and carry distance numbers.
The launch monitor picks up additional important data that the naked eye won’t catch, such as how open or closed the clubface is at impact and the path it took to get to the ball.
The second element of the consultation is the conversation with our fitter.
Numbers tell us a lot, but we also need your feedback on what you might be working on in your game, what the bad shots look and feel like on the course, and if you have a preference for going after the ball hard or if you generally swing the club at less than 100% full out.
When it comes to recommendations, manufacturers give us every opportunity to hone in on the specs that are right for you to build a perfectly balanced set of clubs.
Lightweight materials such as carbon composites used in driver and fairway wood production complement shaft ranges, which have progressively gotten lighter over the last few years.
Moveable weights and adjustable hosels can move the clubhead’s centre of gravity and dial in the shot shape and trajectory needed, which, coupled with the right shaft, can help eliminate big misses.
Custom fitting is also about getting the length of your golf clubs just right.
As an extension of us all having different swing characteristics, the same can be said for our height and physical setup.
Lengthening clubs can add additional weight, which may need to be trimmed from elsewhere in order to get the perfect overall club weight.
Shortening golf clubs will lighten them; however, using lead tape or hot melts within the clubhead can bring the weight back up to the desirable measure.
For either option, having accurate weighing equipment and fulcrums in our assembly point will ensure your golf clubs are made to the precise swing weight and overall weight as agreed during the fitting session.
Swing weight is important, and it’s a reference that’s often seen but seldom properly understood.
Building a golf club or clubs that can genuinely improve your game comes down to having the overall weight perfect for how your swing works.
Nobody understands this better than custom fitters, and that’s why if you want to invest in improving your game, you need