EQUIPMENT

The golfing industry has exploded over the past 25 years. Every company seems to bring out a new model of driver and irons and claim them to be the longest and most forgiving clubs ever made.

Alas, many people fall for this marketing. They don't actually get longer, straighter shots, but are out several hundred dollars in quick fashion.

I have lived through the entire sequence. From persimmon woods and blade irons all the way into the huge titanium-headed drivers and perimeter-weighted iron sets. So, from experience, I have a very good handle on what has evolved.

I was always one of the longest drivers of the ball on the tours that I competed on. My swing was designed to punish the balata ball with that small-headed wood, and I was able to get it to fly far and consistent drives of 300 yards, more regularly than not.

If I believed all the hype, then by using all the latest and greatest equipment, that would gain me 8 more yards, then I should be hitting the ball 400 yards. Of course, I am not. One, because I am far older and less agile than back in the day, and secondly, because marketing doesn't live up to the claims or the hype.

FEEDBACK IS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT

The brain needs feedback. If we make a poor swing we need to know about it. It is only then that we can improve our technique.

And that is one of the issues with the more forgiving golf clubs. The feedback of a poorly struck shot is diminished. Our senses are not as aware of the shot, and it continues to deliver the club in the wrong manner and the swing becomes progressively worse over time.

I have no issue with people playing with upgraded modern equipment. However, I think it is ultra important to practice with clubs that are not disguising poorly hit shots. That is how our brain distinguishes the swing and the strike. We need the feedback of the club to know our swing was misaligned.

Groove your swing pattern with older equipment. It is not inferior. It is just telling you that things aren't as great with your swing as you assume they may be.

SO WHAT CLUB IS RIGHT FOR ME?

The biggest issue I have with club fitting is that the clubs are built around the golf swing you produce on that day you are being tested. Is that your swing as you want it to be? Or was your back a little sore that day? Are you trying too hard to get distance during your fitting?

If a student suggests to me, they are going to get a new set of clubs, I typically write down on a piece of paper the specifications they should get the new set built to. I am guiding their swing tendencies into a better pattern by having their clubs designed to suit the swing they want, or we are working towards, rather than the swing they take with them to the fitting. It always works.

As their coach, I know their tendencies. Those tendencies can be exaggerated because of their equipment.

Generally, golf clubs are too upright in their lie angle. This is compensation for a bad swing plane and release pattern. So let's get flatter clubs immediately. Now the swing can work more around the body rather than up and down and vertical.

Then I generally get them to use heavier shafts or swing weights. Why? Because golfers over accelerate light clubs. They get too fast on the way down trying to create speed in the wrong area of the swing. Heavier clubs sidestep some of this over acceleration issue. Plus, the mass of a club delivers more blow to the ball when done correctly.

The last step is to use a stiffer shaft than suggested. Again, over acceleration early in the swing deflects the shaft once the maximum speed has been reached and the shaft now slows down to let the club head catch up. Unkicking the shaft is a recipe for poorly struck shots. Fat and thin shots are common. The clubface also becomes misaligned with the target. At least a stiffer shaft will reduce the amount of shaft deflection if the golfer still has that tendency.

Club fitting is really about stacking the cards in the deck in your favor.

Set the clubs up for your future swing and use them to help assist that progression.

BOB CHARLES TALKS EQUIPMENT

Bob Charles was the first left-handed golfer to win a major championship.

He was champion golfer of the year in 1963 when he took out the title at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

His thoughts align perfectly with my logic about practice and the logic behind it.

A LITTLE PIECE OF HISTORY

Bob Vokey Interview - Designer of Titleist Vokey wedges

Q: "Voke, who was the first player to win using one of your wedges?"

Vokey: "I will go all the way back. The first wedge put in play was by Andy Bean in 1997. That was a 456-14. He took it right out of my bag and put it into play. That was in Memphis and I'll never forget it. It was a prototype, and he said 'I just gotta have it'. I had to make a phone call to see if that could happen because, after all, it was a prototype, but we let him use it.

The first win on Tour was Bradley Hughes playing the Australian Masters. He won that in early 1998.

Q: "How did you end up getting Bradley Hughes' wedges into his bag?"

Vokey: I had known Bradley for a while from the PGA Tour, and he had come up to me saying he didn't like his contact with his wedges close to the green. So I went and set up a couple of wedges to test with different bounces. We went into a bunker and tried them out. And boom. Four months later, he became my very first winner."

DON BRADMAN -THE GREATEST EVER

Don Bradman was the greatest cricket batsman of all time. He finished his first class career with an average of 99.94 per innings. Nobody has come close to that mark. It is equivalent to having a baseball batting average of 1000.

When Bradman was growing up, he used a cricket stump or a branch of a tree to practice. He would strike a golf ball against the brick wall of his house. The branch was 1/10th of the size of a regular cricket bat.

He made the act of striking the ball more difficult. When he had a regulation-sized bat in his hands and a regular-sized ball was hurled at him, I am sure the ball looked like the size of a watermelon.

The other teams couldn't dismiss him from the crease. The man was a genius, and he excelled at his sport by making practice harder... not easier.

It's a great lesson to be learned. And he was also a fabulous golfer with a scratch handicap.

The equipment a golfer uses plays a massive role in how their swing will take shape and mold.

It is therefore very important to understand how lie angles, shaft stiffness, grip size, swing weight and overall weight of the club can help or hinder you in your search for better golf.

Just like the phrase you are what you eat, you very much are your swing transforms based on what you swing.

If a golfer can set their equipment up in a manner that assists their swing to a pattern they desire and receive dedicated feedback from their clubs, they are well on the way to building a swing that can produce more consistent golf shots and build that swing for a lifetime.

Bradley Hughes

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brad@bradleyhughesgolf.com