About 0.5 gr's per inch. David
Thanks David, that confirms a suggestion that was made that it would take 24 inches of lead tape to equal the two inches of shaft that I removed.
Actually, I think it says double that. The calculations are: 2 inches of club length = 12 swingweight points. 1 swingweight point = 2 grams of weight at the clubhead 1 gram = 2 inches of lead tape
Multiplying 12x2x2 we get 48, not 24.
Maybe the guy who told you was wrong. Or maybe you have lead tape that's 1 gram per inch; the tape I buy weighs what David Dugally said, but there are other types on the market.
I don't question the amount but 24 inches of lead tape sure seems to be a lot heavier than two inches of shaft. I have to assume its effect is more related to the location of that weight rather than the amount.
Swingweight is not total weight. The length of the club (how far the head weight is from the grip) is much more significant than shaft weight. If you're interested in knowing more about this, see my Club Design Notes at http://clubmaker-online.com/resource.html
I added four 3" strips of tape to the sole of the club head and it did improve the feel and there was improved distance. These four strips should have added 6 gr's to the swing weight if I am understanding the process correctly. Well I found out yesterday that more is not necessarily better when I added another 6 gr's.
Sounds like you have found the right swingweight for you. It varies by golfer.
In retrospect, removing the 2 inches may have made things better by improving the swingweight as much as by improving the length.
Although I only hit balls into a net, I have no way of knowing the distance they may have traveled, most of them had very little rise as if the loft of the club had been decreased by the weight...
I guess my next question is obvious, should I move the weight to the top of the club or the back and would either one return the loft to the club head?
Normally, it's hard to do much to the CG with lead tape.
- The driver is the lightest head in the bag, about 200g.
- You are adding a lot of lead tape; the last experiment was 12g.
So you are adding 6% of the total head weight. That's a lot, but it might not be enough to have an effect.
If you added that much weight to the top of the head, you might get a slightly lower trajectory if there was any effect at all (unlikley), certainly not higher. So that won't solve your problem (if it is a problem). Adding it to the back should give a higher trajectory -- if it has any effect at all -- so you might try that if you can find enough room there to add all that tape.
Another possibility is that the swingweight, not the weight itself, is causing the lower trajectory. If you have any kind of late release plus hand hit, a higher swingweight might be slowing the head's coming through. Did the original removal of the 2" give you a higher trajectory than you had with the longer club? If so, this theory may be right. If not, then I'm all wet here.
Hope this helps more than it confuses.
Good luck! DaveT
