Re: ShopTalk: Wishon Short Driver Article

[Ed Reeder]

Tedd, To cover both sides of the swingweight spectrum I thought I'd add this.  If you go the MOI route instead of swingweight you may not need to add weight at all. When I first started experimenting with Wishon's MOI system I built a set of woods, 1w, 3w, 5w, using the MOI of my then favorite 5w.  When building MOI-matched clubs (all club MOIs are the same) their swingweights will increase from the longest club (1w/3i) to the shortest club (5w/SW).  Conversely, the swingweights decrease as the clubs get longer. Given that my MOI-matched woods were based upon my 5w that meant my 1w's swingweight would be less than the 5w's.  I ended up building a 43.5" (my optimum length) 1w that had a swingweight of C-5! I would never have built a 1w with a swingweight that low.  As the proof is found on the course, I was surprised at how good the driver felt and how well it performed.  A couple of years later it is still in my bag. /Ed Childers, Tedd A wrote: Dave, In my experience, I have found that I have to add considerable weight to most driver heads just to get a D3-D4 swingweight at 45". My current driver is an Infiniti Propulsion 460cc (also a carbon crown design like the 5n2), mated to an Aggressive Frenzy shaft at 45". I added 5 grams of tip weight, and an additional 5 grams of lead tape just to get to D4 at 45" (with a 52 gram grip). I have found that a lot of the newer heads are coming in at 195-196 grams instead of around 200 like most components used to. If I shortened to 44", I would have to add another 8-10 grams of lead tape, and at that point the head does start looking ugly, and you have to be careful where you are adding the weight. Ideally, one could buy a head at around 210 grams, toss in a 50-60 gram shaft and a 50 gram grip, and you have a nice 44" driver with a D4 swingweight and a total weight around 310-320 grams. Currently, you have to go with a ~100 gram shaft and a ~200 gram head to get anywhere close to D4 at 44", and with a 50 gram grip you are at 350+ grams total weight. The other trend I have found is that some of the heavier weight graphite shafts are balanced sort of butt heavy, so even though you expect a higher swingweight at shorter length, you don't actually get it. In my opinion, that's te worst of both worlds. Tedd <snip>