Up until I got about 10 yrs of golf club design and R&D under my belt, I too used to stew and worry over the small things I would measure and notice in my work. But as I did more R&D and more design work, I started to learn that there could be tons of minutia that I could waste my time on and miss the more important bigger picture. It was from this that I coined the phrase that I use at times in my writing - "we who design golf clubs and research their performance now have the ability to measure things that golfers simply do not have the ability to note or detect in the form of any visible or significant difference in the performance of the clubs." This was one of the reasons I chose to use terms like "Practical" and "Common Sense" in the titles of my books on clubfitting. Over the past 15 yrs I have so much wanted clubmakers to learn to focus on the things that make the most visible game improvement and forget the others that won't or don't.
With respect to lie fitting, the application of practicality and common sense has led me to these simple realizations which years of use has proven is viable. 1. Any manner of lie fitting is better than no lie fitting for a golfer who has always bought standard made clubs off the rack 2. Proper administration of a lie board fitting will work fine for getting a golfer into a properly fit set of irons for lie as long as the golfer does not have an early release and makes contact between the board and the iron on the BACK of the sole. For such golfers, the lie detector or ink mark on the back of the ball is better. 3. Lie board fitting with every other iron is ok if you need to save some time - doing it with every iron is better. This is because we all can make little different swings with respect to our position at impact for various reasons related to the clubs being different lengths. 4. If the golfer has ANY hesitation about hitting shots off a hard surface like a lie board, get him off that board and having the golfer hit the test shots off grass using the lie detector method or ink on the back of the ball We can debate the minutia until the cows come home, but at the end of the day, as long as each iron is fit within 1* up or flat of being perfect for the lie, this is not ever going to harm the golfer - with the exception of the tour player level of ball striker or the very high swing speed golfer. The greater the distance on the shot, the more a 1* error in lie at impact translates into meaningful differences in azimuth of the shot. TOM -----Original Message----- From: owner-shopt...@mail.msen.com [mailto:owner-shopt...@mail.msen.com] On Behalf Of Don M Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 12:21 PM To: ShopTalk@mail.msen.com Subject: Re: ShopTalk: Measuring Lie It's possible there is some truth to it. Henry-Griffitts Co. published a method of interpretation of lie board results that is more involved than simply flat or upright. It involves toe/heel hits and swing path. You'd have to read not only the position of the mark from toe to heel, but also from leading edge to rear edge, and the shape of it. -Don M --- On Tue, 3/23/10, j...@clubmaker-online.com <j...@clubmaker-online.com> wrote: From: j...@clubmaker-online.com <j...@clubmaker-online.com> Subject: ShopTalk: Measuring Lie To: shoptalk@mail.msen.com Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 10:37 AM I saw this post at an online forum and wonder if there is a new method I've missed out on (besides a lie board) to get a lie reading? I don't mean to get off topic, but a loft/ lie board does not work accurately. To get a true lie reading, you have to get the reading at contact. The lie boards are obsolete. The shaft deflects as much as 2.5 degrees (in either direction) immediately after contact, and the lie board gives a reading after contact. Furthermore... irons have different sole properties and the leading edge on some grinds don't line up with scoring lines. So to sum this up... if you get fit using a lie board... you aren't getting fit at all! -- Thanks! John Muir shoptalk skype: jhmuir AIM: golfcas...@mac.com 810.923.7396 http://clubmaker-online.com http://gripscience.com clubmaker.mobi golf equipment updates at http://twitter.com/golfcast sponsored by http://aldilavoodoo.com
