To Weight or Not To Weight

I bet after reading this title some of you may have thought that this might be a little bit of a Billy Shakespeare parody. Truth be told, when I sat down to write this article I already had an idea of what I was going write about. This is pretty far from the usual because usually I just sit at the laptop and everything comes from out of nowhere. My idea about this article really stemmed from a couple of things. The PGA Merchandise Show, a recent conversation with a CPGA Master Professional (whom I educated about Srixon) and my first set of legit clubs. Those irons ironically are the only ones that have had a long tenure in my bag. What's the correlation between the three things? Would you believe swing weight?

Every year while in Orlando for the show I always take advantage of swinging golf clubs that I normally don't have a chance to swing. We've seen the golf industry go from extremes when it comes to helping golfers achieve their longest attainable distances. How has the industry achieved this? Well through massive R&D budgets that discovered new technology. Things like Doppler (launch monitors), going from "heavy metal" to lightweight materials like Titanium and carbon fiber. The quest for distance has really turned into a quest for speed. Speed... is it truly where distance comes from? Speed... that is pretty much the mantra this year for Callaway Golf and their XR line of woods.

Photo Credit: wsj.com

It really makes you wonder how the stars of yesteryear did it. When stars like Nancy Lopez, Joanne Carner, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer and so many others were winning tournaments with Balata and persimmon while achieving decent distance back then. The late great Canadian Moe Norman is a terrific example of this... all of his clubs swing weighted at E-3 (an average stock iron now has a swing weight of D-1 currently) and his driver weighed 16 ounces!!! Unreal. Getting back to me personally and those first legit irons. They were my stalwart Wilson Staff Pi5 irons and the irons were D-6, my wedges D-9. Heavy I suppose, but they did a couple of things for me. Chief among them was that they allowed me to really feel the head through impact. Also, the overall weight of the club allowed me to feel them throughout the entire swing and I was half as smart as I like to think I am... I would do the same with my current irons. I remember I had a set of Callaway Golf wedges and I had to add 13 1" strips of lead tape to get the 56* right and 14 strips to get the 60* right. So is light a bad thing?

I don't necessarily think that lightweight clubs are bad. I think for some if not most golfers it's a good thing. I mean there is a reason why all of the manufacturers have invested so much time and energy into researching the ultralight game. If you can handle the lightweight clubs and you don't sacrifice control to pick up a little bit of clubhead speed then it's fine. But if you lose control for that clubhead speed and you punish yourself by going out of bounds or missing the fairway and laying in the heavy rough have you really done yourself a favour?

Photo Credit: expeditionexchange.com

When it comes to driver technology this year, I think one company got it right with their one model of club. Srixon Golf. Srixon Golf introduced their Z 355 range of woods and when I picked it up in Orlando I knew that something was different about it right away. Mass... the driver had head mass. When I made swings with it at Demo Day I never saw a drop off in distance and as a matter of fact I had a better tempo which resulted in better and more consistent contact with the sweetspot. More control... yes that was there as well. It wasn't until the final day of the show when I made swings with the Z 355 again and learned that the swingweight was a D-8. Alas.. a company that re-explored technology and made something old... new again. I have no concrete data to back it up but from a standpoint of being logical... doesn't it only make sense that a heavier head would allow a shaft to work more? Kick more? Allow you... the golfer to have the shaft work for you and not you work the club? Tempo is really a rallying crying surrounding the golf swing.

Ultimately, it all boils down to personal preference. If you're newer to the game or only know light clubs do yourself a service and explore a little more head weight. You may like the result. So the question is.... to weight or not to weight.

Until the next tee.