Club Shaft and the Bump

Hi all, been a while eh?
Well with all the positive chatter about the swingrite I had to get in on the action and give Doc some $$, should have it in a few weeks, cant wait!
Congratulations to DJ for the brilliant 2nd round today! I was gutted Live@ cut their coverage just as DJ was stepping up to the 15th especially with him being 2" from sinking a 40' eagle putt! then another birdie on 17th, talk about closing out strong! (sorry Steve but I dont think that'll jinx him hehe) will have to check out the highlights on pgatour.com to see if they feature him.

I'm hoping to get to the range tomorrow afternoon, Robert. Any chance you can make it out? Probably not till around 2, though, right in the middle of our hottest day of the year so far. :)

Where do you live - there is a clubfiiter at Cobaki lakes (near Tweed Heads) very good

Hi Doc, I was playing with my local Pub Social Golf Club last Sunday out at Penrith Golf Club (West of Sydney towards the Blue Mountains) and I tried out my mates driver that he got off his brother in law as a freeby because "he couldn't use it properly".   I said to him that the head looks smaller than the typical 460 CC and can I have a look at it.   It was an older Callaway driver by the name of Fusion and it was a 350 CC head, hmm got my interest.   However when I put this driver against my Launcher the shaft was a good 1,1/4" shorter than my driver, that really got my interest.   I said to my mate "lets swap drivers for this hole" (we are a social club) and after a few practice swings I stepped up to the ball and proceeded to smack a perfectly straight solid shot right down the middle of the fairway.    I then tucked the driver under my arm, snuck over to my bag, and put this driver into my bag.   My other mate said "Dale, looks like your not getting your driver back!"   Dale then had a go with my Launcher and hit it OK except for a mild slice, I said to  him these modern big headed longer shafted behemoths are much harder to hit than your driver and I am trading in my driver to something similar to what you've got.  Regards, Craig

Amos, once again my friend, I'm amazed at your FIRs and your putt count. Congrats.

Fred, actually his shaft position was very good. Though we want to feel as tough the club is straight up(if you have all of Don's paid for video lessons) Don shows many times that in reality our club will be slightly laid off, especially on the way down "in the slot". Lynns club is right back between the head and the soft top of the shoulder by the neck at the top. Perfect and the hands go up very vertical. Additionally, we have been told many times that even a shaft angled at 11oclock would be quite acceptable. Watch Surges swing done in actual dynamic motion and use slow motion to see where it is and you'll see that it is closer to 11, especially on the way back down. Anywhere between 11-12 is very acceptable from anyone, pro or newby just learning.
This lesson was very helpful and really shows how small the movement of the bump is to initiate the transition into the FUS. Thanks Doc.

Howdy all,
Doc, very nice video on the bump.I thoroughly enjoyed it during my lunch break today. Contained a lot of good stuff. I'll be here at the Hall for a while longer as I'm doing as much preemptive paperwork as I can, to speed up my departure after class tomorrow. Looking forward to Friday and working with you on finding the clubs/tools that will maximize my game.
Happy Golfing

Doc

If I remember correctly the quote from TEF was "As nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs".  LOL.  Sorry Karl, the devil made me do it.

Thank you T.

I didn't receive that information with mine, and got the impression from Kate that she was slightly reluctant to give out those details since they could only be treated as being very approximate and not to be taken too rigidly. Perhaps, having carried out their test they decided to publish after all.

I can confirm that the figures you quote are the same as given to me.

Cheers

Brian 

No problem. I doubt I can make it tomorrow, but if a miracle occurs, I'll meet you there.

Surgeites :

   I went out ot San Marcos this morning for 18 holes of fun.
   I knew it was goig to be a good day when I bogied the first hole.  Any of you that read my progress reports know that usually double bogie that hole.

    It was mostly a very good day, but a couple of "Senior moments" arrived - resulting in two triple bogies.  Like the old nursery rhyme, "When I was good I was very good, but when I was bad, I was very bad"

   13 of 14 fairways- first 13 in a row -- pulled my drive low and left on 18 - Druvubg average = 167 yards, about normal for me - but maybe a little short.

   3 GIR with 2 more "very near misses"

   5 bunkers again, but 1 Sandy.

   8 one-putts, 0 three-putts for 28 putts used.

   score: 45 +42 = 87

     I will be out of town for a week beginning Monday -- so "you won't have me to kick around" for nearly a week ! LOL

     Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG

     Amos

I think we'd all love that. :) For now, I'll be happy with 3 clicking every time instead of every other time.

Is it better to adjust the toe up or toe down by slight bending of the wrist? I try to keep my wrists straight but tend to stick the toe in the ground and shank the ball sometimes.

Boogermister,
Excellent my golfing brother. Wow sounds like you had an epic fitting experience and a golf lesson along with it. Seems you're going to have some wonderful sticks to play with!
Quick update on my day. First, I played 18 today at the Snow Mountain Golf Course at Paiute. This was still with my old clubs(more on the new in a second). This was my first 18 since my grip change and work with the swingrite. Looked like it was going to be an outstanding day as I started out with a par 4 then another par 4 then settled down as I  had a string of 5 bogies another par and a double to shoot a 43. Not bad, could have been much better as I missed 3 putts under 8 feet, ugh! The day started out with 25-30 mph winds and got windier from there on the second 9. On the back I could manage only 2 pars but the winds were closer to 45 mph and it got silly out in the desert. 46 for an 89. Actually considering the wind an the difficulty of this Pete Dye layout all in all not bad.
    Here's the real good news; I got my new clubs today. Wow is applicable here too. I'll tell you more about them later.
    Glad you had a great experience Boog,
PMG!

Robert, I really like working it on 9 for those pitch shots like you mention. I take it back to about the mitt and start my FUS. It seems to work really well for me.

Janet,

Overthinking??? Really??  If you check "overthinking" in your Funk and Wagnalls dictionary, my picture is the first definition...LOL...Sorry Karl.

Lynn42

If you want to understand the terms being discussed, the best option would be to purchase and read the Foundations Manual so you know what the Swing Surgeon Golf Swing is. We hear you that you've been extremely successful both in competition and in teaching long driving competitors, but this site is not about winning long drive competitions. It's about playing the best, pain free golf each individual is capable of playing without having to construct a different swing for every club in the bag.

Reading the manual, you'll understand what I mean when I say that this swing is defined by taking the club back toe up into the mitt and up the tree to ring the bell and bump into the FUS to the T-Finish.

Yo hump, I think the low audio must be on your end. I was almost tempted to turn down my volume when Doc began. You may want to check your master volume settings,they have been known to "slide" now & then.
Happy Golfing, Booger

Janet, Your first line flashed me back to the oldie K. Rogers/5th Edition song, Just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in. Now I'm up to Bob Hope, Thanks for the memories.

Welcome back, I hope that the one in Trauma ICU is doing better, I will pray for their healing and for the car's sufferings as well. Best wishes for you and yours.

Thanks. I plan to practice with it a little each day.

I was asked by one of your bloggers that thinks very highly of you and that known me for a long time and even followed my longdrive competitions. I even had my own longdrive academy so I have it down pretty good. Thanks for asking

I want you to know that it doesn't get any better than that in my book either.  It was a pleasure to meet and work with you and to meet Josh and your wife as well.  Sorry to hear about your accident.  I notice you didn't say what happened.  I trust it's not bad.  Again, it sure was great to meet you and I will now tell everyone that you have a swing like DJ.

Well, it's as fast as DJ's in any case!

Excellent below.  The fact is that there is no real formula.  Generally speaking, cutting from the butt end has some effect on flex but not as much as cutting from the tip.  The difficulty in just cutting from the butt end and then adding weight back is that this does have an effect on flex.  It will lower the flex.  Example:  Take a driver and cut it down to 43.5" which is a 3 wood length.  Weight the head back to achieve the same MOI and you will have made the driver head weigh the same as a 3 wood which is about 215 grams.  Now that you have done that, you lower the flex a whole flex because the shaft has not been tipped like it should have been for a 3 wood.  So, just cutting is not really good.  Cutting and weighting back is not really good either.  However, in some instances you can do either and still have a club that works because the club wasn't right to begin with.  It is really best to see a certified fitter that can help you.

It's different for every person, and also dependent somewhat on the clubs. The lie angle in question is DYNAMIC lie angle, which is how the club head is in relation to the shaft when it swings through impact. This is different to some degree from the static or address lie angle. There's are guidelines online that give you a place to start from, but the best way to determine if your lie angle is correct or incorrect is to put tape along the bottom edge and swing the club. Look where along the tape most of the debris is. If the club is set correctly, it should be a relatively even dispersion from the point directly below the sweet spot.

Good day mate! Hey Phil, hope your well. Yes DJ played great 62!

Hey RM and RF:  Now that's just simply TOOOOOO Hot to play in.  Maybe a little "nite-golf" would work better!  LOL   R2

You may have been on your club quest when he posted that the July trip was off, but he'd try to get up later in the year.

Started out birdy,par,birdy, par,birdy. made a couple of long putts! Go Deej!! 4 under now. The lead is 7 so he's not far off. I'm heading to the golf course. Have a great days guys and gals.

I  like the sound of DJ's scores...missed those two, Had to take Josh to the Zoo after we got my pinkie doctored up.Who would've thought I'd have to use my Red Cross training on myself, actually I was walking Leisa through the precedure, lol. Anyway, I've just been told it's time to go eat. I'll make after-fitting report when I get back in.
Booger

Great information on another way to check it. Thanks, Jerry. I seem to remember Russ Ryden talking about that in one of the videos he did with Don from the Carrollton, TX golf schools.

Very informative.  Your "bump" and "Ring the Bell" description I know is going to help me.  How can I get in touch with you for a fitting?

Doc great video.
 
I agree with having a fitted driver for the vertical swing. I have been playing with the vertical swing with my Irons and have it down pretty well room for improvement though with the bump. But trying to swing rotational with the driver because of it having a 46" shaft. The more I got the vertical swing with the irons ingrained the last two weekends I have been having all kinds of problems with that driver hence the driver fitting yesterday and being fit to 441/2 " long driver. I am sure that it will take a couple of practice sessions to get used to it.
 
The other thing yesterday when at my fitting when he / we started the technical talk about shafts and driver heads he was surprised that I know everything he was talking about and interjected some of my own thoughts in with him having the final say and he said it was nice to do a fitting without having to explain every little detail. I told him that everything I know came from Lynn Griffin and his post on the website he just laughed and said that’s good that people are starting to listen to Certified Fitter / Builders  .  
Thanks for everything you do and Don does on this website.
Roger

Lynn,
Check to make sure your stance has not gotten tooooooooooo narrow.

Go to our web site.  All the information is there on the tab on the left for the SWINGRITE.

www.docgriffingolf.com

I find the last statement a bit confusing as the bump takes place before you ever start the arms coming down much less extending.  In fact, the bump is what predicates the arms dropping.

DJ's off to a nice start on his first 9. He birdied #11with a 43 foot putt. Just made birdy on 15 so now 2 under after 6 holes. Follow his progress on shot tracker @ www.PGATOUR.com

Meditate real hard, I'm sending it directly to your mind. You should be getting it any minute now.  This will help about as much as the previous two times you didn't read the responses.

You're welcome. I think I was one of the first to get one from Doc, in July of last year. I think it was posted at the site then, but perhaps not. Most of you fellows are out of my league. I can get clicks on #5, but my 80% normal comfortable is  6. My fitter has me in special made heads for 80mph or lower, so the calculations should be fairly close in my case. I'll never be a long hitter again, but keeping it in play is allowing me to consistently score in the low 80s now, with one recent 39 on a nine hole. I had another 40 on the first nine yesterday, but of course couldn't follow up on the back and ended up 40/43. I'll take fairways and greens over woods and punch outs any day.  Cheers 

Sandy, go to www.agcpforum.com and you find the Association of Clubfitting  Professionals.
Click on agcp fitter locator and certified professionals are listed from around the world. I did not see one for Autralia but did seee one in New Zealand. It is a helpful web site in any case with many informative articles for all.

Answer:   WOW!  But you did not swing it vertically.  You swung if flat and laid off.  Pure and simple and that's what we're talking about.  I don't think you'll find anywhere that I ever say you can't swing a long shafted driver.  I have, do, and will say you can not swing a driver that is too long for your WTF measurement upright (vertically) and you have to swing around your body more and it also requires other types of movements.  Those movements would be the down swing starts with a turn of the hips rather than a bump.  You have to hold the release longer to avoid hooks.  You have to play the ball a bit further back in the stance than with the vertical swing so as to not hit the ball with the face closed.  You can also rotate the shoulders and hips as much as your body can stand.  And if you do that you can wind up with back aches, bad shoulders, and hurt knees and so forth. 

I'm sure I'll get a rebuttal to this information and have at it.  But, I have said all I care to say and don't care to keep  up the debate.  Bottom line, there are two types of swings, that's it.  There is the flat more rotational swing and the vertical more up right swing and the two characteristics do not mix well and I'm not saying either is right or either is wrong.  But, on this blog we are the later and tip our hat to those who prefer the former.  Have a great weekend from one that use to rotate with the best of them until he tore up his shoulder.  Thanks goodness for Surge and seeing that there is another more body friendly swing.  Amen, sermon over and I forgot to take the offering!

Great news and thanks for sharing!

Don, in this video Lynn is clearly in the 'sacred buria ground' "not good" instruction,\.

AD Fred