Today's tip comes from a question sent to me by Hap Simpson, a 91 years-young Surgite from Prince William County, Virginia, who is still working on perfecting his game. How great is that?!! Hap writes:
"Although I've been playing golf for many years (I'm 91 years young now), I have thoroughly enjoyed and learned much from your instructional videos and daily blog. I do have a problem which I hope you can solve. When I look at the face of my irons I note that the worn spot is centered about 1" toward the toe of the club from the center of the face. Does this mean that I am taking the club back inside? When I do, I often hook the ball. Your advice will be appreciated."
Well, Hap, you've actually raised two issues here so let's start with your question of where the worn areas on your club faces are. My guess is that you are playing with cavity-back clubs where the designer has made the club face larger, hollowed out the back of the head (hence the name), redistributed the weight around the perimeter and added a rather large flange at the bottom. Compare this design to that of a traditional blade, sometimes referred to a muscle-back club because most of the weight is behind the center of the face and the overall size of the head is much smaller.
Conventional wisdom says that cavity-backs are recommended for high handicap players while blades are supposed to be just for low handicappers and professionals. Like many other bits of golf industry thinking, I couldn't disagree more and here's why. The sweet spot on cavity-back irons is not in the center of the face, but rather out toward the toe. The longer the iron, the more the sweet spot moves toward the toe. Designers recognize that most amateurs, the majority of whom have a rotational swing,have an outside-in swing path. So they have intentionally try to compensate for this swing fault by moving the sweet spot out toward the toe. So if that's where you are hitting most of your shots, you are actually hitting them on the sweet spot.
However, with my limited turn, 3/4 vertical swing you should learn to eliminate this outside-in swing path and therefore you won't need a cavity-back club to help correct your swing. Does that mean you can't be a good PPGS ball striker and use cavity-backs? No, not at all. But I think hitting a cavity-back vs. a muscle-back is like hitting a golf ball with a pie plate vs. with a fist. The cavity-back's larger club face with the weight distributed around the edges just doesn't have the concentrated mass behind the ball that a muscle-back does. We are about to release a full-length club fitting video as part of our exclusive content for Inner Circle members, and in it Doc Griffin does this blind swing test with Randy Wolf, one of my students (and a pretty darn good golfer) who happens to play cavity-back irons. Doc had him take 1-2 swings with a whole wall full of mid-irons. The only rules were that he couldn't examine the club to see if it was a cavity-back or a muscle-back and he had to immediately rank each club relative to all the others he had hit. The results? Muscle-back clubs were clearly the most preferred style hands down. Now I am not suggesting that everyone should run right out and buy a new set of muscle-back irons, but if you are in a situation where you are going to be buying a new set, don't automatically buy into the industry hype and work with a qualified club fitter to explore what a set of blades might do to improve your game.
For the record, the sweet spot on a muscle-back blade moves in an opposite fashion. The sweet spot will be in the center of the club for your long irons and it moves in slightly toward the hosel as your clubs get shorter.
Now let's get to your second question, Hap, about whether you should be swinging inside with the Surge Swing. In a word, "No!". We always want to swing straight back and never with a swing path that does not allow us to follow my Surgism, "On,On, and On, Square & Solid". Assuming that you have good alignment, swinging inside will flatten your swing, take you into the SBG and create havoc with your FUS. If your brain doesn't kick in and make some mid-course corrections, you'll be hitting bullets straight off to the right. If your mind does get into the act, you might cast your club up and out in an effort to get back onto the aiming line but that could lead you to slice the ball. In your case, bringing the club inside is causing you to start forward with your shoulders and that means you'll over-rotate them and your finish will be way left of the target. That's why you are hooking the ball.
So keep practicing Into The Catcher's Mitt & Up The Tree and you'll get your swing on the straight and narrow and start hitting your balls more solidly.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
If you can't view the YouTube video above try CLICKING HERE. You must allow popups from this site for the link to work.
Comments
Awiloway:
Awiloway:
ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ YES -- you should hit a blade further than a cavity back -- the fist vs the palme principle Surge mentioned in the video.
ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ Amos
Bill:
Bill:
It would seem you still have the wrong site. If your charge was to Perfect Connection Golf, this is not the site you need. This site is Peak Performance Golf. Here's the site you need. Good luck
http://perfectconnectiongolfsw...
Wow,iron man Hap still able
Wow,iron man Hap still able to enjoy golf and life at 91. On the subject of blades verses cavity back. I have the Vega blades(Japaneses forged) 7-pw scoring clubs then 7-4 in the high tech Adams Redlines. The Redlines are considered hybrid/irons that include perimeter weighting similar to the cavity back style. So I have what you might call the latest technology in the long irons but good old blade style with the Vega's. Love the feel of both. I'm certainly happy with the blades for that 150 yards and into the soring zone around the green. My advice is to find a fitter with a diverse variety of clubs for you to try. My fitter in California both spent time with me at the range and let me take a bunch of clubs on my own for a few hours to see what I liked best. Of course we spent alot of time inside on monitors and in my case he actually played 9 holes with me too while analyzing my swing style. Playing with a client as part of the fitting is uncommon but very cool and helpful.
After using cavity backs for about 30 years I now would not hesitate to recomend smaller blades such as the Vega. Of course there are many other great options. Just google blades.
SimplyGolf,
SimplyGolf,
The answer is: keep it simple and use what works best for you.
What works best for me may not work best for you. If everyone could hit the same clubs exactly the same way with exactly the same results, Doc and all the other club fitters would be out of business. Fortunately for them and all of us, we are all different. If you really like your A3's, I would suggest going to a PPGS certified club fitter and having them checked and optimized for your PPGS swing. If you are really fortunate, they will already be close to perfect for you.
I have not had mine fitted - YET. However, I know that neither set is correct. Both sets have stiff shafts - too stiff for my 87-93 mph club head speed. The lengths of my Confidence Tour Blades are correct. My Warrior cavity-backs are about 3/4" too long. The blades are about a D2 swingweight, while the cavity-backs are about a C9. If I make the same GOOD swing with both, I hit the blades straighter and about 10-12 yards longer. With POOR swings, the cavity-backs are generally straighter and about 10-15 yards shorter than my good hits, while poor hits with the blades are scattered all over the place. I can only imagine what I will be able to do when I get around to having fitted clubs.
Let's just say that a club
Let's just say that a club hit on the sweet spot does not produce a particular ball flight.ÃÂ Shot shape is affected by spin which is a result of HOW the club strikes the ball and not where it strikes the ball on the face.
Roger, You may want to
Roger, You may want to investigate all the spec comparisons between your Mizunoo's and the R11's. Over all weight, length, shaft weight and stiffness comparrison, butt,mid or tip stiffness, et. We often focus so much on the head of the club when we shop and compare but often it is simply the over all feel and performance of the club that alows us to hit them better(or worse). In any case, I can understand how it woukd be hard to resist a set that gets you consistently in the mid 70's. Let us know what the differences are. Heck for 350.00 that sounds hard to pass up if they're saving you strokes :)
Globub,
Globub,
ÃÂ ÃÂ 3 ideas for you:
ÃÂ 1) contact Doc Griffin and his 'online fitting" system -- the questionaire should be available on this site
ÃÂ ÃÂ 2) Wilson makes a set of "high-end" blades, but only availabel in stiff shafts (at least locally)
ÃÂ ÃÂ 3) tour your local pawn shopes or used sporitng goods stores -- Look for either Wilson Staff, Wilson X-22 or McGregor MT (or was it XT?) irons made in the mid-60's to earlier 70's
ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG
ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ Amos
I wouldn't even make a
I wouldn't even make a prediction on that game. I consider it completely equal and even if one team won by 30 I think if they turned around and played the next day the other team might do the same.
Great athletes on both sides.
Usually I can count on Les Miles to do a few stupid things but this year he seems to have somehow gotten smarter. (Maybe he told the assistant coaches to tackle him if he tried to do something stupid like going for it on 4th and 1 from his own 9 in the first quarter.);-)
Great insights, Don. There is
Great insights, Don. There is so much I do not know.
If I take good notes, I can learn something new everyday.
Truth: ÃÂ I'm afraid it would be a disaster to leave my Adams A3 set (cavity back) for blades.
The size of the A3's is so very close to blades, and that is, in part, why I chose them. ÃÂ
No, they are not over-sized. Yes, they are very forgiving.
I'm sure your blade comments will stir it up a bit.
OK, so it gets stirred up. Let's talk, Nation.
So: Will the average recreational golfer benefit by using
a blade iron set vs cavity back/ hybrid set?
btw: Age 91 and still golfing? Hap, u r a senior stud.
Kevin- thanks for your
Kevin- thanks for your thoughts and experiences.ÃÂ
I appreciate that you would take the time.++++And to be fair: perhaps I should actually TRYÃÂ some blades.ÃÂ
++++Doc's services would be wonderful, but alas, I'm in the west. Wish that Lynn could do my fitting. He is quite perceptive. Based on briefÃÂ description of my issues, Lynn asked some good questions, the right questions, and made some spot-on comments. (This on the inet and without any video or pics.)
Thanks to Don, Doc and some of the Nation (thanks Kevin, Smith, and others) I have built a pretty good swing....it's getting there.
And compared to a few years ago, prior to PPGS....
Night and Day.
"Quiet-Athletic-Complete"
DH:ÃÂ I always enjoy your
DH:ÃÂ I always enjoy your blogs - thanks for keeping us updated on the progress of your game.ÃÂ Weather here in Utah is cold and looks like snow is coming on Tuesday.ÃÂ Think I'll try and play on Monday and that will be it for a while.ÃÂ On this whole sweet-spot thing, I believe it depends a lot on club head design.ÃÂ The four irons that Doc Griffin built me (8, 9, PW and SW) are cavity back andÃÂ the sweet spot seems to be very close to the center of the face on each iron.ÃÂ For me, as long as I'm hitting them well and satisfied with their distance and yardage spread, I'm a happy camper :-)ÃÂ I've got some blade irons somewhere - think I'll check them out and see what I find.ÃÂ Stay tuned.ÃÂ As always, PMGAS, GBSAPS and hit 'em straight!ÃÂ R2ÃÂ ÃÂ
Steve Yes I am playing more
Steve
Yes I am playing more consistently I feel like I am back to were I was pre-rotational. Now hopefully I can maintain this level of play and start working on getting to the next level which for me is low 70's on a regular basis and dip into the upper 60,s .What I am going to start working on is the short game 125 and in.ÃÂ I calculated my handicap for the last 5 rounds it would be 5.1 but I am really a 8 or 9 . I am going to get my ghin handicap back in January and try to get my handicap down to around 4 so I can play in some local tournaments like the Cincinnati Met, Northern KY amateur and the Ky open.
We will see.
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