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Out of the data we could find none of the senior pros had a mixed set of blades and cavity backs. There may be some we don’t know about though of course but think it’s fair to say from the 50 odd pros we found iron info on that it’s very much a niche choice if any of them do play such a mixed set.
They just need to add in the percentage they get paid to play a certain type of shaft specially in their driver and Threewood. And their irons, I know that’s more of a field thing. But the driver in the Threewood is more for selling to the public.
Yup agreed this would be useful for sure. A couple of the manufacturers have tried this in the past and it affected sales apparently so they’ve reverted to numbers. Will be interesting to see if it comes back at some point though!
Good stuffs and thanks! Just wondering if you can do a video focussing on the Graphite shaft for Irons for Champion Tours. Want to know the percentages for Graphite shaft on Iron only as I am switching to graphite as it is easier on the body.
Many thanks and delighted you enjoyed the video. We’re working on a graphite shafts analysis across the main tours - PGA, LIV, Champions Tour and LPGA and aim to put this up soon 👍
We’ve done a similar review of PGA Tour shafts in another video too - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u4dCC4rSunk.htmlsi=0px4Jqvj0XaJqTbQ. Update for 2024 in the works also 👍
How many of these players are still sponsored? Most Irons don’t differ that much and if you get them for free plus a nice paycheck, as a player you pick the highest bidder.
Definitely sponsorship plays a part for sure but not for all of them. Langer has 7 different brands in his bag for example and he’s not sponsored by them all. It is a factor though for sure
Honestly, the greatest piece of advice I ever got was a few weeks ago when older gentleman stopped me at the range and said, “if you try to swing with less power, the drive will feel smoother , and the drive will eventually go farther and more importantly, more accurately.” Boy did that click.
Awesome and delighted it’s working for you. No question different pieces of advice work for different people and delighted you’ve found this mantra that works. 👍
The attachment of club head to shaft at heel make the mass in the club head twist the shaft and toe of the club open and closed during the swing the more mass there is in the toe of the club the more this occurs. In the hands of an experienced golfer the sensation of the club heat TRYING to twist in the hands provides valuable feedback and situational awareness of face angle during the swing allowing them to adjust it with their superior hand-brain-coordination if it isn’t correct for the shot being planned; straight or straight. The pros seldom try to hit and shot dead straight because tilting the backspin axis like this \ for a fade ( or like this / for a draw ) ‘takes one side of the hole out of play’. Karsten Solheim if PING is credited with creating the ‘high-MOI’ design in the 1950 after taking up golf in his 30’s and realizing the toe bias of the putters and blade irons were twisting in his hands for the reason explained above. Being an engineer is realized that could be fixed by moving mass from toe to sole and heel of the club in his Anser putter and PING EYE designs. The heel-sole-toe balance is designed to help the face of the club stay automatically square, not to the straight target line but rather the curved swing path the club head travels on. Due to the physics of mass and movement cavity back clubs will not twist in the hands during the swing as much as a 1960s MB blade will and will deflect less at impact if ball strikes isn’t perfect. Some marketing wonk decided to call that “Game Improvement” when it us actually “Mistake Mitigation”. To the extent they are more “Forgiving” it is because they mask the underlying fact the golfer’s swing has room for improvement. This has resulted in three, four generations of golfer believing that buying the next NEW and MORE FORGIVING set of clubs will improve their SKILL. They will improve SCORE to some degree but mask the feedback that is needed to improve toe and face control like the pros do. I’m old enough to have started in 1983 with a set of blade irons and purchased and regripped several sets of MB blades from the 1970s to understand the differences. I found a set of PING EYE2 irons 3i - LW at a thrift store for $60 and played those for about ten years before going back to less ‘forgiving’ but better ‘feedback’ in a $400 set of circa 2009 PING S57s and at age 72 recently switched to circa 2000 Mizuno T-Zoids I picked up for $120 because like the pros I never try to hit a full swing shot dead straight and and like the feedback of the lower MOI head designs when shaping shots 😊.
Putters are very individual. What I like, chances are it is totally wrong for the next guy. I like the old Ping Anser 2 orange dot I have been using forever. I have tried tons of others, yet once I get out of my slumps with the putter, I start with a new one, then the old one seems to regain the magic. As far as putting goes, it is funny how I get luckier the more I practice.
The ping Anser 2 is a classic! I still have one in the garage too. Absolutely brilliantly putter and as you say there’s probably no more personal club in the bag. 👍
In today’s day and age we should be able to put a driver on a robot with the exact same swing and change the exact same club 1 degree and get your answer. Same thing about who makes the longest hitting driver for an average swing speedy of say 95 mph. Set the robot up and let us really see, no more BS!
Yup apologies - should have been clearer on this piece. XXIO are a Japanese golf manufacturer owned by the same company as Srixon and Cleveland. So some players like Els use a combination of these different brands while being sponsored by the one company. 👍
Very surprised that TaylorMade Spider putters are not mentioned since they seem to be used by a fair number of pga players, just based on my observations on tv.
That’s true Michael and it’s not just your perception about a number of the PGA pros using the TaylorMade Spider. When we last did our similar analysis of the the main tour in this video that perception is backed up by the data - What Putters Do the Pros Use? Top 100 PGA Tour Pro Overview ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sijU0A-o8Ls.html
I guess this might be good advice for a pro, but if a given player can increase their accuracy by 30% while sacrificing 20% distance, hmm I find 3wood off the tee is more consistent and controllable than the driver.
It’s a fair challenge for sure but the stats of millions of amateur golf shots don’t back that unfortunately. Arccos stats show amateurs are not hugely more accurate with their 3 wood than their driver so by sacrificing the distance they are just adding shots to their score. There will be anomalies for sure but for the majority the answer will be hit driver as many times as you can - uk.arccosgolf.com/blogs/community/3-wood-vs-driver-is-the-accuracy-worth-the-sacrificed-distance
Like these videos. Does stand out how twice now you've mentioned Sticker being endorsed by Odyssey 'only for the putter ' .... Just seems an odd tidbit given Odyssey's singular focus on putters. Even if they are under a larger company umbrella. Meaning the fact it is just for his putter seems fairly obvious, unless you mean they could require him to have a tattoo or wear their logo or something. Thanks again
Many thanks for the feedback and delighted you are enjoying the videos. On the Odyssey front purpose of comment was coming from some regular watchers asking us to see if we can match clubs choices to endorsement deals. Odyssey are part of Callaway so any Callaway staffer will likely choose Odyssey in same way as a Titleist staffer will use Vokey wedges. Fact then that Stricker only sponsored to play a Callaway putter but still uses their irons may give his iron choice a bit more weight in the eyes of some. Hope that makes sense and thanks again 👍
Typ of irons in a degree of forgiveness the pros play with is quite relevant I would say for us hackers. But what kind of drivers the play with is a matter what company give them the best deals so that’s not so relevant. And the relevance of getting the right shaft is a focus that is worth mentioning. Thank you otherwise for an all over interesting video.
After only 3 months that seems like a pretty amazing yardage to me. You’re already up with the average golfer who has been playing for years and years. Hope you continue to enjoy the game and good luck! 👍
Boy am I making this data look stupid. I’m driving about 60-80 yards further than I was 20 years ago. I can hit over 280 maybe over 300, but I don’t have data to back that 300 claim up.
Is there a significant difference in the type of ball someone uses as well? I'm referring to in order to create ball speed? Cuz I'm assuming it would make a difference with how the ball compresses what it takes to compress it Etc
It's a great question and one I must confess we don't know much about as yet. I'm in the middle of a club fitting at the moment and as part of that I'm going to cover the ball choice so will be interesting to see what that turns up. Will definitely share the results also if there's interest.
This was a very educational video. I have noticed that for me I can swing a club that's much heavier on the grip side or a high balance point and even though I lose swing speed my ball speed jump significantly. Have you seen that before? Or somebody has a slower than average swing speed but a higher than average ball speed?
Many thanks for the feedback. It is very much appreciated 👍 Strike is key when it comes to ball speed so no reason at all that a slower swingspeed could deliver a better ball speed than someone else based on the quality of the strikes. Are some tests I'm sure that can be run to demonstrate this and will add them to the list for future videos for sure.
@@GolfingFocus@GolfingFocus I wasn't necessarily referring to the quality of the strike. I'm thinking more in terms of mass if you swing something heavier but it's moving slower. I'm thinking of it almost like how swords are balanced. You could swing a katana faster than a claymore but the Claymore is going to hit much harder and heavier. My thinking is there's a reason people that used big heavy swords were typically big heavy people or their weapon had some sort of significant counterbalance. On the other hand Most Japanese Samurai or people with swords were not very large people. So the katana was balanced not end loaded.
Indeed there is a direct relation between loft and swing speed ! And the cause is in fact , the spin rate of the ball ! The ball flies best at a specific RPM wich is generated by the loft and speed ! In order for a driver to go further than another driver of the same loft , it needs to be lighter and the swingweight slightly higher !
Thanks for the feedback 👍 Part of the point of the use of a different driver was to show the impact of a change of a driver’s centre of gravity location and internal weighting given the effect these items have in addition to loft. Appreciate though a lot of people would have liked to see the effect of a change of loft only first before those additional two items were covered.
I have viewed other videos like this and none of them mention what loft the average 7 iron has. Newer clubs have less loft so a newer 7 iron will go farther than an older higher lofted 7 iron. My 7 iron is 33 Deg Loft. How does that compare to the loft of the average golfer?
Agree that would be the ideal for sure but the current data isn't available to show that yet unfortunately. We'll keep looking though and share it for sure if we find it 👍
The pro picks on equipment is not always relevant. Were this list sorted by non-endorsed vs endorsed, it might have more impact for me. Also, the pro golfer is light years ahead of the duffer average golfer. I have watched some Dechambeau videos with him playing in videos with all manner of clubs, from kids clubs to antique clubs etc. and still shooting par or better. The equipment for a pro is important, but it is not the most important part of their game. Physical health and fitness, talent, and practice set them apart from everyone else. The single most important correction (if it has not already been made) for an average golfer is the right shaft. Mary up the right shaft to any player and the results are immediately noticeable mainly due to a tighter dispersion.
@GolfingFocus what every other instructor says. "Start the swing from the bottom up" using my legs to push towards the target and open my hips. Also more lateral bend on the downswing. But I rarely hit them off line now. It is possible the sequence is off.. I recently got fitted for a new set. They moved me from stiff to regular flex and from 105gr to 95gr..and It looks like I'm back to my older distance.
Please spend 5 more min on editing. It's yards, not miles per hour on Paddies stat and a double overlap is not a baseball grip. It's the opposite, baseball grip = more fingers on the club, all ten. Double overlap less than standard, you overlap two fingers leaving eight on the grip.
Great video again, exactly what it says on the tin. Feedback on the editing for future videos though: I've noticed the intro and outro music is quite a bit louder than the rest of the video. It would be a bit more pleasant to watch if it's just a bit quieter so I don't have to change the volume at the beginning and end.
Fitting can compensate for this pretty well though. If you use a low spin driver with a bit more loft, you can still get the pretty close to ideal launch conditions with a slightly negative AoA.
Interesting. Got a driver fitting in a couple of weeks. Will test this out with the fitter to see if a driver change will do exactly the same job as a change of angle in attack 👍
200 yards is far for me, I'm 63 years old! Distance doesn't mean anything if it's not straight! The mainstream media focuses on how far the pros hit the ball 95% of us are not pros!
That’s absolutely true. The main reason for the focus on distance though is because the link between distance and scoring is now undisputed based on the stats. And that includes hitting it into the rough. The stats show for eg hitting it 50 yards longer into normal rough will result in a better score than 50 yards back in the middle of the fairway.
I’m 99.9 percent certain, that Steve Stricker is a Titleist staffer, and plays them with the only exception being the old Odyssey putter he’s used for decades. His WITB from a month ago had him using Titleist irons.
You’re absolutely right James and thanks for spotting. The change from Callaway came right after we finished our research. Will update the data now. Thanks again for sharing 👍
Hi @jamesconnolly3042 - Saw an interview with Steve Stricker this week and looks like he has returned to his Callaway driver and irons after testing out the Titleist TSR3 driver and T200 and T100 irons in April. So he's back to a Callaway and Titleist mix throughout the bag and by the looks of things based on an interview he gave at the American Family Championship this week isn't going to be changing again anytime soon. Reason he was testing the TSR3 driver apparently was he broke his old Epic Speec Triple Diamond but has now sourced another Callaway so he has it back in the bag. And while he was testing out the new driver he thought he would try some new irons but again has now going back to his Callaway Apex '19 irons. 👍
