I'd love to see you test new mid range balls against older premium balls. Maybe a brand new Callaway Supersoft vs a 4 year old ProV1 that you might find in the bushes.
Not sure you will see this using old balls on screens is not something that is recommended as they tend to leave marks and damage the screen. All screen manufacturers suggest using only brand new balls to prolong the life of the screen.
Spoiler Alert... ProV1 wins in almost all categories, every time. Including the ones everyone should really care about, like consistency of ball diameter and standard deviation in compression. Also, any Callaway ball that has "soft" printed on it should be avoided like its the next pandemic inducing virus. Source: A Golf Spy 🙂✌
This test is not accurate since he used a mat. With one shot with a clean club on grass, you will see the grass that pressed on to the club face which make the ball fly like it would on a dirty club. Unless he is hitting off of a tee or a super tight lie wher no blades of grass find their way between the ball and club face, this test is not accurate.
Surely the grass would be a constant for both dirty/wet, dirty/dry, clean/wet and clean/dry. Therefore the fact that dirty/wet is such an outlier on the mat would make it also a massive outlier on the grass @@el_duderino_man
A very important part of the game that should be reviewed! I love that there is more than just club reviews coming out on the channel. Keep up the great work Rick!
This side of your channel is class mate it’s brilliant for us mortals to just ensure we clean and dry our clubs before and after each shot which will help us to be the most consistent as we can be keep up the good job man.
This was a particularly good one, Rick. I think a lot of golfers misunderstand the (modern day) purpose of grooves. The one thing you couldn't demonstrate indoors is the effect of playing with dirty grooves from the rough. If the grooves are already full of grunge, more grass will remain trapped between the ball and the face, thus reducing friction and spin, and resulting in even greater unpredicability.
I think, if I remember correctly, this was the original reason for adding the groves, to let grass get in to the grooves instead of caking on the blade.
Maybe it’s just OCD or something, but I clean my clubs after almost every shot and definitely after each round/range session 😂 I just like my clubs to be clean, not necessarily for any benefit. Just because it looks way better to me, I don’t like looking down at a dirty club lol
This is the best video on this channel so far. You seem a bit nervous about being nerdy but don't be - it's quality content backed up by data, exactly what is needed! I really enjoyed the results.
I recently started cleaning my clubs between holes. I think it's more a mental thing for me. I'm still a HORRIBLE golfer, and I'm just trying to give myself every advantage of hitting a clean shot each time. The difference between dry and wet conditions was really interesting. Thanks Rick!
PING iBlades also have a hydropearl chrome finish, which is hydrophobic. This finish is designed to repel water - it's also possible that a dirty club spins less because it coats the club and disrupts the hydrophobicity of the surface. Awesome video Rick!
you said in a video a while back “you can’t control much in golf, but you can control clean grooves” and my dad and i quote it every time we clean our grooves pre shot now. glad it does make a difference
I try to clean my clubs the night before a round, but there are occasional times I forget. Very informative video Rick! Thank you for putting numbers to show why it's always a good idea to clean those clubs!
I clean my clubs religiously. I take such good care I get more $ when I sell to upgrade. Clean clubs help you hit the ball better and help sustain the value of these expensive toys. Great video as always.
Theres basically no difference, it looks like crap too IMO I dont get why people like the rust look. They're supposedly better when its wet, but how much? Not enough
I think a good test would be clubs with wear marks vs non worn counterparts. Golf is expensive so when shopping second hand set of irons and wedges would be great to know how much of a difference those dark spots make.
In my left pocket a piece of rag. right pocket I keep tees,ball marker and a little rectangular pop out cleaning brush. All clubs get cleaned after every shot. If we are in a hurry to keep up with group in front ,I sling bag over shoulder and clean club while walking,and put club back while walking. Its easy and takes literally no extra time if cleaning and walking at same time.
First of all big fan. I've watched a lot of your videos. I'm an engineer so I have one comment on your analysis. Standard deviation is not as simple as +/- x degs like when you were talking about launch angle. The correct way to interpret the standard deviation is the following: The mean was 30.7 deg and the standard deviation was 4.6 deg. Usually engineers and scientist use the 68-95-99.7 rule. What does that mean? For 1 standard deviation, the launch angle was between 26.1 and 35.3 deg 68% of the time. For 2 standard deviation, the launch angle was between 21.5 and 39.9 deg 95% of the time. And so on.
Awesome content with this experimental testing idea. After over 35 years of golfing, I learned some new information from this video. Keep up the great work Rick and team.
Rick, I play in a seniors men league at my local golf course. There are about 50 members, and of those 50 men I am the only one who cleans each club after each shot (a quick couple of swipes with a soft wire brush and a wipe with a damp towel), and I'm pretty sure some of the men have never cleaned their clubs in any way let alone just wiping it off after each shot. Some of my motivation to keep them clean is that my clubs were $3,500.00 plus dollars and I want them last a lifetime or two. And...it helps my psychologically to play better.
Would love to see a comparison between various golf balls (V1 vs Callaway SS vs TM TP5 vs VICE) in comparison to club speed ( -80, 80-90, 90-100, 100+). I know all the hear-say, but would like to hear it from a more trusted source and non-bias. Rock on Rick 🤘😎
cleaned my clubs including grips the last two weeks ater not cleaning them for a while. the dirt that comes off is a bit disturbing especially the grips. Worth doing.
Rick, the Standard Deviation actually hammers your point harder. Normal statistics will tell you, assuming a normal distribution, that the majority of shots (95%) will fall within 2 standard deviations on either side of the curve. When you’re referencing launch angle with a SD of 4 degrees, that means that 95% of shots will have a launch angle of 21.5 and 39.9 degrees.
Very interesting clip - this is exactly the sort of thing Rick does very well, and he's got the perfect facility for it in the new studio. So much hype around golf equipment, great to test the claims out, to see what stands up!
Towel, half wet the thing before you tee off. Not dripping wet but damp. After each shot clean off quick with the wet side, dry if needed. Great for cleaning the ball as well. I’ve not had to clean my clubs at all between rounds! And every time you pull the club it’s spotless, makes things feel a lot nicer!
Top-notch experiment! I'd be really curious what the effect would be in a 5-6 iron considering lower launch and less spin how much it would decipher. Really enjoying the new channel so far Rick. Thanks
Clean and dry would be nice! I work at a course and play my rounds before the day really gets started (on my days off). Lots of irrigation, lots of morning dew. I've just adapted my game to the conditions, but playing with others in the afternoon now throws me off significantly hahahaha. By the way, the sim lab is looking exceptional !!
Dear Rick, As a loyal fan of you and your channels, I suggest that you do this test without a club that has Ping's patented hydropearl chrome finish. Ping is known for its spin retention in wet conditions (TXG has done a LOT of experiments on this and Ping wedges are always up there). My suggestion is that you should use a stronger lofted Vokey wedge, Vokey is notoriously known for its inability to retain spin under wet conditions. What I am suggesting is that clean grooves with high/consistent spin in wet conditions may not be because of the fact that the grooves are clean, but because you are using a Ping club.
Playing in Scotland it is so hard to keep a dry club face …yes you can scrub and dry it once taken from your bag but then in pre shot routine you don’t take all practice swings and walk back to bag to dry club face again. It’s just part of amateur golf we don’t have caddies and American weather
When you strike through the grass, you crush snd apply grass particles to the face of the club. Theoretically certainly should affect the compression , spin induction and drive
That was a very cool video. I work in a shop that sell and regrips clubs so that's good information for my customers when they come in with dirty clubs.
Guess all those funny stares I get after every swing cleaning my club was the right thing to do! Lol Keep up the great work on the channel Rick! I love the “what if’s” you’re giving us!
I bet this explains why my old Ping Eye 2 square groove irons were so inconsistent. Sometimes I would hit the green, then the next hole I would blow it over the back from the same distance. I loved the feel of the clubs, and the way they hit, but I gave them up because of the inconsistency.
1. There is why pros clean the club after every shot 2. Grooves to more than move moisture. How many times do you find paint in the grooves of your clubs? 3. Why did rules change how manufacturer spaces of grooved on your clubs?
Very informative. I never really gave much thought to it. I get the big mud off the club, but generally don’t lose a lot of sleep over the grooves. I like to play in the early morning here in NE Alabama during the summer, and there’s always a ton of dew on the ground. Guess I’m now a groove cleaner!
Minor edit Rick.... the grooves are part of the "roughness of the club" as you put it.... clogged with mud they lose effect.... thus the reduced spin effect... i think in a roundabout way that is what you were trying to say but some people might not have quite got that?
Video was Brilliant ! I would love to see the differences from a Scratched ball found in the woods vs a Played golf ball with no scratches. I tend to stick a little too long with the ball I found in the wood even if its not in the best conditions. Thanks
I’d be interested to see what a perfectly smooth face would do with a dry ball. You say the grooves are just for water dispersion and that’s apparent here, but I can’t help but think the square edges of those grooves don’t add at least a little spin. Maybe not enough to matter but still worth a thought I think. And I’ve never seen a perfectly smooth iron or wedge.
This is great content! A lot of viewers are going to get way more out of this sort of video than a club review, because how often do you really but new clubs? This is useful for every golfer, year round, with any brand of iron. Great work! 👍🏻
I always clean and dry my clubs not just because it dose anything to the ball but because when I grab a club out I don’t get my hand or glove wet and muddy. 👍.
Always clean my groves on the course, all the time. Also clean all of them after a round in case I get a little lazy towards the end. I also give my brother in law crap cause he never cleans his at all. Great and very interesting test Rick. Thank you!
We need to see a thorough rust test! Some people say rust adds spin on all shots, some say rust adds spin on short shots, some say it doesn’t help at all
I wash/clean my clubs after every use...I also carry a groove cleaner which I use before every shot....my primary sport was football and I never went out with dirty boots, so I don't go out with dirty clubs
A month ago I spent 30 minutes cleaning my clubs, went and shot the best round of my life, 7 strokes better than I normally would shoot. Maybe cleaning the clubs did help!
You should do a review of a bag full of Maltby clubs. Not sure if they have them over in the UK. They're a more affordable but much lesser known brand but get a lot of love on r/golf.
I've recently started making the bottom half of my towel damp and the top half dry so that I can clean and dry the clubs and ball. Saves having to do it when I get home and am tired and just want to collapse on the sofa. 😁
