In this article we will discuss how the right club length is one of the most important variables in golf club fitting, it is very important for all clubs in the bag including your putter to be of the correct length for you, but for this discussion, we will focus on what most golfers associate with club length fitting - the irons.
Golf clubs can be described as being fitted correctly when this statement is true:
"The golfer is using the correct length of golf club so that when he or she strikes the ball, they are using the longest club possible with the sole of the club parallel to the ground, square to the target line and impacts the ball at the centre of the clubface, with a proper trajectory, a solid feel and with as much consistency as possible."
Do this with as much oomph as you can muster whilst maintaining a nice rhythm and without losing balance and your golf ball will go as far as your athletic ability will allow, and believe it or not having the correct length of club will make all the difference in whether you are achieving this or not.
Golf clubs off the rack nowadays are built in 1/2" increments of each other with a 5 iron generally 38" long for men being the norm and yet 1/4" either way can make a huge difference with on centre hits. I must mention here that if you do not hit the ball out of the very centre of the clubface then the clubface will twist, robbing you of distance and causing those horrible slices or hooks. It is said that missing the centre of the clubface with a driver by just 1/4 of an inch and you may lose 10-15 yards and with an iron about 5-8 yards. It never ceases to amaze me that good low handicap golfers who come to see me and who have decent swings when tested can not hit the ball out of the middle of the clubface, and the main reason for this is that the clubs are of the incorrect length!
And if you are still not convinced that length of a golf club can make a difference then take a look at this, next time you're on a computer, Google "Tigers club specs" and follow the golfwrx link. Here you will see a screenshot taken when Tiger joined Nike and someone in their technical department sent a copy to The Golf Club Makers Association a club fitting group that I belong to (Nike were lived and threatened to sue but that's another story). Look at the length building specs determined for Tiger, not to the nearest 1/2" that clubs off the rack are assembled to today by every manufacturer out there, not 1/4" or even a 1/8" but to a mind-boggling nearest 1/16 of an inch!! Here is the best golfer on the planet who could take any set of golf clubs from Argos or JJB Sports and still finish in the top 10 of any tournament! And yet he knows that having his clubs built as accurately as possible to match his swing and athletic ability will make him the best golfer he can possibly be.
Next, let us dismiss two of the biggest myths in the golf industry today: -
1). That tall golfers should use longer clubs and shorter golfers should use shorter clubs, absolute nonsense only in extreme cases is this necessary. The main reason being is that most people are built in proportion, that is to say, tall people tend to have longer arms and shorter people, shorter arms. It is true as we have mentioned that the golfer needs the longest club possible that he can hit the ball in the middle of the clubface but it is generally recognised by club fitters that the longer the club the more difficult it is to have on centre hits and where possible shorter clubs offer better results. In my experience, taller golfers needing longer clubs simply is just not true.
2). Using a ruler and measuring wrist/fingertips to the floor to determine club length.
Most of you have seen this and may even experience this when being "fitted" at some manufactures fitting sessions. Well, I am sorry to tell you that this practice has nothing to do with what so ever in determining golf club length and is nothing more than a smoke and mirrors tactic to make you believe that the club fitter knows what he is doing! If this was a correct method then Ian Woosnam should be using a 14-year-olds set of clubs.... do you think he does?
I have yet to see anyone hit a golf ball standing bolt upright with both feet firmly on the ground. The correct method in determining club length is to use what club fitters call "dynamic club fitting" seek out a proper club fitter who uses impact decals on the clubface, who offers you differing club length shafts until you arrive at a point where you are consistently hitting the ball out of the middle of the clubface as often as possible, this then is the correct club length for you.
This is correct for all types of clubs, you would be surprised to learn that a lot of golfers cannot strike the ball out of the middle of the clubface even with a putter!
Having golf clubs built to the correct length for you will make all the difference to your golf game and its one of the most overlooked aspects of club fitting. It amazes me that there are so many videos out there and club length is totally dismissed and yet every single fitting book I have ever read and every club fitting seminar I have been to starts off with fitting for club length first!
So how do we measure for correct club length?
This procedure will work for the fitting of Irons or Drivers.
You will need a sharpie pen and a few impact labels and a ruler and your 6 or 7 iron.
For obvious reasons it is easier to fit for new clubs as the fitter will have a number of clubs with the same head with different length shafts, standard, half-inch shorter, half-inch longer and one inch longer. However, for those testing their own clubs for length, we will only be able to test for the length we have and half-inch shorter.
Now our aim is to get our impact marks as closely together and as consistently as possible to the centre of the clubface or sweet spot. If you were to take off the club head and balance the face on the tip of a ballpoint pen then this would be the centre of gravity of that clubhead (sweet spot) it cannot be made any bigger. However, we will concern ourselves with the circle on the impact labels for our demonstration.
I always liked to use a 7 iron for fitting for club length, as this is a club that most golfers are quite confident in hitting with and don’t normally try to hit the ball too hard.
Take your ruler and measure the width of grooves on your club, find the middle point and place a small mark with your pen on the face as low down as possible.
Take your impact label and stick it onto the clubface with the score lines parallel to the lines on the sticker and the centre of the circle directly above your centre mark.
Grip the club as normal and hit 4-5 balls, after each strike use your marker pen to mark the point at the centre of each hit. The mark should be nice and round any marks not circular means that the ball was struck with a glancing blow as the club has twisted so please discard these. After hitting a maximum of 5 shots take off the sticker and attach to a separate piece of paper.
Repeat this procedure but grip down half an inch lower than before, marking the impact centres and placing them on the paper for comparison.
What we are looking for is the longest club that will give us the most impact marks closest to the centre or in the centre circle of the impact label, when this is achieved then the club is of the correct length for that player, it is then measured and the rest of the clubs in the set should be built accordingly.
Please note that any marks consistently towards the toe of the club or to the heel of the club means that the club is too long, many golfers and some pro’s assume that impact marks towards the toe means that the club is either too long or that the golfer should stand nearer to the ball and vice versa with marks towards the heel, clubs too short or move further away from the ball. This is totally wrong in both instances the club is too long!
Another point I should like to mention is that having discussed with many good club fitters that impact marks on the clubface near the toe or heel does not in any way correlate to lie angle.
I would also like to mention another fitting variable which is always overlooked by manufactures and youtube fitters is that of swing weight. Using your impact labels and strips of lead weight you can easily see that having the correct swing weight for your swing speed and athletic ability you can actually increase those on centre hits and increase distance! However, this will be dealt with in another blog shortly.
Impact labels and lead weight strips with complete instructions are available on our website under Training Aids.
Which brings me to one last point about drivers how many of you out there have had a fitting for a new driver and were offered different lengths of shaft first to determine club length before deciding shaft flex and loft? Not many I bet, the average length of a driver on the PGA tour is 44.5 inches and the average length bought from a shop today is 46 inches long so if the pro's can not control such a long club then neither can you!
How and why drivers became longer is simple, manufacturers continually strive to think of what can only be described as gimmicks in order to sell more clubs in order to satisfy their shareholders rather than do what's best for the amateur golfer.
Remember some years ago when lighter shafts where the way to go, use a lighter shaft and get more swing speed and you will hit the ball further, well yes that's true if you can still hit the ball in the middle of the clubface as we have just discussed. But what they did not tell you was a lighter shaft drops the swing weight dramatically and in order to get that swing weight back up (for most men about D2) then the only way is to make the club longer, and by doing so you have less chance of hitting the ball out of the middle of the face thereby losing control and distance, great for selling more clubs, a disaster for the game making it harder just at a time when people are leaving it in droves because the game is so difficult!
Adopt the same test fitting method for your driver as above gripping down at ½” intervals until you see the same results for on centre hits.
Bob Frost is a qualified club fitter and club builder (now retired) and is a member of the Golf Club Makers Association and if you would like any more information on the subject of club fitting or club building then please contact him at info@merciagolf.com where he promises to give the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth before you part with your hard-earned cash!
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