Your Clubs Are Your Friends

Check Your Sticks -- Maybe Your Swing's Not The Problem After All

Now that the winter is finally over (throughout most of the network, anyway), many of you will be dusting off your clubs in anticipation of that first round since late last year.

If you plan to play your best golf this spring and summer, it's important that your equipment be up to the task.

You need to take a good, hard look at your clubs. Get to know them better. Examine the heads, check the grips, inspect the shafts, and most importantly make sure that they are matched and as ready to play as you.

Grips
Your grips are probably the most overlooked part of the club. How many of you have an old club with a grip so hard that you could drive a nail with it? Since the grip is the only place that you actually contact the club, your grips must be in good shape for you to maintain control.

If your grips are simply dirty, wash them off. It's a good idea to wash your grips every couple of weeks in a solution of soap and water. Between the dirt and oil on your hands and the dirt and dust that settle into your golf bag, you'd be surprised how much crud you need to remove.

I like to use a piece of fine steel wool with soap in it every so often. Not only does the steel wool clean the dirt off, but it also roughens the grips making them feel tacky again.

If your grips are hard, worn in places or have depressions from where you hold the club, then it's time for replacements. When you replace your grips, take a good look at your hand size in relationship to the grip size. Properly sized grips are an easy change to make and one that will make you a more consistent player. Larger grips take your wrists out of your swing and may help you if you're hitting an ugly duck-hook. Smaller grips will help to promote a release and get rid of that push fade.

Make sure that all of your grips, except for your putter, are the same. This way your hands have the same feel with every club in the bag.

Shafts
The shafts are next. Look at each club carefully. Check for rust. Surface rust can be removed with WD-40 or a No. 2 pencil. Rust will often return. When it does, it's time to replace the shaft before it fails.

A more serious shaft problem would be a dent or ding. These make the shaft weak and inconsistent, and should be replaced as soon as possible to avoid snapping it during a swing.

Make sure that none of your shafts are loose. If they squeak, there is probably a break in the epoxy securing the head to the shaft. To test your shafts, grab onto the head with one hand and the grip with the other and twist. Any movement or squeaks indicate a loose head. Shafts can become loose through normal play, especially if you usually store your clubs in your. The extreme variations in temperature, from day to night, can cause the epoxy to break down.

Check to see if your shafts match. Are they all the same model and stiffness? There should be a half-inch increment between the lengths of your irons. Most wedge sets are all the same length to promote feel and consistency with each club. Woods usually have a one-inch increment, except for certain over-size drivers, which may be three or four inches longer than your 3-wood. If all of your irons' shafts don't match, the playability of one club to the next could be compromised.

A frequency analyzer will show you whether your shafts are well matched. Usually your shortest irons are your stiffest, while the longer irons are the most flexible. If you have a certain shaft that is too stiff, distance and feel will suffer compared to the rest of your set. A shaft that is too soft could cause you accuracy problems.

Clubheads
How do the clubheads look? Make sure to treat any rusting or pitting with WD-40. If your clubs are really bad, try having them rechromed or refinished. Beryllium-copper heads clean up especially well when soaked in Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Clean out the grooves with a brush. The buildup of dirt in the grooves prevents the club imparting the proper spin on the ball. A ball with little or no spin acts like a knuckle ball in the air and doesn't penetrate the wind.

Loft and Lie
Check your loft and lie. It's something that every professional golfer does several times a year. While most amateurs don't play often enough to have their lofts and lies checked as often as a pro, it's a good idea to have it done once or twice a year. Clubs can get out of alignment through normal play. A two-degree change in loft can mean as much as 10 yards in distance. A properly lofted set will not have any gaps. Ever wonder why you hit your six iron the same distance as your seven? Maybe their lofts nearly the same. You may be surprised to find that your six-iron is closer to your seven-iron in loft and not dead between your five and seven, as it should be.

A club that sits too flat will cause the toe to dig in, opening the clubface giving you a slice or fade. A club that sits too upright will allow the heel to dig in, closing the clubface, producing a hook.

Ferrules
Examine where the head meets the plastic ferrule. Make sure that there are no gaps between the ferrule and the head. The ferrule serves to strengthen the shaft where it goes into the head. Without one, many shafts would eventually break at the joint and send the head flying down the fairway or into a pond. Take note that some newer clubs, most notably Ping and Callaway, don't have ferrules. You people can skip this step.

Weight
The weight of a club influences how it feels. If your clubs are not weight matched, each of the clubs will not feel or perform the same way. Most people can't tell the difference of one swingweight, about the weight of a dime. Go up or down three swingweights, about the weight of a quarter, and just about anyone can feel the difference.

A club's swingweight can be fixed by either adding or removing lead powder in the bottom of the shaft. If your club rattles, there is a good chance that some of this powder has become loose.

If you're not sure how to check all of these items yourself, call your favorite shop. If they don't have the ability to help you, they will be glad to tell you who can. Most shops charge little if anything to check the swingweight, loft and lie on each club. If you need to have your clubs adjusted, the fee is usually quite small for a loft or lie adjustment. New grips may cost you $5 or so apiece and your entire set can be re-gripped in under an hour.

So this weekend take some time to check your clubs and get ready for the season. Who knows, maybe your swing isn't what needs to be fixed.

More New Stuff
In a recent test using actual golfers instead of robots, Wilson's new Deep Red Driver was the weapon of choice. Players were asked to rate the drivers in distance, forgiveness, cosmetics, confidence and overall performance. The testers even picked the Deep Red over the illegal drivers they were given to test.

Wilson's latest big stick has a coefficient of restitution that is barely under the U.S.G.A. limit of 0.83. The club's combination of a deep, thin, hyper-titanium face with a low-twist Fat Shaft, offers distance with fairway finding accuracy.

If you play golf, chances are that sooner or later, you're going to need a ball retriever. With that in mind, Joe The Golf Ball Retriever would like to be the next addition to your bag. Joe comes in three models: Little Joe, which extends out to seven feet; Original Joe, which extends out to 12 feet; and Big Joe, a whopping 15 feet when extended. All three collapse neatly to fit into your bag. The patented rubber head will not lose shape and easily picks up the ball with a non-slip grip.

When many people hear of La Jolla Golf Club Company, they tend think only of kids' golf equipment. That needs to change. La Jolla has come out with a line of clubs for juniors, Teens, Ladies, seniors and Super Seniors.

La Jolla's entire line is designed for slower swing speeds. The company is also one of the few to offer nearly every product in a left-handed model as well as right-handed.

One of the hottest golf balls in golf is a lady's ball. The Precept MC Lady ball is not only catching on with the women, it's becoming quite popular with touring seniors and most amateur players as well.

The ball features the softest core of any two-piece golf ball. Designed for lower clubhead speeds, the ball provides optimal compression at lower impact speeds, making for explosive distance. Due to the soft core and thin Surlyn cover, the ball has remarkable playability with irons and around the greens.

FACTOID OF THE WEEK: In the 1900 Paris Games, Charles Sands of the United States won the first Olympic gold medal in men's golf.

Stammer's Golf Archive

Editor's note: James Stammer is a freelance writer living in Florida. He has played golf for better than a quarter-century. To reach James, e-mail him at jstammer@yahoo.com.

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