"Clubface Roll - The Effect on Loft on the Modern Driver"
| Article 2 of Series by Chuck Quinton 3/7/2007 www.RotarySwing.com |
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There are numerous things that affect the overall distance you will hit your drives and one of the biggest factors is not your golf swing, it's your equipment. Today's modern high performance drivers are far more advanced then drivers of just 10 years ago, but some old "technology" remains the same. In this video, I am discussing the effect of the "roll" designed into the clubface and how it can dramatically help or hurt your driving distance.
As you will learn in the video, the amount roll a clubface has, or better yet the radius of the roll, can affect the true loft on the clubface as much as 8* or even more depending on the particular design. This means that depending on where you strike the ball on the clubface, your 9.5 degree driver may have 13 or 6 degrees of actual loft at impact! To give you an idea of just how significant this is, observe the screen shot below:
In this scenario, the golfer has an average clubhead speed of 100 mph with a slightly ascending angle of attack and carries the ball about 233 yards with a 10.5* driver. This is assuming he hits it near perfectly in the sweet spot. Now, let's say that that same golfer with average clubhead speed catches it a little low on the face and now only has 6* of loft at impact:
Yikes! Our golfer now only carries a theoretical 188 yards, and this is assuming he or she is getting maximum ball speed. This wouldn't happen in reality because obviously the sweet spot has been missed severely for this to happen, so the numbers would be even worse. So, the golfer loses about 35+ yards of carry because his driver has much less loft at impact when struck low on the face due to the roll that was designed into it! This is a case where the manufacturers are not doing us any favors with their designs. However, Tom Wishon does make a driver that doesn't have any roll on the face and this can help you achieve more ideal launch conditions, no matter how high or low you strike the golf ball on the face.
Long story short, watch the video to understand more about how the roll of the clubface affects your drives and you will start to have a much better idea of exactly how much loft you actually need to get properly fitted for the right driver.
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