The Latest in Golf Shaft News!
Garry McKay
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jul 17, 2010)
Every January at the mammoth PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando something new grabs the fancy of golf pros and the media who have gathered from all over the world. It might be a new driver, or wedge or even footwear.
This year was a little different. There was a lot of buzz around the show, and around demo day, on a new club-fitting tool.
The Mizuno Shaft Optimizer is a computerized tool that allows club fitters to accurately determine what shafts a player should be using.
And why is that important to you?
"There are so many players out there who are using the wrong type of shaft," says Tom Vanderlip, the director of golf at Peninsula Lakes at Fenwick in Niagara, who is a CPGA pro and a believer in the new technology. "You can have a head that you like and a grip that you like, but with some people their ego gets involved and they're not using the right shaft, and this just eliminates it."
That's Vanderlip's polite way of saying that virtually every guy who has ever been fitted for clubs thinks he swings harder than he really does.
"The majority of guys will say they're stiff, and that's a problem," he explains. "People are too caught up in themselves. They'll say 'I hit my seven iron 160 yards.' Well, you know, you don't.
"The Mizuno Shaft Optimizer takes ego out of the equation."
It attaches to the shaft of the club that you're testing on the range. It measures how fast the clubhead and shaft are moving during the swing, and how quick a player transitions from the back swing to the down swing. It also measures the bowing of the shaft in a downward direction during the down swing and the amount of shaft-forward bending during the downswing motion. And finally it registers how and when the clubhead and shaft are releasing during the down swing.
All of this information is relayed to a laptop computer which analyzes the data and recommends the type of shaft the golfer should be using. "It will give you an option of three shafts, and you can find one that fits your need best," said Vanderlip. "A little-more-accomplished player who might want to hit it longer and a bit higher, can find a shaft that does that. Or, if the player is just a beginner, and wants to get everything in the air, it can recommend a shaft that will help do that as well."
More and more players are taking the common sense approach and getting properly fitted when they purchase new clubs. Golf pros have plenty of equipment to help them determine things such as length and lie angle, but until now they pretty much had to rely on the player himself to say what they wanted for a shaft.
"This is really close to being the missing piece of the puzzle," says Vanderlip. "It's really innovative and has taken club-fitting to a whole new level."
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jul 17, 2010)
Every January at the mammoth PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando something new grabs the fancy of golf pros and the media who have gathered from all over the world. It might be a new driver, or wedge or even footwear.
This year was a little different. There was a lot of buzz around the show, and around demo day, on a new club-fitting tool.
The Mizuno Shaft Optimizer is a computerized tool that allows club fitters to accurately determine what shafts a player should be using.
And why is that important to you?
"There are so many players out there who are using the wrong type of shaft," says Tom Vanderlip, the director of golf at Peninsula Lakes at Fenwick in Niagara, who is a CPGA pro and a believer in the new technology. "You can have a head that you like and a grip that you like, but with some people their ego gets involved and they're not using the right shaft, and this just eliminates it."
That's Vanderlip's polite way of saying that virtually every guy who has ever been fitted for clubs thinks he swings harder than he really does.
"The majority of guys will say they're stiff, and that's a problem," he explains. "People are too caught up in themselves. They'll say 'I hit my seven iron 160 yards.' Well, you know, you don't.
"The Mizuno Shaft Optimizer takes ego out of the equation."
It attaches to the shaft of the club that you're testing on the range. It measures how fast the clubhead and shaft are moving during the swing, and how quick a player transitions from the back swing to the down swing. It also measures the bowing of the shaft in a downward direction during the down swing and the amount of shaft-forward bending during the downswing motion. And finally it registers how and when the clubhead and shaft are releasing during the down swing.
All of this information is relayed to a laptop computer which analyzes the data and recommends the type of shaft the golfer should be using. "It will give you an option of three shafts, and you can find one that fits your need best," said Vanderlip. "A little-more-accomplished player who might want to hit it longer and a bit higher, can find a shaft that does that. Or, if the player is just a beginner, and wants to get everything in the air, it can recommend a shaft that will help do that as well."
More and more players are taking the common sense approach and getting properly fitted when they purchase new clubs. Golf pros have plenty of equipment to help them determine things such as length and lie angle, but until now they pretty much had to rely on the player himself to say what they wanted for a shaft.
"This is really close to being the missing piece of the puzzle," says Vanderlip. "It's really innovative and has taken club-fitting to a whole new level."
posted by GOLFHONGKONG at
4:32 AM
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