Sunday, January 17, 2010

Ball Flight + Technology = A Proper Fit

There still seems to be a myth by many golfers that it is not the golf club or golf ball but rather all about the golfer themselves as to whether that perfectly straight, smashed drive happens on a regular basis. The more people can understand the proper ball flight that achieves maximum distance, the more people can begin to crush this myth and their drives.

Let’s first take a look at what happens at impact between the golf club and golf ball:

1. The golf club’s shaft reacts to the force applied by the golfer swinging it and “releases” the club head..

2. At moment of impact, the specific features of the club head’s design, such as loft, lie, center of gravity (CG), and moment of inertia (MOI), initiate ball flight.

3. The golf ball reacts to the forces applied by the shaft via the club head. The ball “launches” in the direction and with the spin that the impact forces have applied.

4. The attributes in the golf ball take effect and ball flight is determined.

I know many of you are thinking that this is WAY too technical, but this is reality and the very reason proper clubfitting requires not only the ability to see ball flight but also a trained club fitting professional using the most state of the art technology to read much of the data needed to maximize numbers 1 through 4 above. At Haggin Oaks we are fortunate to have TrackMan in the Player Performance Studio which is the most state-of-the-art launch monitor in golf today. With this incredible technology we are able to gather a lot of important data regarding a golfer’s launch angle, ball speed, spin rate, land angle as well as many other important variables that will maximize the moment of impact and thus the golfer’s ball flight.

The chart below clearly illustrates visually what proper ball flight is and what effect it has on a golfer’s distance. Which one are you?




If you fall into Ball Flight numbers 2, 3 or 4 above do not worry as you are definitely not alone, and you can be helped. The three most important pieces that are needed to drastically improve your ball flight are: top fitting professionals, technologically advanced launch monitors and the ability to see the ball flight. It is time to bust the myth that fitting is not critical. If you experience a clubfitting that has these three important pieces your golf game will be changed for life.

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