The fashionable sport is seeing increasingly of the world’s finest flip to extra loft of their fairway woods.
Scottie Scheffler now has a 7-wood in his bag whereas the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Aberg and Xander Schauffele are followers of transferring away from the usual set-up.
Luke Higgins is the custom-fitting knowledgeable at Torque Golf, an indoor efficiency centre in Manchester which homes 4 simulators, amenities for chipping and bunker play in addition to a Zen Inexperienced Stage, and right here he explains all it is advisable to know when contemplating whether or not so as to add a 7 or perhaps a 9-wood to your bag for the approaching season.
Why the necessity for extra loft?What we see loads with plenty of membership golfers is that they have a tendency to de-loft their fairway woods by impression. So the explanation why folks get extra efficiency out of a better lofted fairway wooden is as a result of actually, by impression, they’re altering their 7-wood into extra of a 3-wood.
That’s why we see plenty of golfers who battle to generate clubhead pace and launch then gaining much more efficiency out of a lofted membership.
One among my favorite fitted golf equipment in the mean time can be a 7-wood with a 3-wood size shaft. So that you get a bit extra clubhead pace and energy due to the size of the shaft however you additionally get the efficiency of the launch angle and spin price of a 7-wood.
Why is becoming so necessary?Becoming for a fairway wooden is essential. The launch angle is certainly necessary as a result of the very last thing you need is a fairway wooden to launch low and haven’t any flight. Ninety per cent of the time with a fairway wooden you’re in all probability hitting right into a inexperienced so you continue to wish to have that stopping energy.
We see plenty of golfers hit their fairway woods nicely, as they’re very forgiving golf equipment, however the ball is coming in very low after which they battle to cease it on the inexperienced. So by getting fitted, we are able to change the shaft, torque and weight to assist generate a greater spin price and launch angle. So you continue to have that stopping energy on the inexperienced with out shedding distance.
I’ve at all times been a giant believer in getting the launch angle up for golfers who battle to launch a fairway wooden and, due to what’s occurring on tour and thru extra training, we at the moment are extra open-minded to having a extra lofted fairway wooden.
How do you go about gapping?I’d get the golfer to hit their longest iron or longest hybrid which provides us a baseline. They might hit their driver/longest membership so we all know what we’re making an attempt to fill or enhance on after which I’ll watch them hit their very own 3-wood a couple of occasions or no matter membership they’re seeking to change. So I simply wish to see how they launch it and the way it spins and from there, I usually begin with a brand new mannequin in the identical model and identical set-up.
With the brand new mannequin, the centre of gravity can have modified rather a lot so we wish to see how they could launch that a bit bit in another way.
Then we are able to mess around with the shaft to get extra spin at launch or mess about with the loft or change the model possibly to see if a unique model launches it. You at all times have the odd factor the place somebody would possibly swing it very in another way with a unique membership. We had a man lately who swung his personal driver at 105mph after which the brand new Callaway at 112mph and he wasn’t swinging it any in another way.
About Luke HigginsLuke did his PGA coaching at York GC the place he spent eight years. He then moved to Bolton Outdated Hyperlinks earlier than being supplied a job at Torque Golf the place he does all of the {custom} becoming in addition to different parts. There are seven PGA Professionals at Torque who cowl the swing, 3D Biomechanics, placing, quick sport, pace and distance and junior improvement and two health specialists who work with golf-specific gymnasium tools. So, basically, they’ve introduced as a lot of the golf course indoors as attainable.
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