"Why custom clubs?"


The answer, in short, is that I believe you're going to get better quality than you will if you buy clubs "off the rack," whether it's a Wal-Mart set or one from the big OEM vendors.

"How can that be?" you ask. "The pros play clubs from the big OEM vendors. That means they're the highest quality, right?"

The clubs the pros play are high quality, but that doesn't mean the ones you can purchase are constructed or set up the same way. They aren't buying clubs off the rack at a proshop or discount outlet; you are. 

"But surely if I buy those clubs they must be high quality;  after all, they cost a great deal!"

Yes they do cost a great deal. A lot of the reason has to do with the logos you see pro golfers wearing every weekend. Somebody has to pay for that, and it's the buyer of those clubs.  Exacting standards and high quality are not the reasons the clubs you can buy cost so much.

Further, when you buy a set of "X" clubs, you are not getting the same thing that the pro is playing.  He or she has clubs set up to specific parameters.  What you buy is more or less generic.  Yes, the pro is playing "X" clubs.  No, you can't buy them.

The clubs you buy off the rack are not constructed, one by one, to an exacting set of specifications. They're made in a mass-production environment where nobody is taking the time to make sure that each and every component together will be assembled to produce a set that matches.

"What do you mean, 'matches'?"

A set should be matched not only on flex--what we know as "stiff," "regular," "senior," and so on--but also on swingweight or on moment-of-inertia. This can only be reliably done if each component in a set is individually evaluated for meeting exacting specifications, and corrected for any variance in tolerances that result.

This is not, to my knowledge, done by any OEM manufacturer, though some do seem to try to correct for swingweight variance.  Mizuno, for instance, has been known to add weight down the shaft inside the hosel.  This, by the way, is not bad; it's a common clubmaking adjustment to match on swingweight.

"What difference would this make to my game?"

The difference is this:  In a matched set, every club feels the same in terms of swingweight, which is important for where you hit them in your stance.  Every club feels the same in terms of flex , so that the same swing will produce the same results with each club.

Ever had a set where some clubs felt right, and others not?  The point of matching is to make every club feel the same--and feel right.

My own clubs are matched.  I know a bad result is me, not the clubs.  That means I can focus my attention on the physical aspects of the game without that feeling in the back of my mind that the clubs are somehow responsible.

"How do you know that OEM clubs aren't always matched?"

I have, over the years, had the opportunity to evaluate a variety of OEM sets of golf clubs, for instance, when presented to me for regripping. I can measure them for swingweight, and assess their frequency-- flex--in a specially-designed device manufactured just for that purpose.

While this might get a bit technical, I feel I need to show you how I know these things about OEM clubs. To do this, I have to show you how I assess flex and swingweight, and how to tell if it's correct throughout a set or not. Are you game?

"Well, OK. Just keep it simple!"

I'll try to do that. To begin with, let's talk about Swingweight. It's a measure of how heavy the head feels at the end of a golf club. It's not a particularly good measure, but it's been around for about 70 years, most people understand what it is, and it is the most common way to evaluate what I call "swingheaviness."

You measure swingweight on a swingweight scale. You simply place the club on the scale and balance the scale. The reading on the sliding weight tells you the swingweight. Swingweights are measured on a scale from A to G, with A being lightest and G being heaviest. Further, the distance between each letter is divided into tenths, such that you could say that a swingweight of D1 is less than a D4, and a D0 is greater than a C8.

So I can take an OEM set, as given to me from the customer, and measure it.

Most people want a swingweight-matched set, with the exception of the shortest irons. It might be spec'd out to a "D2" swingweight, with the 3-9 irons at D2, the PW at about D4, the SW at maybe D6, and so on. There are variations on this theme that depend on how a golfer likes the feel of those short irons, but matched means that the swingweights match.

Here are the swingweights from one set of OEM clubs I've evaluated, from manufacturer "P".  By the way, these aren't all that bad, and the PW should be higher in swingweight than the others::

Iron
 Swingweight
4
 C9.75
5
 C9.25
6
 C8.75
7
 D0
8
 C9
9
 C8.75
PW
 D2


But what about these, from manufacturer "C"?:

Iron
 Swingweight
3
 D2.00
4
 D0.75
5
 D4.25
6
 D1.25
7
 D2.00
8
 D2.25
9
 D2.25
PW
 D2.00


Those are sets that originally cost in the range of $600-800. Do you think that you should get something a little better than that for such high cost? I do, too.

"But what about this flex thing?"

 Flex, of course, is how stiff or flexible the shaft is. The first thing you must know is that there are no standards--none--for how shaft stiffness or flex is described.  One manufacturer's "stiff" can be more flexible than the next manufacturer's "regular."  Even Rifle shafts, purported to be exacting in their frequency distribution, have not been that in my examination.  More on that later.

How do you measure what the flex is?

First, I carefully remove the grip from the club if necessary.  I can do that with most grips so I can reinstall them intact.  Then I place the butt end in my frequency-meter clamp, and tighten it down.  The clamp produces the same amount of pressure each time so that readings are consistent.

I then position the meter to measure the frequency--the cycles per minute or cpm--and then "twang" the club so it oscillates up and down.  The meter gives me a measure of frequency, or stiffness.

Why is frequency a measure of stiffness?

The stiffer a club, the faster it will oscillate in this setup.  Because of that, we now have a way to numerically describe the stiffness of a club, compare it to other clubs, and evaluate the match within a set.

So what do you do with those numbers?

I plot them on a frequency chart.  Years ago, Brunswick determined that the ideal match is one where the clubs increase about 4cpm for each 1/2" length decrease.  The resulting slope--as plotted on a chart such as below--defines a set of clubs that is matched for frequency (flex).



A well-matched set of clubs should be on the same slope.  For example, if I were to plot a matched set of clubs, it might look like this on the chart, where the 3-iron is 39 inches long with a frequency of 305, and so on:

Frequency on slope


That is, the dots indicating length/cpm are all on the same line. 

Now, it doesn't matter that the line be on top of one of the lines indicating "X" or "S" or "R" or whatever.  Those are arbitrary indications of what "stiff" or "regular" might be, but they're not absolutes.  On this particular chart, though, the "S" slope corresponds roughly to a set produced with True Temper Dynamic Gold S-300 steel shafts with a 5-iron length of 37.5".

But realize this:  There is no standard.  When I fit a golfer, I'm looking for a specific flex that suits their game.  It might be between the lines you see on the chart, and usually is.  Often customers send me a club they just love--I evaluate it for flex and swingweight, and then build an entire set to that designation.  The frequency--flex--of that club probably doesn't fall on one of those parallel lines.  I don't care whether it does or not--the point is to get the flex the golfer likes the best, regardless of what line it produces on the chart. 

My own irons, for instance, are just a bit under the "S" line shown.  Why?  Because I've hit a lot of different flexes and that's the one that works best for me.  What will work best for you?  Why, the one that fits you best! 

So how do you tell if a set is out of whack?

Now that you know what to look for, it's easy.  For instance, take the set plotted below, from manufacturer "P".  How do they look?

Manufacturer "P" frequencies


When this customer sent me his set, he did so with the indication that he couldn't hit either the 4 or 5 irons well at all.  What was the problem?  I'm sure you can see it on the chart.  While the frequencies of the other irons were very good, the 4- and 5-irons were simply too stiff for him.

What did I do?  I replaced the shafts, trimming them to specific flexes so they would be in line with the others.   He was so happy with the reshafting, he had me build him a new KZG 3-iron to match the rest of his OEM set.  This was the end result:

Reshafted clubs



Let's look at another set, this from OEM manufacturer "C".  The set starts with the 3-iron on the left and continues to the PW:

Manufacturer "C" frequencies

The clubs in this set varied from virtually a senior flex in the longest 3 irons past "regular" to nearly "stiff" in the shortest irons.  How easy do you think it would be to maintain a consistent swing--and consistent performance--with a set varying so much?

This customer was having me remove the original OEM grips and replace them with ones he liked better.  I informed him of the above results, and he returned the clubs to the manufacturer.

Finally, here's a somewhat extreme example, a set of graphite-shafted irons from OEM manufacturer "P".  This golfer sent me his set, telling me to reshaft it because he simply couldn't hit consistently with these clubs.  I needed to find out what it was about these irons that made them tough to hit, so that we didn't reproduce it when I reshafted them.  Here's what the frequency plot looked like:

Freq Plot of "J" irons

It was quite clear, once I evaluated the clubs for frequency, why the golfer had such a hard time with this set.  Imagine trying to groove a swing where you needed one which could perform with a "stiff flex" 3-iron, a "senior flex" 4-iron, a "regular flex" 7-iron, and so on. 

In fact, the manufacturer, when shown the frequency chart above, returned the customer's money; he then had me build him a custom set.  This is what the frequencies looked like for that set, after a bit of testing to see what flex really suited him best:

Freqs on new set of J's clubs

His reports included a "smile" as he no longer had to fight the clubs.  His handicap has dropped significantly; as his swing improved, he needed another, stiffer set of clubs, which I've since built for him.  His handicap continues to fall.

"So summarize for me what all this means, would you?"

In brief, it means this:  Unless you know that your irons have been specifically constructed so as to match them on flex and swingweight, you have little reason to believe that they are.  Sometimes they're OK, but often they are not, and how will you know the difference?   If you're having trouble on the course, how will you know if the problem is your swing, or the clubs that you're using?

The above data makes it clear:  Even top-of-the-line manufacturers don't produce clubs that are perfect, and often produce clubs that are far from perfect.  And if your clubs don't match, the old "all you need is one swing" bromide about golfing is for naught--the more different your clubs are, the more different swings you need to make them work.  And as I'm sure you'd agree, it's hard enough just learning one swing.

I'm not telling you the specific manufacturers of the clubs simply because there's no need.  If you feel the need to know, email me privately and I'll tell you what they are.  I don't see any purpose in publicly lambasting OEM manufacturers.  The point is what well-matched clubs can do, and where I believe you're more likely to find them.

"But what about shafts that have been specifically designed to provide a frequency-match?"

In my experience, they're often not that way.  They differ by a lot sometimes, and sometimes they're fairly good.  There's just no way to know without the painstaking evaluation that lets one know which shafts are good, which are marginal, and which should be thrown out.

Even shafts like Rifles are not immune to this.

"How do you know that?"

When I was playing off shafts against each other while designing my current set, I wanted to compare a Rifle 5.0 and 5.5 shaft to a True Temper Dynamic Gold S300 shaft. I had a number of the same heads; that meant I could create three "identical" 5-irons, differing only by the shaft.

I started out, as I always do, by comparing the raw frequencies of the shafts. Imagine my surprise when the Rifle 5.5 shaft turned out to be the same as the Rifle 5.0 shaft (they should have differed by half a flex grade, or about 5cpm).

I called Precision tech support to find out what was up, and was assured that after I tip trimmed them, they'd be different. So I did. And they weren't. They were still the same.

Now, those shafts should have differed by 5 cpm, the difference between 5.0 and 5.5.  Or at least have shown some difference.  But they didn't differ at all.

I also had the occasion recently to reshaft a set of Ping irons with the new Rifle Project X shaft. The clubheads were taper-tip heads, meaning there is no adjustment of the flex possible with the shafts used. I assembled the clubs with the new shafts and after all was done, I checked the resulting frequency slope of those very expensive steel shafts (nearly $25 per club). I'm sure, now that you know what to look for, you can evaluate them for yourself. Take a look:

rifle x frequencies in Pings


I produced what the customer wanted, but what he didn't realize and you do, is that what a product says it is, doesn't mean that's what it is. Don't you feel you deserve better? And at a cost less than that with which you can get OEM "quality"? I do, too.

"Are OEM clubs likely to be bad?"

I don't want to leave the impression that all OEM clubs are bad, because they're not. I haven't looked at all of them, obviously.  I've seen some sets that I would consider excellent, close enough in swingweight and frequency that it would be impossible for the average golfer to know they weren't perfect. In fact, making them perfect wouldn't likely have been worth the cost, nor been easily detectable.

But I've also seen some garbage.  There's no way to tell, without assessing them using the equipment clubmakers like me have available.

How many times have you seen someone buy a set of clubs only to trade it in 3 months later on some other hope and prayer?   You might hit a demo 5-iron or two, and decide that "this is the one."  But they don't build a set to the exact set of specifications of that wonderful demo you fell in love with.  They build a set using off-the-shelf parts that are hoped to produce something similar to what you hit as a demo.

At the same time, how does one know whether a set is good or not? Ah, there's the rub. Unless you have access to hundreds of dollars of equipment with which to test them, you can't know. You could find a clubmaker who has that equipment and have them checked. But why should you have to? Why not have them built to matched specifications right from the start?

And why pay more if you're not getting more?

"So Custom Clubs are just as good as OEM clubs?"

In my opinion, better.  How many times in this day and age can you buy a product that costs less than the typical alternative, yet performs better?

You can get a custom fit set of irons with forged heads (from a superior manufacturer like KZG) for under $600.  If you are looking at some of the terrific cast heads that are out there, you can get a tremendous matched set for even as little as $350-400. 

"How can the price be so much less?"

Custom clubmakers don't have to pay PGA Tour pros to play their clubs.  They don't have national advertising budgets to support, nor a distriibution chain to satisfy.  There is no middleman, and no stockholders to satisfy with profits.

"But what about resale value?"

I'm always surprised by this.  Does it make more sense to pay $800 for a set of OEM clubs that you can resell for $300, or spend $500 for a set of custom made, matched clubs?  Either way, you're out $500.  And you don't know if the OEM clubs are matched, whereas with a matched set of custom clubs, you do know it.

Wouldn't you rather have that $300 saved up front instead of paying it to an OEM dealer and having to go through the effort of reselling them to reclaim the money?

Besides, Custom Clubs that are fit to you and your swing aren't clubs you're going to want to sell.  You're going to want to keep them until worn so much that you need a new set.  Or until your swing changed to where you need a differently-matched set.   Do the math.  

"So what's the lowdown on Custom Clubs?"

You come out ahead on cost with Custom Clubs, they meet or exceed the quality of OEM clubs, they're fit specifically, exactly to your swing, and they're matched. 

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