How a Clubmaker Thinks … the Most Precise Set on Planet Earth!

[TourIQ]

My apology for the dramatic thread title. Please note; this post is lengthy (3,773 words), so quickly scan it first to assess if it might be worthy of a full read. I want to impact some knowledge of what is possible to those who demonstrate an open mind, and some of the motivation behind our madness, with the sole purpose of finding further entitlement aimed at improvement, through the custom clubs a player games. If I have peaked your interest a tad, then allow the story to unfold. I hope you find a gem or two in enjoyment of the game we love.

By way of background, my professional background and certification is in the Quality discipline, having been the Director of Quality for a $0.5 billion global enterprise, a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt (CLSSBB), a Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) and a global awardee for the Most Original Application of Lean Six Sigma. Early in my career, I was mentored in Deming’s TQM by a disciple of W. Edwards Deming (rated #1 Quality guru in the world). We never pursued formal certification in the clubfitting / clubmaking discipline, instead we bought the most accurate digital clubmaking equipment in the world, and then defined our standardized club build system.

Duane (aka, forgedblade or FB) bought a used but nearly new set of LH’ed PING i20 irons, as they were hit over two range sessions by their original owner. Set bought off the forum. They had the stock S-flex taper tip Ping CFS steel shafts. Over two games of play, Duane noticed his Ping i20’s hit left of the target on all the par 3’s and approach shots. He concluded the shaft was too soft on flex. To test his theory, he slowed his swing speed down to 90% on several shots, and noticed the ball went straight towards the pin as it should. A couple of weeks later, I measured the stock CFS S-flex shafts as Regular flex (pretty typical), while his MP-30’s were built to X+ flex (Rifle 7.7 equivalent). For his high swing speed, the stock steel shafts were approximately 2.5 flexes (25 cpm) too soft. In fairness to Ping, irons were bought used not fitted, just to get eight i20 heads to rebuild.

Duane asked if I could rebuild his i20’s to a true X+ flex, with the identical shaft as his gamer MP-30’s of 8 years and the same steel shaft he has been gaming for a dozen years. Since I was working a ton of OT I said, “you want them done quick or you want them done right? Before you answer, done right means I will do them over the winter months, so in effect, you have new irons you can not play for most of 2012”. He said, “Dad do them right, even better than my blueprinted MP-30’s, I’ll wait for them to be perfect”.

What’s in the Bag (evaluate & game) (all clubs LH’ed):
- Driver – Adams 9064LS vs. Krank Golf Rage Black – XX flex graphite shaft – he thinks the 9064LS will keep residence in the bag
- Fairway Wood – 906F2 3W vs. 906F2 5W vs. Adams F11 Ti 3W – each made to 4-Wood length, only room to carry 1 of the 3
- Hybrid – Adams Idea Pro Black 9031 3/20 vs. Nickent Genex 3DX Ironwood 3/20 – identical steel shaft as irons
- Irons – Ping WRX i20 4-Iron to 50* UW (Gap), backup irons are Mizuno MP-30 – same shaft as hybrid & wedges
- Wedges – Vokey M-Grind CC-TVD 54S and 58L vs. Maltby LE Forged 56S, 60L – bent 54.5* and 59.0* – identical steel shafts as irons
- Putter – YES Dianna, UST Freq. Filtered, BCG Wt., Super Stroke 3.0 grip vs. YES Callie, UST Freq. Filtered, BCG Wt., Scotty Cameron ‘Dancing Letters’ grip

Duane has several standards he uses over time. So every build incorporates past lessons learned. He doesn’t deviate from a discontinued True Temper steel X+ flex steel shaft of parallel tip design, discontinued Lamkin green Dual Density grip, Pro-Soft vibration dampening insert in steel shafts, target swing weight and club length. The parallel tipped steel shaft was discontinued by TT approximately 7 years ago. At the time, I stockpiled about 120 of them, as they are used for all clubs he plays from hybrid to last wedge, since no hybrid or wedge specific shafts are used.

When Duane has hit a friend’s club or demo iron from the pro shop, it has generally felt dead and unresponsive in his hands at impact, in spite of gaming steel shafts of rebar stiffness. He is now biased to play a set which offers incredible feel, so he gets accurate feedback on every shot based on sound, club face impact and divot.

Building these i20 Ping irons (ok two sets if you count my set of Ping i20 irons) was a labour of love and took a ton of planning to get Duane something truly special performance wise, like no other set of irons he has ever played. Possibly the most precise set ever assembled, from hybrid to last wedge, but cost wise approximately full retail.

Why Bother? (derived benefits):
- Shortly after getting blueprinted MP-30’s, his ball striking tee-2-green soared to + handicap side of zero with a course record ‘64’, this in spite of no tournament golf to keep his game sharp and no coaching in over 4 years.
- FB rarely window shops at a pro shop for a new club as he keeps a gamer set for up to 10 years or more, so why not have it 100% within specification, custom made to his unique requirement, based on lessons learned?
- Duane is totally committed to this type of high precision build for his golf clubs. If his set were put on a mechanical hitting robot, using tour quality golf balls and 3D Trackman ball flight monitoring, the predicts ball flight would follow a very predictable and consistent model (narrow band) over the full range of clubs, to include precise yardage gaps between each consecutive club, without having to rebend club L&L angles to compensate for a low quality build with inconsistent feel. Since ball flight is very consistent over a wide range, then Duane will fine-tune his impact for 3D trajectory shot control as the situation on course warrants, along with garnishing incredible feel from each club. In other words, consistent clubs offers predictable ball flight trajectory, shot making control (when in trouble, to make the WOW recovery shot) and offers the player an additional feedback element on the rating of each shot executed.

Personal Paradigms (our beliefs):
- It’s the Indian plus the arrow. 150 variables add together each round in a math regression, so slash variation on inputs to reduce output (your score).
- Every Name Brand will proclaim the highest standards of quality and product excellence in the industry, most state “trust us”, then offer no data.
- Name Brands do not want their equipment modified, so they claim modification will void OEM warranty, so care about performance not warranty.
- Having your current set measured (fully documented) will explain many of your bad shots. Name Brands / retailers rarely if ever certify the build.
- A new club has to be evaluated outside hitting off real grass, being witness to the true flight of the ball. If available, outside Trackman is great.
- The worst a club should play is the day it is new with the plastic wrap on the head, as every single club can be rebuilt to remove inherent % Error.
- A different club has to fit two criteria for it to be gamed; 1) it has to fit the eye to inspire confidence, and 2) it has to be better on performance.
- Club build is more critical than the club fitting. Most professionals can get the fitting close, but few iron sets are built better than 40% out of specification.
- The head is more critical than the shaft. Relative to a vehicle, the head is the engine, the shaft is the transmission and the grip is the steering wheel.
- Quality in the golf industry is generally pathetic. There are pockets of excellence within a tiny minority of companies, but this is a rare exception.
- Be a fanatic about consistency, reducing variation on Controllable Variables, even if it’s not measured, and your game will improve in other areas.
- Main difference between darts and golf is the size of the playing field, 1 sq. foot vs. 100 acres, but they both demand tools of exacting precision.
- Golf is a Game of Consistency, but few teaching professionals have been trained in the Concept of Variation, a foreign concept not understood.
- When a player does not have the consistency of the club build to blame, they quickly connect the causal dots and seek out swing fault corrections.

Project Milestones (plan & execute):
- Measured each club for all final inspection characteristics, to determine the stock build quality. The CFS S-flex shafts were in fact R-flex, a full 2.5 flexes softer than his current set of Mizuno MP-30’s.
- Validated the matching serial no’s with Ping to ensure the clubs were authentic. Not that I suspected the set as a forgery, as few off-shore companies want to tool-up to make left handed counterfeits.
- Determined a new loft specification for this set, to better transition from 3/20 hybrid to 54* sand wedge, resulting in a narrower yardage gap over the iron set, easier to hit closer to the pin on approach shots.
NOTE: Ping progresses the i20 iron lofts in increments of 3* in the long irons to 4* in the mid irons, and 5* to 4* as you progress from 9-iron to UW (50* Gap). Their published loft spec’s did not make any sense to us.
- Since heads are made of the harder variety 17-4 stainless steel, the stock clubs were sent to Ping Oakville to validate and readjust loft and lie based on the specifications we stated for each iron and wedge.
- With the loft and lie close to the number, I used our Mitchell L&L machine to complete the final incremental bending, for the final fine-tuning of loft and lie.
- Heads removed from shafts and checked for weight to within 0.1 grams. Since Ping hit a swing weight of D0, the majority of heads would require a weight adjustment of 12 grams to hit Duane’s swing weight spec.
NOTE: I did not want to add 12 grams of weight to each hosel, as this would move the Centre of Gravity (CoG) or sweet spot of the iron off-centre to favour the hosel, so heads shipped to PING WRX in Arizona, USA.
- Used an Excel spreadsheet to review past builds for FB, and how much hosel weight was added per club. From this data, I determined a heavier weight tolerance which did not follow the industry standard 7.0 gram incremental change per iron club head.
NOTE: above would allow for minute fine tuning of swing weight via lead tip weights, basically an identical amount to each club head, so sweet spot would be impacted / change minimally.
- Contacted PING USA customer service and talked at length with one of their supervisors. A great rep who immediately understood what I wanted to accomplish with the assistance of their top builder to the PGA elite.
- Defined Purchase Order requirements, outlining Scope of Work with target head weights and tolerances for Ping. As most heads are manufactured to +/- 3.0 grams on weight, I specified target weight as +/- 0.3 grams.
NOTE: the Ping rep I was dealing with, later informed me, in all their years dealing with custom builds, the requirements I specified was the most detailed / defined they had ever seen from any customer.
- Ping WRX removed every CTP (Custom Tuning Port) and then installed heavier ones to match our stated requirements on 17 heads. My spec’s were slightly lighter than Duane, as I am an old f*rt and not as physically strong.
- Ping rep called to inform me of the head weights and boy was I shocked. I gave them a weight tolerance of 0.6 grams total, what I call ∆ Variance, and all 17 heads were within 0.1 grams of our request. PING is the BEST!
- i20 heads shipped to Port Huron, Michigan so I travelled to the USA to pick-up our parcel. Upon getting home, I validated all raw weights. Although our scales differed slightly, all head weights were within 0.1 grams.
- Heads reamed to accept a parallel tipped steel shaft, so flex which impacts trajectory and shot accuracy (% Error to target) could be fine tuned with sorted steel shafts, to include spine aligned shafts during assembly.
- Ordered i20 replacement taper tipped ferrules which were reamed for parallel. My concern when placing the order is if their reamer is slightly too large, it will be a loose fit on the shaft and maybe not useable on this build.
- Picked 44 shafts within raw weight of +/- 0.1 grams (0.2 grams ∆ Variance) to sort to get down to a dozen shafts, covering his Adams 9031 hybrid, Ping i20 irons 4-I to U and two M-grind Vokeys from Wedgeworks.
- Installed new Club Scout IV frequency analyzer with dual cylinder pneumatic clamping system. This is the platinum standard for frequency analyzers and can measure the frequency of a shaft or club to within 0.1 cpm.
- Began to populate our blueprinted build sheet. This sheet is on 1 page and is very detailed. It covers every piece of data collected or measured during the build. I collected 350 measurements over a full set of 14 clubs.
NOTE: If a club is ever broken, stolen or lost, it can be duplicated with no loss of performance or feel. An elite golfer could mix and match two identical sets built years apart and never determine which set a club came from.
- Turned out the i20 ferrules were loose as suspected and could not be used in current form, although the inside top of the Ping hosel is reamed larger for the top 1/2 inch of depth. So I cut the shim from the ferrule and glued in each head as a shim. The next day, the top portion of the hosel with shim portion needed to be reamed slightly to accept the insertion of the parallel tipped shaft. The fit was nice and tight so mission accomplished, making a portion of the oversized custom ferrule work.
- Shafts trimmed to exacting length from the tip. Shafts prepped and our stock long black ferrules installed which wouldn’t ride down the shaft over time. Shafts cut to final playing length, tip weight installed and Pro-Soft vibration dampening insert added.
- As a departure from Name Brand OEM wisdom, all wedges (P, U, S, L) made to the identical length as the 9-iron. This method allows the S and L scoring wedges to have identical MOI and not too short on down hill lie.

Technical Challenges (obstacles to overcome):
- Head weight on Adams 9031 hybrid was too heavy, so I had to secure a special weight kit (wrench and screws of varying gram weights) direct from Adams Golf.
- Irons in stock form required approx. 12 grams of lead down the shaft / hosel, to achieve target swing weight. Using lead tape on outside of cavity wasn’t an option, nor did we want the CoG of head to move off centre. The only solution was to send the heads back to Ping USA and have the CTP removed and a heavier CTP installed by PING WRX their custom tour department. It is rare for me to find a Name Brand to step up to the plate and hit a Grand Slam, but Ping hit it out of the park for us, as they exceeded our high quality expectations. Upon club assembly, all i20 irons required a lead tip weight of only 1.9 to 2.7 grams to hit specified build parameters.
- Ping i20’s uses a special collared ferrule for insertion of taper tipped shafts. Since we were going to install parallel tip shafts, I procured aftermarket i20 ferrules which were factory reamed too large to be useable.
- Two sets of Lob wedges were hand picked for lower weight by Titleist and Maltby, but they arrived way too heavy for constant length, therefore hosels were step drilled to removed approximately 2 grams per head.
- Five clubs from 9-iron to Lob Wedge were to be made to constant length of identical shaft frequency and progressive swing weight change. Considering the lightest head was 281 grams and the heaviest 308 grams, a change of 27 grams, this poses a challenge to hit the same shaft frequency.
- Since the i20 included a 50* Gap Wedge (marked U), then 1 of 2 fairway metals needed to be dropped to maintain the 14 club limit. The hardest club to fit for Duane was the fairway metals, and it took 12 years before he had the right model of heads to hit with confidence. Using 3 and 5 wood heads of two different models of heads, three fairway metals were built to replicate the performance of a 4-Wood. He will evaluate 3 to pick 1.

Quality Standards (∆ Variance):
Components
Component ∆ Variance 0.3 grams based on the following:
- Head weight tuned to within 0.1 grams
- Shaft weight hand picked to within 0.2 grams, with raw shaft frequency within 0.4 cpm (+/- 0.2 cpm on flex)
- Grip weight hand picked to within 0.0 grams
- Component swing weight (dry-fit, no lead) within 0.3 of 1 point – I’ve never seen a set built to this standard
Note: three major components of a Name Brand club can have a component ∆ Variance of up to 20 grams, so 0.3 grams represents a reduction of variation of 98.5%
Assembled
- Swing weight (glued with no grip) within 0.1 of 1 point – tour quality would typically be defined as 1.0 point
- Club length within 0.010 inch – although rare, it is possible to find an iron off length by 5/8 inch, as I’ve seen it
- Loft and lie within 0.2 of 1 degree – almost all off-the-shelf Name Brand iron sets have major discrepancies with loft and lie out-of-spec
- Final swing weight (with grip) within 0.2 of 1 point – it’s not uncommon to find a set of irons off on swing weight by 3.0 points or even more
- Club frequency from hybrid to last wedge from 7.5 to 7.8 flex: 7.6 (H) / 7.5 (4) / 7.6 (5) / 7.5 (6) / 7.6 (7) / 7.7 (8) / 7.7 (9) / 7.8 (PW) / 7.8 (GW) / 7.7 (54S) / 7.6 (59L) – some OEM sets vary from R to X flex = 20 cpm
Lessons Learned
- increase Duane’s head weight target by +1.0 grams for each iron head 4-U, to reduce the addition of lead weight by 45% on the next build.

Special Acknowledgement (give thanks):
- I do not want to mention their names, but Duane and I are thankful to PING WRX, in particular the Customer Service Supervisor and their top PGA Clubmaker who gave us something special to work with. We send a thank you note via email to his manager and director. Ping went beyond the call of duty and demonstrated their commitment to quality, I have never seen in the golf industry, until we dealt with PING direct on this request.

Hours Invested (not counted for good reason):
- No idea, as it was a labour of love. I challenged myself to build a near perfect set to a Standard of Perfection of near ZERO Variation. Now that I have a grand daughter who calls me Pappa and likes to give me high-fives, I told Duane that I will be Avery’s ‘Official Clubmaker’ in a few years. She is 1.5 years old and has to first outgrow here plastic sticks which she likes to play with, which Duane bought before she was born. Guess what sport Avery will learn to play in a few years, with Duane as her coach and mentor?

Closing Remarks (seek consistency):
- I hope some forum members can garnish a gem or two which will assist their own game in improving over time (ie, get your sticks measured). Just remember, the only thing between you and the golf ball is the club you hold in your hand. If you are a serious golf, it must be right for you to excel. If you want to take your game to a new plateau and excel, then your sticks can not be out-of-specification and a source of excessive variation.
- Although many use the words interchangeably, I make a distinction between fitter and builder (clubmaker), as their competency can be vastly different between these two disciplines (fit vs. build).
- We would enjoy working exclusively with several PGA and LPGA tour players, someone who can truly appreciate the precision of this type of club build and one committed to learning an improvement methodology aimed at Elite Player Optimization. I would not change their endorsement deal, but rather rebuild the clubs they play under contract, as well as teach them how to execute further entitlement aimed at lower stroke average without offering a swing change, as I understand my limitations. The problem with this idea to date with my limited resources, it is impossible to get past the tour player agents for a one-on-one exploratory meeting.
- For the serious golfer, a clubmaker should be part of your trusted golf improvement advisors, not unlike seeking out a great instructor who is committed to your continual improvement.

Now to build my own set (evaluate & game):
- Driver – several high lofted heads to choose from – R flex graphite shaft
- Fairway Woods – Adams F11 Ti 15* 3W and 18* 5W – Aldila VooDoo S-flex graphite
- Hybrids – Adams Idea Pro Black 9031 2/18 and 4/23 – Aldila VooDoo Hybrid S-flex graphite
- Irons – Ping WRX i20 4-Iron to 50* UW (Gap) – Femco FST Firm-flex parallel tipped steel shaft
- Wedges – Vokey M-Grind CC-TVD 54S and 58L bent to 54.5 and 59.0 – identical steel shafts as irons
- Putter – YES Natalie, UST Freq. Filtered, BCG Weight with Super Stroke 1.0 grip – in my bag for years

Copyright © 2013 by Harry F. Schiestel and Legacy Prints Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[downhillslider]

Thank you for exposing the passion and talent that exists among dedicated clubmakers.

If only golfers could take step back for a moment and really try to understand the difference in quality that is available to them.

I have reamed many an OEM head to accept .370 shafts for the same reasons you mention.

It is very time consuming, but vey much, a labor of love.

[TourIQ]

Les as a top club fitter and competent builder yourself, you are advancing the craft / profession with passion, to every golfer you serve.

Name Brands want all golfers to drink their Kool-Aid. Yes the more educated a golfer gets, the more which is possible improvement wise.

I loved your web site as well as your slogan, "The Finesse of Art ... the Performance of Science!" So true in search of improved accuracy, consistent yardage gaps / distances, enhanced feel ... all of which combine to offer lower scores > stroke average > personal enjoyment.