A new way to match clubs

[Chieflongtee]

Edit: Errors were found and the formula does not hold up. Do not attempt to build such a set.

Equivalent Compound Pendulum Length Matching
ECPLM Spreadsheet

The Basic premise is: compound pendulums of equivalent lengths (not weight) swing at the same frequency (tempo). Notice how a mantle pendulum clock swings at 1/2 sec and a grandfather clock at 1 sec though the weight is the same (different equivalent lengths)! Every club in the set will have the same natural frequency although they do take different amounts of effort to swing. Clubs "want" to swing at their own natural frequency and will fight the players attempts to swing with a different tempo. This natural tendency of the club "self adjusts"; that it, the golfer can feel the club lag or pull if his tempo is wrong; we've all felt it with MOI, TLT, and SW matched sets; you won't feel it with an equivalent pendulum length set. The fundamental reason golf is so hard; each club "has a mind of it's own" and the "individual differences" are so small (less than 1%) it cannot be controlled by the player (even the best in the world). It has to be done by the clubmaker.

A compound pendulum is one where the weight is distrubuted at the end and along the shaft. Any club can be modeled as is all the weight were concentrated at the one point. The idea is to distribute the weight between the shaft and the head in such a manner that the equivalent length (point of concentration of all the weight) is the same throughout the set. This cannot be done via MOI matching or TLT matching alone. If you were to SW, MOI or TLT match alone you would find the other two "club characteristics would vary 10% over the set (play with the program and you will see). With equivalent Pendulum length matching the other parameter vary by less than 2% throughout the set

The basic procedure is:
· Determine the players best iron
· use the program to determine the equivalent pendulum length (point at which all the weight could be concentrated and have the same effect) of that iron
· match all the other irons to that equivalent length by varying shaft weight (even stiffness!), shaft length, and fine tune with hosel weighting
· Adjust if the Swingweight is too high for the player

The resultant set willl defy all current logic.
· shaft weights for long irons will be heavier than midirons and wedges!
· wedge lengths will be longer!
· clublength differences throughout the set will increase from wedge to long iron

I want to share what I have discovered; the reason scores have not come down despite all the advances in clubmaking; current clubmatching methods only address the symptoms of the disease not the disease itself; that is: the underlying issue of club natural frequency variations. MOI SW and TLT just approximate a properly matched set.

[jvincent]

Too early in the morning to think about this one. I'll have to play with the spreadsheet later.

[Chieflongtee]

Apparently the formula has a glitch. Will get back once it is fixed.

[BC MIST]

There is a method of matching clubs where the force necessary to swing a "favourite" club is determined and then all the others are matched to this club by altering the balance point. This new method suggests that all clubs require a different force to be used.

Would either of you care to elaborate on how you would actually match the clubs so that the "point of concentration of all the weight" is the same?

[sillywilly]

how much to build a set chief

[Chieflongtee]

Edit: Errors were found and the formula does not hold up. Do not attempt to build such a set.