Swing Weight - Is It Important?

Swing Weight?

A friend who is a very good golfer once asked me what is the swing weight of a certain club and I drew a complete blank. I have since talked to many people about swing weight and few knew the meaning much less the significance of it. So, I embarked on a journey of discovery both theoretical and practical. I have even spoken to club fitters (or maybe some are not club fitters, they just change shafts and grips).

So What is Swing Weight?

Swing Weight is an expression of a club in terms of its feel, its head weight in relation to the entire weight of a club and its performance based on the timing of its release. It is liken to say lifting a bag of rice and that weight is thought of as the resistance in being lifted. That is the equivalent to the swing weight of a golf club and its resistance in being lifted and then swung in a circular movement. In technical terms, it is called the "Moment of Inertia". When a club gets longer, you will find that it feels more head-heavy in your hands and this will affect timing. In simple expression, the longer the club, the lighter the head has to be. 


Every incremental increase in length of a club, the head has to be twice the percentage of the increase in length. As an example, to lengthen a 5-iron that has a typical length of 37.5 inches and a head weight of say 250g by just an inch (which is 2.7%), you will need to have a head lighter by about 13.5g (which is about 5.4%). As an entire set of irons need spacing in length by half an inch, the head weight of each club should have a progression in adjustment by half of 13.5g which is about 7g. 


I cannot over-emphasize the importance to match the swing weight of a club to your natural swing speed. Failing to do so may give you poor results. Golfers who has a smooth, graceful and easy swing may need a heavier swing weight. Conversely, if your swing is quick then less swing weight would be ideal if not the consequence is that you cannot rotate properly around your pivot as fast as your body could. The only exception is the Sand Wedge as it is required to dig into and throw up sand in order to blast the ball out from a bunker. 


Today's irons usually weigh in at D0-D1 for swing weight while a driver can be in the range of D3-D4. Hold a club at the head and swing the grip and then reverse the action by holding the grip and swinging the head. This is the feel of swing weight as it is easier to swing the grip than the head as the the head is heavier. Tiger Woods is known to play to a swing weight of D4 for his driver. Every club you use takes the same time from your backswing right through to impact but you will feel that he driver is faster because of it is the longest and due to its length, the swing weight feel makes it feel like it is faster.

Robert Adams

Swing weight was created by Robert Adams. He invented the Swing Weight scale a long time ago that gives measurements of A, B, C, D, E, F which are further divided into ten parts. A men's 7-iron may have a swing weight of D1 (standard) while a Women's may be C3. Adams was a club maker for Bobby Jones (famous for their drivers in particular their fairway woods and even more so their Bobby Jones by Jesse Ortiz hybrids). 


The scale is something like sort of a balance and measure based on the weight of a club and its torque placed onto a fulcrum. It's a point roughly calculated 14 inches from the butt end and this scale is called a "Lorythmic" scale. Swing weights are usually measured in a letter/number format such as D2 or anything similar with letters A through G and numbers 1 through 10. If there were no sense of a reference point then choose something between mid-C to mid-D.

Adjustment

When you are playing well with certain clubs, make sure you know the swing weight of these clubs that you feel comfortable with and find the most suitable in case you need future replacements. A difference of one swing weight point may not be too obvious but if you are playing a D1 and replace that club with another which has a swing weight of D3 or D4, you are going to be affected by the way it feels which may in turn affects your tempo during a swing. 


An example would be a Sand Wedge that comes in a standard set will be heavier than the rest but it could be tuned close to the rest but if you were to purchase a specialized wedge like a Titleist Vokey Spin Milled or a Cleveland Tour Action 588 Gun metal or CG14, you may be getting one with a swing weight of D4 or D5. This will feel vastly different from the set's other irons at D0-D1 and the set's SW at say D3. If the weight don't feel the same (it means differently to different players), you respond and swing differently.

You will also need to know that shortening a club will also alter the swing weight of a club. The opposite is also true that you can change the swing weight properties of a club by changing its length. Just by changing a normal grip to a jumbo grip alone can alter the swing weight. 


Every quarter of an inch that you shortened the shaft of your club, you will alter the swing weight by 1 swing weight point meaning that if you trim a club which has a swing weight of D4 by a quarter inch it become a D3 and if you were to cut it shorter (at the grip end of the shaft) by half an inch, the D4 becomes a D2. It is common in the USA for golfers to add lead weight to the club heads to change its swing weight properties too but not the norm here.

Importance

Most swing weight for irons and other clubs are less critical as they do not differ too greatly in shaft length or club head weight. The numbers are small from iron to iron and usually the standard measurements are quite alright but when it comes to drivers, pay particular attention to its swing weight properties as they can be 45 to 46.25 inches in length and the large club head can vary in weight. 

It is therefore, very important to watch the swing weight when purchasing a driver. Make sure you try it and is able to handle it at a range. Those shops that lets you hit some balls onto a poncho in a small area enclosed with nets at the back is not good enough as the short range makes it seems that every shot is a good one. You need to see how is the trajectory of the shot and how it ended - straight, draw fade, slice or drops and stays put or goes on further with more roll. 

A good way is to benchmark any new purchases with your previous favourite driver swing weight and try to match it so that an identical feel, comfort, confidence to get you into the "zone" is there to let you play well almost immediately without having to go through too much adjustment and fiddling to get your basic feel. Don't let them tell you that it is not important.

Driver Swing Weight Change

I have experimented with TaylorMade Burners. Previous 2007 model I had was 10.5 degree with American Regular shaft with a length of 45.75 inches. It has too much flex plus its long length was too much for me. Then came the 2009 version of the Taylormade Burner which I wanted a lower loft of 9.5 degree but it came with a stiff shaft even though I had wanted a regular shaft. Most retail shops sells you a standard 10.5 Regular or 9.5 Stiff since this caters to the largest portion of the crowd and 9.5 regulars are hard to find. 

They usually don't bring them in or comes in very limited stock. It is supposed to be very easy to handle but then the length must have been at least an incredible 46 inches or 46.25 inches with a swing weight of D5! The longer length and stiff shaft caused my shots to disperse to the right. I have sent it back to TaylorMade who recommended a regular shaft because this 2009 Burner shaft is much stiffer than the 2007 model. They gave me a length at 45.75 inches and said it is now a D4. I reckon that they took a 46 inches shaft and cut it shorter by half an inch to get from D5 to D4.

Specialty Wedges Swing Weight

As most of us play with irons that are fitted to graphite shafts, the swing weight balance for these irons with graphite shafts are usually about D0-D1. We then buy some specialty 52,56, 60 degree or 50,54,58 degree wedges to sharpen our approach play. Save for the very proficient players or those who trained rigorously, we find ourselves playing some good shots and some terrible ones and sometimes even horrendous ones. 

There is no excuse or substitute for skills but I am finding a relation to swing weight problems here which is a reason for such frustrating and embarassing inconsistencies due to the "feel" factor. Look at it this way, while your graphite irons have swing weights of D0-D1, you then switch to specialty wedges with swing weights of D4-D5 (an industry standard when they retail it as single clubs), a swing weight difference of 3-4 swing weight points. 

Why do we still wonder why? Very strong players play with steel shafts like "Nippon Lite" or "True Temper" and as a result, the swing weights of these steel shafted irons are pretty close to the swing weights of specialty wedges (always steel shafted) and this is an advantage as they will feel little or no difference when they play any club. Unbeknownst to us, those of us who are already besaddled with specialty wedges combined with graphite irons can do the following: (i) trained specially with these specialty wedges to adjust and get used to the feel, (ii) find a good club-fitter and changed the shaft to another type of steel shaft of these specialty wedges to get them closer to the swing weight of D0-D1 of your graphite irons, say from D5 to D3. Otherwise, as they say, ignorance is bliss and it is better to be pissed off than pissed on. 

Armed with this theory, I approached a professional club-fitter of a famous top brand and discussed with him and after awhile, he concurred with me and said: "Sir, I couldn't agree more with you on this point" to which I said: "It means that many golfers out there could be struggling with such problems" and he said: "Yes, indeed. That's the way it is." Now it is not his responsibility to correct such problem. In any case, before you can identify a solution, you have to know what the problem is in the first place. I think I have caught one here and next is how to nail it. Hmm... I'll be thinking for awhile and perhaps do some experiments and research.

You hear all these first..... by going to the mountain.....

Golf as in life, play as it lies!