One-Putt: i disagree 100% with your reference to taping clubs as a short term bandaid...lead tape works (so do lessons). Look at 50% of the bags on tour...lead tape on one or more clubs. The ones who don't have tape had clubs custom made for them to their exact specs or found a club with perfect balance. thus no need to mess around w/ lead tape. players don't care if their clubs are pretty and shiney, they care what the club "does". Does every single last club in your bag hit exactly the way you want with absolutely perfect ballflight? Mine do. Can an Olympic rifle shooter hit a target 100 yards away if his sights are off? No. Dial in his sights properly and he can hit something 1/2 mile away. Shooting at the flagstick is no different.
I use lead tape quite often on woods to "tune" my woods. I place a bit of tape on the head at times, but...it tends to change the ballflight characteristics too much in the wind...I advise to minimize tape on the head. a better option: experiment with wrapping 2-3 grams of lead tape around three main areas of the SHAFT in different combinations and weights. 2" below the grip, 1" above the tip of the shaft and somewhere in the middle of the club. Basically what you are doing is changing the characteristics of the shaft (swingweight, kickpoint, tip stiffness). You can then "tune" your ballflight to your exact specifications (high/mid/lo ballflight, slight draw/slight fade/neutral ballflight). Experiment, experiment, experiment. Don't call me crazy, I was doing this long before Tiger Woods was....check out his Nike driver, he's going the exact same thing. You'll hit more fairways. The pro's have access to 1000's of different shafts (for free), each with different characteristics...the rest of us have to pay each time we swap shafts. As long as you start with a high quality shaft with shaft specs (close) to your ideal specs, you can tune the wood to hit like a rifle. Make sure to begin with a shaft that more or less is close to your appropriate stiffness and shaft weight. You don't want too much lead tape, just enough to change the ballflight. I wrap a tight cover of black electrical tape over the lead tape to keep it from coming off during play.
I have seen alot of diiferent things done to clubs, shafts, grips,ect... but this is the first for shafts...great idea..
I use lead tape quite often on woods to "tune" my woods. I place a bit of tape on the head at times, but...it tends to change the ballflight characteristics too much in the wind...I advise to minimize tape on the head. a better option: experiment with wrapping 2-3 grams of lead tape around three main areas of the SHAFT in different combinations and weights. 2" below the grip, 1" above the tip of the shaft and somewhere in the middle of the club. Basically what you are doing is changing the characteristics of the shaft (swingweight, kickpoint, tip stiffness). You can then "tune" your ballflight to your exact specifications (high/mid/lo ballflight, slight draw/slight fade/neutral ballflight). Experiment, experiment, experiment. Don't call me crazy, I was doing this long before Tiger Woods was....check out his Nike driver, he's going the exact same thing. You'll hit more fairways. The pro's have access to 1000's of different shafts (for free), each with different characteristics...the rest of us have to pay each time we swap shafts. As long as you start with a high quality shaft with shaft specs (close) to your ideal specs, you can tune the wood to hit like a rifle. Make sure to begin with a shaft that more or less is close to your appropriate stiffness and shaft weight. You don't want too much lead tape, just enough to change the ballflight. I wrap a tight cover of black electrical tape over the lead tape to keep it from coming off during play.
Do you wrap the weights around the circumference of the shaft or do you just place them along the shaft (whether its underneath, above or side of the shaft) ?
wrap thin strip(s) around the circumference of the shaft. see what ballflight does. add a little more. see what the ballflight does. add some to the tip. see what the ballflight does, etc...remove it if you don't like what the ballflight is doing. You'll figure it out. Ideally, have a clubfitter use launch monitors to determine a perfectly fitted shaft for your swing, and little or no tape is needed. this is difficult though, and still takes a lot of trial and error (and $) even with the help of a clubfitter. This is more or less a "poor man's" version of the pga tour van.
Irons are a different story, obviously you need proper flex and proper loft and lie on your irons fitted by a clubfitter before moving forward...now experiement with adding strips of lead tape ~2g at a time to the back of each iron clubhead. You can tune each iron this way. This works best with blades, but I guess you can do this with cavity backs too. You can hit absolute lasers for iron shots after this is done. You have just changed your irons into surgical tools.
October 19th, 2005, 01:40 PM
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