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I'm building a set of irons (Miz MP-60s with DG SL shafts) and I feel like I'm chasing my tail trying to find a happy medium with swing weight and club weight. I'm 6'-3" and following charts I've found online and swinging clubs with marking tape on the bottom I've figured out I'm about a +1"/2° upright build. Swinging many clubs I would prefer my clubs on the lighter side - around a C5. In adding the 1" to my club, my swing weight goes way up. To counter the swing weight problem I have to add butt weight making the club weight go way up. I purchased lighter shafts to try and help but my clubs are still really heavy. I don't like how heavy the club is in my back swing and would like to make them lighter without sacrificing swing weight.

Am I missing something painfully obvious? Is there a way for taller golfers to have longer, "lighter" (swing weight), and lighter (club weight) clubs other than going to graphite shafts?

You are not missing anything here. Do not obsess about swingweight, it just isn't that interesting. In your case, I'd be more conscious of static weight. Anytime you build overlength clubs the s.w. will be higher. Adding butt weight simply fools the sw scale and will not make the club swing 'lighter'. Now backweighting may have other benefits, but it is not swingweight related. Adding 1" to clubs doesn't raise the static weight, thats more interesting than a 6pt. increase in swingweight....which is just a number. Swingweights are useful in assembly as a realistic target to shoot for. A C5 at +1" is not realistic!!

Graphite shafts will not lower the SW enough to make you notice the change, and I'd must rather see you stick with steel shafts, as they play better for most golfers. I'd also recommend you forget about an online charts for club length, and get fit by a good club fitter and see what length you really need, based on your swing, not just some numbers on a chart. Then you might find out you only need 1/2" longer irons, and half of your SW weight issue will have disappeared. If not, then you could have some weight removed from the heads to lower the SW a fair amount. A good club fitter should be able to remove some weight from each of the heads to lower the SW for you, if you really want them lower.

Thank you to the both of you for responding. I was kind of expecting it not to be possible but was hoping for some miracle comment.


Agoodwalkspoiled, I totally disagree with you on the comment that the addition of butt weight doesn't affect how a club feels when swung. I will concede that the effects are more effective on a swing weight scale where the support is 14" away instead of when you are holding the club and the support is only 4" away. BUT... it is quite noticeable.

Again, backweighting does have its place. It is a useful tool in fitting for on-center contacts. Most weekend warriors will tell you backweighting will make the head feel lighter because in the back of their mind they know the swingweight is lighter. Thats fine and and all, but most advanced clubmakers will tell you adding butt weight simply to target an otherwise unattainable swingweight is not interesting. Swingweight is only useful with head and shaft weights that are relatively close to std. at familiar lengths. This is handy in new assembly and diagnosing clubs that are misbehaving. Backweighting throws every relative swingweight number out the window. It is totally useless in terms of finding your "familiar" swingweight. In this case, you want to add butt weight just to reach a specific swingweight of C5...which is just a number on scale. I'm not sure where you came up with this number...perhaps an older set that you enjoyed that happended to be a C5 swingweight? Unless the older set was +1" with the same shafts and headweights, this number is totally useless to you. Understand the point yet? You have to look at static and swingweight together. An overlength club with backweighting mayhave the same swingweight as a club that is -1" of standard, but in no way will they play the same. Backweighting adds mass under the hands and therefore add mass to the total static weight. More mass, so the club will feel different...no disputing this. This is far more interesting than achieving a "C5" (whatever that means) swingweight..