What You Need

The following is needed before you start

• Rubber Vise Clamp (to hold the club in place while changing the grips)
• Hooked knife blade, to remove the old grip
• Re-Gripping tape – double sided
• Solvent (mineral turpentine works well)
• New Grips

The whole process will be a lot easier if you have a nice workbench vise to use.

Remove the Old Grips

First job is to remove the old grips. The hooked blade is perfect for this, slide the hook edge under the bottom of the old grip and cut a line right up to the end, making sure to cut away from yourself. You should easily be able to remove the grip in one go after that. Next, remove the old tape. This is important as often the old tape will be wrinkled and need replacing. If the tape is good after removing the old grips and you want to make the new grips thicker then you could consider leaving it on.

Fitting the New Grips

You will need to install the tape first. This is tricky, if you do not get it straight then you may feel the bumps through the grip afterwards. It does take a bit of getting used to but once you work it out it becomes quick and easy. If you have decided to make the grip slightly bigger then use masking tape to build up some layers, it is a lot cheaper than the double sided grip tape!

Clamp the shaft in the rubber vise to your workbench and you are ready to go. Be careful not to clamp graphite shafts too tightly as you could crack the shaft! You need to sprinkle a bit of your mineral turpentine onto the grip tape to moisten the glue and then you just slide the grip onto the shaft. Make sure it is all the way on otherwise you will have a loose bit of rubber at the top of the shaft!

Take the club out of the vise and look down the shaft in the playing position. You can twist the grip back and forwards to get it straight. This can take the most fiddling if you are not used to it! If you completely mess up the whole process you can pull the grip off the shaft and start again.

Freedom to Experiment

Learning how to do this gives you the freedom to experiment with different grips and different sizes. Some people I know like to put some extra tape under the right hand, they feel they have more control by doing this. Once you know how to install your own grips you will find it very simple to try out things like this, enabling you to see what difference it makes without spending lots of money at the local golf shop!

Click here to buy a kit with everything included.

Having been in the golf business for many years and traveled to the factories in Taiwan (China these days) where golf clubs are made I can see why there is so much money involved in club copies. Club components coming out of the far east are really cheap and when you look at the price of premium equipment in the golf stores you can quite easily see major golf companies are making a lot of money!

Watch the video below to see some examples and how close to the real product they are.

Making sure you do not end up with a copied set is not really that difficult most of the time but you can get caught out even if you buy from a reputable merchant. There are some things you can look out for to help protect yourself.

• Try to avoid packaged sets for sale (Irons, Woods, Putter, Golf Bag) – Quality Brands generally do not do this
• Exercise extreme caution when buying from online auctions (E-Bay) – Many copies are sold this way
• Check the finish of the club before you purchase – check for low quality paintwork on the head, glue on the ferrule or shaft
• Look for a serial number – most major brands include these and you can phone them if you are unsure of authenticity
• If the price is an unbelievable deal – then be even more careful, it may well be fake
• Compare the Logo and Font (size and spacing) with Internet pictures – often fakes are not quite accurate
• Check out the plastic ferrule – make sure it look like the original – again check the manufacturers website
• Only buy from reputable vendors and online stores like Amazon that you have heard of or know
• Just be careful and keep your eyes open when you buy golf equipment – especially second hand goods

Some of these points may seem fairly obvious but it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of a really good deal!

Counterfeit clubs are often very similar to the original visually but the materials and specifications the clubs are made to are very low quality. So, while the club looks perfect there is a high chance it will not feel great and certainly will not perform as well as it should do. Hopefully this will give you some tips to keep in mind to lower the chance of being caught out. Have you ever bought a copy by mistake? Leave your comments and stories below.

What is Torque in a Shaft?

The simplest explanation I could come up with is the amount a shaft twists when an amount of pressure or an amount of force is exerted onto it.

For you to feel it for yourself try this easy method. Grab the club head in one of your hands and the grip tightly in the other. Slowly try and twist the grip and you will feel some movement where the shaft slowly rotates, this is the feeling of rotational torque. Now, picture yourself hitting a golf shot where the ball comes out of the toe. The club head can rotate slightly and the ball will fly off to the right. This is obviously a negative factor and you would want to eliminate this problem if you could.

The printed rating on the side of your golf shaft makes sense in the fact that if it is 4degrees then you would understand that an off center hit could cause the shaft to rotate up to 4 degrees and push your shot off course. Shafts in general range from ultra low torque of 1 degree up to a rating of between 7 and 8.

Shaft Raw Materials

You may wonder how companies take an accurate measurement of torque and also how they can alter it. This depends on the materials used when the shaft is manufactured. In the past graphite shafts were made with a process called table rolling where graphite was rolled around a long thin piece of steel (called a mandrel or metal tube) and the tighter they wound the sheets of graphite the stiffer in flex the shaft would become. In today’s world shafts are mainly created using a filament winding process which you can understand better by reading here.

Low quality graphite shafts have a large amount of fiberglass included in their structure to reduce costs and in the majority of cases no quality control is in effect. As the fiberglass weighs a lot more than graphite these shafts tend to be heavy with no real care for the final specification.

When the filament winding process is used the shafts can be created to come out at an exact specification. The flex, weight, kick point and torque rating can be controlled by adjusting the software.

To end up with higher quality shafts you need to use materials which cost a lot more and a production process which runs much slower.

On top of all that there are no real standards adhered to in the golf industry. One companies stiff flex may well equal another companies regular flex. This applies to torque ratings as well and just serves to confuse the majority of people. Torque can measured but a special clamping machine is needed which you may find at some golf club makers facilities. Depending on how you clamp the shaft (and where) you can get big variances in the readings which tell you that it is a very inaccurate measurement.

Which Torque Rating Would Suit Me?

Interestingly I have noticed over the years that shafts with a very low torque specification feel dead to many golfers as the shaft develops a harder feeling. Unless you have a very powerful swing you would not want to go that low because you will ultimately lose feel and even worse, your control.

Opposite to that if you have a very slow swing  which results in hardly any power being created then often a higher torque shaft (5 degrees as an average) will often suit you better as the shaft will feel more alive.

Summary

Looking at all the different variables I would have to conclude that for the majority of golfers out there a decent middle of the road graphite shaft will be perfect. The torque will be in the mid range and the shaft will feel like it at least has some life built in.

Aside from a tour player I really would not spend that much time worrying about the rating and whether or not it is suited for your swing.

What do you think? Leave your comments below.

One of the best ways to get in the practice you need and to make sure you keep your swing grooved is to get yourself a golf hitting net for your backyard. This way you can spend as much time as you want easily working on your swing whenever you have a little bit of spare time.

There are quite a few different models to choose from but I recommend either the Izzo or the Callaway for high quality that will last.

For those of you that live in areas where the Winter is really nasty these nets also present you with another opportunity to get in some practice as you can spend a bit of time outdoors on the odd nice day to hit some golf balls.

The Izzo is a high quality golf hitting net for your backyard that is easy to assemble and with a 9 x 7 feet hitting area will catch all the golf balls you can throw at it. It comes with a nice and handy storage case and can withstand any golf shot from Irons through to your Driver. Click here to find out more information about the Izzo Giant Jr Hitting Net.

The Callaway Quad Net 8 Feet is made from super strong nylon mesh and also comes with a nice storage bag.

Easy to assemble and pack away this is the perfect hitting net for your home. It has a nice feature where the balls roll down to the front of the net for easy collection. To see more information click here.

There are many additional models to choose from aside from the ones I recommend, you can have a look at a nice selection by clicking here. It is well worth spending the money as once you have this setup and a nice home putting green you really should start to see your game improve.

Let’s take a look at how shafts are made and whether they can really justify these massive prices that we are seeing from some of the top brands.

How is a Graphite Shaft Made?

There are a couple of different methods that shaft manufacturers use to make shafts. The two most popular are table rolling and filament winding.

Table Rolling is where a sheet of graphite is literally rolled around a mandrel (long metal spike). It is the same process that is used to make most fishing rods and has been the basis for shaft production for quite a number of years. The more modern system of filament winding is generally how the more expensive shafts are made.

Filament winding allows more control over the technical specifications of the finished shaft. The machine is programmed to roll graphite strands up and down a mandrel slowly building up the form of the shaft. The tighter the graphite is weaved the stiffer the shaft will end up and the opposite also applies. Complete control over the kick point of the shaft is also calculated using software so that the finished product will be exactly as planned in the design. To help you understand a little bit better have a look at the image below of how the filament winding process works.

I have been to the factories in Taiwan and actually seen these machines in action. It is fairly impressive, especially the accurate control they have over the finished product. The raw material was made by the Mitsubishi Corporation and came out of the box looking like giant liquorish strands on reels!

But, are they worth the money?

The point of explaining all of that is so you can see the process involved in making a new shaft. The raw material can vary in quality but when I was over there it all looked the same in the same boxes!

Over my many years fitting Golfers and testing shafts it was always a fact that one companies Regular Flex shaft did not match any others. There are no standard or default specifications in the Golf business and as such specifications have big variations between manufacturers and products. This in itself is confusing enough for the average golfer and most would hope that spending a lot more on a shaft would mean that the flexes would be more accurate. The problem is, accurate compared to what?

Summary

Personally I believe that as long as you avoid the real cheap shafts and buy something decent (let’s say within the $50 – $100) range then you should be fine. I really do not believe that spending hundreds (or even thousands?) of dollars on a golf shaft will really make any difference. Most of it is just marketing hype………….

As always, please leave your comments below.

The most obvious reason is due to the fact people find putting practice boring and many golfers couldn’t be bothered to practice anywhere near as much as they should. We all prefer to smash drives than sink putts!

If we could change this mentality then we may just find our Handicap starts to drop and our scores will improve. The short game is where the we can save some shots.

One way to brush up on your putting is to spend some time at with a home putting green, this way you can practice when you have some spare time or when you are stuck indoors due to bad weather.

There are lot’s of different models and makes to choose from, the one at the top is a Starpro green that requires a professional and permanent installation will set you back above $1500! You can find out more about these types of professional installations by clicking here.

Not everyone will have space or the budget for an all out installation like this but there are many cheaper home putting greens that can be rolled up and stored away in the garage. The model I currently use has a nice ball return feature which helps prevent back strain. You back does take a pounding when you keep bending over to fetch the ball. It is called the ProActive ProCircuit Putt Return System. This can be adjusted for length and works for right and left handed golfers.

As you can imagine there many more to choose from, with the majority of models being a plain synthetic turf mat. Which ever you decide if you find a few minutes here and there you can vastly improve your putting and that will go along way to lowering your scores and ultimately your Handicap. A nice Home Putting Green can be bought from around $50 right up to $1700 (like the one at the top) so there is a model to suit every Golfers budget. Click here for an awesome selection of home putting greens.

There have been a few changes in golf club finishes over the years with many of the early irons finished with a tumbling machine.  If you remember the old Ping Eye models then you may remember what they looked like, they had a tumbled finish – essentially the club is put into a “washing machine” (known as a tumbler) full off small rough pellets that gave the club a random finish. Most clubs are finished by simply polishing the stainless. The Taylormade R11 as seen in the picture as the top has a PVD finish on the face and the sole. The white crown is actually a plastic wrapped technology which is quite a good idea for the top of a driver.

What Is PVD?

PVD stands for Physical Vapor Disposition. One of the main benefits of PVD is the manufacturer can choose what color of finish they would prefer. Nearly every color you can imagine is available.

This video shows you some of the equipment needed to implement this finish – best video I could come up with

PVD is applied in a vacuum with the target material, special gasses (nitrogen for example) and electricity. The finish is applied in a chamber where a voltage is applied which changes as the chamber gets heated up to between 100 and 600 degrees. Finally a plasma cloud is ignited which sticks the finish to the club. Different types of finishes are achieved by using different materials and gasses. Depending on the quantities of gas and materials the finish will end up with different properties.

So What’s the Problem?

When the club is brand new it looks really awesome and sort of space age! After hitting a lot of golf balls though the finish tends to get scratched and almost looks like it is wearing off. If you tend to play in conditions with a lot of hard ground or sand just under the surface it can act as a sort of sandpaper and literally take the finish right off the club.

After a few months you can end up with irons that look terrible and I even know a few people that sent their clubs in for sandblasting to have the PVD completely removed!

On the strength of this I really didn’t think the major golf companies would continue using PVD as a viable finish for golf equipment but it seems I am proved wrong as plenty of clubs are still being sold with PVD applied.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think? Have your clubs been finished with PVD? Is the finish holding up? Leave your comments below.

The longer irons had an average swing weight reading of C9 and the shorter irons in the set had an average of around C8. These swing weights are much too light for the average golfer and I was not surprised that Mike was hitting the ball badly.

Mike and I chatted for a while, and he remembered he bought new grips a few months before and this was around the same time the problem started. I took one of the new grips off, replaced it with a lighter model (15 grams lighter) and then Mike went out to the range. Within minutes he had a smile on his face as he could now feel the club properly and get back to enjoying his golf.

How did this happen?

When a company designs a new golf club everything is planned out so that the swing weight will end up at specific figure. Swing weight was originally created to compare the “feel weight” of one club to the next. Club makers use it to work out where the weight is in the club, head or grip for example. It also represents a feel type reading, whether you will feel the weight in the head or not during the swing. Effectively you could swing weight the Eiffel Tower to D1 but you would never be able to pick it up. It is a separate measurement to the overall weight of the club. Nb – Not easy to explain! Ultimately you can also use it to check your whole set and see if they have the same balance or if any of them are out of spec to the rest.

Anyway,  clubs are designed and manufactured with a specific swing weight in mind. By changing the grips from a 55g grip to a 70g model the club’s swing weight became lighter and therefore Mike was struggling to feel the head through the swing and his golf started to fall apart.

Keep in Mind!

Be aware,  anything you change on a golf club has an effect, when you next need to order new grips check with the shop or club maker that the weight of the new ones are close to the weight of the old ones or you could end up with problems like Mike!

Even though OptiShot is cheaper than comparative simulators it is still packed with awesome features. This would also make a great gift for the golfer in the family! Let’s take a look and see how it works and what you can do with it.
 

OptiShot Product Features

• Right and LEFT handed players
• Measures Face Angle
• Measures Swing Path
• Measures Club Head Speed
• Very Easy and Quick To Set Up – 3 Steps Needed
• Choose Metric or Standard Measurements
• Easy Software Upgrading via Internet
• Selection of Golf Courses to Play
• More Courses Available Online
• Ships with 180 day Limited Warranty from the Manufacturer

OptiShot to Analyze Your Swing

OptiShot uses infrared sensors to track your swing and collect all the important statistics. The sensors are pretty accurate and really help you work on your swing as you can easily see all the information straight after you finish.

The results collected are fed through to your PC/TV Screen/Projector and displayed in a nice and easy to read format.

Optishot Swing Information

These are the statistics that will be displayed

• Head Speed
• Face Angle
• Swing Path
• Tempo
• Face Contact
• Visual Representation of Each Shot

You can quite clearly see how helpful this information will be to enable you to your game. Unless you can afford to spend hours with a golf coach you can often end up practicing your bad habits. With this level of information you can practice confidently knowing exactly what is going on.

Being able to get an accurate reading of your face angle at impact is an awesome feature, this will enable you to work on getting the club face square, after all, if your club face is out of alignment then you are going to have a hard time hitting the ball down the middle. You can use your real golf clubs to practice on this simulator and for residents of cold areas where it is hard to play in Winter the OptiShot can keep your game alive.

Using the Club Speed information you can also spend some time working out if you have your shafts correctly fitted, as you can now try different shaft flexes and see what difference it makes to your vital statistics and shot performance.

3D Software for Virtual Golf Simulation

Another top feature of the OptiShot is the ability to play golf in a simulated environment. The simulation is very accurate and the graphics are awesome. With support of up to four players you can challenge your golfing partners to a round of golf and have a nice day/evening of fun. Imagine a day of rain or bad weather, instead of canceling your round you can play from home.OptiShot essentially measures your swing dynamics via the sensors and superimposes the shot on to the screen as if you were outdoors and really hit the ball. You get 8 courses to play as standard with the unit, Big Horn and Torrey Pines are two of them, there are more coming and by the time you read this the unit will ship with 9.

How Good is the OptiShot

To compare this Simulator to some of the models that cost thousands of dollars would not be fair. I do believe for home use it is perfect and will provide hours of entertainment. Obviously it will also be a great help to improving your swing and your game in general. In order for the simulator to work you need to connect it up to a computer (Minimum Spec – Windows XP, 2 Gig’s Ram). The real secret is the video card, to produce really good graphics you will need to make sure you have a fairly decent one. Setting up the OptiShot is really easy check out the diagram below.

One thing to note is this home simulator will not work outside due to the infrared technology. Infrared does not work properly in sunlight. You need to make sure you have sufficient space inside your home, gararge or shed to set everything up. Your ceiling will need to be at least 8.5foot to allow for a golf swing. If you want to use real golf balls then you will also need a decent catch net, you can choose to use practice balls or just swing for practice. The OptiShot will still pick up your swing and display information without any golf ball.

Check out this video to see the OptiShot in action.
 

Summary

Having weighed everything up I honestly believe this is one of the best buys you could make if you want to improve your golf. Just being able to spend some time at home working on your swing with all the information displayed nicely on the screen is worth the price to me. Not only that but you can also have some fun with the family playing virtual golf, if you can afford it or already have a projector then the experience becomes even more amazing. I have found the best price (with free shipping!) at Amazon.com and you can also spend some time reading the customers feedback.

Complete OptiShot Golf Simulator System

The OptiShot is also available as a full package with everything you need included.

• Complete Simulator Package,
• 10x10x10 Frame
• 3 x PC Mat
• 110×96 Impact Screen
• Hitting Net – Fully Enclosed
• Latest Optishot Software
• ViVitek Recommended Projector
• Compaq PC
• Adjustable Ceiling mount for the Projector
• Full Telephone Support

Although this is a lot more expensive it contains absolutely everything you need. Click here to find out more.

First Things First

Once the decision has been taken that your child would like to play golf many people’s first reaction is to think about getting some clubs. This is where the biggest mistakes happen. You will look around the garage and find that old set you have collecting dust and often covered with rust. Off to your local Golf shop to get the length adjusted and voila, you have your Junior golf set all ready to go! If your garage is empty then chances are you will phone around your Golfing mates and see what they have in their garage!

What are the Problem’s with Cutting down the Shaft?

When a Golf club is designed in the factory a lot of measurements and weights are taken into account. Every club is different and in order to get the best results the weighting needs to be set up so the club balances and feels good. This could be translated into Swingweight. When you take an old club and chop 5-8 inches off the top you completely mess up this fine balance. What’s left is a club that is exceptionally heavy and very hard to hit. This obviously does your child no favors and is one of the worst ways to start them off with a game that is difficult enough.

If that was not bad enough consider the shaft flex. Shaft’s are designed to be a specific flex at a specific length. By trimming the top to accommodate your Child’s height you are essentially changing the Shaft flex to an Extra-Stiff flex! With little or no flexing in the shaft throughout the swing the club will feel dead and the child will struggle to hit the ball properly.

The Lie Angle of a club is critical as this determines the direction. By chopping a significant amount off the top off the shaft you will see the toe of the club will be sticking right up in the air at the address position. In most cases a good swing would result in the ball going straight left.

If we add up the problems listed above you will see that we are doing our kids no favors by cutting down old golf clubs. You will end up with a club that is very heavy, super stiff in the shaft and a lie angle that on a good day will hit everything left! Even if your Child sticks at the game and does improve a bit you can guarantee plenty of bad habits will have been picked up by trying to get these out of spec clubs to perform.

The Correct Way?

I can understand that you do not want to go out and spend a lot of money on Junior golf clubs if you are not sure your Child will enjoy the game. In all honesty though you will be much better off to spend a lit bit of money and give your Child the best chance to enjoy the game and improve. At the end of the day if they do not like the game you can always sell the Junior clubs on to someone else looking to get their Children started. Check out the following link for some ideas and pricing Great selection of Children’s Golf sets