Weight ... where do you put it?

[golfinnut]

Just curious where everyone stands on this one.

Where do you put the weight in your driver? I'm talking about in the rear, not the sole. For instance, the sliding weight in the rear of my TSR3.

I've heard two differing opinions on the matter. One person said (notable in the golfing industry) said that you put the weight behind where your miss is. For instance, my miss is off the toe. I would put it off the toe or close to it. Another person said that it should be placed where you want to affect the flight of the ball ... you want a draw, put it in the heel ... You want a fade, put it in the toe.

Just curious as to everyone's consensus is. What say you THP?

 

[hackitup]

With a sliding weight I’m more likely to put it in a place to correct for shot shape. I don’t like seeing my ball move right so historically it’s been heel biased even with a toe side strike. I think now I’d try to favor the toe or behind the average strike location to prevent a hook. I still don’t like seeing a fade but hitting 100 yard snap hooks just kills me. If that turns into a playable hook I’m good.

 

[russtopher]

When I had drivers with sliding weights (Callaway) it was always in the heel since my miss at the time was off to the right.

 

[golfinnut]

So is that the going consensus ... put it in the heel if you want a draw & the toe if you want more of a fade

 

[OldandStiff]

It depends on your swing and miss and how you respond to the club adjustments. Ideally you'd put the mass behind the strike and affect your start line or curve with the hosel adjustment, but it doesn't always work like that. Often you need the gear effect of the mass being away from your strike or both. The moveable weight can have a pretty significant effect. Technology is a wonderful thing.

 

[Just_Brad]

I've always put it into the Neutral position, for better or for worse.

But I have also played a driver with no moveable weighting for years now.... FWIW

 

[golfinnut]

I've always put it into the Neutral position, for better or for worse.

But I have also played a driver with no moveable weighting for years now.... FWIW

I have as well. Way before all this tech came out. Just figured I'd try & make sure the tech is working for me & not against

 

[hackitup]

So is that the going consensus ... put it in the heel if you want a draw & the toe if you want more of a fade

One of my son’s old instructors would change driver settings to get the best performance and then use the weights to fine tune it. I guess his theory was more inline with what @OldandStiff posted. His theory was set the equipment for best efficiency and fix the swing to control shot shape. The sound change was remarkable. The sliding weight for shot shape was/is my band-aid fix. It’s a quick fix to patch up a swing flaw and I’m okay with that.

 

[erock9174]

I remember listening to one Tom Wishon's videos years ago about the benefits of moving weight but that it had to be substantial to work.
Here is some info on his latest driver:


Four years in the making, the 719MW is the most advanced moveable weight driver designed by Wishon Golf. The basis for the 719MW can be traced back to an early design in the mid-80s by Tom Wishon and Elmore Just – the founder of Louisville Golf Company: the Cure driver was the first original heel-weighted draw-bias driver ever made in the golf industry. Made from laminated maple, it effectively proved that the centre of gravity on a clubhead can be shifted with the heel weight. And when a golfer contacts the ball in an on-centre shot, this causes a slight rotation on the vertical axis, creating in essence, a tilt on the spin axis of the ball: reducing the amount of fade on a shot.


A later woodhead design in the mid-1990s by Tom Wishon, the AccuCore 50 Driver, would further demonstrate the benefits of heel-weighted drivers, but also most importantly that at least 25-30g was needed in the heel-side to move the COG enough to the point where a centre shot off the face would create a visible draw bias effect on the shot.

Many modern adjustable weight drivers have a maximum of 20g of moveable weight – this is not enough to move the centre of gravity and create a marked difference for the vast majority of golfers with average clubhead speed.

So when Wishon began the design process for the 719 moveable weight driver, it was obvious that it would need to have the ability to move at least 30g of additional weight around the head to be able to offer regular golfers a chance to be able to see a change in the shape of their shots.

And that’s not an easy task (to say the least).

For a 450cc driver, total weight shouldn’t exceed 202-205g in order to be built to a normal range of swingweights, so to take the additional moveable weights, the body of the head had to be in the realm of 172g – an extremely difficult object to achieve.

Wishon was able to engineer the 719MW with the help of one of the very best investment cast titanium foundries in the world, and by varying the wall thickness and removing the entire titanium crown, replacing with lightweight carbon composite, we were able to create the objective design for the 719MW.

 

[AuzzieMatt]

Was coming in to say in my guts normally but noticed it wasn't about weight gain...

 

[Pharaoh]

I was gonna say my feet but then I realized that wasn’t right.

 

[PiratePenguin]

So is that the going consensus ... put it in the heel if you want a draw & the toe if you want more of a fade

Yes. Heel weight closes the face faster, toe weight slows down face closing all other things being equal. Think of ice skaters doing a spin - if they want to spin fast they pull their arms (weight) in close to their center of rotation, if they want to slow down they move their arms (weight) further away from their center of rotation. In a driver the shaft is the center of rotation, more weight to heel, close (spin) faster, etc.

Has understanding the physics made me a better actual golfer? Not at all.

 

[McLovin]

i don't believe i've ever seen shape correction to my shots when moving the weight. maybe it's because i'm what crossfield calls a "cg finder." i don't really know. i'd personally think if you want to manipulate the shape you should adjust the loft sleeve because it will also affect the face angle.

 

[lockstockrye]

Around the belly!

 

[Acesteve]

when I opened this, I expected the poll to include my big belly or my fat a!

 

[Danimal]

Around the belly!

I was gonna say my gut as well, maybe my rump as well.

 

[Sox_Fan]

When I have my driver set to stock loft, I have the weight neutral. When I loft it up to 9.75 (my current setting), I move the weight about halfway between the center and the toe side of the track. Leaving it at neutral when lofting up increases the likelihood for me to lose it way left.

 

[MSEASU]

Titleist says put it where you miss.

 

[Daddio]

When I have my driver set to stock loft, I have the weight neutral. When I loft it up to 9.75 (my current setting), I move the weight about halfway between the center and the toe side of the track. Leaving it at neutral when lofting up increases the likelihood for me to lose it way left.

Ha ha ha. That's exactly what I do. If your sig is correct we're playing the same driver (different shaft). I'm currently up at 9.75 too and moved my sliding weight halfway toward toe to fend off big hooks. Those adjustments just seem to work so well on that driver.

 

[Sox_Fan]

Ha ha ha. That's exactly what I do. If your sig is correct we're playing the same driver (different shaft). I'm currently up at 9.75 too and moved my sliding weight halfway toward toe to fend off big hooks. Those adjustments just seem to work so well on that driver.

It is. Still playing the original Stealth Plus.

 

[1860VS]

My misses come when I draw the ball, I over do it. But if I moved the weight to the fade position my stock 3-5 yard fade becomes a distance robbing 10-12 yard fade. So I play it neutral and am working on not overcooking a draw.
I have only been working on it for 45 years, sometimes progress takes time.