We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Dispersion: what is it to you?

Tadashi70

Tadashi70

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
62,648
Reaction score
385
Location
Orlando
Handicap
2.7
One of the most used words in golf is ‘dispersion’. Golfers talk about when reviewing their clubs. And I wonder what exactly that means to everyone.

If your swing is solid then you’re making somewhat solid contact and dispersion will be good. If you aren’t then it nonexistent. So is it necessary to speak of dispersion since all club have good dispersion when you hit on the screws. I mean does one clubs center strike have better dispersion than another.

Or are we talking about the forgiveness of club when we speak of dispersion. Are we throwing a broad net over what we feel is good dispersion (shots within 10 yards or more). What exactly does it mean to everyone?
 
Last edited:
To me dispersion is how closely I get the same result with the same club and same swing. If I make 5 good swings, I can usually feel it so if the ball ends up in 5 different areas, I know something is off. I try not to blame the club (cause it’s usually just me lol) but if what I feel is a good swing and a good strike but the ball continues to be going different directions, then I’d say that club/shaft dispersion is off. (Or that the club or shaft isn’t the right fit for me)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
For me I think forgiveness of the club plays a part. I don't hit the middle every time, but if the club produces reasonable distance, then my dispersion (at least short/long) can be tighter even with an inconsistent swing.

I feel like right/left dispersion is more on me.
 
To me "improved dispersion" means errant shots are less off the target line.
 
To me, dispersion is about 100yds to 140yds left to right. Unless I get a good bounce off a tree; then it could be smaller.
 
Tadashi70 said:
One of the most used words in golf is ‘dispersion’. Golfers talk about when reviewing their clubs. And I wonder what exactly that means to everyone.

If your swing is solid then you’re making somewhat solid contact and dispersion will be good. If you aren’t then it nonexistent. So is it necessary to speak of dispersion since all club have good dispersion when you hit on the screws. I mean does one clubs center strike have better dispersion than another.

Or are talking about the forgiveness of club when we speak of dispersion. Are we throwing a broad net over what we feel is good dispersion (shots within 10 yards or more). What exactly does it mean to everyone?
Click to expand...

Seriously? consistent? Solid Swing? we are human, that word is as relevant as "normal" :)

clearly busting your chops...
 
I think of dispersion as proximity to my target. How far off that line am I.
 
I liken it to grouping and consistency. The tighter the grouping, the better the dispersion.
 
Misike said:
I liken it to grouping and consistency. The tighter the grouping, the better the dispersion.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought, though I usually think of "dispersion" when I'm practicing putting and not necessarily on the practice range.
 
The consistency of distance side to side or front to back on mishits.
 
I demonstrated good dispersion yesterday with my driver when the slow two-some playing in front of us were constantly hitting their tee shots way off to the right of the FW's. That didn't prevent me from teeing up my ball each time since I was confident that my tee shots would split the middle of the FW's and they did. The reason I was teeing off was because the two-some ahead of us was playing very slow and spending a lot of time on the tee box having conversation before each tee shot slowing not only us down but those behind us as well, so I thought I would send them a message to either speed it up or wave us ahead. Neither of which they had the courtesy to do.
Another measure of good dispersion is being able to split tight FW's on a regular bases
 
95% of dispersion is face to path. Now can a shaft help that, of course. The other 5% is the shaft. I can say for sure that the shaft I got from thp is much better than stock shafts. I never get a wonky result on a good swing like I would occasionally see with a stock shaft. That said I would bet that number is only like 2-3 yards tighter dispersion. Whether that is worth $500 is up to the golfer.
 
I guess when I think dispersion it's more related to my swing and how close I can get the ball to the pin. If I'm hitting greens I feel like I'm seeing good dispersion, if not than I think I have poor dispersion. I relate it more to my own swing than the club since the club should give consistent results if I do my part.
 
Within the context of hitting what I'm hoping is the same shot shape, it's the range -- left, right, short, long -- of what I consider good swings, where the only real variable is strike location on the face (within reason.) If I hit ten shots trying to hit a draw, discard plain mishits, how far apart those shots end up, to me is dispersion.
 
I'm looking at the short/long dispersion more than left to right when I'm looking at irons. How different is a decently struck ball in relation to other decently struck balls - you can typically get away with pin-high right and left easier than short or long in my book. I used to see some distance irons with erratic distances that really bugged me and I couldn't trust those irons on the course.

The left to right dispersion is also a consideration but is certainly a day-to-day change based on my current swing.
 
What "Dispersion" means to me is the different flight paths and resultant ball landing and stopping places when hit with the same club and reasonably same swing.
None of us are Iron Byron so we will never hit the shots exactly the same every time.
Forgiveness does play a part in keeping dispersion a little or a lot tighter, but dispersion is not forgiveness.
 
i think you’re onto something, freddie. in theory, the same swing should produce the same results within a very small margin of error. but when the club doesn’t give us that fight grouping, we are quick to blame its dispersion.

perhaps it is more to do with the overall package and how we as golfers react in our delivery. we don’t know our swings well enough to truly know whether we are swinging the exact same from shot to shot.

i like to think i’m focusing more on how well i can deliver the club, than how good or bad the club is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
For me "dispersion" has two meanings.
1) With a driver it means how tight a grouping am I hitting left to right.
2) With any gapping club (wedges, irons, hybrids) it's just another word for distance control. Left and right misses will happen as a result of poor face to path no matter what club is in hand, but distance control is something that I feel the club has a lot of say over.
 
ArmyGolf said:
For me "dispersion" has two meanings.
1) With a driver it means how tight a grouping am I hitting left to right.
2) With any gapping club (wedges, irons, hybrids) it's just another word for distance control. Left and right misses will happen as a result of poor face to path no matter what club is in hand, but distance control is something that I feel the club has a lot of say over.
Click to expand...

^^^ This
 
It's all about how small that cluster of little white balls is when I try to swing a given club at a specific target. Actually, there are two clusters to look at--where the ball lands and where it comes to rest. Both need to be as small as possible. Obviously, there are a lot of variables that go into creating or limiting dispersion. Things having to do with the golfer, the equipment (clubhead, shaft, grip, and ball), and external conditions (wind and ground conditions for example).

To your specific questions...

"I mean does one club's center strike have better dispersion than another?" In some cases, yes. Some club's sweet spot is in the center. Some have a sweet spot more toward the heel or toe. Thus a literally center strike on one club may be optimal while creating deflection and side spin on another. Similarly, some clubs move weight around to create a draw or fade bias when center hit.

"Or are we talking about the forgiveness of club when we speak of dispersion?" While the forgiveness of a club head may improve dispersion, as indicated above, it's only one of many factors that affect dispersion.
 
Tadashi70 said:
One of the most used words in golf is ‘dispersion’. Golfers talk about when reviewing their clubs. And I wonder what exactly that means to everyone.
Click to expand...

I think of dispersion in terms of "spread of results from my mean average for any given shot". To me, front-back is equal to left-right as a measure of dispersion. Clubs can have features and characteristics that could limit the amount of result dispersion caused by the swing. A face that is forgiving of off-centre hits in retaining ball speed could limit the longitudinal dispersion, for example by limiting the ones that drop short etc., while a particular shaft stiffness could almost take one side of the course out of play, limiting lateral dispersion.

However, I always think its so golfer dependent that any talk of better dispersion merely means that the club in question is providing closer to mean optimum results by fitting the golfer better with that golfers swing, rather than any inherent properties of the club itself.

That's how I think about it anyway.
 
When I think of dispersion, it's about a group of good shots and their relative location to each other, left to right and short to long. The tighter the grouping, the better the dispersion. This is often data collected via launch monitor and used as an overlay to compare different clubs of the same style to distinguish a visual differentiation.
 
Dispersion is the bane of all existence in golf. I couldn't hit 2 consistent shots in a row if someone was going to tell me I was going to die if the 2nd shot wasn't within X yards of the 1st one. I try to be consistent and hit balls within a designated area but something always goes awry. I think consistency and dispersion are intertwined. If you're consistent then your dispersion should be good and if you have close dipsersion your consistency is on. Just my take.
 
To me, my dispersion box is up to 75 yards a side, left to right, short to long, (depending on club of course). I'm thinking the tighter that box, the better I'll score
 
To me, dispersion is an excuse I use when Im not swinging it well. For me, when I miss my target, 99.999% of the time its because I wasnt aimed correctly even though I thought I was
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top