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Club Making Legend Chat w/Forum Members

SuperStroke
Sorry if this is already posted but I didn't read the thread just yet. I would love to know what he feels is the most important aspect of a fitting for irons. Is it head shape of the actual iron or shaft or anything else. Not sure if I worded that properly. Maybe does he think the head of the iron is more important then say the shaft for the individual golfer.
 
wow.

This is great. I really admire and respect John. I will need to reflect on this and formulate some questions.

Thanks THP!
 
my questions are already asked, so ill just wait to see the answer!! this is pretty dang cool!!
 
Some great questions so far. Keep them coming. This man has been at the forefront of some of the biggest items in the modern era of golf equipment (last 30 years).
 
I'ld like to know his thoughts on the different styles of Irons now a days. Game Improvement, Players Blades, Player Cavity etc etc.

With the varying levels of forgiveness available, what advantage does one gain by playing "old fashioned" blade irons? Tour pros are incredibly consistent, but a little more forgivenss in an iron is always welcomed. But with this added foregivenss given, what exactly are they losing? Is there an advantage to having the center of gravity more focused directly behind the ball?
 
Snap Hook said:
With the varying levels of forgiveness available, what advantage does one gain by playing "old fashioned" blade irons?
Click to expand...

You may want to check out the link in the 1st post with his original interview. He addressed that one quite a bit.
 
Awesome that John is doing this. I've read the interview a few times and always enjoyed it.

Can't really think of any questions right now but would feel like a slacker if I didn't add: Can you explain playable loft? :D :D :D

I muse be broken as that wasn't near as fun as it usually is :sad:
 
We will take questions for a few days on this one.
 
Can John talk a bit about the 'sweet spot'? I see a lot of disagreement about the size of the sweet spot in different irons. My interpretation is that the sweet spot is the same on every iron, but the more forgiving irons react better to off center hits than blades, players cavities, etc.
 
With the release of the "new" Nickent clubs, how do you feel about them? Should they have been allowed to just gracefully go away without being reincarnated by a new group of people?
 
I don't have a question as so many good ones have already been put forth, but I look forward to the interview. The first one was really, really good.

Kevin
 
Hi John. I'll start with a statement first... I'm a huge fan. From my sons 855's (I think they were) to the Nickent 4DX Pro's I carry now, your a genius.

1. Iron lofts keep changing at a rapid pace and I know you have touched on this before, but did the companies go there from the fact that most armatures reportedly land short more often than not going to the green, or just the mentality of having the longest out there?

2. I've always heard that great designers of anything have more flops than winners. What would you call your biggest flop and why?

3. Do you wear your hat back wards?
 
Love #3, duey!
 
what an awesome thread!

what are your thoughts on forged vs cast? what it is now, and where it is going towards the future? Does it influence you when you are at the concept stage of developing irons?
 
Thanks for the opportunity to ask a few questions, both to John Hoeflich for taking the time for questions and also to THP for making it possible. Do you think we will see even lighter weight drivers and shafts in the future, have we reached the lower limit for weight reduction or do you think it is possible to go even lighter and still have a club that performs well? Also, multi-material club head designs - fad or wave of the future? Do you see any new shaft materials coming out in the future, as alternatives to graphite and steel? What club design of yours (or anyone) is your favorite club design and why?
 
Awesome opportunity. I guess my question would be this.....

How much more can golf club technology advance and still be cost effective? What has not been done yet and what might we expect in the future?

Ok, more than one question I guess.
 
This is going to be really cool.

My question has been asked already, but its going to be awesome hearing him answer all of them.
 
I can't seem to think of a question that hasn't already been asked in one form or another, but I can't wait to see the results of this.
 
How about if he thinks there is a difference between getting a club that is fit straight from the OEM vs. getting clubs fit after the fact. What I mean by that is I think OEM's use heads that are weighted correctly to fit a club and aftermarket weights are used to fit. Don't know if I explained that well enough
 
We will keep this open for now, sure would be nice to get tons more questions. People come to THP every day for questions on equipment, certainly people have some for the man responsible for a lot of it.
 
Kinda similar to an earlier question.

1. With the advent of new materials and composites and even clubhead design, especially with drivers, how much of this do you see coming down to the fairway woods and even hybrids?

2. Adams recently introduced the velocity slot technology, how does this skirt the rules concerning the maximum rebound a clubs face can have? EDIT! Adding to this question, is the velocity slot something similar to what Nike terms a compression channel?

3. Clubhead or shaft, which is the driving force in making a successful club. Successful in this instance is not relegated to sales numbers exclusively.

Thank for the opportunity.


Edited to add to #2


Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
 
This may be a skimmer type question. Will iron technology advance to the point where you can change your own lie angle? It would be cool to be able to change from upright to flat pending on a swing change.
 
Ole Gray said:
This may be a skimmer type question. Will iron technology advance to the point where you can change your own lie angle? It would be cool to be able to change from upright to flat pending on a swing change.
Click to expand...

With the advances in Driver-Hybrids I wondered the same thing, will adjustability ever make it to irons/wedges/putter?
 
Some great stuff here so far everybody. Keep them coming.
 
Sorry if these have been asked.. I did my best to look first.

1. How do you prepare yourself for the task of designing new clubs. I can only imagine that a lot of research is done but from a personal standpoint, what kinds of activities does he do to get into that club building frame of mind?

2. How much is research is put into what stock shafts come with irons? Often are they the best in terms of overall results and efficiency with some standard testing (I'm assuming human and maybe robotic)?

3. Actually leads me to my next question, what type of testing did he believe was the most important when working with clubs in the pre release stages and gathering information.

4. How much stock is put into consumer feedback when looking at either updating a line of irons or starting from scratch?

Thanks THP for putting this together.
 
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