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Comparing Golf Clubs - what are you basing it on?

Just_Brad

Just_Brad

#GD 2023Legacy #HYFY - JB says "Be a Brad"
Albatross 2024 Club
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Often there are posts that go up comparing Club A to Club B, and what would you choose. To be honest, outside of Carry/Total/Spin, I have no idea what to look at.

I am curious then, if you go to test a club, and compare it to something else, what factors weigh heavily on the decision?

I will typically base the majority of decisions based on carry yardage primarily, total yardage (which can be somewhat questionable), and then look at things like Spin and Launch. But am I missing out, or overlooking things that I should be putting more reliance on?

For Driver / Woods / Irons / Wedges what are you looking for?
Are you looking for specific spin ranges for each iron?
For wedges how do you interpret data to see which wedge is performing "better"?

Trying to learn, make better decisions, and overall be more informed about the clubs I am choosing and why.
 
Just_Brad said:
Often there are posts that go up comparing Club A to Club B, and what would you choose. To be honest, outside of Carry/Total/Spin, I have no idea what to look at.

I am curious then, if you go to test a club, and compare it to something else, what factors weigh heavily on the decision?

I will typically base the majority of decisions based on carry yardage primarily, total yardage (which can be somewhat questionable), and then look at things like Spin and Launch. But am I missing out, or overlooking things that I should be putting more reliance on?

For Driver / Woods / Irons / Wedges what are you looking for?
Are you looking for specific spin ranges for each iron?
For wedges how do you interpret data to see which wedge is performing "better"?

Trying to learn, make better decisions, and overall be more informed about the clubs I am choosing and why.
Click to expand...
This is a great thread. Like you, I am very interested in hearing how people make such comparisons.
 
Ballspeed, accuracy, forgiveness, carry, total distance , spin, looks and feel.
 
Dispersion, is super important. Doesn’t matter if you can hit it farther if you can’t keep it in a decent sized circle. Spin consistency plays in to that. Spin doesn’t matter if it’s all over the place. Increased distance doesn’t matter if it’s not repeatable and the range is huge

Overall, you have to look at the consistency of all the stats you decide are important. If you don’t see consistency, you can’t take a lot from what you’re seeing
 
Provided distance is similar, Spin, dispersion, descent angle.
 
Club A is always the gamer. Know your ball speed, spin, launch, smash factor. Based off those, see where everything ranks.

While everyone zips to the highest ball speed and distance, look at all the data entries. Know which ones felt amazing and did what you wanted, know which ones were total wrecks and what their results were.

Now the fun part… No more than 10 swings, no less than 5. Don’t wait to get in a groove, cause now you’re adapting to the club. My last driver fitting took maybe 10min, and that was counting BS’ing with the fitter about overall feedback. If I knew I just got in front of it or stalled (basically a block or a snap hook incoming) I’d say something so we knew that data may be a little skewed.
 
One of the big things I'm looking at is dispersion. Last night I went to a similulator and did some comparing and while I hit one set 5 yards further my dispersion with my new set is so much tighter. And I am way more consistent. Therefore I am using my new callaways!
 
For woods, I will look primarily at ball speed and feel/sound.

Irons, I focus on feel through the turf and launch windows. I want to see the ball come off the club at a certain angle for each iron.

Wedges are all about the bounce/grind and being able to hit the chips and pitches that I like to play without having to manipulate the club too much. Then it is spin consistency and look/finish.
 
I hit them at the local range that has Trackman. Whether it is 100% accurate really doesn’t matter to me as it is relative to me and the balls I have hit there with numerous clubs.

If I like a club or clubs at the range, they go to the course for a round or two. If they work then they stay in the bag, if not I sell them and move on.

I have been fit in the past for driver and irons so I have a good idea of what my fit is but I also have had indoor fittings that did not translate to success on the course.

It’s pretty easy to tweak your swing during a fitting when you hit ball after ball for 30-60 minutes. Much different when you are on the course and you have one swing for a club to perform as you expect.

Fittings are great and can tell you a lot, but using clubs on the course during an actual round will really tell me what works for my swing or not.
 
Height and launch are very important for me because i hit a low ball.

same loft and shaft, if i hit a club like a degree higher launch and higher total height. That is a huge factor for me
 
1. Given the luxury of comparing choices on the course, a large sample size of Shotscope numbers.
2. If using only a launch monitor, I’m looking for a combination of a) the smallest amount of variation between swings and b) good numbers in regards to distance and shot dispersion.
I really don’t know very much about LM numbers beyond spin, club path and face angle.
3. To some extent, feel. Am I hitting the center of face more often - even if shots are going a bit off line.
 
Mostly carry, launch angle and dispersion. Anything else my brain locks up like math class.
 
My last major club decision was between a TSR2 driver and the Paradym. I did a two-week demo, so I was able to use them in conditions that I am familiar with. So I was looking at distance and dispersion primarily, but honestly what played probably the largest part in my decision was the sense of how easy the club was to hit. Do you call that feel? Forgiveness? Whatever box you decide to put it in, I clearly felt that one club took less effort to hit well, and that was the one I purchased as the other factors were a draw.
 
In a perfect world I would have a fitting or some launch monitor data to confirm. For drivers I look at a combination of distance, accuracy and consistency. I will give up a few yards to hit more fairways.

Irons are more about consistent distance and accuracy. I don’t want big variations in distance.
 
My main concerns
Dispersion on both axis
Tight gapping
Spin
Descent angle
 
Dispersion Distance forgiveness
 
feel first for me...then spin and descent angle
 
Just_Brad said:
Often there are posts that go up comparing Club A to Club B, and what would you choose. To be honest, outside of Carry/Total/Spin, I have no idea what to look at.

I am curious then, if you go to test a club, and compare it to something else, what factors weigh heavily on the decision?

I will typically base the majority of decisions based on carry yardage primarily, total yardage (which can be somewhat questionable), and then look at things like Spin and Launch. But am I missing out, or overlooking things that I should be putting more reliance on?

For Driver / Woods / Irons / Wedges what are you looking for?
Are you looking for specific spin ranges for each iron?
For wedges how do you interpret data to see which wedge is performing "better"?

Trying to learn, make better decisions, and overall be more informed about the clubs I am choosing and why.
Click to expand...
I'm not a golf tech guy by any stretch of anyone's thinking. All I look at when comparing clubs is the ball flights I produce when hitting them. That being accuracy, and distance.

Even when my Tour Edge contact would send me a club to try out, that's all I looked at.
 
For drivers I’m looking for distance and consistency. 10 yards doesn’t do me much good if I only hit 1 of 4 fairways. That said is it a consistent miss/shape or is it all over the place? I can learn to play the kids if it’s always the same.

For irons I’m strictly looking at dispersion. I’ll learn how far I hit things if the dispersion is super tight.

Wedges I’ve kind of learned what I like in a grind finally, though I wish there were similar nomenclature on grind shapes between OEM s. So I just look for feel of the wedge when I hit them into a net and then find the grind shapes that I know work for me.
 
I've done a lot of compartive testing, mostly H2H driver tests, driver combos, and tunes. Lucky enough to do it outdoors so I could watch and score ball flight in addition to the basic LM results. When evaluating drivers I also believe it's important to consider likelihood of "trouble misses" and "two-way miss potential" along with the common metrics like speed, distance, dispersion, peak, launch, and spin.
 
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now that i am committing to using the sim, i will use the numbers i am getting...while i want to maximize my distance, i'll sacrifice a few yards for forgiveness and accuracy. but at the moment, i buy on whims :ROFLMAO:
 
It depends on the club
 
When we did my recent iron fitting we looked primarily at peak height, descent angle, dispersion, and spin. There was a few options that were longer than my gamer, a few that spun more, and my peak heights improved with a few. There was only one that checked multiple boxes, and that’s what I went with.
 
Woods and Hybrids : Looks, feel, distance and accuracy. Driver I like to get Trackman data for ball speed and spin. I'd prefer to hit eveything outside, off grass.
Irons: Looks, feel, distance control and accuracy. Front to back dispersion most importantly.
Wedges: turf interaction and versatility. I play PM 19's so obviously I can get used to looking at about anything here.
 
Just_Brad said:
For Driver / Woods / Irons / Wedges what are you looking for?
Click to expand...
For driver and fairway woods my top priority is accuracy, 2nd is impact sound-feel
For irons and wedges my top priority is carry distance consistency, 2nd is impact sound-feel
 
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