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Michael Vrska on The Engineering of Club Fitting - Golf Unfiltered #197

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Listened to it this morning, with a couple stoppages in there. Love listening to Vrska. His comments about shaft droop and how that can affect lie angle is the kind of stuff I'm not sure I need to know haha. Gets my OCD in high gear.

Good to know that OEMs are focused on matching all that stuff when they select their stock shaft, and that they will play around with soft-stepping or hard-stepping to dial it in to where it can fit the most golfers. Very enlightening stuff.
 
Love listening to Mr. Vrska. I will have to listen again to grasp all the information. I had to laugh at his opening statement on how long the segment was going to last. 6 to 7 hours. Haha
 
Really great listen! Loved all the PGA spots with Adam and Michael and this was just as good in an extended form. As usual, learned a ton from listening to Vrska.
 
Thanks for listening folks. We will do more of these types of shows in the future. If anyone ever has any questions for Michael that you'd like us to cover, please let me know!
 
I always love listing to Vrska and this was no exception. It was interesting hearing him break down the forging and discuss that a little more in depth. He's one guy I really hope to run in to in the future to pick his brain. Great job!
 
golfunfiltered said:
Thanks for listening folks. We will do more of these types of shows in the future. If anyone ever has any questions for Michael that you'd like us to cover, please let me know!
Click to expand...

So here’s a question that I thought about after listening. Given the conversation about how each person’s delivery can have an effect, but also thinking about the proliferation of combo sets now, could more boutique fitters look at adding a higher lofted iron (say a 9i) for more complete iron fittings?

That would bring about a whole new set of challenges for oems and fitters with inventory, but could it be worth it? Remember reading from @Sox_Fan how an upright lie angle was ideal for him on lower lofted irons but as he got into the scoring clubs his ball flight suggested a flatter lie angle working best. Also, with a combo set basically involving another club head, the shaft that’s fit into the 6i may not be the best for the higher lofted head.


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This was a really good listen.
 
Very good listen
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Always a great listen!

Makes me reconsider what I want to do for shafts in the C300 heads...

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obedt said:
So here’s a question that I thought about after listening. Given the conversation about how each person’s delivery can have an effect, but also thinking about the proliferation of combo sets now, could more boutique fitters look at adding a higher lofted iron (say a 9i) for more complete iron fittings?

That would bring about a whole new set of challenges for oems and fitters with inventory, but could it be worth it? Remember reading from @Sox_Fan how an upright lie angle was ideal for him on lower lofted irons but as he got into the scoring clubs his ball flight suggested a flatter lie angle working best. Also, with a combo set basically involving another club head, the shaft that’s fit into the 6i may not be the best for the higher lofted head.


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Click to expand...

Certainly @vgolfman would have more to say on this, but my initial thought is to follow up with another question: how much of a difference is there in one's club path throughout a set?

As a consumer, I want things to be as simple as possible. A certified club fitter will tell me for certain, but lie angles changing slightly throughout my bag seems to complicate things. I would also wonder if a swing adjustment is needed, but only if scores show a need to change.
 
golfunfiltered said:
Certainly @vgolfman would have more to say on this, but my initial thought is to follow up with another question: how much of a difference is there in one's club path throughout a set?

As a consumer, I want things to be as simple as possible. A certified club fitter will tell me for certain, but lie angles changing slightly throughout my bag seems to complicate things. I would also wonder if a swing adjustment is needed, but only if scores show a need to change.
Click to expand...
Even though I have far from a perfect repeatable swing, I believe the differences in lie angles from shorter to longer clubs has more to do with the increased shaft/toe droop generated from the increased swing speed and flexibility of a longer shaft versus a shorter shaft. I'm sure Michael will interject with a more expert opinion than mine.
 
obedt said:
So here’s a question that I thought about after listening. Given the conversation about how each person’s delivery can have an effect, but also thinking about the proliferation of combo sets now, could more boutique fitters look at adding a higher lofted iron (say a 9i) for more complete iron fittings?

That would bring about a whole new set of challenges for oems and fitters with inventory, but could it be worth it? Remember reading from @Sox_Fan how an upright lie angle was ideal for him on lower lofted irons but as he got into the scoring clubs his ball flight suggested a flatter lie angle working best. Also, with a combo set basically involving another club head, the shaft that’s fit into the 6i may not be the best for the higher lofted head.


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Click to expand...

A thorough, quality fitting should include a discussion on set make up. Club to club gapping will be a, and likely THE, critical part of that... what’s the longest Iron one can hit consistently and longer than the next? How many hybrids and fairway woods are needed? What wedges lofts and bounces are ideal for your swing and where you play most often? All of that is very personal based on how the club is delivered and at what speed and with what spin is generated and and and...

The lie angle example you stated, while certainly not common, has happened for other players that I am aware of as well. Again, so critical to get fit the ball flight. Standard specs are great for many players, but that doesn’t mean everyone. But it also doesn’t mean standard specs are bad.


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Sox_Fan said:
Even though I have far from a perfect repeatable swing, I believe the differences in lie angles from shorter to longer clubs has more to do with the increased shaft/toe droop generated from the increased swing speed and flexibility of a longer shaft versus a shorter shaft. I'm sure Michael will interject with a more expert opinion than mine.
Click to expand...

To get hyper tactical, and no one needs to know this, but shaft droop is a result of the CG of the clubhead trying to align with the axis of the “stationary” portion of the shaft (i.e. the part held by the hands) when a centrifugal force (i.e. the swing) is applied. So, the amount of chef troop will be affected by the CG placement in the head, as well as both the overall stiffness and torsional stability of the shaft.

Having said all that, no one really needs to worry about it. The amount of Shaft droop will be factored in to a good fitting simply by looking at ball flight. Yes seeing how the sole goes through the ground (i.e. lie board) can provide some guidance, but Ultimately the ball and you should only care about what happens at and immediately after impact.


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Hearing Michael's thoughts on the importance of ball flight during a fitting is both reassuring and encouraging, FYI. When it comes to this game, understanding the output of a shot (Y) is so much more important than the independent variables that produced the output (X's).

That being stated, if a critical X fails, as is the case in any process, the Y is impacted significantly.
 
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