davethegolfnut
New member
Hey All,
Forgive me if this has been posted before. It is a topic that has always fascinated me.
About 20 years ago, I had the chance to get a tour of the Hogan facility in Fort Worth. This was post-success of the perimeter weighted GCD/Edge and just a couple of years after Hogan had passed away. The brand had almost died, but a few hearty souls had salvaged the name and had gotten back to the blades for which Hogan was so famous.
In truth, the facility at the time wasn't much more than a warehouse, but they had brought back some of the most experienced workers and I was impressed with the product they were turning out and the care they put into the clubs.
One thing they did at the the end of the process was called springing the shafts. They told me that nobody else usually did it.
The way that it worked as they would place the club hosel in a vice where the shaft would be pointing at a dot on a board. They would then tap base of the shaft with a mallet to assure that the end of the club was pointing directly at the dot.
Then, they would rotate the club 90 degrees and check it again, tapping it once more so that the club was pointed at the dot on that axis as well. This would assure the shaft was EXACTLY centered with the club.
I always thought the logic of this made sense, but the question that always stuck out in my mind was this:
Couldn't a hard blow to the ground cause the shaft to be 'unsprung' and pointed a bit away from center? If this really is an important factor of the club, wouldn't players (especially pros) want to check the 'spring' after every round? I would expect every equipment van to have a springing set up so they could check for loft, lie, and centering on every night?
Yet, I hear very little about springing/centering. Is it generally the case that the hosel keeps the shaft centered enough that it just isn't something that needs to be worried about?
I'd love to hear from clubmakers/purists with their thoughts on this concept.
Forgive me if this has been posted before. It is a topic that has always fascinated me.
About 20 years ago, I had the chance to get a tour of the Hogan facility in Fort Worth. This was post-success of the perimeter weighted GCD/Edge and just a couple of years after Hogan had passed away. The brand had almost died, but a few hearty souls had salvaged the name and had gotten back to the blades for which Hogan was so famous.
In truth, the facility at the time wasn't much more than a warehouse, but they had brought back some of the most experienced workers and I was impressed with the product they were turning out and the care they put into the clubs.
One thing they did at the the end of the process was called springing the shafts. They told me that nobody else usually did it.
The way that it worked as they would place the club hosel in a vice where the shaft would be pointing at a dot on a board. They would then tap base of the shaft with a mallet to assure that the end of the club was pointing directly at the dot.
Then, they would rotate the club 90 degrees and check it again, tapping it once more so that the club was pointed at the dot on that axis as well. This would assure the shaft was EXACTLY centered with the club.
I always thought the logic of this made sense, but the question that always stuck out in my mind was this:
Couldn't a hard blow to the ground cause the shaft to be 'unsprung' and pointed a bit away from center? If this really is an important factor of the club, wouldn't players (especially pros) want to check the 'spring' after every round? I would expect every equipment van to have a springing set up so they could check for loft, lie, and centering on every night?
Yet, I hear very little about springing/centering. Is it generally the case that the hosel keeps the shaft centered enough that it just isn't something that needs to be worried about?
I'd love to hear from clubmakers/purists with their thoughts on this concept.