IONEPUTT

As some others have mentioned, not everyone has the swing speed to hit a 3W any further than they can a 5W. One way to go would be to get a HIGH launch shaft put into all you woods, I did this a long time ago and have not looked back. Grafalloy used to make the Pro Launch Blue FW shaft that was great in all woods. Then they came out with the Epc FW which was even better. I have those two shafts in 4 woods in my bag now. While those shafts are not made today, you can still find them if you look for USED woods on E-bay to look more for the shaft than the head it's in. But you need to know that the old Pro Launch Blue Driver shaft is NOT the same as the FW shaft used in woods. I have a 15* 3W, a 18* 5W, a 21* 7 W and a 24* 9W in my bag now. All are easy to hit and give me the yardages I need in my bag. Off the tee my 5W gives me 255 yards total on average, and the others are at 15 yards increments for Carry yardage . Just what I like in all my clubs. You might also look at a wood with a carbon crown, as those heads give you a higher launch angle compared to an all metal head design. The old Cleveland Launcher Comp fairway woods are well worth a look and test at the range. With many golfers having trouble hitting fairway metals these day, I have no idea why the after market shaft companies don't make a decent shaft designed just for woods. If they did a lot more golfers would not be having so much trouble hitting the fairway woods. D-Star asked to tips on hitting a 3 W, so here are mine. Off the tee, use a ball position that is the same as you use for your driver. In my case, that means up by my left heal, and tee it high enough to hit up on the ball, but NOT too high, as that would mean a different swing than when hitting off the deck. When hitting off the deck position the ball back about 3-5 inches so you can swing close to LEVEL to the ball and NOT up at it, being as the ball is on the ground, kind of hard to swing up at it without hitting the ground well behind the ball which is NOT good at all. And PRACTICE both shots at the range until you get a feel for them and can hit them well enough that you have some confidence in hitting both shots when you need to. I hope this helps a litter. Good luck with your woods next time out.

Unless you have a meter to measure the speed of the green you use, me telling you the speed of the green I used for the test would be useless, and in fact I did NOT measure the speed of the green as my Stimp meter was at home at the time and hot available to use. Just hit a few balls until you find a stroke that hits the ball 20-25 feet and try the test. When I first learned of this test there was NO green speed rating so I have no idea what the speed of the green was when the test was created, so just go for it and see what happens.

I could make a video but I will NOT waste my time doing that. I have done the putt the ball over the cup test, and my High CG putter passed and a few OEM putters I did the same test with did NOT pass. As I stated before, I had a dozen of so PGA golf instructors hit my putter and they ALL said my putter rolled the ball better then what they were using. So I did my testing and am happy with the results. I have all the proof I need, and I have no need to prove it again to anyone. Either accept my test results or you don't. Or YOU could modify your putter to be a high CG putter and do your own testing. I hope that D-Star will look at what I posted and build a new putter with a HG and learn from my testing. If not that is his choose.

My High CG putter is built with 4* of loft, so the ball can come up and out of the slight depression it was sitting in on the green. That's the same loft as my Odyssey putter and yet my putter got the ball rolling a lot sooner than the Odyssey putter did. Same loft but rolling sooner, which is what my design was built to do. And IF the ball doesn't go too far up off the putter face, it can start to roll as soon as if touches down and there is NO skid, which is what I was trying to get rid of, and it worked out fine.

I'm sure glad I do NOT have to deal with what you are doing on the green. Sounds like you have to THINK too much as to what stroke to use for every putt. I just use ONE putting stroke for ALL putts no matter how long or short it is. I just take the putter head back more for a longer putt and a shorter one for a short putt. Before every round I play, I just spend a few minutes on the practice green to figure out how fast the greens are and adjust my stroke length to match the green speed. Pretty simple without have to thing about what stroke I need for every putt. I don't care if it's an up hill or a down hill putt, don't care if it's 2 feet or 100 feet, same putting stroke just with a different stroke length to suit the distance to the cup. Can't get much simpler than that, and simple is easier to do consistantly.

One good reason NOT to use hardened tool steel, is that even un-hardeded tool steel is HARD to machine, and that would just increase the cost to build the putter. And tool steel costs MORE than free machining stainless steel does. Plus there is NO good reason to use tool steel as stainless steel is plenty hard enough to last for decades of use no matter how much a golfer might practice or play. Total waste of both time and money to use tool steel. I hope this answers you question?

Hi Cnosil; I'm glad you appreciate what I built. There IS a way to TEST how soon the ball starts to roll with a putter, and IF the ball is being launched up into the air as it comes off the putter face. I learned about this test shortly after I built my first high CG putter and tried it. What you do is hit a few balls to get the feel of HOW hard you have to hit the ball to get it to go 20-25 feet on level ground. Then set up with a ball about 12 inches from the cup, and hit the ball AT the cup. Right over the center of the cup. IF the ball goes right over the cup with NO problem, the ball was UP in the air as it went over the cup. NOT what you want to have happen. IF the ball was on the grass and rolling when it got to the front edge of the cup, the ball would nave started to go DOWN into the cup due to gravity. And when the ball got to the far side of the cup, it would have been part way down into the cup and the ball would have then HIT the back edge of the cup and it would have then Bounces UP a bit from hitting the cup. I tried this little test with my Odyssey putter and my custom built putter and it was quire an eye opener. With my Odyssey putter the ball DID NOT hit the far edge of the cup, and it FLEW right over the cup with no problem. But when I hit a ball with my High CG putter the ball DID hit the back lip of the cup and it bounced off the lip and UP into the air. proof that the ball had started to go down into the cup due to it rolling on the ground and NOT being up in the air. This is a simple test YOU can do at your local putting green to see just how much AIR TIME your golf ball is getting coming of the face of your putter. A very simple and easy test anyone can do on the course that does not require any fanny equipment. Try it with your putter and see what happens. As for WHY none of the major OEM's don't make a high CG putter, just look at all of the putters in the photos above of Artisan putters. Every one of them has a low lip on the back edge of the putter. And most EVERY golf I've every been paired with on the course uses this LIP to pick up their ball with OUT a need to BEND over. Would it be fair to say the most all golfers are TOO LAZY to bend over and pick up their ball, they would rather have a putter with this stupid lip at the back to pick up the ball instead. I doubt that many of todays golfers would but a putter if it did NOT have this stupid little lip, as that would mean they would then have to bend over and that would not be cool. While this is ONLY my opinion of why some OEM's would not build a putter with a high CG, but can you explain one other good reason for this stupid on every putter being sold today? I sure can't think of a good reason, can YOU?

When I built my putter someone told me it may not be conforming so I looked it up at that time, about 15 years ago. What I found then was that there could be a part of the putter head above the face as long as it for for weight distrubution, Not sure of the exact wording, as it's been awhile. As you know there have been a lot of small changes to the rule book over the last 20 years, and the part I found may have been changed. I have no idea if that is the case or not. Just going by what I found back then about it being legal to have a piece of the club above the putter face if it was done to effect the weight balance of the club, and that is what my design does. On page 52 it shows that the putter face may be up to 2.5" tall. My putter face is right at 1.0" tall, and the total height of the putter head is 2.250" high. So it would not be a problem to change the face height of my design to reach up to the top of the two pods. Would surely change the look of the head, but it could be easily done to match what the rule books shows it must be according to todays rules. The main reason I posted my design photo was to show a way a high CG putter could be built. And the reason I built my putter was to see IF a high CG putter would in fact roll the ball better than the putters on the market at the time. And when I tested my putter using about a dozen PGA instructors as testers, They all said my putter rolled the ball better than their putter. Most of those instructors had either a Scotty Cameron or an Odyssey putter in their bag. And both of those top rated putters have a LOW CG design. And nothing has changed with those brands to this day, they still have a low CG design. As I said in another post, I do NOT play in tour events and have no desire to re-design my putter to make everyone happy with the design meeting the USGA rules. If someone else wants to take my design and make a few changes to meet the rule book requirements, they are free to do so. I'm just not interested it doing so at this time in my life.

Here's a better view of my putter design. In this photo it's clear that the two pods are NOT in front of the face of the putter. Sorry for the other photo not showing this more clearly. In this photo the camera is in line with the shaft, and therefore slightly behind the front face of the putter.

It does NOT matter what anyone else says about the length of each part of your stroke. The ONLY thing that matter to YOU is what Works best for YOU. MY advice is simple. Try a few putts and SEE what works for you, and you have YOUR answer, Nothing else matters, or at least it should NOT matter to you. What works for ME is all I care about, and that's all that should matter to you as well.

The front of each pod is at the Center of the light colored piece of wood at the front of the putter face, so it is NOT in front of the putter face. So that is not an issue with the rules. As for the pods being above the putter face, the rules allow for this IF the purpose of the piece above the putter face is "for the purpose of Balance". And that is exactly the reason for the pods being above the face of the putter. So that is also not an issue. And if it was considered to be a legal issue, all I would have to do is attach another piece of wood to the face of the putter that would go up to the height of the pods, and that would solve the issue if the USGA were to say my design was not legal as is. To be "HONEST" with you , I did NOT look at the rules when I designed my putter, or I would have made a few changes to my design to avoid any issues as you noted. I also do NOT play in any tourniments, so for my personal use I don't really care if the USGA has a problem with my design. If I were to play in a club event, I would make any changes to my design as needed to conform to the rules as needed. As I mentioned in another post, the design "Works" extremely well. I have had about a dozen PGA instructors hit balls with my putter, and every one of them said my putter rolled the ball "better" than the putter they had in their bag. So the design works as I intended it to, so IF I would need to change a few things to get it to conform to the rules, that would be easy enough, and not really an issue.

For those of you that are not familiar with the system of measurement, there are 7000 grains to a pound, so it's a much more precise system to use to measure small amounts of weight. The wooden pods are attached to the body of the putter with a small piece of tubing, and each tube has 30 grains of lead in them to go with the 60 grains in each pod. This weight is WAY above the CG of the ball, and that causes the ball to roll sooner which helps to keep the ball on line when you putt.

In a previous reply to your post on building your own putter, I mentioned that your work looks great, and I suggested that you try a putter design with a High CG to get the ball rolling as soon as possible for better performance on the greens. Here are a few photos of the putter I designed and built about 15 years ago with a High CG. The two pods above the face of the putter have 60 grains of lead in each pod. The putter is made of Pakka wood, which is very hard and stands up very well to a lot of use. Putter head weighs 360 grams or so. There are five pieces of lead in the main body of the putter also. Very easy to align the face of the putter to the ball using the light colored inserts in the top surface of the head. The design rolls the ball extremely well, Better than any name brand putter I've tried over the years.

Again , this is beautiful workmanship on your part. Nicely done. What I would like to suggest is that next time you machine a putter head. INVERT the head so that "Flange" on the bottom of the head at the back, is ON TOO. That simple change would "Raise" the CG to be above the ball at impact and that would cause the ball to "Roll" sooner and not pop up into the air as much coming off the putter face. WEDGES are designed to get the ball UP into the air. and ALL good wedges have a LOW CG for that reason. If you use that same thinking to build a putter, the ball "Will" pop up into the air, just like with a wedge. Reverse the design to a HIGH CG design and I think you'll like the results a lot.

You do not have to sole the club to see the results of changing the loft setting of a driver using the adapter adjustments. I "Never" sole my driver and I can see the difference when I change the loft setting of a driver. I've done it when I demo a new club and want to see what loft with that driver works best. I can see the difference on the Trackman readings very clearly. Try it if you don't believe it. NO need to sole the club at all. As for "What" you can change with the adjustments it depends on the design of the driver adapter. The Pins is designed to change the loft, some other might change the face angle. Some change lie up or down. Read the settings on YOUR adapter and go from there.

Just what I expected you to say, YOU have NO experience with aligned shaft and yet you think it does matter. Funny how some people think. As for UST, I happen to have a few of their recent shaft model in a few of my clubs. I did the spine and FLO alignment on each of them and it was EASY for find the spine of each, and easy to do the FLO alignment as well. So much for what UST told you, they were pulling your leg, as usual. In the 18 years I've been building golf clubs I have only found ONE shaft that didn't need the alignment work. ONE out of THREE from the same company and they each sold for $500 per stick. Don't even ask about factory shafts as they are worse yet.

Seems that everyone here agrees that you could demo a RH shaft in your LH driver and it will work, just have the setting reversed. Needless to say the neutral setting would NOT change. So go give a few shafts a try and see what works best for YOU, as that is what really matters.

As a golfer that builds clubs, I can say that "I" cam tell a difference in an aligned shaft and one that has not been aligned. I do a spine and FLO alignment on EVERY shaft I use when building up a club, and it is MY experience that it does in fact make a difference, sometimes quite a large one. My question for you is "Have YOU tried a test of aligned and non-aligned shaft in your hands to see if YOU can tell the difference? If not you might want to try it. I have also seen a repost on a test that was done by GolfSmith about 19 years ago. They took 4 OEM drivers, one from each of the 4 top selling companies at that time. and hit 10 balls with each using a Swing Machine Robot. When they were done, the average of each of those 4 driver was that the ball impact on the face of the club averaged just under 5/8ths of an inch "OFF CENTER" Some were hit low, some high, others inside and others toward the toe. UP to 5/8" off center with EACH of those OEM clubs. Then the did the test again, using a shaft that was SST Pured, installed in a SnakeEyes head. When they tested this club in the same machine, ALL ball impacts were within 1/8" of dead center. I'll let YOU decide if that would matter to YOU or not. For ME, it sure would and it does.

NOT AT ALL what I'm saying. What I was trying to say is that for the BEST performance with a putter, you want the ball to ROLL as soon as possible. And to do that a HIGH center of gravity is best. Looking at his putter and going by his workmanship, I would say his putter will work as well as all the other putters on the market with a LOW CG, which is just about ALL of them. The point of my post was the advise to him to try designing a putter with a HIGH CG to get the ball rolling and NOT pop it up into the air, which can cause the ball to "Skip" a little when it lands to go off line. A high CG can prevent that problem.

I think most of us here would agree that X SS will not produce Y ball speed. But I also think most of us here will agree that with Equal quality ball contact a higher SS will produce a higher Ball speed, and that is exactly what I posted in my reply to your post. Every thing else being EQUAL. more SS means more ball speed. I hope we can agree on that. And I also agree with you that we can NOT guarantee center hits on all shots, but that goes for ALL swing speeds, not just the faster ones. ONE thing I find interesting is how many golfers don't know how much a properly aligned shaft can do for quality ball striking. If the shaft is NOT aligned in the head properly it's a toss up whether the ball contact will be consistent or not. I've seen tests that show that with a driver with a factory installed shaft a golfer can miss the sweet spot by over 1/2 and inch with a good swing. With a properly aligned shaft that will not happen. Which is one reason I spine and FLO align all of my shafts before I install them in my clubs.

I do NOT think I would use your wording for this. Swing speed DOES have a direct correlation to ball speed, IF all other things are the SAME. IF you miss hit the ball with an 110 MPH swing and hit it solid with a 105 MPH swing, then YES, you could get more ball speed with the 105 swing, but that is like comparing apples to oranges. Bottom line is that IF ball contact is the same with both swings, the 110 swing will produce a higher ball speed. I'll take a 110 MPH swing hitting the ball in the center of the face over a 105 MPH swing hit in the exact same plane EVERY TIME.

I had a driver shaft fitting 3 years ago and for ME. the best shaft was an X flex model. I got a tighter dispersion pattern with the X flex and the SAME distance within a yard. so I went with the X flex. I would also recommend you try a shaft with LOW torque rating as that is what can make a difference is shot pattern. I tried two shaft of the same model, one with lower torque, and the lower torque shaft had me hitting 80% of the fairways while the higher torque shaft had me at 50%. My driver head speed is usually around 105 MPH but the day of the test it was below 100, so the S flex was a BETTER fit in terms of speed, but NOT for finding fairways. ALL testing was done with a Ping G400 Max 10.5* head on a Trackman. My smash factor that day was 1.52, which is a bit high but not too much. I had my fitting as a CC store, and that is NOT an endorsement just for info. They have hundreds of driver shafts and it should NOT be an issue being a lefty as that shouldn't make a difference in what shafts you can try in a driver head. OFF THE SHELVE drivers YES, but not for after market shafts to go in your head.

About 16 years ago I designed and built a few putters with a HIGH CG and had a dozen or so golf instructors try them out. I almost every case the feedback was that MY putter rolled the ball BETTER than the putter the instructor was currently using. Most of them were using either a Scotty or an Odyssey putter. My design has a high CG with 4* of lost on the face. The loft gets the ball up out of the slight depression it is in on the green, and then the high CG causes the ball to ROLL over the top of the grass, NOT pop up into the air, which is quite common with all other putters with a low CG. Your workmanship looks great, now think about designing a putter with a HIGH CG to get the ball to ROLL not pop up into the air and you will be all set to build a really good putter. While it's nice to build a putter that looks and feels good. I hope you will agree that that doesn't really matter if it does not perform any better than what's on the market now. YOU have the machining skills to create a really nice putt. I hope you will take the time to design a putter what will perform as well as it looks.

I totally understand what you are saying about what some coaches have to say about what to use. I remember a time I was playing a round with a local golf instructor, and I had about 25 yards to the flag and in deep rough. I pulled out my 60* wedge and set up to play a Flop shot, and the instructor told me to stop and play a regular Pitch shot instead, as it was a "Higher Percentage Shot". I told him "Not if it's what I practice the most". I went ahead and played my Flop shot with the face wide open and made a pretty big swing. Ball landed a few feet from the flag and left me with a simple "TAP IN" for birdie. That's when he told me it was pure LUCK and I could do it again. So I dropped another ball and did it again, only to have the ball end up inside 3 feet for another easy putt. That's when I told him a second time it's NOT a low percentage shot when it's the shot I practice the most. Needless to say, he didn't tell me what type of shot to play around the greens after that.

Bottom line with any WEDGE, or any club for that matter is that you need to "Practice" with the club to learn how to make it work for you. Reading some of the posts here, it seems that a lot of you recommend a LW for shots inside 50 yards or so. That makes me wonder How Far do you hit you LW? For me, I hit my 60* wedge 90 yards with a full swing. IF I take me hands back to waist high, like with a 9 o'clock position, I hit my 60* 50 yards. If I go back to 10 O'clock I get 75 yards carry with it. What about you? Because I hit the ball 90 yards with my 60* wedge, I tend to use it for most of my shots under 90 yards and it. It's the club I practice with most, so it's the one I'm most comfortable using. What about you?