Anyone use Lead Tape?

[Cizzle52]

I recently started toying around with lead tape. I taped the heck out of my putter and liked how the extra weight feels. 

I also added a Little fade bias to my 3 Hybrid and that straightened out my ball flight. 

Anyone else have luck with using lead tape? What clubs and what does it help you with? I’d love to see pictures!

[Shapotomous]

Yep....

toe bias on the hybrid for fade bias help

Center of irons for equalizing swingweight...

Edited September 8 by Shapotomous

[Cizzle52]

12 minutes ago, Shapotomous said:

Center of irons for equalizing swingweight...

 

Love those. Did you measure it out for each iron or go based on feel?

[Shapotomous]

9 minutes ago, Cizzle52 said:

Love those. Did you measure it out for each iron or go based on feel?

Measured out on a swingweight scale to start and tweaked a couple slightly based on feel and how i hit them.

[Johann Oosthuizen]

Last week I read an article all about Swing Weight.  Being a mechanical engineer with some research background I found this most interesting and searched for more articles and also Youtube videos.  

Based on a a simple measuring and weighing method that I found I then did the measuring and weighing of all my clubs last Thursday evening, put the data in a spreadsheet and found that very few of my clubs are the same even though the are all of the same brand.

I cannot remember everything off hand since the data is at home but it was something like the following:

Driver - D0

3W - E2

17* Hybrid - D1

4H - E1

4I - D0

5I - D1

6I - D1

7I - D2

8I - D0

9I - D1

PW - D0

A - D2

SW - E0

I hit my 7I and A wedge to most accurate when considering distance, control and feel.  I realize that I need to read a lot more and need to to refine my measurement method.  I am looking forward to "tune" the clubs to get the irons (4 to A) the same and see if it makes a difference.   Not sure what to do with the woods and hybrids as yet.

 

[Quigleyd]

Lead tape is golf club pixie dust.. lol. 

[russtopherb]

I've had lead tape on fixed hosel drivers as well as currently on one of my putters. There's a definite feel change along with a performance change when using it where it's needed.

[vandyland]

I use lead tape on my 58* to add some weight to the head and I have added tape to the center of my 4W shaft to try to make the shaft heavier (it is stock at about 66g and I wanted to get it up around 70g at least) so I wrapped tape around the midpoint between the grip and the hosel on the shaft. 

[jbern]

I also used lead tape on my putter. After I cut the shaft down 2.5 inches, I needed to add some significant weight to get the feel back to how it was previously! I haven't tried it on any other clubs, yet! @Johann Oosthuizen's post about how all of his clubs are different is very interesting and makes me want to measure my irons to see how close they are to each other...

[Cizzle52]

13 hours ago, Johann Oosthuizen said:

 

I hit my 7I and A wedge to most accurate when considering distance, control and feel.  I realize that I need to read a lot more and need to to refine my measurement method.  I am looking forward to "tune" the clubs to get the irons (4 to A) the same and see if it makes a difference.   Not sure what to do with the woods and hybrids as yet.

 

Should all the clubs be the same theoretically or is there a benefit to having the CG of a club lower or higher?

[Johann Oosthuizen]

7 hours ago, Cizzle52 said:

Should all the clubs be the same theoretically or is there a benefit to having the CG of a club lower or higher?

From what I have read and understand is that the set of irons, from the longest to about 9I, should feel the same and this can be done by weighting them.  This then helps to hit the sweet spot every time. The wedges are typically heavier.

Long, long ago with my previous set of clubs I just could not hit the 3I and 5I (Wilson Staff Dynapower from 1975).  I hated them. Then talking about the issue in the club's proshop with my dad the pro asked me to bring the two clubs and also two clubs that I liked the most.  I gave him the 4I, 6I and 8I.  He then did some measurements on the three clubs that I liked and added or removed weights in the toes of the two hated clubs and bingo... the clubs worked for me.  At that stage I was about 14-15 years old and did not really understand what he did.  However, I did think the pro was a magician.

[Johann Oosthuizen]

14 hours ago, jbern said:

I also used lead tape on my putter. After I cut the shaft down 2.5 inches, I needed to add some significant weight to get the feel back to how it was previously! I haven't tried it on any other clubs, yet! @Johann Oosthuizen's post about how all of his clubs are different is very interesting and makes me want to measure my irons to see how close they are to each other...

I think with my clubs the issue is that that I regripped them myself and used masking tape as grip tape.  This I applied in an overlapping spiral from the bottom to the top to give a slightly thicker grip.  Hence there is a possibility that the weight is ever so slightly different due to the varying lengths of tape that I used.  On that, it is important to use the same grips when regripping as the grips vary in weight.

There is a swingweight spreadsheet available on the interweb "Swingweight_Calculator_Plus_Rev.0." that I have tested and found it fascinating.

Edited September 10 by Johann Oosthuizen

[BIG STU]

11 hours ago, Cizzle52 said:

Should all the clubs be the same theoretically or is there a benefit to having the CG of a club lower or higher?

There are a lot of variables involved there. No clear-cut thing. Depends on the head design the shaft flex and what one wants to achieve by doing it. On my personal stuff even though I have a SW scale I do it by feel and the effect I want.

To the OP yes I use it LOL they do not call me Dr. Lead Tape for nothing. Lets see I have it on 8 of the 12 clubs I carry for now which is a new low for me

[Biggsenator]

Depends on the club, but I have used lead tape to improve the feel of a couple of putters. This was true on one of them because I cut the length of the shaft down before I knew enough about clubs to realize that it would REALLY affect the feel. But some lead tape did the trick and now it feels as good as new. Lesson: if you have a valuable putter that is a bit too long for you, don't cut the shaft down or reshaft to a shorter shaft if you want to retain its value or avoid having to tinker with the head's weight with tape or adhesive weights.

[Louis_Posture]

I guess about 80% of Tour players bags have at least a couple of clubs to which lead tape is applied, and it's been that way for more than 50 years.

[Josh Parker]

I currently only have lead tape on my vokey wedges. Heads feel to light stock so it's not based on a sw but on feel.  They all have the exact amount though. 

[Johann Oosthuizen]

On 9/9/2024 at 11:07 AM, Johann Oosthuizen said:

Last week I read an article all about Swing Weight.  Being a mechanical engineer with some research background I found this most interesting and searched for more articles and also Youtube videos.  

Based on a a simple measuring and weighing method that I found I then did the measuring and weighing of all my clubs last Thursday evening, put the data in a spreadsheet and found that very few of my clubs are the same even though the are all of the same brand.

I cannot remember everything off hand since the data is at home but it was something like the following:

Driver - D0

3W - E2

17* Hybrid - D1

4H - E1

4I - D0

5I - D1

6I - D1

7I - D2

8I - D0

9I - D1

PW - D0

A - D2

SW - E0

I hit my 7I and A wedge to most accurate when considering distance, control and feel.  I realize that I need to read a lot more and need to to refine my measurement method.  I am looking forward to "tune" the clubs to get the irons (4 to A) the same and see if it makes a difference.   Not sure what to do with the woods and hybrids as yet.

 

Ok, in my previous post that I wrote on Monday, I mentioned that the data was at home and that I could not remember everything that I measured but after getting the data from home it seems that my Covid memory really had taken a toll.

Anyway, here is the data from the measurement....and it much more varied than I thought.  By applying lead tape in the correct areas I can make the swingweights the same, it is pure physics.  But then, would the clubs feel better? Most probably a combination of two sciences, physics and psychology.

[KC Golf]

I experimented a while back with lead tape.   My fitter seemed appalled by what I did and indicated I did it all wrong.  I tried to give my driver some more draw bias and the head some more weight to adjust SW.  He said my makeshift patch work did not make sense.  He pointed to some issues, but it went over my head.  Anyway, after he adjusted it, I have to admit it worked better than my lead tape job.  So mixed results.

[Shapotomous]

8 hours ago, Johann Oosthuizen said:

Most probably a combination of two sciences, physics and psychology.

Even if it is just one science...psychology....that is enough of a reason for me! 

Confidence is a big factor in solid contact.

[Hook DeLoft]

I am currently experimenting with the Justin Rose lead tape hack on my driver (lead tape around the shaft just below the grip). Only one round so far, but I think I like it.

[jbern]

20 hours ago, Hook DeLoft said:

I am currently experimenting with the Justin Rose lead tape hack on my driver (lead tape around the shaft just below the grip). Only one round so far, but I think I like it.

I have a hard time committing to putting lead tape on the shaft for some reason, but I would like to try it for when I want to buy new grips. I was thinking I would like heavier grips, but I want to test first