Understanding Golf Clubs Part 1
By Michael Hebron, PGA Master Professional, CI
Not long ago, we read about a golf ball whose owner was a very nice person, but
did not know the first thing about golf balls or how the get airborne. We got a
hold of a letter about what his friend the golf club had to say. Because this was a
long letter it will appear in part this week and conclude in the next column.
The clubs the ball spoke to said they too had problems with how their owners
used and treated them. Most clubs felt the golfers they were working for were
intimidated by them and got nervous when they were together. The clubs said
they were willing to work for their owners, but were treated so harshly they could
not perform as they should.
The club said, "My owner thinks I am an inanimate thing. But I have just as much
soul and as many feeling as he has. I don't like clumsy treatment. I respond, to
gentleness and stroking, just like a cat. But my owner will not study me or my
vibrations. He thinks only of his own bone anatomy... plus a long string of
unrememberable Do's and Don'ts.
If I could make a speech or write and article, it would be entitled 'Fundamentals
of the Club Shaft'. My article would go like this....
'I can only work well if swung in an inclined plane or groove which is the same as
that of my shaft when properly soled. Each of us clubs has its own private
groove, and we can not effectively be swung either vertically or flat. The shaft
and the clubhead should both be swung, cocked and uncocked, on plane.
My owner does not understand centrifugal uncocking. He tries to use his
muscles like he's killing snakes with a stick in the desert-- he tries to move me
fast and over powers the muscles controlling his wrists. He tries to make his
hands uncock me when he ought to let me uncock them for him. I can do this by
my own built up centrifugal momentum. My owner is a basher as distinct from a
swinger.
My ancestry is essentially Scottish. I was born in the whiskey making industry.
Barley grains were thresheds out of their ears by thrashing the stems with a
thing called a flail. A flail has about two equal lengths of wood tied together by a
loose thong (hinge, ball bearing or wrist). The outer part that is swung is called a
swingle (or club). The inner bar is called the power bar, or swingor. In golf, the
power bar is a group of bones. The hand and club usually represent the
swingle. The Scots found that by using a flail they could do more work on the
barley with less effort, largely because centrifugal uncocking of a swingle,
swinging on a thong, would move the outer end faster than beating with only one
(rigid) stick of twice the length. It is the same in golf."
That's all for now folks. Tune in next time to hear the rest of what the club had to
say.
Copyright Michael Hebron, 2008, all rights reservedback to top