Golf monthly looks at the different elements of a golf swing that affect the amount of loft you should play on your driver. More loft means numerically highera 12degree driver has more loft than a 9degree. As technology has shifted, driver lofts have increased significantly, with many tour pros using 10. Back in the day, better players tended to favor very lowlofted drivers, often in the 7. Alternatively, the average amateur golfer will have a swing speed somewhere between 60 and 100 mph depending on. Loft angles are expressed in degrees with respect to vertical rather than the ground. In comparison, a pitching wedge is designed for loft, so the club face is more parallel to. If your speed is between 60 and 80 mph, use 12 or more degrees of loft. Your angle of attack greatly affects your driver loft. The loft of an iron has a much greater effect on the distance your ball will carry than does the length of the club swing speed. Less loft is less forgiving which is evidenced by how much easier it is to hit a 9 iron than a 3 iron. The summary chart below compares the characteristics of a typical set of 14 golf clubs.
Golfers with clubhead speeds below 85 mph should use a loft angle between 14 and 20 degrees. Many in the golf industry estimate that with irons, the ratio is as high 20. The combination of the driver head and shaft is crucial. Im one of those guys that swings a driver 100105 mph and while i generate good spin on my irons, its a distance killer on driver shots. If it is between 105 and 115 mph, a loft between 7 and 9 degrees should be considered. Yet he still averaged well over 300 yards for that week. Choose a loft to try based on your assessed clubhead speed.
Driver lofts have increased significantly in recent years. In terms of maximizing carry distance, the 80 mph swinger should be hitting a 5wood off the tee, although they would then not benefit from the much larger club face area and forgiveness. Why would you use a 12 degree with your swing speed. But although we can say for sure that most golfers need more loft than they now use, the exact amount depends on several different aspects of their swings. Getting the right loft on your driver is crucial to maximise distance. While the majority of golfers dont have enough loft on their driver and would benefit from more, for the others and those using differently designed driver heads, more loft can in fact lose them distance. Launch angle is the angle that the ball flies at from initial contact with the driver club face. How does different driver lofts change ball flight youtube. And if youre going to buy a lower lofted driver, make sure to get that one measured before you buy it so you know what youre getting. Your slices and hooks will be even worse with a lower lofted 8 to 10 degree driver while more loft 10. How adjusting your driver loft changes your ball flight.
Best golf drivers for mid handicappers 2020 golf sidekick. However, you need to make sure you maintain a high enough launch angle in the process, above 11 degrees ideally. Get the best deals on 8 loft driver golf clubs when you shop the largest online selection at. Carry distance varies by a large degree by where you golfie. The shaft cannot physically bend forward more than the distance between the center of gravity of the club head and the center of the hosel. If your swing speed is 8085 mph, the average driver swing speed of a male golfer today, youre giving up real. Playing a golf driver that is too low in loft will rob you of. Optimize driver loft for more distance dlance golfd. It is true to a point that a driver with a lower lofted head will result in.
Most often, when numbers are associated with drivers it refers to the loft of the driver. However, i also hit up on the ball 510 degrees, allowing that highlaunch, lowspin combo and maxing out distance. Generally, as loft goes up, so does the spin rate, as you can see in the data. Woods, before the memorial tournament he switched from an 8. I have conducted somewhere around 12,000 golf ball fittings, and less than 1% of players launched the ball a.
Rule of thumb is for every degree of change from level, add or subtract one degree of loft. In fact, swings often got the most distance with driver lofts at 9 degrees or less. How to determine which loft you should get on your driver. For example, most golfers assume that getting a lower loft on their driver will increase distance. Try a variety of clubs to find the best loft for your swing. Loft is the angle of the face of the club relative to the ground.
Sixteen years ago, golf digest presented compelling evidence that average golfers needed to use drivers with more loft to maximize distancesometimes as much as 12, 14 or 16 degrees. Long drive competitors have drivers that have only 4 to 7. If you use a 6iron, it will be between 84 and 95 mph, if you use an 8iron or 9iron. For example, a driver is designed for distance, so the club face is almost straight up and down. There are three things the senior golfer needs to consider.
The degree of launch angle that you want with a swing speed less than 110 mph, is a lot. My driver speed increased from 80 to 8889 lots of work and my 12 degree driver was launching over 20 degrees. Using the correct loft on your driver can result in increased range from the tee. Ever since a 2003 golf digest study said that most golfers needed more loft on their drivers, the quest for the correct loft has heated up. The more angle on the club face, the greater the potential loft of the club. Professional golfers who can swing the driver 110 mph and above can hit drivers over 300 yards and they require lower lofted drivers such as a 7, 8, or 9 degree loft.
Fairway woods distances fairway woods are often numbered and the higher the number the more loft the wood has. One of the main differences between the two drivers is the height of the ball. This combination of lower ball speed smash and higher spin is a killer for distance with the driver although it is very advantageous when hitting a wedge into a green. In general, the slower the swing or club speed, the higher the loft of the driver to optimize both carry and roll. Golf driver loft distance, degrees, and best club selection. How much of a difference would a 12 degree driver make. We also used my current driver, a callaway razr fit tour authentic 9.
If your swing speed is 90100mph and your driver loft angle is lower than 11 degrees, 90% of you are losing distance by playing the wrong loft. The large discrepancy between the approximately 11 deg of loft for the golf driver club and the 45 deg maximum range angle for a vacuum was the. Bombtech golf is proud to announce that we are expanding our custom golf driver line to include a 9 degree option. Every club has unique characteristics, most notably where the center of gravity is. Besides putters, drivers have the smallest loft angle of any club in your bag. Swing tweeks probably would help more than anything, but in this particular test it appears the yardage differential isnt anywhere. We did not make any adjustments to the weighting which can open up another huge can of worms by the way. This could add, maybe, a degree or so of true loft which is obviously rather less than you get from simply swapping out.
Although the highest loft showed a 20yard benefit in carry distance, the difference in total distance was only a yard because the 9degree driver shots rolled an average of 32 yards because of a. With increased spin loft, we also see an increase in spin rate. Use less than 10 degrees of loft if you swing faster than 100 mph. Effect of loft on carry distance golf in my kingdom. For maximizing your driver distance is the loft angle on the face of your driver. Before you make any decisions, have the loft of your driver measured. Note that the maximum carry is about 167 yards for a driver loft of 19 degrees which is the loft of a 2iron and 5wood. If it is between 95 and 104 mph, a 10 or 11degree loft will be appropriate. Most seniors could increase the amount of distance they achieve with a driver if they give up the 8, 9, 10 or even 11 degree driver and crank up the loft to maximize the amount of launch on the ball. In driver fittings there is something called optimum combination that is where the loft, shaft kickpoint, shaft torque, shaft length, swingweight, and grip are optimized to work best with your golf swing. What is the correct driver loft for the average senior golfer. If you want to really smash your driver a long way, reducing spin loft will help.
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