Wishon 555C & 555M Irons

Here's a video from Tom Wishon (www.wishongolf.com) on the 555C (cavity back) and 555M (muscle back) irons.

I currently use the 555C 3 & 4-irons along with the 555M 5-PW and I'm extremely pleased with them. I also thought this would be a good video to understand what the forging process of clubs is like.









3JACK

MOI Matching FAQ's

Recently, I’ve received a ton of questions from readers on MOI Matching. I’m at the ‘more knowledgeable than a novice, but far from an expert’ stage at the moment. But, I will try to answer the questions I’ve been getting here.


WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOI MATCHING AND SWINGWEIGHT MATCHING?

First, let’s understand some basic terms:

Static Weight– This is the weight of the club when it’s at rest. I could have a 5-iron weighing in at 15.6 ounces when I lay it down on a standard scale.

Swingweight – This is the effective weight of the club when I am swinging the club. There are many factors that affect the swingweight like the weight of the components (clubhead, shaft, grip, etc), balance point of the club, club length, etc.

MOI – For the purposes of MOI matching, we are measuring the MOI to be the amount of force required to swing the club.

Force – The scientific formula for force is Mass x Acceleration

The thing with swingweight is I can have 2 clubs with the same exact swingweight, but have very different characteristics. One can have a much heavier shaft, but I could backweight it (add weight to the butt end of the club) to keep it at the same swingweight as the other club with a lighter shaft. The balance point of the shaft could be different. In fact, back in 2009 I had some grips put on a set of old Hogan irons that weight 15 grams more than the old grips and that made the swingweight go down by 2 points.

With that, you can have 2 clubs with the same swingweight, but very different MOI (aka requiring very different amounts of force to swing the club).

Remember, Force = Mass x Acceleration. Thus, if the amount of Force required to swing a club is different from another club, that means the mass of the club and or the acceleration has changed.


HOW IS THE PROCESS DONE?

First, the golfer needs to be fitted for MOI. We can do that one of two ways.

1. The ‘Best Club’ Method – Find the best club in your bag, measure the MOI

2. Add weight method – Get fitted for everything for a 6-iron *first*. Then the *last* thing you do is get fitted for MOI. Take a 6-iron with the shaft, grip, lie angle, loft, etc, all fitted for you. Then hit some shots. Add some weight (via lead tape or magnets), hit some more shots. Add more weight, hit some more shots. Experiment with the weight until you find what you hit the best and feels the best.

Method #2 has a lot of factors involved. Many believe that one can improve their sweetspot contact thru MOI Matching. Here’s a picture from UK MOI Fitter (www.theclubdoctors.co.uk) showing the before and after of a golfer they fitted for MOI



Again, being a little more advanced than a novice, I would think fitting somebody for MOI would be determined by things like ball flight, feel, and sweetspot contact. I would also think the process could be made a little easier with Trackman and looking at things like spin rate, smash factor, etc.

I think method #1 (best club) has some holes in it. For instance, your best club that you hit may not be the actual optimal MOI for your swing. And the shorter irons are generally easier to hit, so a golfer may favor the shorter irons even though they may not be the best MOI. Also, if you practice with one particular iron more than the others, you may start to favor that particular club over the others.

My feeling is that I would probably ask what the best club in your bag is and see if I can use that as a starting point, then use method #2.


HOW DO YOU GET THE CLUBS TO MATCH MOI?

This is done by adding weight. One can add weight either in the clubhead or in the shaft. I do NOT think lead tape is a favored method. I think MOI fitters prefer hosel weights, which go right into the tip end of the club shaft.

I’m still looking to see why lead tape is not liked other than cosmetics. My guess is that it doesn’t take much time for lead tape to wither away and that does affect the MOI. Believe me, the MOI machine is super-duper sensitive and the very slightest addition or subtraction of weight will cause the MOI to change quite a bit.


CAN YOU REALLY TELL THE DIFFERENCE?

I believe so. Furthermore, I believe that a lot of golfers can already tell the difference in their own set.

Do you have a particular iron in your set, that has all of the uniform specs and the same shaft, but you don’t hit well? Chances are that the MOI is off.

For instance, the irons that I struggled a bit with are the 3-iron and the 9-iron. The 9-iron was a little less noticeable because it’s a higher lofted club. But, I did notice that I hit my 8-iron and my PW far better than my 9-iron. And the 3-iron I hit the worst. In fact, I hit my 4-iron great.

When I measured my clubs, the 3-iron and the 9-iron has the lowest MOI of all of my clubs and the 4-iron (and 7-iron) had the highest MOI of all of my irons. In fact, my 3-iron measured in at 2625 MOI while my 4-iron measured in at 2702 MOI. We want to get the MOI within +/- 5 and these clubs with the same swingweight had a difference of 77 MOI.


DO ANY CLUB MANUFACTURERS HAVE MOI MATCHED MODELS?

Not anymore. Tommy Armour had a model of irons called EQL. What they did was they made each iron the same length shaft, about the length of a 6-iron. Thus, the 3-iron would measure in at about 37.5 inches and so would the 4-iron, 5-iron, PW, etc. This created the same MOI. The problem is that the MOI may not be the optimal MOI for every golfer. And the single length iron concept is pretty radical.

The problem with MOI matching clubs is that:

A) That particular MOI may not fit golfers.

B) It’s too costly for OEM’s to do so.

That being said, I still think that MOI Matched clubs, even if you were not fitted for them, is probably better than clubs that are not MOI Matched because the consistency between the set for MOI Matched is there. You don’t have to worry about being able to adjust to one club that requires much more force than another club. Still, it’s not *optimal*, but I think it’s better than nothing.


CAN I HAVE BOTH THE SWINGWEIGHT AND MOI MATCH?

No. What will happen is that if you MOI Match the set, the lower lofted irons will have a lighter swingweight and the higher lofted irons will have a heavier swingweight. Let’s say you find a 6-iron perfect for you and the MOI is at 2,750. You measure the swingweight and that 6-iron has a swingweight of D-4. If you match up the MOI of the rest of the set to 2,750, the swingweight with the 3-iron will be about D-2 and the 9-iron will be about D-6.

But, they will actually feel the same when you swing the club because of the difference in club length.


WHAT HAPPENS IF I NEED A LOWER MOI?

If this happens, you will need a lighter shaft and/or a lighter clubhead. For the most part, if you fit yourself for everything (club, shaft, grip, lie, loft, etc) and then fit yourself for MOI *last*, you shouldn’t have to worry about needing to take off weight to find the right MOI.


CAN YOU DO THIS FOR WOODS?

Absolutely. But the fairway woods, hybrids and driver will have a different MOI. Let’s say you have a 3-wood, 5-wood, 3-hybrid and 4-hybrid…then 5-PW. Let’s say the irons are matched to 2,700. Then the rest of the set would look something like this:

Irons: 2,700
4-hybrid: 2,775
3-hybrid: 2,775
5-wood: 2,800
3-wood: 2,800
Driver: 2,850

So you still match the MOI, you just have different MOI from the irons and from each other.


CAN YOU DO THIS FOR A PUTTER?

There’s no real reason to since you are not taking a full swing with a putter.


ANY DRAWBACKS?

From what I’ve been told, there are no real drawbacks unless the person was not fitted properly or they made drastic swing changes. I have read some stuff, particularly from the Tutelman Web site (www.tutelman.com) about how it works best with having the same ball position. I don’t think I even change my ball position in the swing or at least I don’t change it very much with my irons. I think I just widen or narrow my stance depending on the club and that makes it look like my ball position has changed.

I have been told that it is *recommended* to use 3/8” clublength increments instead of ½” increments to make it easier to MOI match (for irons). You start at fitting yourself for a 6-iron length, then go in 3/8” increments from there.

It’s not all THAT radical. I use a 38 inch 6-iron. Under the 3/8” increments, I would still use a 38 inch 6-iron. But, I would have a 39-1/8” long 3-iron instead of my current 39-1/2” long 3-iron. And my 9-iron would be 36-7/8” long instead of my current 9-iron which is 36-1/2” long.

Now, it is NOT mandatory to use 3/8” increments. But, some MOI certified fitters may actually do that so I would question them about that.


ARE YOU GOING TO OFFER THIS SERVICE?

Yes, but I’m going to hold off on that now until I actually MOI my own set and see what I think of it. If I don’t think it’s good, then I won’t bother. I also need some practice to get good at it.

I’m currently awaiting a KBS C-Taper shaft and I will install it in a Wishon 555M 6-iron head. I will then fit myself for MOI using lead tape, impact tape and Trackman to measure results. From there, I will experiment to see what the 3/8” increments feel like in my Wishon 555C 3-iron and my Wishon 555M 9-iron. If I like them, I will get the rest of the set done. If not, I’ll stick with the ½ increments.

From there, I will look at MOI matching the hybrid, 3-wood and driver.




3JACK

MOI Matching Experience - Part I

I received my MOI machine today.

For those who haven't read, this is used in place of swingweight.

Swingweight essentially measures the effective weight of the club when we are physically swinging it. MOI measures the amount of force required to swing the club.

I can have two Taylor Made R11 6-iron heads made by Taylor Made. They can have the same swingweight. But, due to factors like shaft length, where the weight in the club is located, shaft, etc...the amount of force required to swing the club can be *vastly* different. The idea is that swingweight is more of a 'feel' while MOI is more of a unbiased measurement.

First up, I had to calibrate the MOI machine. It's not all that hard, but they have bubble levels on the machine and you must get them machine level or you will not be able to do the reads. There's a good video showing the basics of setting up the video:



First up, I wanted to measure my current bag. The woods are done separately because they should have a separate MOI. The Driver is at D-2.5 swingweight, 3-wood at D-2 and the hybrid at D-3. Here are their MOI measurements (kg/cm)

Driver Adams 9064LS: 2822
3-wood Adams Speedline F11: 2642 (-180)
Hybrid Mizuno Fli-Hi CLK: 2740 (+90)

The irons are next. The SW and LW really don't matter since I don't use them on full swings. But the irons measure in at D-4 swingweight. Here's their MOI readings.

3-iron 555C: 2625
4-iron 555C: 2702 (+77)
5-iron 555M: 2670 (-32)
6-iron 555M: 2680 (+10)
7-iron 555M: 2694 (+14)
8-iron 555M: 2658 (-36)
9-iron 555M: 2639 (-20)
PW 555M: 2653 (+14)
SW Miura K-Grind: 2688 (+35)
LW Ping Tour-S: 2655 (-33)

Out of all of my irons, I probably hit the 4-iron, 5-iron and 7-iron the best. So the fact that the 4-iron and 7-iron are close to the same MOI, that is interesting.

However, I will be trying out the new KBS C-Taper shaft in a 6-iron and if that doesn't work, I'll try to work with the KBS Tour shaft.







3JACK

New Golf Evolution Indoor Facility

If you're in the Erie, PA area, I highly recommend that you check out Golf Evolution's new indoor facility. Golf Evolution is owned and operated by Dave Wedzik, a 3Jack Top 50 Instructor and a D-Plane Certified Instructor. The facility will be open year-round. Here's what Erik Barzeski (3Jack Golf Top 20 Putting Instructor and D-Plane Certified Instructor) had to say:

The result is a 10,000 square foot indoor golf academy with a downstairs "man cave" student lounge, 2,000 square foot putting green built for AimPoint that stimps at 10 and reacts perfectly to chipped balls, a simulator, a private teaching bay, a fitness room with an on-staff personal trainer, and more. We've got the Edel fitting system, TrackMan, SAM PuttLab, our high speed cameras, and more.

Check it out at http://thegolfevolution.com/metro













3JACK

The Iron Factory Project

I believe in January I will be sending 1 of my vintage sets of irons to The Iron Factory (www.theironfactory.com) to get re-chromed.

What I would like to do is just get the head re-chromed and then I can spine align the shafts and MOI match the clubs and then assemble them together. I feel The Iron Factory has very reasonable prices, but anytime I can save some money I have no issue doing it. Here’s some of the key prices (http://www.theironfactory.com/price.html)

Re-Chrome (head only) $26
Re-Chrome & Re-Groove (head only) $34
With Shaft (add $6)
Lie and Loft ($6)

I’ll actually have the lie and lofts bent here since I can get It done for $4 a club instead of $6 a club.

The Iron Factory has 2 different finishes to choose from.

Bright Chrome



Satin Finish


In general, I prefer the satin finish. Although I think a good general rule of thumb with these clubs is that the more artwork and different paintfill colors, I think it looks better in bright chrome. Less artwork and paintfill colors look better in the satin finish.

MIZUNO PRO TN-87


The Mizuno Pro-TN 87 is a very popular set of irons with diehard club collectors. It was designed for Tommy Nakijima’s use in 1987 (hence, TN-87). They are rumored to be designed with the 1982 Ben Hogan Personal irons in mind.

Having owned the Hogan Personal irons, the TN-87’s have a much more compact looking head. They are known for their legendary soft feel. They myth is that they are soft because it has a ‘copper underlay’ beneath the chrome. But according to Tom Wishon, most vintage clubs utilized that copper underlay beneath the chrome and eventually OEM’s figured that they could save money and accomplish the same thing with a nickel underlay. I agree with Wishon. However, they are a great feeling club due to what I believe is an excellent design.

They currently have Project X 5.5 shafts and the lengths are standard, the lies angles feel a bit upright and one of the lofts we measured (PW) was extremely strong. I think they would look good in either the bright chrome or satin finish, but I would lean towards putting them in bright-chrome.

PROS: Great set of irons that are ready for play. They can also be used in Florida since they do have modern bounce angles. They are not too heavy, so adding a modern shaft should not weigh too much. I think the grooves are still in tact. I could probably re-sell the Project X shafts on eBay.

CONS: Sort of a weird market for these clubs since they are popular with ‘club ho’s’, but are still not that well known.

Estimated Cost: $470


1967 HOGAN PERCUSSION 5


I believe these were the 2nd set of irons built by Hogan Company with the Percussion Center concept. They are very typical Hogan designed irons with the ‘blade on blade’ design, the sharp leading edge and no bounce angles on the irons. I also love their simple look.

These have a pretty lukewarm reaction to most Hogan fans. They were made from 1020 carbon steel and feel fantastic. They have a square toe and zero offset.

I actually like the original idea of chroming part of the iron and ‘frosting’ the muscleback. But, I don’t think I can have that done here. I think that they would still look good in a Satin Finish.

PROS: Great feeling and great looking iron. About as sharp of a looking iron as it gets, IMO. Performance is excellent with modern shafts.

CONS: No bounce angle and sharp leading edge is difficult on Florida Bermuda grass. I have a 5-iron with a KBS shaft in it and it’s very heavy (D-6 swingweight). Not a big time collector’s set.

Estimated Cost: $575


1970 HOGAN BOUNCE SOLE 1+

There were one of the first irons designed by Hogan with a bounce. I think we have to remember that Hogan grew up playing on Texas hardpan, so bounce wasn’t really necessary for him.

These current irons have Hogan Apex 3 shafts which are too light and too whippy for me. They look a bit like the 1967 Hogan Percussions, even with a sharper leading edge and no offset. They are more popular with collectors as well. Judging by what the Iron Factory has done in the past, I believe these would look best in the Bright Chrome.

PROS: Quality set of clubs. Perform better in Florida conditions given the bounce angles.

CONS: In rough shape, but not impossibly rough shape. Probably an ‘upper tier’ set of irons for collectors, but not the very elite.

Estimated Cost: $575


1983 HOGAN APEX PC


The Apex PC irons were a precursor to the famous Hogan Apex Redline irons. The main difference I see is that the Apex PC’s had a slightly smaller head and actually look much more like modern irons. Hogan irons have always had this weird thing where the 8-iron, 9-iron and Equalizer are very round in shape and look completely different from the rest of the iron sets. But the Apex PC 8-iron thru PW do not have that round shape to them and look ‘normal.’

My current set has True Temper Dynamic Gold S300 shafts in them and I really don’t want those shafts. I think this set is the typical set that looks better in a satin finish.

PROS: Great set of clubs that are ready for play.

CONS: Not a big set for collectors since there are plenty of sets out there on eBay.

ESTIMATED PRICE: $500






3JACK

Ken Venturi Video

Here's a video I saw on YouTube with the legendary Ken Venturi discussing quite a few different topics about the game.








3JACK

Working on AimPoint With David Graham - 10.23.11

As some readers may recall, I discussed how I wanted to really improve my AimPoint green reading skills and felt like I needed to work with an AimPoint instructor on a monthly basis or so individually to develop those skills.


On Sunday I got together with David Graham from the Faldo Golf Institute in Orlando. For anybody looking for a place to stay and to have a practice facility nearby, I highly recommend the Faldo Golf Institute as it is as good as it gets for a practice facility.

First off, I found the lesson to be tremendously helpful not only because of David’s teaching style, but the information presented made things a little more clear and easier to execute. That being said, I would highly recommend going to one of their group clinics, first. That’s because not only do the clinics teach the fundamentals, but I honestly believe that one of the things you really have to get down first is how to feel the slope of the green with your feet. When I first started doing it, I wasn’t doing it quite correctly and John Graham (www.johngrahamgolf.com) gave me some tips and demonstrated what I was doing wrong at the clinic. I then practiced feeling with my feet and it took a couple of months, but I started to really develop my skills in that area. In fact, I found it neat that I was reading an old Golf Digest article where the legendary Moe Norman said ‘You can see all you need standing behind the ball and can feel the slope through your feet when you stand over the ball.’
(http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/myshot_gd0411?currentPage=3)

One of the first things David and I worked on was to check to see if I was utilizing the method to get the stimp of the greens correctly. I find this to be very important because not only do you need to have the correct stimp, but it’s a good way to practice AimPoint. Once I showed him that (I was doing it correctly), we got into a quicker and I believe easier way to get the slope. But once again, I really feel that you need to feel the slope by walking around in a circle first to develop your ‘feeling with your feet skills.’

In fact, I think that’s a bit of an overall important theme with AimPoint….you need to practice it. You don’t have to put in hours of practice each day. But, the more you practice the better you will develop important skills like feeling with your feet or knowing what 4 inches left of the cup looks like from 5 feet away versus 25 feet away. I remember I didn’t think you had to actually get on the practice green and practice AimPoint and that’s why I didn’t quite grasp it at first.

The next part we worked on was a little trickier and that was what I call ‘fragmenting’ the putt. Let’s say you have a 15 foot putt that breaks left. Let’s say the putt has a 3% slope in the first 5 feet of the putt. But in the last 10 feet it has a 1% slope. AimPoint has an advanced way of reading the putt so you can account for the 3% slope early on and then the 1% slope in the last 10 feet. Before I would probably read that as a 3% slope the entire way and it would give me a decent ballpark. But by fragmenting the putt, the read is more exacting.

The only difficulty with fragmenting the putt is that it takes a little while to get used to doing it because you have to do some math, but it’s mostly just addition and taking ½ of a number.

Finishing off, I went onto a few holes and hit some 80 yard wedge shots. I actually hit better wedge shots that I thought I would The 1st hole I hit one to 10 feet and one to 5 feet. We went over what we discussed. What was fun was that I slightly pushed those putts but they still went in. AimPoint works because it reads everything to make a putt that goes into the cup dead center. I think everybody would agree that nothing will be perfect, so if you slightly mis-read it or mis-aim it you do have some room for error and still make the putt.

One of the things David and I discussed, borrowing a line from Johnny Miller…is that AimPoint really ‘trims the fat’ from green reading. There’s no need to look for mountains, streams, the sun, getting behind the ball, crouching, plumb bobbing, etc. You can take that nonsense out and actually play faster because you have ‘trimmed the fat’ from your green reading.

We ended the day with me draining a 30 footer that I had to aim 45 inches left of the cup. That also made me recognize that essentially when I have to aim more than 18 inches outside of the cup, I tend to not aim high enough. Another thing I will practice.

This was a great experience and I’m excited about getting better and better at AimPoint working with David. If you would like to contact David to help you with your game and your AimPoint skills, he can be found at http://www.efloridagolf.com/david-graham.htm

For other information with regards to AimPoint, I would check out their Web site at www.aimpointgolf.com




3JACK