Senior Fitting

Let’s deal with these in order. 

1. Based purely on physics, we can swing lighter clubs faster. Swinging faster will create more club speed, which creates more ball speed, which produces more distance. But… there is always a but, right? What sometimes happens is that we also loose control of the clubhead when the club is too light. So we slow down our swing to hit the ball solid. The bottom line is we can’t use the extra speed because we can’t hit the ball solid and we lose distance. Or, when we do swing hard and catch one for extra distance we have no idea where it’s going. Sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes we hit it, sometimes we don’t. At the end of the day we want the lightest club we can control and hit solid to get consistent distance with control. 
   Also or conditioning and strength will dictate how we swing and how light the club needs to be. For this think of throwing a baseball. Got that, a baseball. Now think of throwing a Ping Pong ball. Which on can you throw harder? Which one can you throw farther? 
   All grips are in a narrow weight range and all same numbered clubheads are also in a tight weight range. The big difference in club weight is the shaft. Shafts come in weights from about 40 grams to about 130 grams. Your strength and conditioning and your golf swing will dictate which end of the weight spectrum your shaft needs to be. If you are stiff, have a fused spine, hip replacement or other physical problems that cause you to shorten your swing and swing faster you might need a heavier shaft to stabilize your golf swing and golf club during the swing. If you still have flexibility and take a full, smooth swing you might benefit from an ultra light shaft.
2. I want to put you into the longest shaft you can control and hit solid. Again, based on physics the longer the shaft the greater the arc. The greater the arc the faster the clubhead is moving. But in order to hit the ball in the center of the club face consistently your shaft might need to be shorter. We know that hitting the ball on the toe or heel will cost you up to 15% of your distance. We also know about the inaccurate shots that come from the toe and heel. Consistency is the key to good golf so we want to get the length right to hit the ball in the center of the face consistently. 
3. Loft is a seniors friend. The longer we keep the ball in the air the farther it will go. We know from physics that we need at least a swing speed of 100 mph to spin a golf ball enough to get aerodynamic lift and keep it in the air longer. Less then 100 mph we need loft to keep it in the air. A 200 yard carry tee shot is around 85 mph at best. How far a ball rolls depends on the fairway. In some areas where the fairways are like an asphalt road the ball rolls a long way. Most courses today water regularly and fairway roll is somewhat limited. On most courses we need to have as much carry distance as possible to hit longer tee shots.
   Many of us are used to our 3 wood being the second longest club in the bag. But when we get to our late 60s or early 70s sometimes we can hit our 5 wood as far or farther than our 3 wood because it has more loft. More loft means higher ball flight and the balls stays in the air longer. 
   We also begin to notice that maybe our 6 iron and our 7 iron go about the same distance too. A few years ago we might hit the 6 iron 10 to 12 or more yards longer than the 7 iron. Now it seems it doesn’t matter which one we use they go about the same average distance. If we can hit the 6 iron at all. This is where we might consider a 6 hybrid because the hybrid clubs are deeper than irons. The center of gravity is farther back in the hybrid head than in a thin faced iron.

Why does this matter? Because the center of gravity tried to line up with the shaft at impact. When this happens, the back of the hybrid head lining up with the shaft rather than the face lining up, it tilts the head backwards and creates what we call artificial or dynamic loft. With the head tilted backwards we hit the ball higher with a hybrid. More air time = more distance. Higher ball flight means it settles on the green faster too. For this reason fairways with even a deeper head design will usually fly higher than hybrids.

What I have found with my game and with the many seniors I’ve fitted is that when we reach that age that our tee shots are in the 200 yard to 230 yard range we have lost distance throughout the set. We don’t need all of the 14 clubs any more. Our bag might only need a high lofted driver of 15° or more, a 5 wood or 7 wood, maybe a 5 hybrid or 6 hybrid and a 7 iron down to the wedges. Some of us might only need every other iron or 7, 9, AW, SW. This might be all we need to get that 10 yard to 12 yard gap between clubs. 

What we have seen over our lifetime is what I call the vanishing loft disease. In order to advertise their irons go farther the manufacturers have jacked up the lofts on their irons. But in effect our 7 irons now are more like the 5 iron or even 4 irons of our youth. You are actually hitting a 4 or 5 iron with a 7 stamped on the sole. Some irons today are up to 10° less loft than back in the 1960s.

Don’t buy more than you need. Sign up for my custom fitting and we will figure out how many clubs, and what clubs you need in your bag. Sometimes we might start with only a few clubs and let you hit those then fill in between them when you see how they perform. We me, you only buy what you need. You don’t have to buy a “set” as prescribed by a manufacturer who sells clubs and talks fitting. With me I sell fitting and build only the clubs you need.

I’m in my 70s with a fused spine and I understand what seniors are going through. Especially those of us who have medical problems we have to overcome. Believe me I know all the tricks of the trade to help us old farts get as much out of our games as possible. I’m not going to sell you a bill of goods based on advertising gimmicks just to make a sale. I’m going to tell you like it is and what you can or can’t do to hit it as good as your body will allow you to. I want you to be able to play the best golf your body and swing will allow for as long as possible.

In 2021 Tom Wishon Designed a single length set that includes irons, hybrids and fairways that are capable of being built to single length or conventional lengths that work very well for seniors. The EQ1-NX designs. As shown belowThe hybrids work where the standard iron designs do not. Watch this video where Tom Wishon explains why these hybrids and fairways work for seniors.