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The Power Transfer from Balance Certified ….Impressive !

Balance Certified (BC) generally launch at least one new product at the PGA Show. This year they had two to show us, one of which is the Power Transfer shaft insert, designed to fit into the butt end of a driver shaft. Their claims are that it significantly improves driving distance and accuracy by stabilizing the butt of the shaft in the hands of the player.

The Power Transfer insert from Balance Certified

Robotic testing of the Power Transfer insert from Balance Certified

BC’s robotic testing has certainly shown this to be the case. However robotic testing is one thing. The acid test is whether or not they work in the hands of a golfer.

An opportunity arose last week when one of our Tour Van Gold members, Bob Chalmers, remarked that he would like to improve his driving accuracy and consistency. Martin thought this would be a good test for The Harrison Shotmaker and  the Power Transfer. Unfortunately the Shotmaker wouldn’t fit into his Aldila Voodoo because of the shaft’s S-Core technology but we did manage to test him hitting his driver on Trackman with and without the Power Transfer insert installed.

Power Transfer testing - Trackman display

To say the results were amazing is an understatement. The orange shots in the above display are Bob’s drives with no insert, whilst the purple shots are Bob’s drives with the Power Transfer installed. The improvement in accuracy and the consistency of the ball flight are obvious, with no loss of distance. Bob left with the Power Transfer installed in his driver so that he can do some testing for us out on the golf course. He promised to give us some feedback in due course.

As discussed in our last post, Shotmaker looks promising. However these results show that the Power Transfer also has great potential. We’ll keep you posted after we do a bit more testing. For those of us who dream about straighter driving, these shaft inserts could be the answer. Big advantage is that they can be tested in your current driver. This is something we’ll be offering from now on as part of our driver optimisation sessions.

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The Harrison Shotmaker – Driving accuracy in a tube !

In the first of a series of posts highlighting significant new technology at this years PGA Merchandising Show we focus on the Harrison Shotmaker, the subject of much forum discussion on the web and a product which MyGolfspy labs recently described as the “most impressive golf technology in the past 5 years”.

The Harrison Shotmaker

At first glance it doesn’t look like much. A 12 inch tapered graphite tube, 4 grams in weight, designed to slip inside a golf shaft to a point around 6 inches from the top of the clubhead hosel. It is locked into place at the top end with a special tool. Being so light it only increases the swingweight of the driver by around 1 point eg. D1 becomes D2, which for most players is insignificant. Shotmaker is designated conforming by the R&A and the USGA.

The theory behind the Shotmaker is that it eliminates shaft distortion and minimises unwanted impact vibration during the downswing. This shaft deformation has been demonstrated with high speed photography and is inherent in virtually all golf shafts, depending on the stress placed on them by the golfer. In theory by eliminating this shaft distortion it should result in improved accuracy off the tee, and by minimising unwanted impact vibration it should improve feel.

Ed tested this for himself at the PGA Demo day and found that with the Shotmaker installed, shots felt more solid and it was more difficult to shape shots left or right. They come in different levels of stiffness so it is important to get fitted for one in order to find out which one works best. Ed brought a Shotmaker fitting kit back from the show and initial testing looks very promising.

Pat Kinsley testing Shotmaker on Trackman

Pat is having a tough time recently with his driver, suffering from too many wayward shots high right, as a result of an open clubface at impact.  This is evident from the purple shots in the Trackman display.  The initial Shotmaker flex F didn’t help much as shown by the green shots. However Shotmaker flex G (orange shots) gave a marked improvement in shot direction and dispersion. Pat felt that the shaft was much more stable and the hits much more solid. That was until we took the Shotmaker out of his club when the wild shots right returned with a vengeance. After re-installation the improved accuracy and dispersion returned. One of us had to hold him down whilst we recovered our Shotmaker from his club.  Pat can’t wait for his own one to arrive.

In the meantime we tested Pat’s son Ben to see what effect Shotmaker had on his driving performance.  Ben is one of Scotland’s best young players and already hits the ball a long way off the tee with pretty good accuracy.

Ben Kinsley testing Shotmaker on Trackman

We used Shotmaker flex LD, for Ben as he is a big hitter. The surprise this time was the fact that Ben gained around 10 yards in carry and total distance with Shotmaker installed, as shown by the blue shots on the Trackman display. The white shots are from his driver with no Shotmaker installed. Again Ben felt that the club was more stable and the impacts more solid with Shotmaker inside the shaft.

This just confirms what others have found so far. One of the most respected and reliable independent test sites on the internet, MyGolfspy Labs, claimed that Shotmaker improved driving accuracy by up to 45%. You can read their full report at http://www.mygolfspy.com/harrison-shotmaker-review/

If our testing continues with similar success stories, we will soon be offering Shotmaker fitting as part of our driver optimisation service.  Look out for more details in future news/blog posts and on our Facebook page.

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Key Factors in Putting – Part 2 – Achieving Good Roll

All good putters will roll the ball well. Once struck the ball seems to roll quickly and smoothly end over end without any hop, skip or jump at the start. This promotes good distance control and helps to keep the ball on line. The key contributary factors are dynamic loft and stroke dynamics at impact, which can be studied with SAM Puttlab.

In the above example the static measured loft of the putter is 3 degrees. At impact the shaft is tilted slightly forwards delofting the putter by 1.1 degrees. The dynamic loft at impact is therefore 3 – 1.1 = 1.9 degrees.

The rise angle measures the putter head’s vertical direction at impact. In this case the putter is travelling in a slightly upward direction with an upward rise angle of 2.3 degrees. According to Christian Marquardt, the designer of SAM Puttlab, most of the Tour pros who putt well have an upward rise angle. It is easier to achieve this with the ball positioned slightly forward of centre at address.

A good roll is achieved by optimising the launch angle and by minimising the amount of backspin at impact. In this case the predicted launch angle of 1.8 degrees is very close to the optimum figure of 2 degrees for a relatively fast green (11 on the stimpmeter).  A slower green of around 9 on the stimpmeter would require a launch angle of around 3 degrees. If necessary the dynamic loft can be adjusted by changing the static loft of the putter.

In order to avoid backspin the rise angle needs to be greater than the dynamic loft at impact. In this case the rise angle is 0.4 degrees greater than the dynamic loft so a slight amount of topspin will be added to the ball at impact which together with the optimum launch angle will achieve a good roll.

We have always found it hard to recommend the ideal putter loft for a player but by incorporating a SAM Puttlab session in our extreme putter fitting sessions, we are now in a much better position to do so.

Watch out for Part 3 coming soon.

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AGT provides expert witness in landmark court case

You may have read about the golfer, Mr Phee, who was recently awarded almost £400,000 in damages for the loss of an eye after being struck with a golf ball. What you might find interesting is that AGT’s Ed Robertson participated in this court case as an expert witness.

Ed was called upon to help determine how long it would take for a golf ball to travel 150 yards from the time it was struck to the time it hit the unfortunate Mr Phee. Given a detailed map of Niddry Castle Golf Course and some known factors, and using our knowledge of club dynamics and ball flight, we were able to simulate the offending shot on our Trajectory software.  This unique ball flight software, written by Max Dupilka, is generally used in our fitting sessions to demonstrate club optimisation, but in this situation it allowed us to vary all the input factors such as clubhead speed, face angle, swingpath, attack angle, etc., in order to provide a best estimate of the time taken for the ball to travel 150 yards, which was calculated at 3.75 seconds.

Simulated shot on the Trajectory software

Ed had to justify the methods used in our calculations, and then to explain to the court how this shot could be played given the known facts and given that many of those present were non-golfers. He also used the speed of sound to calculate how long it would take for the shout of “fore” to be heard at a distance of 150 yards.

Without going into the details of the case, suffice to say the judge ruled in favour of Mr Phee, apportioning 70% of the liability to the golfer who hit the ball and 30% to Niddry Castle Golf Club. His reasoning was that the golfer striking the ball had not given sufficient consideration to the potential risk of hitting a bad shot in the direction of Mr Phee, and that the management of Niddry Castle Golf Club had not undertaken a formal risk assessment of the course, nor provided warning notices at this particular point on the golf course where 3 holes converge.

This legal decision clearly raises issues for both golfers and Golf Clubs in the future. If you don’t have golfing insurance then you better give it due consideration, but even if you are insured don’t expect the insurance company to automatically pay out in the event of an accident. As in this case they may try to prove negligence. In any event before you play a shot you better make sure that anybody in range is aware of your presence and be prepared to shout “fore” as quickly and as loudly as possible. As for Golf Clubs, in addition to having adequate insurance, they also need to show that they have carried out a formal risk assesment, with warning signs posted as and where necessary. No longer can they act on the assumption that golf is a dangerous sport played at the risk of the participant.

It is very unfortunate for this incident to have happened in the first place but hopefully this ruling will make golf courses safer for all to enjoy in the future.

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Key Factors in Putting – Part 1- Face Angle

The SAM Puttlab analyser gives us great insight into the putting strokes of the world’s most successful players. AGT is now incorporating a SAM session into our extreme putter fitting service. It has become clear to us that there are some key factors which contribute to a successful putting stroke. This is the first in a series of posts highlighting these key factors.

Face angle – the key to hitting the putt on line

Face angle is 4 times more important than swing path in determining the direction of the ball leaving the putter head. In other words your swingpath at impact can be a couple of degrees in to out or out to in but as long as your putter face is square to the target the ball will leave the clubface on line.

SAM Putlab allows us to measure face angle throughout the putting stroke but focuses on the key area of the stroke, namely 10 cms either side of impact. Rotation of the putter face within this 20 cm distance should be minimal. In the above example the putter face is 0.3 deg. open at impact and rotates a total of 4.8 deg. in the 10 cm either side of impact. In this case the face angle at impact is very good but ideally the total rotation 10 cm either side of impact should be under 3 deg. By minimising clubface rotation it has more chance of being square to the target at impact, and squaring the clubface at impact is key to hitting the putt on line.

Watch out for Part 2 coming soon.

 

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