The Search for the Perfect Golf Club
Some folks bring a sort of messianic zeal to their work that can be pretty compelling, even for those who don’t quite share the same enthusiasm for the same subject.
It helps if they also maintain an essentially cheerful attitude about their life’s calling.
I’m glad to report that Tom Wishon and Tom Grundner easily fit this description, if one can excuse the horrific pun.
Wishon is a former club professional who developed a keen interest in designing, making, and custom-fitting golf clubs. What started out as a sideline became his professional career, now spanning a few decades. He is a long-time member of the Golf Digest technical panel, a technical advisor to the PGA of America, and has written dozens of articles on clubmaking technology. He’s also worked for several firms designing and fitting clubs, including the Harvey Penick line.
Tom Grundner, Wishon’s collaborator, is a full-time clubmaker with over ten years in the business.
Fortunately for their readers, both men can also write well, which is a real blessing when one compares this part of the golf world to some other parts.
After all, it’s not that hard to write an emotionally stirring piece about a great shot, or a comeback from competitive adversity. It’s not nearly so easy to write about loft angles and optimum shaft designs and keep the average golf fan from falling asleep.
It also helps that Wishon doesn’t insult his readers’ intelligence by keeping his descriptions at a grade-school level of complexity. He’s able to explain why most golfers could experience a real improvement in their game by using the proper clubs for the way they play the game, and doesn’t hesitate to include a hefty amount of technical data to support his advice.
In addition, he’s found several ways to express his arguments that make intuitive sense almost immediately. For example, Wishon notes that most clubfitting services are sought by avid, experienced golfers, when the reality is that the beginning golfer is frequently the one most in need of the help. It’s one of those statements that just hits you immediately with its logic, and then makes you wonder why you never heard anyone say it before.
I also thought this next little reality check was particularly noteworthy:
Most golfers think the clubs played by the tour pros are the same ones they can buy in their local pro shop or retail golf store. In reality, the clubs the pros play are to the clubs you buy off the rack as Jeff Gordon’s NASCAR race car is to the Chevrolet Monte Carlo in your driveway.
Later in the book, Wishon describes a few examples of the clubfitting work he’s done for several pros, including Payne Stewart, Scott Verplank, and Bruce Lietzke. All three experiences differed significantly from each other in many respects, but the basic goal remained the same—creating a set of clubs that would feel right when in the hands of their owners.
Wishon also details some of the problems with quality control and quality assurance that affect even the most well-known club manufacturers. He describes the clubmaking process from initial design to construction at the relatively few foundries around the world that can do this work, and the shortcutting that goes into producing the various components at the low end of the market. He and Grundner also explain how the grips, shafts, and other parts affect the total clubfitting results, sometimes in significant ways.
Even if you think you’ll never be able to move up from the C or D flight of your club championship, Wishon and Grundner show that tweaking your clubs can pay some real dividends in creating more consistent results. Nonetheless, they are also careful to remind their readers that you just can’t buy a game, either off the shelf or with a custom clubmaker by your side.
The book is also inspirational. After reading it, I took my custom-fitted Titleist DCIs to a local golf shop, where I know the clubfitter. We measured my irons and the motley collection of fairway woods that fill out my set. The results were a bit startling. Swingweights on the irons varied from D2 to E1.
The driver and fairway woods were a bit more consistent, running from between D1 to D4. The irons’ measurements also didn’t quite match what had been recommended. Instead of maintaining the recommended ½ inch length between clubs, these varied by between ¼ and ¾ inches.
Looks like I’ll be having a little work done. Wishon and Grundner have created a useful, intelligent book about a part of golf that is overlooked by the vast majority of its players. Those who follow their advice should enjoy the results.
Review Date: April 2, 2005