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Here is a little experiment Bob Duncan conducted in the past couple of months. He wanted me to pass it on. ~ Jim Hofmeister

“So, I've been doing an experiment the last few weeks, since I got home from Australia. As you know my flight plans changed dramatically when I tried to fly back to the US, and consequently I had to leave my clubs with Jeff Mansfield. All of the clubs were Henry-Griffitts, from driver to putter.

Jeff and Dave will attest to my play in Australia -- I was hitting the ball pretty well, curving it in appropriate directions, and making a few birdies. Pretty predictable performance, for me...

When I got home I pulled out my old Wilson Staff irons from 1973. Everyone (of a certain age) remembers them, with the weight port in the toe. Well, 10 years ago I bent them to the appropriate current lie angle and gave them a test. They didn't perform all that well, and so I put them away, not knowing exactly why they didn't work.

But now, I understand far more about what they will do if they don't fit. The real experiment was to figure out what kind of compensations I would have to make to hit those old clubs, and what they would actually do. Here's what I learned:

The old Staffs were 1/2 inch shorter than current H-Gs
They had a light-weight steel shaft with a low deflection – H-Gs were Dynamic "DD" shaft, not as stiff
They were 1 - 2 degrees more lofted than the H-Gs.
They had smaller grips than the H-Gs
They were muscle-back, slight offset, and the H-Gs were cavity back, no offset.
Initial trajectories appeared similar to the H-Gs, but they did not stay on trajectory as well. I had to bend significantly more at the hip flexors and knees to get the clubhead down to the ball. This posture shortened my backswing and follow through. I had to pay specific attention to both maintaining my spine angle at the lower position through the swing, and maintaining my balance less on the balls of my feet, and perhaps slightly more on my heels. I also had to play them 1 - 3 inches farther back in my stance.

Because the ball did not stay on trajectory, each club was about 1 club shorter than the corresponding H-Gs, though they went pretty straight. I did have to open the face up since many of the early shots went to the left (slight offset). I was able to hit the 4-iron, and actually made a couple of birdies with it.

So, then I tested an H-G demo from the fitting cart. Of course, the ball flight was on trajectory longer, and using my low-tech launch monitor (a target green on the range) I verified that the fitted demo was going a full 10 - 15 yards farther in the air.

I do not attribute the loss of distance to the head design, head material, or loft differences. I attribute it to the shafts not performing. I have considered re-shafting them with DD shafts, but don't want to change them from the originals. I was actually fairly competent with the old Staffs, though shorter. The bottom line is that they forced me into positions that were more difficult to determine, and more difficult to perform.

Imagine what kind of experimenting I would have to do if I didn't know what compensations I was looking for based on the ball flight AND I had an instructor trying to teach me a model golf swing – one that didn't take into consideration the fit of the club! That sounds to me like what many amateurs are experiencing every day.

I love the old heads and figured out how to hit them on center, but hated hitting them so short, with less ability to work the ball. It's interesting to me that 'blades' have received such a bad rap over the years, when, based on my experience, in this case it was not the head of the club that was the real problem here.

Now the real correction is to get another set of H-Gs to my specs!”
~ Bob Duncan, H-G Master Golf Clubfitter, Oregon