Club concerns

[Nasdaqsam]

I was just thinking about how much I use my Sim and trying to compare that to even how much a pro trains and the effects on my clubs. Pros use doesn't really count as they change their clubs out often.

On a good day it is not uncommon to hit 50 to 100 balls on the range then turn around and play 56 or holes in a day. With this much play is it possible to wear clubs out? Grips can be changed and actually I just did this. What about the clubs that have fiberglass shafts? I know back in my daughters softball days there were a few bats you could buy new swing the against a tree a bunch of times to break down the fibers and the bat would hit stupid far. These have been outlawed but how is a say a driver shaft effected by this much play? What about metal fatigue on the iron(s) shafts and heads for that matter. All metal has a point when it will not longer respond like it did when it was new. Thoughts?

[jswat20]

I may be wrong, but I don't think pros change out their clubs, holistically, as often as it may seem. When you look at some of the WITB articles, there are many older clubs that are still in use today on tour. Wedges may be a bit different but only because the grooves wear out.

To your softball bat reference, much of what you said was true regarding breaking down the fibers of the bats by hitting them against trees, poles, or even other bats. The ball came off extremely hot when some of those 120mph bats were broken in. Though from my experience when I played competitive men's slow-pitch, the bats seemed to go through their lifecycle much faster, as they seemed to break far more often than those that were naturally broken in.

My feeling is that maybe over a long period of time a driver shaft would eventually lose some of its rigidity but how many drivers do you typically hit in a round? If you're a long hitter there are holes you play 3W or even a long iron, plus the par 3's. If you're a short hitter, I'd think you likely don't have the swing speed that would wear down the shaft at a rapid rate.

This is all just speculation and thinking out-loud for the sake of conversation, btw, I'm definitely no scientist. :-)

[Nasdaqsam]

Thanks for the reply no scientist here either just got to wondering and figured I would open a discussion. I have only had my sim for few months and have had to replace a set of grips on three of the clubs. For the fun of it I sent an email to Ping to get their input. Maybe they will not even respond. Might be something they have never looked into I would assume most players would ever see the amount of use a dedicated sim player will use their clubs.

On the bats my daughter had a fiberglass one (Can't remember the name now) when she got done we sold it for twice what we paid for it and no sure if slow pitch ever saw the double wall rocket techs but we had one of those she sold for a $1000. Both were outlawed but were grandfathered in. Those were some hot bats.

[simmb]

So far I have had 2 driver heads crack, one hybrid face implosion and one driver shaft snap from a power fat that almost took out my mat as well. All had a fairly good innings of over 2 years of sim golf and real life golf. I would say I did notice a change in the sound and performance from my driver about a month before the face cracked, I thought it was just me not hitting it as well, others also mentioned it sounded funny. I guess all clubs have limits and with sim golf we tend to play more than the average golfer. Do you have a sim set and a set for IRL golf? I use same set for both.

[Nasdaqsam]

Right now I do not have two sets but I am looking at picking up a set to leave in FL and keep these here in NY for local use and the sim. I use to have a set of Kunan EXT's my brother in law broke the face off the driver twice neither had much use.

[Wizard of Coz]

So far I have had 2 driver heads crack, one hybrid face implosion and one driver shaft snap from a power fat that almost took out my mat as well. All had a fairly good innings of over 2 years of sim golf and real life golf. I would say I did notice a change in the sound and performance from my driver about a month before the face cracked, I thought it was just me not hitting it as well, others also mentioned it sounded funny. I guess all clubs have limits and with sim golf we tend to play more than the average golfer. Do you have a sim set and a set for IRL golf? I use same set for both.

Ive had many golf balls crack but so far no equipment failures. What brand of drivers did you crack? I have a set of clubs I use during golf season exclusively for my sim cause I don't want to bring any dirt from outdoors to my screen. During the winter I use my gamers though.

[Solstice72]

Yeah why do the golf balls crack because of the friction on the impact screen or I just can't f****** keep a ball in play in real life long enough? LOL

[FaultyClubs]

It's been discussed before. Basically balls aren't designed to last very long. It's the impact of being hit. In real life we lose them before it's a problem. The pros don't lose them but they change them often. On the sim we beat them to death.

[Nasdaqsam]

IRL mine last like one shot before they are in the woods...…..lol. Hoping the sim practice gets me up to 2 shots this year.

[simmb]

Drivers were taylormade M1's. Got the M3 now and that was the shaft that snapped. The hybrid was an Adams pro mini which I loved and miss a lot.
I also used to go through golf balls at a rate, never managed to crack one on the course but on the sim that does tend to happen. I now rotate between about 20 balls at any one time so the same one isn't continually getting hit shot after shot. When they get a bit beaten up they go in the bag for me to loose in real golf

[Solstice72]

I see crack balls are a phenomenon for simulators

[Nasdaqsam]

I haven't seen a cracked ball yet but have a bunch that have red spots on them from hitting my rolling tool box before I installed a side barrier. I always know which balls are mine they have big red spots on them. I have a tray of about 30 to 40 balls I rotate as well.

[StuartG]

What about the clubs that have fiberglass shafts? I know back in my daughters softball days there were a few bats you could buy new swing the against a tree a bunch of times to break down the fibers and the bat would hit stupid far. These have been outlawed but how is a say a driver shaft effected by this much play? What about metal fatigue on the iron(s) shafts and heads for that matter. All metal has a point when it will not longer respond like it did when it was new. Thoughts?

Did you really mean Fiberglass?? or maybe Graphite?

But to answer the general question - the graphite shafts do not degrade at all when not abused. Heel hits can be brutal and cause failures (breakages) - and some people make contact with their backs at the end of the follow through - which isn't good for the shaft. But generally it's not really a case of wear decreasing life - rather it's a case of whether a swing causes damage and if that damage crosses the line into failure or not.

Thin titatium faces (drivers mostly) can fatigue over time but usually it's only an issue for very high swing speed players or moderately high with poor impact location on the face. For most am's the driver face will last a long time - even with a lot of indoor sim play.

With Irons and wedges and even steel shafts, metal fatigue is not really an issue most have to worry about. Some KBS shafts have some tendencies to bend more easily than others around the hosel - especially for steep players and hard surfaces (depending on what type of mat you have). The main concern for wear is really the surface face roughness (not the grooves like most people think) and it's really more an issue for wedges than it is for the irons. And how fast that occurs will also depend a lot on how consistent your face impact location is. But the good news is that it's not that hard to freshen the face up if you can find someone locally that can give it a nice sand-blast treatment.

[Nasdaqsam]

I did mean graphite thank you correcting that. So basically we have a better chance of a miss hit destroying the club before it ever wears out. Good Input.

[FaultyClubs]

I upgraded my driver last month to an M4. My previous driver was 16 years old. They go the same distance when hit on the sweet spot. I don't think the old one was worn out at all. Titanium head with graphite shaft. I upgraded because I'm a high roller who likes to live on the edge. Lol

[Nasdaqsam]

FaultyClubs That's funny right there......I actually picked up a new driver this year myself going from a G10 to a G400Max. I can't say one is any better than the other I can swing the G10 faster so end up with similar distances. The G10 all though old was barely used I didn't really pick the game up heavily until this past year and the sim install.

[SkeetShooter]

I've cracked maybe 3 balls so far in my year of ownership. No issue with clubs, however I imagine that drivers do lose their pop after a while. (I have not observed this) Just a guess.

[Ports]

Cracked maybe 3 balls and made my 8 iron RSi2 face concave a bit. It has the speed slot things and I believe is a known issue.

[mthunt]

I used to break a lot of irons at the hosel from hitting off mats. They bend a little and eventually snap. I don't keep them long enough now.

[colinjm18]

I snapped my mizuno jpx 850 hybrid last night. I’ve had it for a few years. It was from an extremely steep swing and I’m thankful that I didn’t damage my mat or screen. I now get to look for a new hybrid or possibly a new set of clubs.