Matching Swing Weight When Building

[asatyss]

My son got fitted at Club Champion for a full bag.  I'm not going to pay CC to build those clubs because I don't hate my money. 

 

I'm in the process of ordering all the components that he was fitted for but I have a couple of questions about the specs.  On the CC specs sheet, we've got the following:

Head: Ping i530 Iron (4 Iron for this example)

Shaft: Nippon Modus Tour 120 Stiff

Grip: Golf Pride Tour Wrap 2G Midsize

Grip Size: 1+0

Length EOG: 39.00

Lie: 62.50

Loft 20.0

Tip Trim 0.00

Swingweight: D4

 

If I get all the components exactly as listed, can I assume the swingweight will be around D4?  Or do I need to buy tip weights/counterweights and hone it in with a swingweight scale?

 

Any advice is appreciated.

[ShortGolfer]

I found that with my XXIO 12 irons, sometimes I need to add lead tape to get the target SW.  The cavity has a convenient "shelf" for adding lead tape and hot melting it into place.

I've used a heat gun to re-flow the hot melt so it looks nice.

 

But, in later builds I skipped the lead tape as I found I can swing light clubs just fine.  It is heavier clubs that cause issues.

This allows me to use heavier grips than my standard ladies dri taks without issue.

 

Instead of investing in a SW scale, you may be able to economize by just adding lead tape until the club "feels right."

Edited July 18 by ShortGolfer

[Mark_Tha_Tinkerer]

29 minutes ago, asatyss said:

If I get all the components exactly as listed, can I assume the swingweight will be around D4? 

No.  

 

Three things stand out for me. (1) the length is 1/2" longer than a standard 4 iron which would make the SW 3 points higher than a standard OTR 4 iron; (2) the grip is 58 grams instead of 50-52 which would decrease SW 1 point or so from how SW is typically measured; (3) the D4 recommendation doesn't say whether it is D4 assuming a 52 gram grip or whether it is a D4 recommendation after installing the recommended grip (you probably should try to clarify this with CC).

[Josh H]

With i530 you can play with the toe weights but unsure what the deal is with the ping hosel weights? 

[SBH9458]

I think you’ll have some tinkering to do.  My experience (favorably) is having an assortment of tip weights available and building them the way I wanted from the beginning.  Always a satisfying process, and I’ve not been disappointed.  
 

 

[Stuart_G]

13 hours ago, asatyss said:

If I get all the components exactly as listed, can I assume the swingweight will be around D4? 

 

No.  The biggest question is if you get the heads separately, what will be their raw weight?

 

When those clubs are built at the factory, the head weights are adjusted for the specific build request.  If you take heads built for one set of specs, you're throwing the dice as to what might be needed to get your specs.    e.g. A set of heads from a +1" build with a heavy shaft can be significantly lighter than a -1/2" build with an ultra-light shaft.   

 

Also swing weight can be very sensitive to even minor variations in the cut shaft length.  So should always be checked against the actual shaft you cut down for each club.

 

The second potential problem, was he actually fit for swing weight with the heavier grip on the club while he was swinging it?   D4 with a mid-size grip is actually more equivalent to a D6.

 

The third issue is that club champion uses heads that are heavier than normal due to the shaft change mechanism.   They aren't capable of fitting to lighter swing weights and they frequently end up fitting people to swing weights that are really heavier than they should be as a default.   It would probably be safer to build one club to a lower swing weight (e.g D0 or D2) and then use lead tape on the range to double check the target swing weight.

 

Edited July 19 by Stuart_G

[asatyss]

Awesome, thanks for the replies everyone!

 

I'll contact the fitter at CC and figure out if the D4 swingweight was based off the club he got fit with (and heavier grip plus fitting hosel adapter) or the recommendation of where the final club build should be.

 

On the club head weights, aren't those just screws (albeit Ping specific screws) that I could swap out to tinker with weight?  Or, could I just add some tip weight to get to the right swingweight?

 

As I said, thanks for the replies so far, this is super helpful.