A club's swingweight (s/w) is nothing more elaborate than the degree to which a golfer feels the headweight of the club when it is either swung or waggled. It is also referred to as the heft of the club. It is an attempt by the golf industry to measure "feel", which is typically something that is very difficult to measure as it is subjective. However, it can be measured using a swingweight device and is expressed using a letter/number, for example, D2. The lower the letter and number, the less mass is positioned towards the head end. The good news is that once a swingweight is found that the golfer likes, then this can be duplicated using weights. Lead tape, tungsten powder, tip weights, can all be used to swingweight match the entire set of clubs, without resorting to altering the length.

• What swingweighting can do
• What is the ideal swingweight?
• IronWRX swingweight service
• What swingweighting cannot do
• Counter balancing
• Basic swingweight rules

What swingweighting can do

So, apart from the feel, or heft, of the club, what else can swingweighting a set of clubs achieve? Well, swingweighting can also be used to try and increase the percentage of on-centre hits. The addition of extra weight can slow the clubhead speed down very gradually until there is a higher percentage of on-centre hits. Once this swingweight is found, it can be duplicated throughout the set. As there is no science attached to this, then it is very much a question of adding a small amount of weight until the player finds something he can swing without it a) beginning to feel too head heavy and b) using impact labels or powder on the face of the club, that the percentage of on-centre hits increases.

What is the ideal swingweight?

So, what swingweight best suits a particular type of golfer? Well, it normally is a process of elimination with the player working with the clubmaker who will temporarily attach lead tape to the clubhead and they will work together until they find the swingweight that gives them the best "feel" and highest percentage of on-centre hits.

IronWRX swingweight service

IronWRX can make swingweight adjustments to ensure a consistent feel throughout the entire set. We can do this by:

• Attaching lead tape to the clubhead so that it can easily be removed should you decide to sell them
• Inserting tungsten powder down the shaft, and sealing it with a cork and epoxy
• Removing the head and installing tip weights
• Increasing or decreasing the length of the shaft if desired
• Adding weight to the butt end of the club

For woods, we will usually only use lead tape to increase the swingweight. Hot melt can be used if we are reshafting at the same time and/or the head is designed to take hot melt (hot melt is effectively syringing epoxy into the head until the desired swingweight is achieved) through a small plug hole in the head, which we will then replug. One of the risks of adding hot melt is that it can sometimes come loose and rattle in the head. We have a technique for stopping the rattle should that happen.

One thing to consider when swingweighting is done with tip weights, hot melt, or tungsten powder is that on a resale, you will not be able to easily remove the extra weight. And your swingweight may not suit all potential buyers.

We will perform this service by either matching your set to an existing club, or by working with you until we arrive at a s/w that you like, or by customer supplied specifications. If we work with you, what we will do is to temporarily adjust the swingweight using lead tape for you to trial the clubs. Once you have decided upon the ideal swingweight, we will see how much needs to be added and the best way to achieve this before matching the set.

What swingweighting cannot do

There is a common misconception that it is possible to add weight, at a certain place on the head to promote a fade or a draw, or that placing it high or low on the club can affect the flight. There is no data to support this, and in fact the amount of weight that would need to be added to achieve this, would probably make the club impossible for all but the strongest golfers to swing. But, if you have applied weight and are noticing it playing differently, then who am I to say otherwise.

Counter balancing

Swingweighting is typically associated with the addition of weight at the head end of the club. Recently, counter balancing, or back-weighting, or counter-weighting has become popular, and there is some early evidence to support the argument that the addition of weight at the butt end (grip end) of the club can aid feel, increase accuracy and distance. A recent study found that the group averaged 9.67 yards farther with the one club that was weighted the best for their swing. Also the group averaged more than 21 yards difference between the driver they hit the best versus the driver they hit the worst. The only parameters that were changed were the total weight and balance point of the club.

Putters are also an ideal candidate for counter balancing and this does a number of things:

• Changes the putters total weight
• Changes the putters swingweight
• Puts more feel into the hands
• Changes the balance point of the putter

Basic swingweight rules