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New looks
Set makeup artists
The clubs that make a golfer's set unique fall between the 3-wood and the longest iron. It's here, amid all the small headcovers, one finds the greatest variety of approaches to set makeup. But choosing the best clubs to fill these slots can seem like a guessing game.
When clubmaker Gary Cottrell of Golfer's Advantage in Fenton, Mich., custom-fits a client, the first thing he looks for is swing type. "If they have a steep attack angle, we'll look at having more hybrids," he says. "If they have a slower, more sweeping swing, we might organize their set with fairway woods up through a 9-wood as long as they can maintain accuracy."
An easy way to know your attack angle is to hit 3-woods off the ground. If you take divots, you have a steep swing. If you don't take divots, you have a shallow swing.
"When hybrids first came on the scene, they cannibalized long irons, but now it's fairway woods, too," says Scott Rice, director of research and development at cobra. "The center of gravity is typically farthest back in a fairway wood, which will make the ball fly higher and farther. Golfers need to find the combination of all three clubs that gives them the most even yardage gaps."
To help this process, companies are devising set makeup recommendation systems. Cobra's Fit To Speed chart estimates the distance players will hit any club based on their driver swing speed (cobragolf.com/asc). Mizuno focuses on the long clubs with its Hybrid Fit Club, which has a drafted outsole that fitters use to measure attack angle with impact tape and a lie board. Once fitters know this angle and the player's clubhead speed, they can refer to the company's Set Optimizer chart to suggest which three clubs, including specific lofts, a player should carry after the 3-wood.
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By Max Adler
Photos By Jim Herity July 2008
TAYLORMADE's Tour Burner has a higher MOI than any of its previous steel hybrids ($160, taylormadegolf.com).
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