Clubhead Cup Face and How it Affects Performance

All driver heads as well as some fairway wood and hybrid heads are manufactured from a number of separate pieces which are welded together to complete the final construction of the clubhead.  Most common are driver heads which are manufactured from 4 separate pieces, as shown by this illustration below.

Of the separate pieces which make up the complete clubhead, one is always the clubface. Within such types of driver, fairway wood and hybrid head construction, the face can be formed to be welded to the body in two different ways, one called an EDGE WELDED face and the other referred to as a CUP FACE CONSTRUCTION.

The above illustration shows the more common of the two, an edge welded face. In the edge welded face clubhead, the face is made so that as the term states, the welding line to secure the face piece to the head body is on the very edge of the face. To contrast, the cup face is formed in a manner so the face piece is more like a cup, meaning it could hold water because the edges are angled around the face surface. In a cup face construction, the welding line to secure the cup face to the head body is not on the edge of the face, but is rather some distance back from the edge of the face. Below is an illustration of a cup face construction to contrast against the above edge welded face design.

The purpose of a cup face construction is to improve the amount of face flexing for areas off the center of the face to achieve better distance, performance and feel from off center hits. In modern clubface performance, the more the face flexes inward, the higher the speed of the ball will be coming off the face.

With an edge welded face, a portion of the actual welding bead that secures the face to the body is extends past the actual seam onto the rear surface of the face. This welding bead can extend ¼” onto the back of the face, all 360* around the face. It can act as an additional “stiffener” or “brace” to prevent the face from flexing as much inward for shots hit off the center of the face.

Since the welding line on a cup face construction is well back from any portion of the face, this means the welding bead is nowhere near any portion of the face. In addition, the inside edge of the face is more curved so there is no additional agent causing resistance to the face flexing inward. Below is a photo showing an actual cup face 4-piece driver head on which the pieces of the head and the cup face have just been initially tack welded to position the pieces for full robotic welding.

There is no question maximum ball speed comes only from impact in the center or slightly above the center of the face. But with a cup face construction, and with a variable thickness cup face construction, in contrast with a uniform thickness edge welded face, the off center hit performance can be improved remarkably.

-Tom

Does the Price of the Shaft Ensure Better Shaft Performance?

In a word? No, the price of the shaft does not ensure that anything about the shaft will be better, whether you are talking the fit, the performance or the quality. Sad, but it is true.

Over the past several years, a number of shaft companies have chosen to develop and market graphite shafts for woods which are VERY expensive. From the early 1980s when graphite shafts were first introduced until the mid 2000s, the most expensive graphite shafts cost in the area of $50 to $60.

In almost every case, these were shafts which were manufactured to be very light in weight and with a very low torque measurement. Making a graphite shaft that weighs 65 grams or less and with under 3 degrees of torque costs more money because more expensive higher strength/higher modulus graphite fiber materials are required to get to that light of a weight with that low of a torque.

But today, there are many shafts selling for $100, $200, $300 and even more which are of “normal weight” with a torque measurement in excess of 3 or 4 degrees. Why are there a number of shafts today being sold for such high prices? If you pay hundreds of dollars for a shaft, does that mean you will hit the ball farther, straighter or more consistently?

There are FIVE elements in the design of a golf shaft which ordain every bit of its performance. Those elements are the, 1) Flex or overall stiffness of the shaft, 2) Bend Profile, otherwise known as how the stiffness is distributed over the length of the shaft, 3) Weight, which is important because the shaft’s weight controls the total weight of the whole club, 4) Torque, also known as the shaft’s resistance to twisting during the swing, and 5) the Weight Distribution, which is also referred to as the balance point of the shaft.

At Wishon Golf, we maintain a data base of shaft measurements for more than 2,000 different shafts. This data base is the core of our TWGT Shaft Bend Profile Software, a program which allows custom clubmakers to be able to make quantitative comparisons of shafts for the purpose of making better shaft fitting decisions for golfers. With this software program, it is possible to compare the design and production specifications of any shaft in the data base to any other shaft.

In a nutshell, it is completely possible to find shafts which cost hundreds of dollars for which all of the performance elements are identical or so close to be considered identical in performance to shafts which cost less than $50. In all of our research we simply cannot find any performance justification for the very high price charged for some shafts today.

What makes a GOOD shaft is whether that shaft’s flex, bend profile, weight, torque and balance point are well matched to the golfer’s swing speed, point of wrist cock release and downswing force. There really is no such thing as a “bad shaft”; there are only poorly fit shafts and properly fit shafts. A properly fit shaft has no price guidelines or cost requirements attached to it.

To find the very best shafts for your swing and for your game, first look for a Clubmaker in your area though our Wishon Golf Find a Clubfitter locator tool, found on the home page of our website http://wishongolf.com/find-a-clubfitter/. Call the clubfitter and ask how he fits shafts to golfers. If he tells you he analyzes the golfer’s clubhead/swing speed, downswing transition/tempo and point of wrist cock release to known data measurements of shafts, your shaft fitting needs will be in the best hands.

Until next time, best wishes in this great game,

-Tom