Loft
The loft of a golf club is the angle of the face in relation to horizontal. Clubs
should "increment" equally from one to the next. That is they should have
a standard numbers of degrees difference between each club. By checking and
adjusting loft, we can correct this problem.
A major golf organization conducted tests on more than 4000 golfers pro-line
clubs and discovered that 80% did not increment correctly and in 20% at least
2 clubs over-lapped.
Lie
The lie of a golf club is the angle of the face in relation to the shaft. Lie
is considered a major factor in accuracy of irons, particular in the shorter
clubs which, coincidentally, are those you need to hit close to the pin.
A lie that is too flat or too upright by as little as 2 degrees will cause
the ball to go right or left of the pin by as much as 15 feet on an otherwise
perfectly hit shot.
The organization mentioned above also tested 240 golfers' clubs only to find
that 100% had clubs with improper lie angles - 32% of these were missing 80
yard wedge shots by 12 yards right. At Al's Clubhouse, lie can be checked and
adjusted.
Spines
Spine refers to the one place in the shaft which least wants to bend. This
place in all cylindrical objects is known as the spine, is a definite spot
in the 360 degree circumference that will offer more resistance than anywhere
else in the shaft.
Materials such as steel, fibreglass, graphite or boron will have a very definite
spine. So much so that if spine alignment is not considered when mounting a
head of a golf club to a graphite or boron shaft, that club will never play
consistently. Therefore, every club in the bag will hit the ball differently
if the manufacturer does not consider that all important spine alignment.Until
recently it is against USGA rules to intentionally align spines in golfclubs.In
1999 the USGA made a modification to the rules that now allows clubmakers to
align shafts for consistency.
If you want your clubs to be consistent in both feel and performance, consider
having the spines aligned by a Professional Clubmaker - preferably at Al's
ClubHouse.
Length
One of the most important fitting factors is club length. It is not determined
solely on the height of the golfer - arm length plays an equally important
part in matching clubs to players.
Length is always a part of the fitting process for new clubs but existing
clubs can be easily lengthened or shortened as required.
