Mitchell - Club Repair News

June/July 2007

Volume 2, No. 4

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Editor's Blog
Is It Time To Check For Non-Conforming Clubs On The 1st Tee?
What is with the non-conforming drivers lately? Could some prominent club manufacturers be pushing the envelope for maximizing the co-efficient of restitution on driver faces? Is there a war on for the longest driver?

With the announcements of Nike, Callaway and Cobra having current model drivers deemed non-conforming, it raises a lot of questions about the integrity of golf equipment, not to mention manufacturing practices. All three companies blamed "manufacturing errors" for their drivers exceeding the "Characteristic Time" limits used to determine the C.O.R. of driver faces.

How many drivers do you think are on the USGA non-conforming list? Read on and you will be amazed.

Featured Repair Shop
The Players Club At Sawgrass - Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Did you watch The Players Championship and did you see the magnificent 77,000 square foot new clubhouse? Just imagine that in the lower level of this beautiful building is a "Recognized" Mitchell® Club Repair Shop. It is staffed by Bryan Cooper, a PGA Member and Mitchell® Certified Club Repair Technician.

This is the home of the PGA Tour and a lot of their members live and play at TPC Sawgrass. They will definitely be taking advantage of this new state-of-the-art club repair shop outfitted with the latest Mitchell® machines and tools.

Bryan got the shop setup just in time for this year's TPC Championship won by Phil Mickelson.

Take a look at this featured Mitchell® Club Repair Shop.

Club Repair Workbench
Polishing Metal Woods
The latest club repair service gaining popularity is polishing metal woods. With the demise of persimmon woods the art of refinishing wood heads has all but been lost. However, with the popularity of reselling used clubs today, polishing metal woods has become an important service to enhance the value of the used clubs. Using the right equipment and compounds, metal woods can be polished to look like new, thus increasing their value significantly.

This month's article is a "how to" complete with photos showing the important steps to polish-out scratches and to bring back the luster of the painted surfaces.

It looks like some of the old crafts are returning.

Playing By The Rules
USGA And R&A Rules Dictate Club Performance
The Rules Of Golf, Appendix II, 5, a, defines the general requirements for material and construction of a club head's face. This rule has been in the news lately with 3 prominent club manufacturers having a current model driver deemed non-conforming for not meeting the "Characteristic Time" for measuring the spring-like effect for their driver faces.

What is the difference in this new "Characteristic Time" test compared to the test originally used to measure C.O.R.? It has simplified the procedure and made it portable. Clubs can actually be tested in the field, say on the 1st tee of any event.

With all the hype for bragging rights of the longest driver, it appears that some manufacturers are pushing the envelope for spring-like effect.

TechReport Library
Golf Science
With the non-conforming driver news lately, we thought you would like to know the USGA test method for determining the spring-like effect or C.O.R. They changed the test method in 2004. Revision 2.0 dated March 25, 2005 is now posted in our Library.

What is the difference in the test method for "Characteristic Time" as compared to the C.O.R. test?

Read how simple it is to test driver faces for "CT" with a portable test unit. Should the USGA, PGA & LPGA be testing drivers during every tournament?

Teaching & Fitting Studio
Hybrid Fit Club Is Newest Fitting Technology
Mizuno has introduced the next generation of club fitting technology. Their new Set Optimizer utilizes the innovative "Hybrid Fit" club. The new patent-pending system is designed to remove confusion associated with selecting clubs to replace long irons and fill the gap between a 3-wood and 5-iron.

The company claims the system ideally fits golfers with the perfect mix of fairway woods, hybrids and irons for their game. Check out the Mizuno news release regarding their revolutionary "Hybrid Fitting" club.

Tour Workshop
New Putter Shaft Technology From UST
United Sports Technologies scores big win with their Frequency Filtered Putter Shaft. Scott Hoch won the FedEx Kinko's Champions Tour event using the first true putter shaft technology advancement in more than 70 years.

UST's Frequency Filtered Putter Shaft amplifies feel while improving the instantaneous feedback for improved putting ability. It has a Filtering Diffuser in the mid-section that filters out higher, unwanted vibrations and releases the true feeling of the ball impacting the putter face to the golfer's hands.

It is made with an Interlinked Carbon Fiber in the butt-section and a Steel tip-section that makes it the only advanced putter shaft design in decades. There is nothing to compare to this technology. Former NASA engineers designed the Filtering Diffuser.

The putter shaft is available in a 35.75" length. It weighs 106 grams with a .580" butt diameter. Instructions call for butt trimming only. Because of the weight distribution between the steel tip and the graphite butt-section, putter swing weights will be 4 points heavier than standard steel shafts.

Read more about Scott Hoch's win.

Test Performance
Hot New Driver Test From GolfTestUSA
GolfTestUSA just released its June 2007 test results for drivers. Sixty golfers test-drove 30 different drivers including some of the biggest names in golf. The golfers rated the drivers on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best) for 10 different criteria; distance, control, accuracy, forgiveness, sound, appearance, feel, ball flight, recommend to others, and overall rating. Then a final overall average was determined.

KZG's Gemini II was at the top of the list with all the big names. KZG is a top custom pro-line club manufacturer and the clubs used were not custom fit to each golfer. The test results suggest the Gemini II could even perform better if professionally fitted to the testers. Check out KZG's recent news release about the results.

Check results of all the drivers tested.

New Upgrades
Shafts
True Temper's Black Gold® Frequency-Tuned iron shaft continues to gain popularity with tour professionals. They were in the winner's bag at the PGA Tour's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. This marks the first win on the big tour since its introduction last year.

Earlier this year Black Gold® notched two wins on the Nationwide Tour, first at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open and then the Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship at Wente Vinyards.

Black Gold® shafts feature proprietary frequency-tuned technology incorporating True Temper's "Gold Standard" manufacturing process. This unique shaft offers custom club fitters the opportunity to take 43.5" master blanks and virtually build combinations of sub-flexes not available with any other shaft.

Mitchell® Golf Equipment Institute is True Temper's authorized training school for learning this frequency-tuned process. Each student receives a "Gold Certified" certificate recognizing them as a Black Gold® shaft fitting specialist.

Learn how you can become "Certified".

Classroom
Learn How Better Club Performance Can Lower Your Scores?
Do you have specific questions about how improved club performance can help your game? We welcome your questions. Email them to us and we will respond with the answer. Selected questions and answers are posted here for our readers to view.

Raymond Jenkins, PGA Golf Professional at Dick's Sporting Goods asks why the frequency of Black Gold® shafts do not match an OEM club manufacturer's shaft bands on a set of their irons.