A little bit about Swing Weight - Switching from a regular grip to a larger than jumbo grip will lower the club's swing-weight. But not as much as indicated by a swing weight scale with a 14-inch pivot point.



Here's an example of what can go wrong due to the use of an industry-standard 14-inch pivot point swing-weight scale. Say you've got this driver that you really like. The swing weight is just perfect for you. You want to replace the regular grip with a jumbo. So the fitter first measures the swing weight of the club to be D4. The larger than standard jumbo grip is installed and the club now measures at a D1 swing weight. To restore the D4 swing weight, the fitter applies lead tape to the bottom of the driver head. You go out to the range and find that the club just doesn't swing right. The club feels "too slow". What happened?

Switching the grip from a regular to a jumbo appeared to lower the swing weight of the club by three units, according to the swing-weight scale. But that reading is false due to the fact that the change in mass occurred within the 14-inch pivot point. I.e., the scale saw the entire weight of the grip to lie on the butt end of the pivot point. But that's not where your hands actually rotate. On the driving range, only about half of the mass of the larger than jumbo golf grips resides above your pivot point and almost as much of the grip's mass actually rests below your pivot point, almost fully cancelling out! In other words, switching from a regular grip to a jumbo grip doesn't really change the "feel" of a club during a swing. yet, the swing weight scale suggests that the change does have an effect.

Fortunately, there is no permanent damage. Most or all of the lead tape is removed and the club's "feel" is restored to normal even though the swing weight is now D1 and not D4!

© Leaderboard.com. Used with permission. Read the complete explanation of swing weight and what it means to a golfer at www.leaderboard.com.