| Michael Lavelle We met Michael in March 2007, he had recently moved from the West of Ireland and had taken up playing at The K Club where a mutual friend had introduced him to our services. He needed to get some advice and get his equipment in order ahead of his pursuit to turn professional and earn a living among the golfing elite. He is all about the feel of the club and can make most clubs work however; as feel is very difficult to describe and explain he had in the past had difficulty connecting with anyone regarding his clubs. He had in the past steered away from custom clubs preferring to navigate his own club selection and do his own club building and re-shafting. The ForeGolf methodology is to view the player as a project and work towards understanding their strengths and weaknesses and how clubs can be built to suit those weaknesses. Our unique shaft mapping technique suited him as it deals more with individual tempo and rhythm. Given Michael is all about the feel, we could give him instant feedback as to why a certain shaft would suit him. We explained how he could maximise the shaft and head to get exactly what he needed from the club in terms of both feel and performance. His swing dynamic is quite unique and he must be able to feel the head through impact and half way along his downswing. The sensation of the club almost kicking is what makes the club and shaft feel right for him. This is also coupled with his shot characteristic of naturally low launch and high spin. The choice of shaft is critical and takes a lot of work to get just right. There is also Michael’s exact choice of finished swing weight where he must feel the correct weight of the head in order, again, to get the right sensation through the ball. This has quite an impact on flex also as he cannot have too stiff a shaft as it then looses feel and affects his ability to sense the smoothness in the hit and the resulting timing of the hit. Add this to his un-naturally good hands that he uses with great affect to create his chosen fade shape and you have a club concoction that could baffle even the most successful club technicians. His preferred swing weight for most of his woods and hybrids is D2 but the weight of the actual shaft is very important also. We use a D4 swing weight on his driver but as Michael insists it is to help more with rhythm with this club rather than for feel. We also found that the speed to flex ratio is completely off the mark in this case study as Michael’s ball speed is averaged at 168 mph which puts the club-head speed at about 110+mph mark. This speed means his shaft choice of Grafalloy Pro Launch red in stiff flex is incorrect if it were based on a swing speed ratio. This proves the player is always right and the fit for feel is by far the most important. The player technician relationship is so important and we made sure this bond grew stronger when Michael played at The Irish Open in June 2007 and we arranged for Cleveland to hand grind a wedge to Michaels exact requirements. The whole head was specially shaped to suit his eye and shot performance requirements. This club as testament to the effort that went into making it remains in the bag today. His favourite club in the bag is a Ping G10 5 wood with a Grafalloy Pro Launch red stiff shaft. This to him is the most perfect golf club and it allows him to play a whole host of shots with it. He hits it 235 yards and can shape it at will. He can draw the ball so easy with this club and can hit a high cut and fly it low through the wind. This was not and easy club to come up with and took a few goes to get it just right. He works to get it right but once the club feels good and suits the shot he has in his mind Michael rarely changes, even though he may try the odd shaft at different times he finds the tinkering he does at home with his clubs a way of preparation and almost soothing the mind. It allows him to be ready and happy in his knowledge that his clubs are perfect in every way. It is not really a constant pursuit of perfection but rather the maintenance of it. Michael turned professional in May 2008 to venture to the paid ranks of professional golf and to date has played in a number of Euro Pro and Challenge Tour events. |
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Ping
Rapture 9* Grafalloy Pro launch Red Stiff: 