So you’ve decided to invest in a set of golf clubs. Congrats!
You’ve chosen one of the most sought-after golf clubs in the game: a set of Ping golf clubs.
If you’re unfamiliar, Ping is a set of golf clubs designed by George Hoyt and manufactured by Taylormade Golf Company. They’ve been around for a while now and have been the choice of the pros for many years. If you want to measure yourself against the best, you’ve made the right choice.
Choosing these clubs also means you’re going to be hitting the gym occasionally to build up your strength. And since you’re a beginner, you may also want to consider getting some workout gear that’s specifically designed for golfers.
But here’s the thing about these clubs: they’re not easy to measure for. That’s because they’ve been custom made to fit individual golfers’ swings and have been scientifically engineered to give better performance. Sure, you might be able to measure the approximate distance that the ball travels with a golf ball, but you can’t really judge the quality of your swing by hitting a ball and hoping for the best. That’s why you need to take some time to measure yourself against the pros before you even think about showing up at the golf course.
Table of Contents
The Pros’ Approach
To figure out how to measure yourself for the ping clubs, we need to look into how the pros approach this issue. There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to measuring golf clubs: the metric system and the English system. Let’s take a quick look at each one.
The metric system isn’t complicated. It basically means using standardized units to measure both length and weight. For example, if you’ve got a set of Callaway golf clubs, you know that they’re around 78 inches long and weigh 44.6 ounces. (We’ll get to the actual numbers in a moment.) This means you can simply take your Callaway clubs and put them next to your set of ping clubs and know that you’ve got an exact comparison. No need to guess or compare on a feel-good basis.
One downside to the metric system is that it doesn’t give you an accurate feel for how your swing will translate to actual performance on the golf course. For example, the weight of your clubs will change based on whether you’re a right- or left-handed golfer. The metric system also doesn’t allow you to compare apples to oranges; you either use all metric units or none of them. So if you’re a beginner who’s just getting into golf, the metric system can make it difficult to know which set of clubs to invest in. (We’ll discuss alternatives in a moment.)
The English System
The English system is more common than the metric system among golfers. It uses a set of rules to determine a club’s length and weight, resulting in a more intuitive comparison between clubs. You might know this set of rules as the “traditional method” or as the “Rounds to the Right” method, because balls are generally struck to the right of the target.
Let’s say you’ve got a set of Ping golf clubs. You know from the outset that they’re around 78 inches long and weigh 44.6 ounces. Now, if you want to compare these clubs to a traditional set of Callaway clubs (which are also 78 inches long and weigh 44.6 ounces), you’d use the following measurements:
- The distance between the grip and the tip of the club, measured along the hairline at the back of the neck, is the handle height.
- The length of the club, from the middle of the handle to the tip, is the shaft.
- The width of the grip at the base, measured across the top of the handle, is the club face width.
- Through the lens of a camera, pointing the lens at the striking face and moving it around to see all sides of the head, we measure the lie angle. This is the angle the golf club makes with the ground when it’s in the correct golf position.
- By measuring the distance from the center of the face to a point on the sole of the club, we can calculate the loft of the club.
- If we know the weight of the club, measured while it’s hanging from the shoulder, and the length of the club, we can determine how fast the clubhead will be traveling at the moment of impact.
- To finish the measurement, we need to add the distance the ball will travel, which we can estimate by measuring the height of the golfer above the ground (e.g., a bunker, a plateau, or the earth itself)
- If you want to know more, just check out these measurements online.
- As you can see, comparing clubs using the English method is a lot easier. You can immediately see how changes in one measurement will affect the other measurements. Plus, you have a distinct feel for how the club will perform without even hitting a ball.
The pros usually prefer the English system for measuring golf clubs, largely because it allows them to compare apples to apples. As mentioned above, the metric system doesn’t take into account individual differences in weight and length, resulting in some odd comparisons if you don’t have metric equipment. For example, a 6-foot-4 guy might choose to compare the length of his Callaway clubs to the 5-foot-3 guy’s ping clubs, since Callaway clubs vary in length by around half an inch (give or take). Using the metric system, there’s no exact comparison because the shorter guy’s Callaway clubs are around half an inch shorter than the taller guy’s ping clubs.
Best of Both Worlds
If you want to be the best, you need the best equipment. And if you want to compare apples to apples, you need to use the same system throughout. The best of both worlds would be to use the English system for measuring the length of your Callaway clubs, and the metric system for measuring everything else. That way, you can have exact comparisons without any concerns about the metric system not taking individual differences into account.
The key is to find the best possible set of equipment to help you improve your game. If you’ve decided on a set of Ping golf clubs, measuring yourself against the pros using both the metric and the English system will give you a clear picture of how to go about your golfing careers.