Define 'feel'...

[Tiger]

Right I've been on here for quite a while now and a lot of you use the word 'feel' in a lot of different contexts. So far I've got the following:

1. Deftness of touch and accuracy deployed on short shots on or around the green made with a putter or partial swing with longer clubs

2. Subjective association with the feeling of a club through impact, possibly linked to acoustic properties of the strike and/or feedback to the player via the shaft

Now I understand number 1 and that the more you practice, the more your brain absorbs information and gets better at using muscle memory to play certain shots.

But 2...I'm lost. All the chat of this club 'feels' more solid at impact and forged 'feels' better than cast...I'm lost. So please can someone explain to me (in laymans terms) what in the name of Chuck Dickens you are on about? Thanks in advance.

Confused Tiger

 

[Deke]

Hey mate,by good feel I mean that a club has good feedback as to where on the face I have hit it and also good feedback from the quality of the strike in general.

 

[clubchamp07]

It makes me laugh when I hear some peole talking about feel. Unless I was hitting 500+ balls every day at the range then would I think about feel.
I think, imo, feel around the greens matters. As handicap golfers, when we stand on a tee box at a near 600 yrd par 5 all we're thinking about is hitting it straight. Faced with a 3iron over water with 200yds carry to the green, again all we're thinking about is hitting it straight. Well I am anyway.
We all know when we've hit it good, some people can rib a shot and it can run a mile, now, just because u have hit it thin, do you want it back?
I was told a few weeks ago, that the sweet/soft spot on an average iron, is the size of a pin head. Now how many times do we hit the sweet spot?

 

[Alex1975]

It makes me laugh when I hear some peole talking about feel. Unless I was hitting 500+ balls every day at the range then would I think about feel.
I think, imo, feel around the greens matters. As handicap golfers, when we stand on a tee box at a near 600 yrd par 5 all we're thinking about is hitting it straight. Faced with a 3iron over water with 200yds carry to the green, again all we're thinking about is hitting it straight. Well I am anyway.
We all know when we've hit it good, some people can rib a shot and it can run a mile, now, just because u have hit it thin, do you want it back?
I was told a few weeks ago, that the sweet/soft spot on an average iron, is the size of a pin head. Now how many times do we hit the sweet spot?

If that were so, your asking how many times would I hit a pin head size sweet spot with my HUGE (in comparison) ball?

 

[USER1999]

By the time your brain processes 'feel' the ball is long gone. Why worry.

 

[chris661]

It makes me laugh when I hear some peole talking about feel. Unless I was hitting 500+ balls every day at the range then would I think about feel.
I think, imo, feel around the greens matters. As handicap golfers, when we stand on a tee box at a near 600 yrd par 5 all we're thinking about is hitting it straight. Faced with a 3iron over water with 200yds carry to the green, again all we're thinking about is hitting it straight. Well I am anyway.
We all know when we've hit it good, some people can rib a shot and it can run a mile, now, just because u have hit it thin, do you want it back?
I was told a few weeks ago, that the sweet/soft spot on an average iron, is the size of a pin head. Now how many times do we hit the sweet spot?

If that were so, your asking how many times would I hit a pin head size sweet spot with my HUGE (in comparison) ball?

With the exact centre of said HUGE ball?

 

[Alex1975]

With the exact centre of said HUGE ball?

Good point

I dont think the brain is too slow.

I used to race karts alot, for a works team infact and that is all about feel, alot of motor racing is. You want to feel the chassis flex and the feel of the tire on the kerb, you want to feel the engin revs and power band. No reason golf could or is not the same.

Its the human factor, its how we learn and gain confidence and feel in contol, or otherwise

There are some on here who scof about it but I bet if you took a 10 year old GI club and let them hit it for 20 mins then a nice forged modern iron thay would feel the difference. Traktor or Ferrari, they both go from A to B.

 

[USER1999]

The golf ball is on the club face for about 1/200th of a second. Your reactions are not that quick. The ball has gone before you know you've hit it.

Ditto for thinking 1/8" of offset on the face allows you more time to square the club face. Not a chance.

 

[golfstick]

Feel is...

when you have a 40 yard chip and run and you hit it 30 yards too far. You feel shiit

 

[Alex1975]

Ye is thats the case, i dont think the brain can feel and make the arms or hands react in that time so I guess what you said at the start is true, the ball has gone before you can use the feel, so maybe its more of a bit of info for the next shot.

I still think I would rather have it than not.

 

[Tiger]

So far you guys have confirmed that point 1 has some validity and point 2 is nebulous in the extreme. No longer confused...now perplexed.

 

[john0]

FEEL is what we would all like to do........

 

[Tiger]

Johnny you crack me up

 

[USER1999]

A club that generates a higher pitch tone at imnpact will feel harder than one which creates a lower pitched tone.

All drivers have the same COR. This is specified in the rules. They all have a titanium forged face. My Nike feels rock hard, and unforgiving, as it makes a tinny high pitched clank. My old 909 souonded like a meaty thwack. It felt fantastic, and really forgiving.

Sadly, the opposite was true.

There is no way the titanium face of the Titleist was any softer than the Nike. Titanium is titanium. It is hard.

This is why manufacturers spend so long trying to get the right resonance and noise from the clubs (noise is vibration too). It applies all through the bag. Getting the noise right makes things feel soft. Get it wrong, then it will feel hard. Get it really wrong (Nike SQ - original square driver) and it will sound and feel like something from fisher Price.

Otherwise it's just a bit of metal (comparatively hard) hitting a bit of plastic (comparatively soft). Changing the hardness of the metal by a few points won't make any difference.

Forged clubs are made of soft metal because it is easy to work. Forging hard metals is not commercially viable.

Conversely, harder metals lend themselves to casting.

The best feel you will get is when you hit the ball out of the sweet spot (centre of the MOI). This is because the club head won't twist, or shudder, and the club head will emit the noise that the designers built it to make. Off set hits don't make the right noise, and the club head will twist. Result is poor feel.

 

[haplesshacker]

Murph. You just beat to the resonance and vibration thing.

I think you can feel if you've hit the ball out of the toe or the sweetspot.

With regard to feel for the short game, perhaps the term 'touch' would be better. But that comes down to cause and effect. If you hit the ball hard and you only want it to go 30 feet, then you lack touch. Some folks are better at this than others. Whether you use a cast or forged club probably doesn't make any difference as to whether you have touch or not.

I think most sports have a huge element of feel to them, racing cars has already been mentioned. We used to get it on the boat. Even if you were just sat on the side of the yacht and not steering, you could feel if the boat was in the groove or not. Some folks got it, and some never did or will.

It's like girlfriends. Some just didn't feel right, and I don't mean in the physical sense, and some did. You can't really explain it.

Beds are another one. We don't go into a bed shop and ask for a mattress with 260 springs instead of 280, with a spring rating of 'x'. We just know by feel whether it will be comfortable.

Stop!


What the 'eck am I prattling on about!!!!!!!!!!

 

[19th]

Feel, to me, is when I hit the ball with all my 'bits' in sync - the ball comes off the face with no effort and also feels as if it is on the face for longer allowing an appreciation of this 'feel'. It, the ball, then does as you saw in your minds eye as you set up for the shot, although due to incorrect club selection, the ball may be short or long in flight but the satisfaction factor is still with you - this can last maybe for one shot, one club or part of a round. It could be the round when 10 foot putts are like tap in's!

This feel, to me, is what we all strive for in golf and is the most satisfying feeling a golfer can experience in our sport.

If you have not experienced this .. so much awaits you when it happens and it will!

 

[madandra]

Here is my take on feel.

It should be called numbness.

When you hit a 'pure' shot you shouldn't feel anything. When I flush my driver I only remember the noise, not the contact. The same can be said for any club in my bag because how many times have we said 'I never felt the club hit the ball'. When I sroke in a long putt I am not focusing on feel but noise does tell me if I have had a good contact.

 

[JustOne]

It's like girlfriends. Some just didn't feel right, and I don't mean in the physical sense, and some did. You can't really explain it.

Beds are another one. We don't go into a bed shop and ask for a mattress with 260 springs instead of 280, with a spring rating of 'x'. We just know by feel whether it will be comfortable.

Stop!


What the 'eck am I prattling on about!!!!!!!!!!

Girlfriends??..... Beds??


.....not been getting any action lately Graham???

 

[haplesshacker]

It's like girlfriends. Some just didn't feel right, and I don't mean in the physical sense, and some did. You can't really explain it.

Beds are another one. We don't go into a bed shop and ask for a mattress with 260 springs instead of 280, with a spring rating of 'x'. We just know by feel whether it will be comfortable.

Stop!


What the 'eck am I prattling on about!!!!!!!!!!

Girlfriends??..... Beds??


.....not been getting any action lately Graham???

Not whilst locked in at the golf club!

 

[smange]

Here is my take on feel.

It should be called numbness.

When you hit a 'pure' shot you shouldn't feel anything. When I flush my driver I only remember the noise, not the contact. The same can be said for any club in my bag because how many times have we said 'I never felt the club hit the ball'. When I sroke in a long putt I am not focusing on feel but noise does tell me if I have had a good contact.

Exactly as madandra says.

You dont feel the proper strikes, you hear it, look up and its soaring majestically towards its intended target