Gear Effect

[Region3]

I seem to be in science-mode today. Just surfing from one thing to another and came across THIS

It explains why we get different ball flights with different off-centre hits with driver, and why we're told the sweet spot is above centre.

I didn't bother with all the formulae, but found the rest of it interesting just skipping through.

 

[timgolfy]

Very interesting read. I still don't quite understand how it works though. Seems like witchcraft!

 

[Region3]

When you hit off centre, the club wants to twist around it's centre of gravity.

Because the centre of gravity is so far back in the head of a driver, twisting around it means more of a sideways movement for the face, and the ball moves across the face in the opposite direction, creating spin.

For a toe hit, the club twists open and the ball rolls on it towards the centre of the face creating draw.
Then the really clever bit is that the face is crowned, so if you hit on the toe the face there is pointing slightly to the right which sends the ball right to start with and the spin brings it back to where you were aiming!

The sweet spot is in the middle of the face, but when you hit higher than that the spin created is topspin which just offsets some of the backspin. It also launches higher because the centre of gravity is even more below the ball than if you hit the sweet spot.
Higher launch, less spin = more distance.

It also explains why a slightly low strike with the driver starts lower and rises more because of increased backspin.

 

[Potor_36]

At the risk of sounding like a massive nerd, thats one of the most interesting things I've read in a while. Always wondered why drives that I can feel have come from way out of the toe on impact actually turn out to be pleasent drawing ball flights.

Unfortunately it doesn't help with my actual bad shot, the big slice most likely caused by the retard effect

 

[ScienceBoy]

Very boring...

Couldn't understand a word of it and switched off after the first mention of anything sciency, cant stand that stuff.

 

[bobmac]

Very boring...

Couldn't understand a word of it and switched off after the first mention of anything sciency, cant stand that stuff.

Basically it means you only need 3 wedges at the most.

 

[RGDave]

Unfortunately it doesn't help with my actual bad shot, the big slice most likely caused by the retard effect

Very funny Goomba.

I thought Wilson claimed to have included the gear effect on their irons "1200 GE" from the 1990s.

I'll get my anorak.