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The Influence of Clubhead Mass on Clubhead and Golf Ball Kinematics

2015; Human Kinetics; Volume: 4; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1123/ijgs.2015-0011

2168-7609

Sasho MacKenzie, Brendan Ryan, Andrew Rice,

Sports Analytics and Performance

The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of head mass on driver clubhead kinematics at impact as well as the resulting kinematics of the golf ball. Three clubhead mass conditions (174, 190, and 200 g) were tested by 18 low-handicap (1.7 ± 2.2) golfers representing a range of clubhead speeds (40--58 m/s). Each participant executed 12 drives per condition using the same driver, which accommodated screws of varying mass in the clubhead. Increasing clubhead mass was found to decrease clubhead speed (*p* \< .001), but have no meaningful influence on ball speed. Similarly, increasing clubhead mass was associated with greater dynamic loft (*p* = .001), a steeper angle of attack (*p* \< .001), and more spin (*p* \< .001). There was no net influence on carry distance and only a relatively small effect on the total predicted distance of carry + roll. Increasing clubhead mass tended to create more fade spin (*p* \< .001) as well as start the ball further to the right (*p* \< .001), which resulted in meaningful differences in the average lateral finish location among conditions (*p* \< .001). This finding has important implications for club fitters and manufacturers.