So should my club be heavier or lighter?

[davidhasselgolf]

Club head weight affects distance. So should my club be heavier or lighter? Should I add lead tape to increase the weight?

Found this article but its making me more confuse ... Anyone here have any ideas? Advice?

Driver Head Weight

      Club head weight (or more correctly, club head mass) is one of the key contributors to distance off the tee. The greater the mass of the club head and the great its speed, the farther the ball will go. Unfortunately, the greater the club head's mass, the slower will be its speed at impact. One can't swing a more massive (heavier) club head as fast.

     The physics of the interaction between club and ball is quite well understood. At play are the laws of momentum and energy. A given player (let's say you) is capable of swinging a club with a some maximum speed. The more massive the club, the slower will be this maximum speed. The speed of the ball is a result of the mass of the club head and its speed. So, as the mass increases, so will the resulting ball speed. But, since the club head is more massive, its maximum speed is less. There is actually an optimum mass for each golfer that produces the greatest ball speed. For most golfers, that mass is about 200 grams. A physics equation that determines the resulting ball speed is:

V = U*(1+e)/(1+m/M)

where U = club head speed, m = mass of ball, M = mass of club head

e is called the coefficient of restitution which is a measure of the efficiency of the kinetic energy transfer between club and ball. e has a value between 0 and 1. A collision with e=0 would be like a club hitting a putty ball, with the ball sticking to the club (maximum loss in kinetic energy). A collision with e=1 is called a perfectly elastic collision (no loss in kinetic energy). There would be no heat or sound produced at all, so of course is completely hypothetical.

     In the past 10 to 15 years, club and ball manufacturers have made great leaps in increasing the e of the collision due mainly to the hollow, metal faced drivers whose faces can "spring back" upon collision. So much so that the USGA has put in place a legal maximum which is about 0.83. Club testers have found that e decreases with increased club head speed. Tiger Woods' drives, therefore, are not as efficient as yours or mine. He makes up for this by having significantly more club head speed.

[che]

Wow, quite a brainy stuff you have here bro.

I certainly wudn't want to add anything else to my driver bro due to the fact it had been engineered by the manufacturer as such. If I dont like the driver,. I wud just buy a better one, that's it.

But mathematically (and assuming we use just same driver) ... the formula clearly shows only variables U and M we can play around with to improve the speed V. The higher the value of nominator (i.e U*(1+e)) and the lower the value of denominator (i.e (1+m/M)), the more speed V we can have.

Taking a look at the nominator, very obvious the higher the speed of your swing (hence the higher value of U, and remember the value of e is quite constant for the same club) the better (provided you follow all other rules of golf swinging). Similarly, to make value of the denominator smallest possible, M must be as mass as possible (assuming the mass of the golf ball remains quite static... can u imagine if the golf ball getting smaller?).

So there you go.... faster swing and big driver are the two factors. Again, considering we do not want to mess around with the design, that leaves only one thing..... the way we swing.

Conclusion.... swing faster, the ball will go further. Vary the driver size, the mass will be altered and the results will be different.

[Budakboy]

Yes our driver already engineered as such by a qualified engineer. Let it be what it be hehe...not satisfy? Just buy new one hehe...i do agree with you Mr Che...