Every Term That Appears on Your Sheet
Written for golfers, not for engineers. If something on your build ticket is not listed here, ask and we will add it.
Face and Delivery Terms
These are the measurements we take before anything gets changed. They describe what your swing is currently doing, not what any club is doing.
| Term | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|
| Face angle at impact | Where the clubface points relative to your target at the moment of contact, in degrees open or closed. This is the single largest influence on your start line — roughly three quarters of it with a driver. |
| Face to path | The gap between where the face points and where the club is travelling. This gap creates curve. Face right of path curves the ball right for a right-handed golfer, and the size of the gap sets the size of the curve. |
| Closure rate | How fast the face is rotating in the final stretch before contact, in degrees per second. A high closure rate makes timing more critical, which is why it drives head and shaft choices. |
| Start-line spread | The range between your left-most and right-most launch directions across a full sample. It is the honest version of "how straight do you hit it", and it is the number we most want to shrink. |
| Dynamic lie | The lie angle the club actually presents at impact, which differs from the static number stamped on it because shafts bend under load. Read from sole marking tape, not from a stance. |
| Strike location | Where on the face the ball makes contact, heel to toe and low to high. Off-centre strikes twist the face independently of anything your hands did. |
Shaft Terms
Shaft marketing has more adjectives than measurements. These are the parts that can actually be put on a gauge.
Frequency (CPM)
Cycles per minute when the shaft is clamped at the butt and the tip is deflected and released. Higher means stiffer. Its value is comparative: two shafts both labelled stiff can differ by twenty cycles, which you will feel immediately.
Bend Profile
Where along the length the shaft is soft and where it is stiff. Two shafts can share a frequency while bending in completely different places, which changes launch far more than the flex letter does.
Kick Point
The rough location of maximum bend under load. Lower generally lifts launch; higher generally lowers it. Treat it as a coarse indicator rather than a specification — the full profile matters more.
Torque
Resistance to twisting around the shaft's own axis, quoted in degrees. Lower is not automatically better. Smoother transitions often prefer a slightly higher figure for feel and face release.
Spine
The stiffest plane in a shaft's wall, a consequence of manufacturing. Orienting it consistently across a set removes one source of unexplained variation between clubs.
Tip Trim
Material removed from the narrow end before installation. Tip trimming stiffens the section that does the most work near impact, so an inch of tip trim changes behaviour far more than an inch off the butt.
Build and Assembly Terms
| Term | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|
| Swingweight | A balance measurement on a letter-and-number scale such as D2. It describes how head-heavy a club feels, and two clubs of identical total mass can sit two full points apart. |
| Static weight | What the assembled club weighs on a gram scale. Related to swingweight but not interchangeable with it — where the mass sits matters as much as how much there is. |
| Hang angle | For putters: the angle the face sits at when the club is balanced on a support, measured in degrees. The measurable version of "toe hang". |
| Playing length | Measured from the ground along the sole line to the butt cap with the club soled at its correct lie. Change the lie and the number moves, which is why we measure it last. |
| Grip build-up | Layers of tape under the grip that widen it. Counted in wraps and recorded per hand, since a thicker grip quietly slows face rotation. |
| Bounce and grind | Bounce is the angle between the leading edge and the point of the sole that contacts the ground. Grind is the material removed from that sole to change how it interacts with turf. |
| Gapping | The carry distance intervals between consecutive clubs. We aim for consistent steps rather than a single target number, because the shape of the ladder matters more than its rungs. |
Phrases We Would Retire Given the Chance
"You Need a Stiff Shaft"
Flex letters are not standardised between manufacturers. A stiff from one brand can measure softer than a regular from another. The number on the frequency meter is the only version of this conversation worth having.
"Standard Lie Is Fine"
Standard is a manufacturing convenience, not a fitting position. Height, arm length, posture and shaft behaviour all move dynamic lie, and two degrees is enough to change where a mid iron starts.
"Lower Spin Is Always Better"
Spin holds the ball up. Strip too much of it away and carry collapses, especially in dry desert air where the ball is already flying lower for a given launch condition.
See These Numbers on Your Own Clubs
A glossary is useful. A sheet with your name on it is more useful.