Monday, August 20, 2012

TrueAim Golf Review

Recently, Tom Wishon wrote a post on the GolfWRX Web site that stated when it comes to fitting the accuracy portion of a driver, the #1 attribute to consider was the face angle of the clubhead. What some people do not realize is that most drivers are designed with a closed clubface. And if you see a driver labeled as a ‘Tour’ design (i.e. Callaway Razr Tour), those drivers typically have a slightly open clubface angle.

The idea is that most golfers hit the ball with some sort of slice spin axis. Thus, if the OEM’s design the club to have a closed clubface at address, this will either help reduce the slice spin axis or at least get the ball starting left so it can slice back towards the target. In reality, they are more looking to get the golfer to hit a slightly pull-fade just by making the clubface closed at address. With the ‘Tour’ models, since most Tour players do not hit a slice and instead hit a draw, they typically like an open clubface angle at address so they can hit that ‘push-draw’ shot at the target.

The problem is that it’s often very difficult to get the face angle the way you want it. Fortunately for Wishon Golf users, they have a couple of options like the 739CCG driver model

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The 739CCG model came out this year and is Wishon’s most customizable driver model. It has a hosel that is made from soft 304 stainless steel, so the golfer can have the face angle bent about 2°. Furthermore, Wishon has stated that they could *probably* bend the face angle up to 4°, but it would be a little risky.

Then there’s Wishon’s ‘handpicked option’ which is available in all of his woods like the 919THI model.

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According to Tom, the tolerances for every company for every driver head model that comes from the foundry is 1°. Meaning, you could have a driver stamped at 9.5° loft, but it could be as low lofted as 8.5° or as high lofted as 10.5°. Same with the face angle and lie angle.

What Wishon Golf offers is a ‘hand picked’ option. Their drivers are typically stamped at 9°, 11° and 13° (there are some 10.5°) lofts. So with the handpicked option, Wishon Golf will find the loft, face angle and lie angle that fits within these parameters. For instance, the 919THI driver I have typically comes in at 9° stamped, with a 58° lie angle and a 0.5° closed face angle. Instead, I wanted a 10° loft, 58° lie angle and a 0.0° square face angle. Thus, I selected the hand picked option and they found a head in the series of heads they received from the foundry that actually fit those measurements.

The problem lies when you don’t have a Wishon driver and generally want to keep your current driver, but fear that the face angle is holding you back. That’s where TrueAim comes in.

TrueAim was designed by Tim Tucker and Jason Goldsmith, both of whom are also certified Edel Golf putter fitters. It is a possible way to effectively alter the golfer’s face angle by changing how they aim using decals on the driver head.

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The decals are plastic with a strong adhesive. When the person is originally being fitted for the decal, they start off with the temporary decals which come on and off quite easily. USGA rules state that a golfer cannot use a temporary decal for play. However, the permanent decals are perfectly legal. But don’t worry, I have been told that one can still remove the permanent decal safely without scratching the driver head, it just takes some time to do it.

The fitting process can be done by just about anybody, even those without any clubfitting or clubmaking experience. First, the TrueAim decals come with a kit.

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The kit comes with a ‘scorecard’ where the golfer tries each of the decals oriented in each position and then locates a target and sees how well each shot ‘performed’ with relation to the target. Personally, I think it would be best to get on a Trackman or FlightScope launch monitor and realize that there will be some judgment calls as to what decal works best for you.

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I do agree with TrueAim’s notion that how you aim the clubface, even with a driver, can greatly affect your mechanics and club dimensions at impact. As I mentioned in my recent post about visiting the Faldo Institute and seeing them fit golfers for Edel putters, there were various cases of golfers who could not aim correctly and that great impacted their entire stroke mechanics. I could not help but feel that if I were an instructor, the first thing I would ever do with a golfer is to check their putter and how well they aim it because if they want to improve their stroke, they stand no chance of doing so until they can aim the putter somewhat accurately.

I believe that the driver is fairly similar in that regard. My dad is somewhat of a good example. He plays with a very closed clubface with his driver at address. He then hits fades. Which sounds fine, but his miss is usually a bad pull or a low pull-hook. I think he unconsciously over time learned that if he closes the driver face at address, he won’t hit that big slice. However, I think he could probably be better off with a driver that is about 1° more open than his current driver (currently 0.5° closed) and that way he *may* still close the face, but not as much as he currently closes the face and could eliminate some of those bad pulls and low pull-hooks.

When golfers get fit for Edel putters, the fitter will always try and see what alignment lines and sight dots work best for the golfers aim, if at all.

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You would be surprised how adding one alignment line or sight dot can drastically affect a golfer’s aim. And often times, Edel fits putters where the golfer aims far better with no alignment lines or sight dots.

Thus, I can see the same applying to a face angle or using the TrueAim decals. It provides a different perspective at address and that can change some mechanics. Or even simpler, sometimes you’re just aimed a little off at address and your face angle and path numbers at impact are not bad, they just need to be steered a little towards a certain direction. I have found that to be very true in the times I have worked with Trackman and FlightScope.

In the end, I did not wind up with a True Aim decal because I use the Wishon 919THI driver and have the face angle I wanted. But again, if you are not fitted for face angle or you want to keep your driver, but just want help with being able to naturally adjust how you aim it, then I would certainly give the TrueAim decals a try.

The only complaint I have is that the decals are a bit brittle, so when trying the temporary ones, be careful when you pull them off. But for $20-$25, I think it’s well worth giving it a try as I can see it greatly improving somebody’s driving of the golf ball.

For more information, check them out at www.mytrueaim.com







3JACK

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