the Tutelman site
Dave T's Club Design Notes
Home > Golf > Club design notes
Index Home page

Introduction
Physical Principles
Applying Physics to Golf
Club Length
Lie Angle
Heft
Shaft Flex
Customizing The Clubs
Effects of Clubhead Features
Effects of Shaft Features
Effects of Grip Features
Special Situations
Reference

Welcome to Dave Tutelman's Club Design Notes

This e-book is about how golf clubs work, from the point of view of an engineer. But you don't have to be an engineer to understand it. There are some science basics early on (see the Principles chapter), explained in intuitive terms -- and that is the only science the rest of the book really uses. You will need to understand simple graphs or tables of numbers -- but if you don't, you're seriously limited as a clubmaker already.

You can jump in where you want, or just read the chapters sequentially. I've tried to be diligent about placing links, so if you jump in and encounter something that depends on what came earlier, you will only be a click away from what you need.

Note that the last time the Notes were updated was in 1999. There have been a lot of advances since then in our understanding of what makes a golf club work. There have also been advances in hype, legislation (in the USGA and R&A) to limit performance, and some real advances in club technology and instrumentation.

I am now in the middle of a major update. At the bottom of this page you will find a checklist of modifications: intended, under way, and completed.




Introduction

Physical Principles
Applying Physics to Golf
Club Length
Lie Angle
Heft
Shaft Flex
Customizing The Clubs

Effects of Clubhead Features
Effects of Shaft Features
Effects of Grip Features
Special Situations
Resources, References, and Bibliography



Status of update:


Item
 Status
Restructure directory in preparation for lots more graphics.
 Done 10/2/06
More illustrations, definitely. Now I have a scanner, a digital camera, and much better graphics software than 1999, so the capability is there. Under way
Lots of small editing changes to:
  • Reflect things I've learned since 1999.
  • Use some of the structural changes I'm making, like beefing up Physics and adding Swing.
 Under way
Beef up Physics to include F=ma, centrifugal force.
 Done 10/6/06
In Physics or maybe Loft, beef up "distance" to include launch angle and spin. See if computer simulations can come up with the same kind of conclusions that are floated as "the truth" today.
Fill in Swing. This includes mechanics of the swing and ballistics of impact.
 Done
11/30/06
Clarify Length to make it the first, independent choice; then indicate interactions with other specs.
A more intuitive angle on how Swingweight matching and moment-of-inertia matching relate to one another. Done
11/4/06
Something about shaft spines. That has become something of a hot topic. I think it's overblown, but it certainly merits some discussion. This will be in the section on Flex, and will be fairly short. I'll do a detailed article on spine separately. BTW, the section on Flex will be substantially updated when I get to it.
Perhaps a section on instrumentation. Since I have built my own frequency meter, NeuFinder 4 (a deflection-based shaft measurement tool), swingweight scale, clublength rules, etc, I know something about this and would like to share it.


Last updated -- Nov 6, 2006
Copyright Dave Tutelman 2007 -- All rights reserved
Home page