3 Golf Equipment Terms Explained and How They Can Help Your Game

Loft

Loft is defined as the angle between the shaft axis when it's perpendicular to the ground and the plane of the face and is measured in degrees

Loft is a big determining factor in how far the ball will go. One thing to note is the lofts on irons have been decreasing over the years, for example the Taylor Made RSi 1 7 iron has a loft of 30.5 degrees, 7 iron lofts used to be 36-38 degrees. This is one of the reasons why long irons are disappearing and gap wedges are appearing, what used to be a 3 iron is now a 5 iron!

What this means for the player is that they should ignore what's on the bottom of the club and have a set make up that delivers a consistent gap of 10-15 yards between each club. For some that maybe a 4 degree gap in loft and for slower swing speeds that could be a 6 degree gap. This could also mean that you might need less clubs in the bag.  

Flex & Kick Point

Flex is simply how much the shaft bends. Most are labelled Ladies L-Flex, Senior or A-Flex, Regular R-Flex, Stiff S-Flex and Extra Stiff or X-Flex. There is no industry standard as to what each of the flexes means so one company's stiff flex could be anothers regular flex.

Also the shaft doesn't necessarily have the same flex the whole length of the shaft. This is particularly true for graphite shafts and this is another reason why two shafts of similar flex can perform very differently. It's never a great idea to assume just because a shaft flex suits you then every shaft of that flex will suit you even if they are the same weight.

Kick point is the point on a shaft that flexes the greatest. You will hear about high, low and mid kick points but all these points are within 3-4 inches on a shaft and not up near the butt or down by the tip. Also generally a high kick point will hit the ball low and a low kick point will hit it high.

It is better to talk about high launching shafts, mid launching shafts and low launching shafts rather then kick point. 

Bounce

Bounce is the angle between the leading edge (front) of the club's sole, the trailing (back) edge and the ground. It is most apparent in wedges. It prevents the club from digging into the ground. When used correctly its possible to hit the ground before the ball and still get a reasonable golf shot.

'Bounce' is your friend! Using the bounce correctly means having the sole of the club hit the ground first as opposed to the leading edge. A shallower angle of attack helps this.

Higher bounce helps in soft turf conditions, golfers with steeper angles of attack (think golfers with big divots!) and in bunkers, sand is generally softer then turf. Low bounce is good for harder turf conditions, very firm sand (particularly wet compacted sand) and some golfers who take little or no divot.



Any questions or comments are greatly appreciated.