When you ask for one driver will be built to 45.5″you would think it would be that simple.
In the words of Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend!”
On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, co-hosts Johnny Wunder and Jake Morrow explored why all the different OEMs measure length of golf clubs otherwise.
While the USGA officially measures length by placing the sole of the club on a 60-degree plane and then measuring from the intersection of the shaft and that plane to the bottom of the grip cap, not all OEMs do it this way.
“I had this discussion today with a lot of guys, and the general consensus is that they all think you have to measure from a different point, basically,” Morrow said. “Some of them measure from the middle of the sole, some of them only measure the length after you bend the irons, because if you bend the iron, they get longer. It’s actually like it’s longer, shorter, so they’ll only measure after you bend them. Some of them measure before you bend them. Some of them are on a 60-degree ruler.”
Because of all these different measurement methods, OEM Tour Trucks actually have a mark on their gauges for what would a 46 inch driver be on a USGA ruler, so they can ensure that all their drivers are compliant.
While this doesn’t affect the general consumer very often, you see it come up when ordering irons because some companies, like Titleist, Callaway, and TaylorMade, have a standard length of 37″ for a 7-iron while Cobra, Mizuno, and Srixon list it at 37.25″. However, those clubs can all be the same length.
So why wouldn’t this just be standardized by the USGA method?
“The reason I think there’s no urgency to do it at an OEM level is because there’s a little bit of unpredictability from truck to truck and OEM to OEM,” Wunder suggested. “So it basically encourages them to go, no, we’re going to do it our way. We measure by this ruler.”
So the next time you’re looking for a specific length, make sure you know which ruler that club is measured by, because the difference it may mean something later.
For more from Wunder, listen Full episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped hereor see below.
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