Counterbalancing can take many forms, from higher balance point shafts, to heavier grips. This video explains how this relates to club building, along with the benefits of counterbalancing from both a player and design perspective.
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Equipment
Why Rory McIlroy will likely use the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper at the RBC Heritage
Although we spotted Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper last week during practice rounds at the Masters, he ultimately didn’t decide to use the club in competition.
It seems that will change this week at the 2024 RBC Heritage, played at the short-and-tight Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head.
When asked on Wednesday following his morning Pro-Am if he’d be using the new, nostalgic BRNR Copper this week, McIlroy said, “I think so.”
“I like it,” McIlroy told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday regarding the BRNR. “This would be a good week for it.”
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According to Adrian Rietveld, the Senior Manager of Tour at TaylorMade, the BRNR Mini Driver can help McIlroy position himself properly off the tee at the tight layout.
Here’s what Rietveld told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday:
“For someone like Rory, who’s that long at the top end of the bag, and then you put him on a course like Harbour Town, it’s tough off the tee. It’s tight into the greens, and you have to put yourself in position off the tee to have a shot into the green. It kind of reminds me of Valderrama in Spain, where you can be in the fairway and have no shot into the green.
“I’m caddying for Tommy [Fleetwood] this week, so I was walking the course last night and looking at a few things. There’s just such a small margin for error. You can be standing in the fairway at 300 yards and have a shot, but at 320 you don’t. So if you don’t hit a perfect shot, you could be stuck behind a tree. And then if you’re back at 280, it might be a really tough shot into the small greens.
“So for Rory [with the BRNR], it’s a nice course-specific golf club for him. He’s got both shots with it; he can move it right-to-left or left-to-right. And the main thing about this club has been the accuracy and the dispersion with it. I mean, it’s been amazing for Tommy.
“This was the first event Tommy used a BRNR last year, and I remember talking to him about it, and he said he couldn’t wait to play it at Augusta next year. And he just never took it out of the bag because he’s so comfortable with it, and hitting it off the deck.
“So you look at Rory, and you want to have the tools working to your advantage out here, and the driver could hand-cuff him a bit with all of the shots you’d have to manufacture.”
So, although McIlroy might not be making a permanent switch into the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper, he’s likely to switch into it this week.
His version is lofted at 13.5 degrees, and equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft.
See more photos of Rory testing the BRNR Mini here
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It seems like the RBC Heritage is full of new gear to be spotted, and you can add TaylorMade’s P-UDI utility irons to that list.
We spotted a 17-degree P-UDI 2-iron in Nick Dunlap’s bag yesterday, and now have some photos of both the 3- and 4-irons. Nick has his P-UDI 2-iron setup with a Project X HZRDUS Black 4th Gen 105g TX shaft.
From what we can tell, this new P-UDI utility iron looks to have some of the usual TaylorMade technology as we can see the Speed Slot on the sole of the club for additional face flexibility. A toe screw is usually used to close off the hollow body design that will probably be filled with a version of TaylorMade’s Speed Foam that is present in the current iron lineup. This hollow body, foam-filled design should offer additional ball speed, soft feel, and sound, as well as an optimized CG for ball flight.
“Forged” is etched into the hosel, so we can assume that either the face, body, or both are forged for a soft and responsive feel. The club looks good from behind and at address, where we can see just a little offset and a topline that I would consider medium thickness. We don’t have the full details on what is under the hood or how many loft options will be available yet.
TaylorMade P-UDI 3-iron – 20°
TaylorMade P-UDI 4-iron – 22°
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage
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- Collin Morikawa what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. More photos from the event here.
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX (45 inches)
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
Irons: TaylorMade P770 (4), P7MC (5-6), P730 (7-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 X100 (4-6), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (7-PW)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (50-SB09, 56-LB08), TaylorMade MG4 TW (60-TW11)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade TP Soto
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Tour 2.0
Grips: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
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geohogan
Dec 9, 2018 at 9:50 pm
Ball to clubface impact is 5, 10,000 of a second. Our friend Steve is worried counter balancing a golf club, will dull the percussion of the sweet spot; as if he can detect the difference in vibration. The guy must be a human seismograph.
Release is a bad word for many of us, Steve. We know many like you, use your hands to attempt to square the clubface at impact(in other words, RELEASE) and we wish you luck. For the rest of us, we are happy to use body rotation to square the clubface.
Counter balancing is helpful for those of us pulling the butt end of the lever through impact.
Ref. K Miura’s paper, Parametric Acceleration.
Stay away from the junk science papers titled , parametric acceleration, written in America. Pseudo experts who ripped off the concept of parametric acceleration from Miura, to advance their pseudo scientific concept of release of the club(with hands) through impact. Pure fiction, like your “dulling of the percussion of the sweet spot”.
steve
Nov 20, 2018 at 6:48 pm
This is fuuuun …. 😀
Ed
Nov 20, 2018 at 12:28 pm
I always understood that increasing the MOI of the clubhead effectively increased its resistance to twisting on off-center ball contact. It that is true, when you counterbalance a golf club by adding a weight to the butt end of the grip should increase the MOI of the club. If that is true wouldn’t it be more stable during the swing? Thanks
steve
Nov 20, 2018 at 6:26 pm
Nope… because you must link MOI to axis/axes of rotation. The clubhead and putter has an axis related to impact ‘sweet spot’… and the MOI reacts to heel or toe hits.
Counterbalancing with backweighting affects the MOI axis for the entire club. The club feels more ‘stable’ in the swing but upon ‘impact’ it is sub-optimal for exchange of energy.
Bruce
Nov 20, 2018 at 9:36 am
I hold graduate degrees in engineering and understand the physics of objects – like golf clubs – in motion.
Swingweight is a marketing tool developed long ago. It measures how a club “feels” when it is NOT in motion, but has nothing to say about moving the club – hitting a ball.
Hitting a ball is a circular or curved motion motion – as such physics teaches the important parameter is moment of inertia OF THE ENTIRE CLUB – not just club head like driver MOI.
Golf club moment of inertia can be measured quite simply with a pendulum device and matching this across a set produces uniform feel. Single length clubs accomplish this match by design and work well – think Bryson who also understands physics.
steve
Nov 20, 2018 at 6:38 pm
dy/dx Bruce. Swingweight is NOT SwingINGweight, it’s the First/Polar MOI… and when you swing the club you experience the Second/Mass MOI. What is being discussed here is the “great feeeel” a gearhead feels when he backweights a club and if it feeels good it must be goood for distance and control… regardless of the physics… lol
steve
Nov 20, 2018 at 6:47 pm
dy/dx, Bruce …. 😉
Arse
Nov 20, 2018 at 2:41 am
Counter-balancing is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It works, because unlike steve, none of us would put a half pound of anything onto a swinging golf club, because we are not stupid. There is a limit to everything, just like a very limited knowledge steve has about decency and ethics and life in general as he is disconnected from it.
Counter-balance works because it helps to lever the movement of your hands, and this leverage action is the key. It also helps to make the heavier head weight not feel as heavy. It also helps to square up the face with the mechanical lever action, and there is nothing wrong with adding a mechanical component to the swing to help you square it up.
I am putting it in layman’s terms because that’s all steve understands. He has not given us one single mechanism of action of a lever in a golf swing as it pertains to the MOI of the golf club head in balance with the MOI with the golfer’s swing itself, because he doesn’t understand what MOI is in golf.
drum roll please….. thank you
steve
Nov 20, 2018 at 6:42 pm
Right on A r s e… and don’t forget the great results you get when you counterbalance your pot belly with your big a r s e when swinging the insignificant club MOI/leverage/torque/whatever… LOL
Arse
Nov 21, 2018 at 9:47 am
As everybody was saying, you are just a child. Where is your mother.
steve
Nov 21, 2018 at 2:16 pm
… and you A r s e know nothing about “leverage” and “MOI” within the golf swing because your above comments reveal your abject ignorance about dynamics and the laws of motion. You are beyond ignorant now that you are depending on consensus opinion from the rest of the dummies you descend into stupidity. Pfffttt….
UCB
Nov 22, 2018 at 12:28 pm
You a numpty
steve
Nov 22, 2018 at 3:45 pm
OoOoOoOoooh… that hurts… NOT !!!!!! 😛
Dan Cons
Nov 19, 2018 at 6:42 pm
I’ve recently added weight to the butt of the putter and I’ve been putting better. Jack Nicholas also payed grips with weights in the butt end. Sergio does it also but. Think he uses setting to limit vibration in the shaft.
Dan C
Nov 19, 2018 at 6:41 pm
I’ve recently added weight to the butt of the putter and I’ve been putting better. Jack Nicholas also payed grips with weights in the butt end. Sergio does it also but. Think he uses setting to limit vibration in the shaft.
Z
Nov 19, 2018 at 12:39 pm
Show me how to counterbalance my driver. What swinger characteristics would most benefit counterbalancing
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 10:00 pm
Go to the hardware store and buy a short steel bolt which will slip into the butt end of your driver shaft. Lightly epoxy it in place. Slip the grip over the shaft and swing away… you will be disappointed. If it works then you have a “lazy release” and the counterweight is helping you flip the handle through impact. Most duffers have a lazy release and can’t square up the clubface at impact. Pa thetic…
joro
Nov 19, 2018 at 12:00 pm
I have a set of Wilson C00 Irons that I put a set of 165gr. grips on. They feel great, a little light in the head feel but they feel good. The benefits are that they are much straighter and longer than before and easy to swing. I have also done the same with a 5 wood and pow. I have always been a head feel guy but as I am much older now it is all about picking up speed, and this really helps.
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 10:03 pm
The CW helps your ‘older’ swing because you have developed a “lazy release” and your clubhead wobbles approaching impact. The CW helps you flip the handle at your slower swing speed. What you ‘feel’ is the CW flipping your weak hands.
Arse
Nov 21, 2018 at 9:48 am
Yeah, that’s why a majority of the long drivers use counter balance. You’re so dumb
steve
Nov 21, 2018 at 2:20 pm
Are you certain about that… and if so please provide proof of your asinine a s s ertion…. we’re waiting … go ahead… and don’t fall into your own hole… (_º_)
HDTVMAN
Nov 19, 2018 at 11:39 am
Very good explanation. I sell Ping products and had no idea that the Alta shaft was counterbalanced. It’s a good selling point.
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 10:08 pm
It is if your customer has a slow swing speed less than 85 mph.
Dtrain
Nov 19, 2018 at 11:23 am
I can’t for the life of me understand why you would want this in a putter. I went through a putter fitting and found I totally lost the feel of the clubhead. Then again I had these new fat grips as well, I like the more traditional size. I want to feel the putter swing. YMMV.
Jay Anderson
Nov 19, 2018 at 6:10 pm
I use a Boccieri heavy putter because, being self-employed, my nerves are frazzled. For me it feels as though the grip the shaft ,and the putter head are all one-piece. It is a revelation when I first tried it.
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 10:06 pm
Your “feel” is correct… because the shift of weight towards the butt end deadens impact and feel of clubhead. It’s a scientific fact.
Matt
Nov 18, 2018 at 12:54 am
In General which types of swingers benefit, or don’t, from counterbalancing?
steve
Nov 18, 2018 at 2:08 am
In General… counterbalancing is a fraud because it dulls the sweetspot on the putter or club face. It makes swinging the club feel easier but that is not the solution to a slow speed swing. Counterbalancing a putter is totally wrong and counterproductive to energy transfer from putter head to ball.
HS
Nov 18, 2018 at 10:13 am
again, this steve dude know nothing, because he’s a moron
steve
Nov 18, 2018 at 2:58 pm
I’ll put my engineering degree up against your community college diploma in sport journalism any day… doofus
Big Tata
Nov 19, 2018 at 2:57 am
What a loser
Ee
Nov 19, 2018 at 3:01 am
Explain to us what dulling the sweetspot on the putter face means in scientific terms. How big or small a sweetspot does it have to be to feel any dullness at all. What kind of sweet spot does it have to be. What sort of materials would make for not so much dulling or not. Explain to us what the physics involved are in how the energy is transferred to the clubhead from the handle, because no swinging is actually required in a putter, when the whole putter can be moved sideways without any sort of pendulum stroke at all, if one so desired.
We’re waiting, you idiot
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 1:50 pm
The “sweet spot” on the putter face is NOT the Center of Percussion… which is the point on the entire putter, head, shaft and grip, where you achieve maximum transfer of energy. The CofP is somewhere above the putter head. The “sweet spot” on the putter head is just longitudinal gravitational axis you get when you spin the hanging putter from the butt end. This is where the overall putter m a s s is equal on both sides of the axis. The “sweet spot” is just a line on the putter face and cannot be expanded with heel-toe weighting. Adding more weight to the butt end raises the CofP and makes the energy transfer less efficient and dulls the feel of impact. Hope that help you, you idiot.
Ee
Nov 19, 2018 at 2:00 pm
No, it doesn’t, because you don’t know anything. Well done for pulling that info from Wiki like everybody else, though, at least you can read.
Center of percussion doesn’t work in a golf club, because we have a lie angle that’s offset. If you want to putt vertical, go ahead, you might find that percussive sweet spot better, but we have to putt on a 20 degree lie, so your theory goes bye bye, numbnuts, unlike a bat, which is in a straight line, as is a tennis racket.
Counter-balance works because we use the sloped lie angle to sweep the head of the club or putter across and enables some to create a better handle pivot position in motion off the plane axis.
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 9:40 pm
I’m not going to argue first year Engineering Dynamics with somebody who is ignorant like you. If you want to destroy yourself, add 1/2 pound of steel to the butt end of your putter as a counterweight and you will most certainly feel dull ineffective impact. CofP is solely a function of distribution of m a s s for a club, bat or racket regardless of it’s orientation. BTW, you can calculate the theoretical CofP for an eccentric object… as you can for CofM.
Timothy
Nov 19, 2018 at 12:37 pm
I’m a senior golfer with a pretty slow swing speed. If’ve found that my Ping hybrids, which have an Alta counterbalanced shaft, have a higher ball flight and great feel. You can actually feel the kick of the shaft in your downswing. From my point of view they’re beneficial for a slow swinger like myself.
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 1:56 pm
Your problem is that you are getting weak and can’t develop enough hand speed to crisply release the club through impact. Counterweighting will help you flip the hybrid club faster as you approach impact. The higher ball flight and greater distance is because you are squaring the clubface with the help of the counterweight. If you had an efficient swing without the counterweight you would hit it even farther.
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 9:42 pm
Your problem is you are age weakening and can’t develop enough hand speed to crisply release the club through impact. Counterweighting will help you flip the hybrid club faster as you approach impact. The higher ball flight and greater distance is because you are squaring the clubface with the help of the counterweight. If you had an efficient swing without the counterweight you would hit it even farther.
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 9:47 pm
Your problem is you don’t develop enough hand speed to crisply release the club through impact. Counterweighting will help you flip the hybrid club faster through impact. The higher flight and greater distance is because you are squaring the clubface with the help of the counterweight. If you had an efficient swing without the counterweight you would hit it even farther.
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 9:52 pm
Your problem is you can’t develop enough hand speed to crisply release the club through impact. Counterweighting will help you flip the hybrid club faster as you approach impact. The higher ball flight and greater distance is because you are squaring the clubface with the help of the counterweight. If you had an efficient swing without the counterweight you would hit it even far ther.
Arse
Nov 21, 2018 at 9:50 am
That’s weird, how does a fulcrum work in a pivot motion? What do you think the counterbalance does to the handle end? It flips the club faster, therefore you gain more clubhead speed because it acts as a better pendulum. Duh
steve
Nov 21, 2018 at 2:31 pm
A fulcrum is the support about which a lever pivots. In a free body, such as a club in a golfswing, the point around which rotation occurs is not a fulcrum, it’s an axis. At the top of swing reversal the left or rear hand is a fulcrum. When the club is rotating in the downswing it is kinetic energy flow that is causing rotation, not a hand force couple… unless you believe you should be torquing the club handle through impact…
sam navarro
Nov 17, 2018 at 7:11 pm
how will installing jumbo max grips effect swingweight and balance
steve
Nov 17, 2018 at 9:16 pm
Heavier jumbo grips will move the club balance point towards the butt end.
Swingweight is the static First MOI as in a lever calculation M x radius.
MOI matching is the dynamic Second MOI and is calculated by M x radius^squared.
…. where M = m a s s … which is blocked in the swearbot filter…!!!
geohogan
Nov 17, 2018 at 11:18 pm
5 grams of weight added to the butt end of the golf club will lower SW by about one SW.
Add 50 grams, and SW can change from D2 to C2.
Replace a 50 gram putter grip with Jumbo Max 122 grams and SW will change by about 14 points.
geohogan
Nov 17, 2018 at 11:26 pm
For every 5 grams added to the butt end (moves Center of gravity of the entire club toward the butt), 2 grams of weight can be added to the clubhead to offset the counterbalancing and SW will be the same as before counter balancing and Force applied to the ball will be increased, assuming acceleration remains the same as previous.
Since we feel more heft in the hands, our subconscious will tend to produce more effort, that may also increase acceleration.
(just as we swing with much more acceleration when we grip the club at the clubhead rather than the butt end of the club)
geohogan
Nov 18, 2018 at 12:07 am
Force=ma
To offset counterbalance of butt end. eg 10 grams
4 grams can be added to the clubhead. That will put SW back where it was before counterbalancing + add to the Force applied to the ball, assuming acceleration is the same.
Adding weight to the butt end also fools the subconscious to use more effort, just as we exert more effort to pick up an object we know is heavy compared to an object that is known to be light in weight.
steve
Nov 18, 2018 at 2:12 am
1 ounce = 28.4 grams.
Adding 50 or more grams to the butt end of a club or putter is scientifically insane.. 😮
Meme
Nov 18, 2018 at 10:15 am
you only wish you could counterbalance your boyfriend’s pole steve
steve
Nov 18, 2018 at 2:59 pm
… like you do?…. girly boi….
gps
Nov 17, 2018 at 11:09 pm
5 grams of weight added at the butt end will change SW by about one swing weight.
A std grip has been 50 grams. Force=ma ie mass x acceleration. By counterbalancing a driver at a given SW, we can then add weight to the clubhead to bring SW back to normal, increasing Force
applied to the ball with the same clubhead speed before counter balancing.
Counter balancing fools our subconscious to exert more effort due to more heft felt in the hands, just as we apply more effort to lift an object that we know weighs more than a lighter object.
Change 50 gram putter grip on putter with D1 swing weight; will become about C5 swing weight with a 122 gram grip.
gps
Nov 17, 2018 at 11:14 pm
5 grams added to the butt end will change the SW by about 1 SW point
Force=ma
ie force applied to the ball is equally dependent upon mass of the clubhead and acceleration.
If shaft is counter balanced, then we can add weight to the clubhead to increase force applied to the ball, without changing the swing weight feel of the club.
steve
Nov 17, 2018 at 6:13 pm
Scientifically speaking…. counterbalancing is adding weight to the handle butt end… NOT just adding weight in the top 14 inches unless the shaft is top heavy.
Raising the center of m a s s of the entire club will also raise the center of percussion and dull the clubface sweet spot. Not good.
steve
Nov 17, 2018 at 6:14 pm
Why is the forum swearbot filter so sensitive that it won’t post the word “m a s s”…. sheeesh
aga
Nov 18, 2018 at 6:56 pm
…. it also bans any word that contains the syllable “a s s”… like cla a a ify… a s s ume… ma s s ive… and on and on … it’s a joke !!!!
steve
Nov 19, 2018 at 9:55 pm
… also “f a r t her” …. stooopid swearbot filter gone ‘pc’…!
steve
Nov 17, 2018 at 6:12 pm
Scientifically speaking…. counterbalancing is adding weight to the handle butt end… NOT adding weight in the top 14 inches unless the shaft is top heavy.
Raising the center of mass of the entire club will also raise the center of percussion and dull the clubface sweet spot. Not good.
JP
Nov 17, 2018 at 9:21 am
I don’t have audio here. Can’t these be transcribed?
aga
Nov 18, 2018 at 6:57 pm
… wha? I can’t hear you… 😮