The Spec Handbook
Reading Your Own Spec Sheet
Every session ends with a page of numbers and letters that mean nothing to most golfers on first read. This page exists so you can decode it yourself, whether you fitted here or picked up a sheet somewhere else entirely.
The Swingweight Scale, Explained Once and Properly
Swingweight measures how a club’s weight is distributed between the grip end and the head end, not how much the club weighs in total. Two clubs can be identical on a kitchen scale and still carry very different swingweight readings if the mass sits in different places along the shaft.
The reading is taken on a beam balanced at a fixed point fourteen inches from the butt end of the grip — the standard American method, and the one every scale in this building is checked against. The club sits on that fulcrum, and a sliding counterweight is moved until the beam levels out. Wherever the counterweight lands corresponds to a letter and number: A0 at the light end of the scale up through G10 at the heavy end, with most full-swing clubs for adult golfers falling somewhere in the broad middle of that range.
A Rough Rule of Thumb
Near standard length, roughly two grams of added or removed weight at the clubhead shifts the reading by about one swingweight point. It is an approximation, not a law — the same two grams moves the needle by a different amount on a club that is unusually long or unusually short, which is exactly why we weigh on the actual beam instead of doing the math from a chart.
Head Weight, Shaft Weight and Length Move Together
Head Weight
Sits at the far end of the beam from the fulcrum, so small changes here move the reading more than an equivalent change almost anywhere else on the club.
Shaft Weight
Distributed along the full length rather than concentrated at one end, so its effect on swingweight is smaller per gram than head weight but still meaningful across a full shaft swap.
Length
Changes swingweight even if nothing else about the club is touched, because extending or trimming the shaft shifts where the head sits relative to the fourteen-inch fulcrum point.
Swingweight Is Not the Same Thing as Static Weight
Static weight is simply the club’s total mass on a regular scale, expressed in grams or ounces. Swingweight is a distribution measurement taken on the beam. A club can be heavy in static weight and still read light in swingweight if the mass sits closer to the grip, and the reverse is just as common. Both numbers matter, but they answer different questions, and a spec sheet that only lists one of them is missing half the picture.
Grip Weight’s Outsized Leverage
Because the grip sits on the near side of the fulcrum, adding weight there actually lowers the swingweight reading rather than raising it — the mechanical basis for counterbalancing. A heavier grip can hold total feel steady while bringing a too-heavy-feeling swingweight down without touching the head or shaft at all.
The Rest of the Terms on Your Sheet
| Term | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Torque | How much a shaft twists under load, measured in degrees. Lower torque generally feels firmer and resists twisting through impact. |
| Kick Point | Where along the shaft the most bending occurs during the downswing. A lower kick point tends to launch the ball higher, all else equal. |
| Flex | A general stiffness rating (commonly R, S, X and similar labels) that varies enough between manufacturers that it should never be trusted on its own without on-course testing. |
| MOI | Moment of inertia, a measurement of how resistant a club is to twisting on off-center hits. A related but distinct idea from swingweight, sometimes used as an alternative matching method for full sets. |
| Bounce | The angle between the leading edge and the trailing edge of a wedge sole, which determines how the club interacts with turf and sand. |
| Toe Hang | How far a putter head rotates open when balanced on a level surface, used to match the putter to a straight, arced or strongly arced stroke. |
| Lie Angle | The angle between the shaft and the ground when the sole sits flat, which affects whether contact leans toward the toe or the heel. |
Want to See These Numbers on Your Own Clubs?
Bring in whatever you play and we will read every term on this page directly off the beam.