There is a very interesting small article in this month's Golf Digest. In the article they say that there are millions of lessons given about how to increase clubhead speed, but focusing on speed ignores a gigantic piece of the distance puzzle: hitting the sweet spot. Golf scientist Dave Tutelman in the article says it hinges on the "smash factor"...the balls relative performance, depending on where on the face you've hit it. A tour player hits the sweet spot a lot and his smash factor (ball speed divided by clubhead speed) approaches 1.48, but a 20-handicapper makes contact all over the face and is usually under 1.30. If that 20-handicapper swings the driver 100 mph, that 1.30 smash factor could cost him or her up to 40 yards. Another way to look at it: Hitting the sweet spot is the equivalent of gaining more than 12 mph of clubhead speed which is dramatic.
Some articles say that a 1 mph increase of swing speed will increase your distance 3-4 yards. So....a 12 mph increase by hitting the sweet spot can give you up to 36 - 48 more yards! You can gain the same distance of a 10-12 mph swing speed increase by hitting the sweet spot of your club with your current swing!
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