Golf Lingo: Smash Factor (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Lingo: Smash Factor (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now golf is littered with lingo and different words and things that people that don’t play the game don’t necessarily understand. And one of the words that has come out recently around the game of golf is this concept smash factor, now if you don’t fully understand what smash factor is you can sound a bit lost in all the 1.5’s and 1.4’s and hits it further because he’s got a higher smash factor. Now smash factor is a terminology that actually came initially from launch monitors. So things like a trackman and a flight scope and a GCT and it sounds very complicated but let’s consider this. If your club head speed is 100 miles an hour and the ball speed is 150 miles an hour the smash factor is 1.5. So its club head speed divide – sorry ball speed divided by club head speed gives you the smash factor. Now the reason why I pick 1.5 is that’s pretty much as fast or as high you’ll get your smash factor when you’re hitting a driver. So that’s 100 miles an hour of club head speed, 1.5 times gives balls speed of 150 and that’s a very efficient contact. That’s striking the ball right out of the middle of the clubface with a good swing and a club that is well suited for you. If the smash factor reduces, it’s probably a sign that the ball hasn’t been stroke overly well either too low, too high, the toe or the heel on the golf club. Or the fact that the club just isn’t well suited for you potentially it’s too light and as the club hits the ball, the ball doesn’t spring off the face as fast as it could do and you lose clubs head speed.

The other consideration that would definitely reduce smash factor is loft, so the more loft you have on a golf club, the lower the smash factor will be. So for example if you are hitting a lobe wedge you’re not going to get a smash factor anywhere near 1.5. With a lobe wedge if your club was traveling at 100 miles an hour, which it probably won’t be but if it was the ball might leave at 110 to 120 miles an hour, a smash factor of 1.1 or 1.2. So the loft are particularly on your irons and your wedges will bring the smash factor down but for most people smash factor is only really a massive relevance with the driver. They are trying to get that smash factor up as high as they can to 1.5, which means it’s a very efficient contact. We’ll oftenly see two golfers been measured with the same club on the same day, on the same launch monitor. One guy swinging at 100 miles an hour and hitting the ball 250, one guy hitting the club at 100 miles an hour and hitting it 220. And for the guy that is hitting it 220 its very frustrating because he can’t hit any faster, he’s trying as much as he can, he’s swinging as fast as the next guy but he’s losing 30 yards. And that could be all about the strike and all about the smash factor we’d see his smash factor numbers being reduced and that’s what's costing him distance. Next time you are being tested on a launch monitor look out for smash factor and see whether you’re losing distance by not striking the ball efficiently. 2015-03-26

Now golf is littered with lingo and different words and things that people that don’t play the game don’t necessarily understand. And one of the words that has come out recently around the game of golf is this concept smash factor, now if you don’t fully understand what smash factor is you can sound a bit lost in all the 1.5’s and 1.4’s and hits it further because he’s got a higher smash factor. Now smash factor is a terminology that actually came initially from launch monitors. So things like a trackman and a flight scope and a GCT and it sounds very complicated but let’s consider this. If your club head speed is 100 miles an hour and the ball speed is 150 miles an hour the smash factor is 1.5. So its club head speed divide – sorry ball speed divided by club head speed gives you the smash factor. Now the reason why I pick 1.5 is that’s pretty much as fast or as high you’ll get your smash factor when you’re hitting a driver. So that’s 100 miles an hour of club head speed, 1.5 times gives balls speed of 150 and that’s a very efficient contact. That’s striking the ball right out of the middle of the clubface with a good swing and a club that is well suited for you. If the smash factor reduces, it’s probably a sign that the ball hasn’t been stroke overly well either too low, too high, the toe or the heel on the golf club. Or the fact that the club just isn’t well suited for you potentially it’s too light and as the club hits the ball, the ball doesn’t spring off the face as fast as it could do and you lose clubs head speed.

The other consideration that would definitely reduce smash factor is loft, so the more loft you have on a golf club, the lower the smash factor will be. So for example if you are hitting a lobe wedge you’re not going to get a smash factor anywhere near 1.5. With a lobe wedge if your club was traveling at 100 miles an hour, which it probably won’t be but if it was the ball might leave at 110 to 120 miles an hour, a smash factor of 1.1 or 1.2. So the loft are particularly on your irons and your wedges will bring the smash factor down but for most people smash factor is only really a massive relevance with the driver. They are trying to get that smash factor up as high as they can to 1.5, which means it’s a very efficient contact. We’ll oftenly see two golfers been measured with the same club on the same day, on the same launch monitor. One guy swinging at 100 miles an hour and hitting the ball 250, one guy hitting the club at 100 miles an hour and hitting it 220. And for the guy that is hitting it 220 its very frustrating because he can’t hit any faster, he’s trying as much as he can, he’s swinging as fast as the next guy but he’s losing 30 yards. And that could be all about the strike and all about the smash factor we’d see his smash factor numbers being reduced and that’s what's costing him distance. Next time you are being tested on a launch monitor look out for smash factor and see whether you’re losing distance by not striking the ball efficiently.