The Masters

Tuning your clubs is very important to improve the quality of your game. After reading what little the TW09 book mentioned about club tuning, I was originally nervous to adjust these settings. There is no need to fear adjusting these settings when you understand what they do and how adjustments will affect your shot. Everyone will most likely tune they’re clubs a little differently than other players. When you tune your clubs you are fine tuning all the clubs in your bag to how you want them to perform. Tuning your clubs will add power, loft (height), spin, workability and adjust your draw or fade. Those are the 5 simple aspects of tuning your clubs, it is NOT rocket science.

The club tuner uses a slide bar for making your adjustments. You need to tune your driver, woods, irons and wedges. When you tune one of these club sets, it is for the whole set, how you tune your irons is for all of your irons, etc. Below is a definition of the 5 aspects of club tuning followed by a few considerations regarding each of these adjustments. I will then explain my theories regarding club tuning and how I have my clubs tuned for an example.

These are the 5 aspects of tuning your clubs and what each aspect controls.

Power:
Description - This adjust the power of your club
Affect - Adjust up (left) for more power, adjust down (right) for less power

Workability:
Description - This adjust how much you manually Draw or Fade using your targeting circle arrows
Affect - Adjust up (left) for more workability, adjust down (right) for less workability

Draw/Fade:
Description - This allows you to adjust for your natural Draw or Fade
Affect - Adjust left to add draw, adjust right to add fade

Loft:
Description - This increases the height of your ball and also increases the length of your shots
Affect - Adjust up (left) for more loft (height), adjust down (right) for less loft

Spin:
Description - This is the natural ball spin, not your manual ball spin while in flight
Affect - Adjust up (left) for more spin, adjust down (right) for less spin

Considerations for club tuning:

Overall - Before you start to adjust a club set , take a few shots and watch your ball. If your ball is GREEN you have hit a relatively straight shot, if your ball is RED then you have shanked your ball. Alter your swing style a bit until you can keep your balls in the GREEN. It is important to have a consistent swing style to properly tune your clubs. After you feel comfortable with your swing begin with one adjustment at a time, do not adjust your Draw/Fade until last. Adjust your loft up, then test it. Adjust your power up, then test it, and so on for each club set. After you have tuned each club set you need to set your Draw/Fade for each.

Power - Be careful with this one, to much power will shank your ball more easily, turn it up just a little at a time as you get used to it. Your driver is the only club you really need to push up the power very high since it is the longest club in your bag. The key thing to consider regarding power is to get a nice balance between your clubs regarding distance.

Workability - There are Draw & Fade arrows on each side of you targeting circle to manually adjust your draw & fade instead of twisting your Wiimote. Increased workability allows you to hook around trees further when you are in a position with a tree between you and the pin. When you turn up (left) your workability you increase the amount you can manually adjust for these. When you turn up your workability you also increase the amount your ball will SHANK with a bad swing.

Draw/Fade - After you have tuned each club set you need to set your Draw/Fade for each. Take a few shots quickly and zoom (press A) to see where your balls land. Then take a few more and see where they land. If your ball is consistently traveling to the right side of center, then adjust your Draw/Fade to the left and test your shots again. Do this a few times until you have tuned for your natural draw or fade.

Loft - When you turn up your loft your ball will travel much higher and clear trees and other obstacles better. The higher your loft is set, the further your ball will travel. For your short wedges however, with a high loft, your ball will not travel as far, it will be more like a flop shot. The lower your loft is set, the more your ball will roll when it lands. The higher your loft is set, the less your ball will roll when it lands. When you turn up your loft, your ball will be affected more by the wind. When you turn down your loft, your ball will be affected less by the wind.

Spin - The higher you set your spin, the more distance you will get because your ball will roll further when it lands. The lower you set your spin, the less distance you will get because your ball will roll less when it lands. When your spin is set to minimum, your ball will STICK better when it lands, and not have a tendency to roll off the green. I use minimum spin for all my clubs.

My theories regarding club tuning

Drivers - You want to set maximum loft to clear trees and get longer drives. Increase your power a little at a time as you get used to the extra power. You may want to reduce the workability for that club to minimize how far your ball will shank with a bad swing. Some players will turn up they’re spin to get extra distance from the roll. Other players will turn they’re spin down to help the ball STICK better when it lands to avoid rolling off the fairways and greens.

Woods - You want to set maximum loft to clear trees. Since your woods are mostly for your approach shots you don’t want to push the power up to high so you will have a much lower chance of shanking your ball with a bad swing. You may want to increase the workability so you can get around obstacles better. Some players will turn up they’re spin to get extra roll. Other players will turn they’re spin down to help the ball STICK better when it lands to avoid rolling off the fairways and greens.

Irons - Since your irons are usually headed for the green, you want to use a medium/high level of loft because you want to be more accurate and land close to the pin, especially in high wind. You also want to use a medium/high level of power so you have better control of your swing without shanking your ball. Since your approach shots are very important to land on the green, you may want more workability to get around obstacles better. Spin all the way down helps to STICK on the green without rolling off.

Wedges - Accuracy with wedges is very important unless you want long putts. Since wedges have high natural loft you will want to keep loft set about medium. I prefer power at medium/high for just a little extra, especially out of the bunker. Workability at medium/high helps to get around obstacles better. Spin all the way down helps to STICK close to the pin, especially on sloping greens.

My settings

Driver -
Power - 90%
Workability - 50%
Draw/Fade - 50%
Loft - 100%
Spin - 0%

Woods -
Power - 75%
Workability -75%
Draw/Fade - 50%
Loft - 100%
Spin - 0%

Irons -
Power - 75%
Workability -75%
Draw/Fade - 50%
Loft - 75%
Spin - 0%

Irons -
Power - 90%
Workability -75%
Draw/Fade - 50%
Loft - 50%
Spin - 0%

I have tuned my clubs several times. After your first tuning you will most likely go back and make some adjustments several times until you have your clubs tuned for how you play. Having the best selection of clubs in your bag, for how you play, is also very important to get the distances you need for all the situations that you will find yourself in. Below is my club selection for an example.

Driver - 8.5 deg.
Woods- 3W & 7W
Irons - 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 & PW
Wedges - SW, LBW, LW & HLW
And of course a PUTTER

Cya on the Greens
TheJokker

First off, thanks for the info. I hadn't spent much time in the tuning section, but I'll defininitely start with that next time I play.

Second, do you find that tuning helps the system learn your natural swing? My first tuning session started exactly how I actually hit the ball, lots of loft with a natural fade (bordering on a slice). After rolling my wrists a bit I could nail it striaght down the middle. Ever since then, my career golfer hits it straight 99% of the time. Is there a correlation?

@Jokker: Thanks for post/reposting this. Everyone was so late to the tuning party in '09, but hopefully this will give players a jump on their game so they can be more competitive earlier on.

@Broflowski: The tuning system doesn't learn your swing, but it worked wonderfully for you! It allows you to customize your swing and practice with it so you can make consistent shots! So your new straight shot is all you and your mad skills, not the system.

Thanks a LOT for this information. This game is SO deep but the manual is SO shallow!

This is some great info! I just started playing last night and was very, very intimidated by the Club Tuning, but I came to realized that it is very important to the aspect of the game.

Sticky this if not already suggested!

thanks for the info. I've been eyeing club tuning but think I need to get the feel of the game more.

hey thanks for all the info. i messed with the tuning in 09 but not the way i wanted to.. i am going to put this club tuning info to work and see how it works for me.. reminds me of the baseballgames tuning aspect..
please if anyone else uses other settings please post them cause what might work good for you might also work good for someone else

Good post! you have a PM...

I've posted TheJokker's excellent article on my site with his permission so it's easier to find. There's pretty much no chance it will be stickied here, and a lot of times it's difficult to search for stuff like this on the forums. You'll find it at my site filed on the 2010 Strategy page. Thanks again, Jokker!

Very important post for newcomers and well said. I have tuned all my clubs as well. This is very important for players so they can find their comfort zone and progress.

One more thing, special thanks to EA for bringing club tuning to the table. It's nice to know we as players have total control of our clubs.

the joker great post and have tuned my clubs and it makes a big difference.. i also have tried playing 18 with the clubs you have chosen or your bag, the only difference is i went with a 10 degree driver... i must say those are great clubs in the bag as long as you tune them.. had a great round.....