Review of Acer XP Professional Golf Clubs - Reduced Offset vs Progressive Offset
Acer XP Professional Golf Clubs
I just recently bought the Acer XP Professional Reduced Offset Golf clubs and in the process couldn’t find a very good review on them. Everything seemed generic and didn’t really help. I also wanted to know what the difference between reduced offset and progressive offset clubs and how it helped or hindered my game. Therefore I thought I would write my own review of these clubs.
Progressive Offset vs. Reduced or No Offset
First off let me say that I was originally using Ping Zing 2 knock offs called Z Model II. I got these clubs from a friend about 8 years ago and have been using them since. These clubs have what is called a progressive offset. This means that the point where the shaft and the club head meet becomes further and further set apart as the club number decreases. Therefore if you were a righty and were to address the ball with your club one would think the head and shaft would form a straight line down to the blade of the club (bottom of the face). But if you look at most clubs today the head (for a righty) is shifted to the right. There is a little bit of a bend in the club at the base giving it some offset from the club shaft.
This is supposed to help correct the most common mistake in golf which is the slice. The idea is that the club shaft and thus your hands are out ahead of the club-face and thus allows you more time to bring the club-face around to square. When the club-face is late in the swing most of the time it will keep the club face open (think of a forward slash as an open face with the o the ball like this, o/ .) This puts that spin on the ball creating the slice, and which is fixed if you have more time to bring the club-face around.
Take a look at some tour clubs also known as blades and compare them to yours. The tour clubs are straight from shaft to blade of the face.
Now having offset has its drawbacks. For one thing you loose feel. Now I suppose if you were to begin with offset clubs you could learn feel with these but I imagine that your swing would be tougher to master. Reason being because in order to move the golf ball deliberately your swing would have to be that much more out-of-whack from a good mechanical swing. You be the judge on that. Also these clubs make you loose distance in you golf shot. This I would imagine is because of the launch angle being different and club head speed being slower in the further back position. You’ve already begun your follow through while the club head is just reaching the ball.
Why I choose the Acer XP Professional Golf Clubs
Well, after not finding any reviews on the Acer XP Professional golf clubs I decided to go with them anyway. I was sitting on the fence for about 2 months using my Z Model II Ping Zing 2 knock-offs and heard the words that brought me to the other side. “I feel like I loose the feel of the shot with offset clubs.” With that a light bulb went off, baseball bats don’t have offset, tennis rackets don’t have offset, why should a golf club?
I had been playing golf off and on for a while and never quite felt like my arms were part of the club during the swing. I couldn’t feel that connection with the ball. I figured it was a good enough story for me to give them a try.
Review of the Acer XP Professional Reduced Offset Clubs
The Acer XP Pro golf clubs have a reduced offset that starts at half of regular progressive offset clubs, 3mm for the 3 through 7 irons, and goes down to 2 mm for the 8 and 9, then 1 mm for the PW and AW, with 0.5 mm for the SW. The clubs also have a cavity back which offers forgiveness for shots that are not struck on the center of the club-face. The cavity back distributes the weight to the edges so the club doesn’t twist and cause as errant shots.
From the start I could feel a difference in the two clubs. With my Z Model II’s I always felt like I was hacking at the ball and never really new where the ball was going to go. With the Acer XP’s it’s different. I imagine that it has a large part to do with the reduced offset. When I screw up a shot I can have a feel what the ball already did before I look up. This helps a lot with shot diagnosis.
When you make the change between offset and reduced offset you will also need to change some of your swing mechanics. Right now I am working on becoming a scratch golfer and using a very helpful book called Swing Machine Golf. One of the main things outlined in the book that I have found to help with making the switch is to initiate the downswing with your hips. You can do this by either straightening your left leg (right if you’re a lefty) or by just turning your hips. Along with this though you must also remember to keep your grip loose and bring your wrists through the shot.
I have found this method very effective at overcoming the slice that was supposed to be brought on by reduced offset clubs. This has also made me work on a much sounder golf swing.
The last thing that I noticed specifically with these clubs is the swing weight. By swing weight I mean the weight that it feels like you are swinging. Even though the Acer XP Professionals are just a few grams heavier they weight distribution feels remarkably different. Although this may not be the case for everyone I feel like it helps smooth out my swing and get a whoosh, rather than a clunk. Now this could be just switching to newer clubs and newer technology but the difference was noticeable.
All in all I would recommend these clubs to anyone who wants to begin the transition from progressive offset clubs to blades. The reduced offset gave me extra feel on all clubs especially the 3, 4, and 5-irons and have given me just another reason to get out and golf more.