Another look at sleeves for drivers / woods

What is a head sleeve?

It's that glued on piece on the tip of some shafts which bolts into a dry jointed driver / wood head. Primarily it is supposed to enable a golfer to alter head loft, but which alas can't work due to engineering principles.

As mentioned in an earlier thread such was invented by Tom Wishon who recently published a retraction to such effect. (GOOGLE: Adjustable Hosel Drivers - Tom Wishon Golf Technology).

Following Mr. Wishon's admission that his invention just doesn't work (vis a vis altering head loft) have golf manufacturers withdrawn their sleeved products? Not surprisingly they have not. Indeed sleeved wares are escalating. After all the golf manufacturing industry is largely founded on marketing lies.

So what happens when golfer Joe attempts to increase his driver loft via his 'adjustable' sleeve and finds that he still can't secure enough ball elevation?

He tends to do one of three things: (a) Live with it and maybe take golf lessons, (b) Changes his driver, or (c) He approaches me or some other club builder and claims that his shaft stinks. He then requests a new shaft with a genuine sleeve fitted.

I have to be realistic: Ninety nine per cent of golfers would never believe that sleeves don't work, particularly as a massive part of the golf industry is founded on the lie that they do. Who would believe a little guy working from home instead of multi-million pound corporations?

One usually has to run with a customer's false beliefs, not because it's the way to make a fast buck but because most people (golfers included) just are not receptive to against the tide technical advice. All one can realistically do is put the information out there and hope that in some quarters it filters through.

So one fixes Joe up with a new shaft (it's not so financially cruel as it will work better than his old one), but what of his 'genuine sleeve?'

Well, most companies who manufacture drivers and woods refuse to sell their sleeves. Instead they prefer to sell customers a new shaft at the same time. A nice rolled up more expensive package by far.

So are all the sleeves out there on eBay etc. counterfeit?

A great misunderstanding abounds amongst golfers who see golf equipment as either 'genuine' or 'counterfeit.' There is actually a massive middle territory of which few golfers are aware. I call it the 'parallel goods' industry. My definition of such is not the same as if you Googled the term and read about 'grey goods.' I need to invent a new term.

Anyway, what do I mean by 'parallel goods?'

Parallel goods are not shoddily made poor quality counterfeits which break after five minutes use. They can take several forms:

(a) The manufacturer of the sleeves (often based in China) wishes to break its exclusive supply licence with the major golf corporation and sell elsewhere. So it does. Sometimes to protect itself it will make a cosmetic change to the product to protect itself from being sued by its major customer. If sued it will likely initially cry 'Not us. A counterfeiter made it. It's not our labelling!'

(b) A major reputable alternative manufacturer such as Billy Bob Golf will make its own sleeve which will fit any given product. It will honestly and openly declare that it has manufactured such, as will the golf wholesalers who supply club builders like myself.

(c) An unknown (to most) alternative manufacturer will manufacture the product to a standard just as high as the officially commissioned manufacturer and such sleeves will be passed off as being 'genuine?' Arguably, in a way they are as such are not shoddily made copies.

I could cite several examples of the above and name names. I won't as I don't wish to stir up a hornets' nest by so doing. Just quietly pass out information.

So how does one make a selective purchase?

I can't answer that. It's hard. One can buy a sleeve off eBay for £15. to £20. whilst if I buy off my wholesaler one could cost me £55. It's a minefield caused by the major manufacturers largely refusing to sell their sleeves as individual components. In this case I can't give a solution, simply outline the problem.

What would I do if I had been daft enough to buy a dry jointed driver and wanted to change my shaft to one which the driver manufacturer refused to supply?

First I would attempt to remove the sleeve intact off the shaft I no longer wanted to use with a view to recycling it. Essentially this can only be done using a shaft extractor machine. Instead of pulling the shaft out of a driver head one pulls the shaft out of the sleeve.

This is either easy or impossible: The sleeve may be made out of aluminium or similar (possibly covered with a thin layer of plastic or paint) and will be strong enough to withstand the very high pressure necessary to pull. It can then be re-used.

Alternatively the sleeve will in the main be made out of hard plastic which will either turn into 'jelly' during the heating process, or will crush into a ball of hot plastic once pressure is applied to it.

How can one tell how the sleeve has been manufactured? I personally cannot (but there may be a way) and I will sometimes telephone the driver manufacturer's helpline for advice. TaylorMade are always incredibly helpful, not so for some of the other companies.

So, armed with either a recycled sleeve or a new one the new unit can be assembled. But I would not simply assemble it but rather additionally glue everything together with shafting (NEVER household - too hard / brittle) epoxy. Even glue in your original titanium bolt. Don't use the replacement bolt in case it is not titanium.

This operation has three advantages:

(a) On the rare occasion that the sleeve is not a good fit then the glue will make it good and wipe out potentially destructive excess play.

(b) Make it possible for anyone with a swing speed exceeding 110 mph to use your driver without risk of it breaking up due to the high swing speed exploting the play which is always present in dry jointed drivers.

(c) Resolve the challenge of remembering to periodically re-tighten the head. They always eventually work themselves loose.

At a later date could the gluing be reversed?

I once did exactly that. It was a relatively simple job which took 30-40 mins including an immaculate clean out / clean up operation. But one needs to know what one is doing. So yes, the operation is certainly reversible.

So there we are. That's the nature of the ball game and a possible way out of the sin bin once the referee declares you off field for requesting something the big boys don't want you to have.

Every golfer should be able to implement his / her own personal equipment choices, not be marshalled down roads carved out by big brother.