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How to Read Golf Club SpecsTotal weight for drivers, bounce for irons, grip weight for putters

Updated: Nov 3, 2026Contains affiliate links

You look at a spec table and cannot tell where to look. That confusion shrinks once you fix the order in which you read it.

The XXIO 14 and the Srixon ZXi RKT. These two drivers have a 200g head, 460cc volume and a 59° lie. On the official spec table, they're the same this far.
Yet total weight is 281g for the XXIO 14 and 304 to 313g for the ZXi RKT. They're completely different clubs. When I pick up a catalog, as a gear nerd I read from the bottom row of the table first, total weight. For drivers, irons and putters, which number comes first? I'll write it with official values (all checked Sep 23, 2026).

Bottom line

Drivers: all 460cc. The difference is total weight and length

People tend to think that. Here are Dunlop's three current drivers exactly as the official spec table gives them. Untouched.

From Dunlop's official spec sheets (checked Sep 23, 2026). Length is measured with the 60° method. Total weight varies by shaft, so the ZXi RKT shows the range for the three stock shafts, and the XXIO 14 and Prime show R-flex values. Weights are the figures the maker labels "reference" or "design" values.

Volume is 460cc on all three. No difference there.

Look at the top two. Head weight is 200g on both. Yet total weight differs by 23 to 32g. If the head is the same, that difference comes from everything but the head, namely the shaft and grip. Even when the most prominent number in the catalog, the head, is the same, the weight when you swing is completely different. This is why I read a spec table from the bottom.

The gear nerd's take: the lighter the club, the longer it is. That's no accident

Look at the table again. As total weight drops, length goes up. As weight falls to 313g, 281g and 257g, length goes 45.75, 46 and 46.5 in.

When you make a club lighter, you feel the head's weight less when you swing. So length is added to get the head's effect back. That is why the balance numbers stay in the narrow range of D1 to D3. Lightness and length are designed as a pair.

One thing follows from this. When you switch to a lighter driver, the length usually goes up too. As length grows, hitting the center gets a little harder. When someone says "I made it lighter and now I can't hit it," the cause being length rather than weight isn't rare.

In your place, I'd look for candidates within ±10g of your current driver's total weight and ±0.25 in. in length. Outside that range, the swing feel changes clearly.

Irons: 3.5° of bounce matters more than 1° of loft

What irons get compared on is the 7-iron loft. Let's line up the Srixon ZXi5 and ZXi7.

From the spec table of Dunlop's official "NEW Srixon ZXi Irons" (checked Sep 23, 2026). The ZXi7 is 0.25 in. longer when fitted with the MODUS3 TOUR 105.

The loft differs by 1°. That's less than a single club number (usually 3 to 4°). I think it's a stretch to separate "for better players" from "for intermediate players" on that.

What gets overlooked is bounce, the angle at which the sole points down, and it differs by 3.5°. The more bounce, the better it suits golfers who hit down sharply. The head bounces instead of digging into the ground. Conversely, if a golfer who sweeps uses a lot of bounce, the sole bulge hits the turf first.

So what separates these two clubs is how you hit, more than loft. I wrote the details in ZXi5 vs ZXi7. Many makers print bounce small, low in the spec table. Look for it.

Putters: grip weight before the head

Putters are a different story. Many models don't publish head weight, leaving little to compare with (details in How to choose a putter). In exchange, makers do publish grip weight officially.

From each maker's official site (checked Sep 23, 2026). Thickness is the width published by SuperStroke. Golf Pride does not publish a width for the RT Pistol.

The lightest and the heaviest differ by 38g. That's a real difference.

What catches the eye is the two SuperStroke grips. The thick Tour 2.0 is 55g and the thin Tour 1.0 is 71g. The thicker one is 16g lighter. The maker explains that the 2.0 is lighter because it uses an EVA foam core. For Golf Pride, the Medium and Large are both 64g. A thicker grip doesn't add weight at your hands.

If you choose assuming a thick grip is heavy, you'll miss here. Do you want to quiet your wrists with thickness, or change the feel with weight? Those two are set by different numbers. I put grip choice together in Missing short putts: what grip thickness fixes.

How to read all three

Driver, irons, putter. The numbers you look at differ, but the order of reading can stay the same. Narrowing in this order gets you to candidates faster than reading the table row by row from the top.

1. Weight: total weight (grip weight for a putter). Is the difference from your current club within ±10g?
2. Length: lighter models get longer. Between the same club numbers it can differ by 0.25 in. each
3. Angle: bounce for irons. The smaller the loft difference, the more you choose by this
4. Letters and looks: flex letters like "S" and "R" and head shape come last

There's a reason to leave the letters for last. Even the same "S" spans shaft weights from 47g to 82g. I wrote that up in Shaft flex S vs R. Pick the letter after you've settled the weight.

Check with your own clubs (cost ¥0)

What you compare against is the club you use now. The tools are things you have at home. A scale and a tape measure.

1. Total weight: put the driver and one iron on a kitchen scale. Write the numbers down
2. Length: run the tape from the end of the grip to the tip of the sole
3. Sole wear: look at the bottom of the iron and see whether it leans to the toe (tip) or heel (root)
4. Putter grip: look up the model number and check the weight on the maker's official site

Take these four notes to a shop and you can narrow candidates from the catalog before you hit anything. A used club may have had its length changed by the previous owner, so if it differs from the official value, that's a clue.

Who does this way of reading specs suit?

When it helps most

• You're thinking of replacing clubs and have too many candidates to choose from
• You switched to new clubs and hit worse than before
• You sometimes buy online or used without trying the club

If you're curving it 10 yards or more off your target, another approach is to have your motion checked before looking at numbers (Lessons or clubs: which comes first?).

What I learned measuring the length of the QUANTUM

I measured the length of the QUANTUM 9-degree with a tape measure. The listed length was around 45.5 inches and the measured length was 45.4 inches, a gap of 0.1 inch (my calculation). The length I measured with the tape matched the spec table. I did not weigh it.

Reading the table does not always prevent a miss. I have used the SM11 54-degree since August. In September 2026 I looked at the bounce table in the shop but overlooked that the bounce differs between 10 and 12 degrees, and took the SM11 out to a public course. I hit it fat from the wet rough, so I deal with it by gripping down in the rough.

If I chose again, I would look at the bounce first. For someone reading a spec table for the first time, I recommend checking the bounce after the weight and length.

When the QUANTUM pushed the ball to the right, it went about 15 yards right. Moving the ball half a ball-width to the left cut it from 3 of 10 balls to 1. I hesitated over the loft spacing, and what decided it was getting even distances from one club to the next.

The only thing I checked in this section is how to measure length. Conditions for the numbers: length is the value measured with a tape from the end of the grip to the tip of the sole.

About the writer and sources

Written by a gear nerd who studies golf equipment, averages a 72, and plays about 150 rounds a year.

I re-read the numbers against the sources below on September 23, 2026. What I measured is written in the section "What I learned measuring the length of the QUANTUM." Last updated: November 3, 2026.

FAQ

Related reading

Is Your Club Causing the Duck Hook? Lie Angle, Weight and Adjustable Hosel
An article on counting the clubs that go left to tell sleeve, lie angle or motion apart.

Srixon ZXi5 vs. ZXi7
1° of loft, 3.5° of bounce. How to read irons, in detail, on two models.

Missing Short Putts: What Grip Thickness Can Fix
An article on choosing putter grip weight, 52 to 90g, from the direction you miss.

Shaft flex: S vs. R
The same S spans 47 to 82g. Why to decide weight before the letter.

Srixon and XXIO drivers
Dunlop's current drivers lined up by total weight and length.

Sources for this article

• Dunlop official: Srixon ZXi RKT Driver (spec table)
• Dunlop official: XXIO 14 Driver (spec table)
• Dunlop official: XXIO Prime Driver (spec table)
• Dunlop official: NEW Srixon ZXi Irons (spec table)
• SuperStroke official: Zenergy Tour 1.0 (1.00 in. wide, 71g)
• SuperStroke official: Zenergy Tour 2.0 (1.17 in. wide, 55g, EVA foam core)
• SuperStroke official: Zenergy Tour 5.0 (1.52 in. wide, 90g)
• Golf Pride Japan official: RT Pistol (S 52g / M 64g / L 64g)

Last updated: Nov 3, 2026

Specs and prices are the figures published on manufacturers' official websites and in press releases, and by media outlets (checked Sep 23, 2026). These are published figures; any numbers from my own hitting or use are given in the article body with their conditions.