Cutting down shafts / effecting swing weight

[Deleted Member 1156]

How are you able to see an extra 30 yards hitting it down the range? I've never been able to do that 🤔

 

[moogie]

Bit of an update.. indifferent results on the course... had a few good drives with it like this.. much more of a fairway finder but putting it back up to 14 at time of cutting adding a lesson on top of this last week has seemed to have me sending my drives very high with a fade.. (we had been working on opening the clubface at address) anyways I went the range today with a mate to try his new driver.. again very high fade lost a lot of distance so cranked the loft down to 10 degree. (opens the face by 2* apparently) I proceeded to hit 10 constantly straight drives.. the first 20 yards further than the furthered with the 14.. and by the end I was 30 yards further

going to keep with it and see how it goes

So....you were hitting high fades with the loft cranked up, thus closing the face.

You then , knocked the loft down , which opens the face , and you hit straight drives....??

Confusing
But if it works.......stick with it

 

[PJ87]

How are you able to see an extra 30 yards hitting it down the range? I've never been able to do that 樂

Protrace fitted to half the bays

(with the naked eye I could have told roughly just because of which target I landed near) however as the bay I was in was fitted with protrace I could see clearly the distance and shape of the shot between the 2 lofts

 

[PJ87]

So....you were hitting high fades with the loft cranked up, thus closing the face.

You then , knocked the loft down , which opens the face , and you hit straight drives....??

Confusing
But if it works.......stick with it

baffling isnt it? however I did have a lesson monday just gone and we focused on opening the clubface to path at address trying to hit draws with my irons. (previously had a very closed clubface encouraging a either hook if I took the correct path, or a slice if my grip was out as I would come from the outside) anyways he worked on this for an hour with me with much better flight

so im wondering if opening the face with the change in loft has given me what he was showing me on my lesson.. i.e im addressing it the same as before but having the face correct (to what he was teaching me)

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

Protrace fitted to half the bays

(with the naked eye I could have told roughly just because of which target I landed near) however as the bay I was in was fitted with protrace I could see clearly the distance and shape of the shot between the 2 lofts

Cool, must try one of those ranges some day they sound like fun 👍

 

[PJ87]

Cool, must try one of those ranges some day they sound like fun 

Has its downsides and its upsides.. Downside right now is the range is so darn busy most of the time due to the novelty of this (is starting to wear off though which is good) upside is when you can get a bay you get much more than just hitting down a range can play a simulation of 18 holes or a points game etc etc

another downside seems to be distances, protrace seems to be more on "actual" distance hit rather than what the targets on the range give you. For example the 70 yard green (they have 4 main greens) is about 60 yards away according to protrace.. so if im hitting to that green it says ive hit only 60 yards rather than 70 that the chart on the bay says..

must get a bucket of lake balls and smack them down one time see how far I can actually hit! this 30 yards on top was good but would be good to see total carry on a real ball

that said they do use top of the range sixron range balls

 

[fundy]

Has its downsides and its upsides.. Downside right now is the range is so darn busy most of the time due to the novelty of this (is starting to wear off though which is good) upside is when you can get a bay you get much more than just hitting down a range can play a simulation of 18 holes or a points game etc etc

another downside seems to be distances, protrace seems to be more on "actual" distance hit rather than what the targets on the range give you. For example the 70 yard green (they have 4 main greens) is about 60 yards away according to protrace.. so if im hitting to that green it says ive hit only 60 yards rather than 70 that the chart on the bay says..

must get a bucket of lake balls and smack them down one time see how far I can actually hit! this 30 yards on top was good but would be good to see total carry on a real ball

that said they do use top of the range sixron range balls

sounds like theyre knock off Srixons to me

before using them for yardages Id check they are 100% balls, most range use lower % balls

 

[PJ87]

sounds like theyre knock off Srixons to me

before using them for yardages Id check they are 100% balls, most range use lower % balls

yeah they are defo lower % balls, ive used a range finder on the flags of the greens myself in the past to find them out by 10-15 yards , need to get myself a bucket of normal balls and get proper yardage

however one thing I plan to do once my swing changes have bedded in is go down to my other range and pay £25 to get gapped on their launch monitor. Get it printed on a A5 bit of plastic that can be hung on your bag so you always know which club hits what

 

[PJ87]

More experimenting , should call me the mad scientist, anyways i have changed my swing.. my loft is back up to 14 as my pro wants the faced to start more closed than the 10 was offering me.. so I have bought a 10.5 head off the for sale part of the forum to try at 12.5

going for a shaft fitting in a couple weeks aswell

will be able to try both heads, all different shafts..

expensive way to do things but could end up with 2 drivers lol

 

[delc]

I had a TM Burner 09 driver with a longish shaft a few years ago and hit it beautifully. It's swing weight was a relatively heavy D6 and it was almost impossible to swing it other than smoothly and rhythmically, which is probably where the distance and accuracy came from. Unfortunately my clubs were stolen and I have never since found such a good driver, although my Cobra comes close. We also had a relatively small Indian guy at our club who had a 48" Cobra Long Tom driver, with which he hit beautiful long accurate drives with just a hint of draw. Unfortunately the rest of his golf was pretty rubbish and I think he was still off 28. I am not convinced that shortening your driver is the answer to more accurate driving. You are just giving up length and will probably muck up the balance and swing weight of your club. Some longer hitting pros probably cut down their drivers because they are already longer than they need to be, and have the professional back up to re-balance and re-weight them.

 

[chip barm]

just been through this thread and saw you post this at the beginning, james. 'Its annoying that tour pros average 44.5 shaft length however we mer mortals are sold stock shafts that are all longer.. how are we to control this if the pros prefer not to? god knows.' not being funny or disrespectful because i don't know what level you play at or what your handicap is, but can the average golfer really even tell the difference? i feel it's like fitting F1 spec tyres to a family saloon. in the nicest possible way...

 

[PJ87]

I spoke with my pro before I did it and he agreed that majority of golfers would be better suited to a driver that plays an inch shorter than your standard shaft for more control

Certainly has improved my fairway finding

Companies make them longer to promote distance but the epic comes with a shaft option for a 44.5 shaft so must be something in it

Going for a full shaft fit with lee porter soon (a club fitter near me) and he will advise the best shaft length for me and I'll be testing with my m2 current 12 degree head Against a 10.5 head I purchased last night to see what's best

And delc after all the changes I got the swing weight checked in the pro shop it was spot on what I started at so was happy with that

 

[3565]

I spoke with my pro before I did it and he agreed that majority of golfers would be better suited to a driver that plays an inch shorter than your standard shaft for more control

Certainly has improved my fairway finding

Companies make them longer to promote distance but the epic comes with a shaft option for a 44.5 shaft so must be something in it

Going for a full shaft fit with lee porter soon (a club fitter near me) and he will advise the best shaft length for me and I'll be testing with my m2 current 12 degree head Against a 10.5 head I purchased last night to see what's best

And delc after all the changes I got the swing weight checked in the pro shop it was spot on what I started at so was happy with that

I will gaurentee that he will advise on a shorter shaft. In fact I think most good club fitters would say go shorter, the only ones that don't are the OEMs who are just taking money off joe public on length as it sells clubs.

As for who say you'd be losing distance? Every thought about how much distance you'd lose with off centre hits on an OEM length driver? Ive just cut a Ping driver down to 44" for a bloke at my club, and he says it like night and day the difference it's made to his driving. hes now got a driver length that he feels fully in control of.

 

[Face breaker]

Running a 44.5" shaft in my X2hot, also shortened my 3-wood and as of today my irons are running .5" shorter than my recommended measurements...

I'm 5'9 and was measured as standard 'lie/length/stiff shaft' but I just couldn't get any consistency out of my irons (kept pushing right) so I'm now running a half inch shorter with regular shafts and std lie...

I've got arms like a gorilla and an average swing speed which I think is why I think the shorter/regular shafts work better for me...

 

[PJ87]

I am going to be interested in what a club fitter suggests for me when I go for a fit. I've got my 44.5 shaft in a 12 degree head at the moment

I have bought a 10.5 head which if I crank to 12 will close the face slightly so might have a winner there and then he might suggest even shorter shaft

Could accidentally have bought an entire new driver lol

 

[PJ87]

Marked improvement with the driver today

I switched the loft down to 12 on the 12 head.. leaving the 10.5 until next week

found 62% of fairways and only missed 30% right

 

[Orikoru]

Never thought about this before but it might help me with my driver. I was having real problems with it, until I figured I might be standing a bit too far away from the ball, causing me to reach and push or slice it or just miscue it generally, so I started standing a bit nearer to the ball and had much better results - however with the occasional miscue off the heel end. Perhaps if my driver shaft was a touch shorter I'd be more likely to find the right stance every time. Could almost eliminate the likelihood of me standing too far away from it for a start anyway. Something for me to think about I guess.

 

[PJ87]

Never thought about this before but it might help me with my driver. I was having real problems with it, until I figured I might be standing a bit too far away from the ball, causing me to reach and push or slice it or just miscue it generally, so I started standing a bit nearer to the ball and had much better results - however with the occasional miscue off the heel end. Perhaps if my driver shaft was a touch shorter I'd be more likely to find the right stance every time. Could almost eliminate the likelihood of me standing too far away from it for a start anyway. Something for me to think about I guess.

Go for it , really cheap way of improving your driver .. I've cut mine down 1.25 and increased distance

 

[Orikoru]

Go for it , really cheap way of improving your driver .. I've cut mine down 1.25 and increased distance

I might experiment this weekend then with gripping half an inch or an inch lower down than I normally do and see what happens. If there's potential I'll think about making the change permanent.

 

[PJ87]

I might experiment this weekend then with gripping half an inch or an inch lower down than I normally do and see what happens. If there's potential I'll think about making the change permanent.

I am going to a local club fitter with my 12 degree head and the 10.5 one and then going to ask him what one suits me best and try all lengths of shafts

least then I know if I have gone too far with the 44.5 or not enough