Driver vs 3 wood vs shaft weight vs bad golfer

[Deijavoo]

Played tonight, sorry, I mean played some shocking golf tonight. Left myself in bother every time I dared to whip out my driver and ultimately that's what cost me. The 3w was much more reliable and straight.

Now my driver is a Ping G driver that's been in my bag from 8 months or so and my 3w is an old, battered, 2nd hand, recently bought TM R11 online without trying out. Both stiff shaft but the 3w is a heavier shaft and felt more comfortable/stable all round.

Has the new club thrown me maybe, would a heavier shaft suit me better on the driver too and if so what is a recommendation for Ping, is one club generally better for other people in woods, or is just that my bad golf is making me hope that my clubs are faulty and I can blame them?

Anyone else experience this problem?


Help!

 

[94tegsi]

I've just recently had a fitting and a heavier shaft made a massive difference to me. I tend to hit the ball very high as I get too handsy, the heavier shaft has helped massively.
so in short, it depends on your swing. But the 3w does suggest a heavier shaft might help.

 

[Deijavoo]

Before I started lessons I had this horrible early twist in my wrist. Surprised I ever hit it straight tbh but I kinda got to work around it, however now I think my swing may well be stronger as even my light weight driver only played nice with what felt like very slow swings and my fast/strong but bad 3w shots were very marginally off the fairway.

Guess I'm just annoyed at my round and want to get a quick fix.

Any recommendations on heavy shafts for Ping?


I'm a noob I know.

 

[the_coach]

for sure 'pilot error' plays into it all more

shafts can make things a tad better - or worse - but shafts in general can only fine tune results

general best advice for a driver shaft in terms of weight is to use the lightest shaft you can control
- but control once there's some consistency with delivery patterns - that ways you have a chance to achieve optimum distance for a decent sequenced swing motion
put a heavier shaft in and for the same effort in that swing motion it will generate less clubhead speed

in the grand scheme of things 3 metal shafts would not tend to be as light as driver shaft

two big factors giving you strike issues with the driver although weight will for sure play into it some in the club itself
will be the loft (the lack of it on the driver you don't say what that is) - and the shaft length which makes it a tad harder to control than the shorter 3 metal shaft

in terms of swing motion problems the driver being the longest club in the bag it takes the longest time from start of motion to impact & then finish position to swing - often times folks don't get their heads around this so the rhythm and timing that they may have with other clubs in the bag just disappears real easy

- generally folks have issues with weight of driver being too light because they could be gripping the handle too tight which makes it even more difficult to 'feel' the clubhead
also because they try to get the swing over too quickly so head to attack the ball in a direct route & quick which usually means over the top hit at the ball as opposed to swinging in sequence with rhythm

what's the driver loft
3 metal could be around 15º which through spin rate produced will help to control the curvature to some extent

get some foot spray or dry shampoo spray - spray driver face & see where the strike pattern location on the face is - if it's pretty wide over the face - or predominantly heel side
do some practice swinging at 50% swing speed in rhythm to then concentrate on finding center strike - then if that works up speed to 60%/70% still looking to find center keep going only to 80% - fail at any % level go back to previous success & repeat

biggest issue with driver shot outcomes is strike location on face

 

[Deijavoo]

Thank you for that reply.

I was hitting my driver a little high at 10.5 so took it down to 9.5 recently. I do tend to hit it fairly central on the club face but it was closer to the heel each time tonight.

3 wood at 14 degrees and was hitting high on the face compared to normal but not getting under the ball or anything like that.

Not sure on lengths I'm afraid, but the old beat up 3 felt so much more stable in every instance tonight. Oddly, was hitting both pretty well on Tuesday night at the range but they did feel like whole different games to one another.

 

[PJ87]

Thank you for that reply.

I was hitting my driver a little high at 10.5 so took it down to 9.5 recently. I do tend to hit it fairly central on the club face but it was closer to the heel each time tonight.

3 wood at 14 degrees and was hitting high on the face compared to normal but not getting under the ball or anything like that.

Not sure on lengths I'm afraid, but the old beat up 3 felt so much more stable in every instance tonight. Oddly, was hitting both pretty well on Tuesday night at the range but they did feel like whole different games to one another.

I took 2 main steps to improving my driver

1 cut it down to 44.5 to find the centre more

2 had a driving lesson with a pro

Results .. more fairways

 

[Deijavoo]

Yeah, lesson later tonight. Will offload all my woes there and hope he fixes me. Bound to be me at fault. Maybe a case of me figuring out a way how to play the game of golf scoring better, rather than the game of of better golf swing and realising I've wasted money on a brand new driver last year.

 

[Wildrover]

A 3w shaft will generally be heavier (70-75g ish) than a driver shaft (50-65g give or take). This is so the 3w doesn't feel really light because of its shorter length. 5w would be heavier still (80-85g). What weights are your two shafts?

 

[Deijavoo]

3w is 70g and I believe the driver is one of those Alta 55s (I presume the 55 means 55g).

I think the weight just made me feel more in control and confident. The lighter weight just seems a bit like I have to work harder and slow down with it. Not that I have a particularly fast swing, 98-100ish last time I checked.

 

[GeneralStore]

I have a similar swing speed, 103 mph, and I play a 70g shaft in my driver and 80g shaft in my 3 wood. Don't think it only has to do with swing speed...tempo etc...

Fitting helps, but knowing what YOU like and what suits YOU is also vital. Doesn't fix swing faults obviously

 

[Deijavoo]

Checked with my local shop about some shafts, but with no Ping adaptors on I'd have to buy without trying. (I realise this worked on the 3w but I'm not really feeling like chucking more cash at gear without knowing)

Had a lesson. Went through my issues and it seems like wrist hinge was at fault. I basically wasn't doing it and letting my wrist collapse at the height of my (over)swing. Oddly was hitting my irons sweet but now with this change I'm all over the place. Same thing happened after my last lesson but after a few buckets of balls with the changes last time it all got better.

Gonna avoid gear and stick with lessons I think.