I'm confused about the effect of cutting shafts. Can anyone help?

[LinksTurf]

I'm considering asking a local pro to cut an inch and a half off my 46 inch driver shaft. My last driver had a much shorter shaft and worked well for me. The Rep who fitted me for my current club persuaded me to stick with stock (had a good swing day that day) and I now regret it as I am much less consistent than I was with the shorter shaft. I've had a look on the forum here and on websites elsewhere and I have read that the swingweight will go down if I cut the shaft. The remedy seems to be to add weight to the driver head to bring the club back to the original swingweight. I am obviously no expert, but this seems counterintuitive to me. If I'm removing weight from the grip end, (by cutting the shaft there) shouldn't the remedy be to add weight to the same end I have just removed, perhaps by using a weight or a heavier grip?

 

[Foxholer]

The pivot point for SW calculation is 14" from the Butt End of the club. So if you make that 1.5" nearer to the head, then the value will go down.

It's highly likely that you will not actually notice the difference after a couple of swings compared with the better 'feel' of the shorter shaft.

You may be able to simply put a lighter grip on, which will increase the swing weight.

Here's a link that might explain it better http://www.leaderboard.com/swingwt.htm

 

[LinksTurf]

Thanks for that Foxholer. That has helped me understand. I've asked a few pros this question and never really got a proper answer. Difficult to put the club in to those guys to make the necessary adjustments since it requires more understanding than they appear to have. I'll maybe just stick with it and get a fitting with someone who understand the process more next time.

 

[jusme]

Thanks for that Foxholer. That has helped me understand. I've asked a few pros this question and never really got a proper answer. Difficult to put the club in to those guys to make the necessary adjustments since it requires more understanding than they appear to have. I'll maybe just stick with it and get a fitting with someone who understand the process more next time.

You considered doing it yourself? Not difficult by any means. Take 20 mins or so to pull grip, cut shaft and refit grip. Would also fit a lighter grip to get SW nearer to stock and experiment with lead tape at the range until it feels right.

 

[Gisle Solhaug]

I think it is a very good idea to cut down your 46 inch Driver. I would not worry about the reduced Swingweight, it is already too high anyway. Or rather the MOI is too large. Swingweight is just a very bad approximation to MOI and has no consequence. Here is a quick introduction to Swingweight which clubfitters should take notice off:
In the 1920s, the concept of Swingweight was introduced as a simple-to-understand approximation of MOI (moment of inertia) matching. Along with it, a device was created for making Swingweight measurements called a Swingweight Scale to enable club makers to build golf clubs to a specific Swingweight measurement. If a set of clubs having the same exact grips and completely identical shafts trimmed incrementally, are matched by Swingweight using only the club head for making adjustments, then the MOI of each club will be reasonably matched. This was the original intent for the swing-weight process and worked reasonably well for the clubs of the time. However, because swing-weight is a static property of a club and moment of inertia is a dynamic property of a club, Swingweight matching is, at best, an approximation of the technically more useful MOI matching.
With the more modern shafts, that have purposeful variation along their length, and the tendency to mix and match a variety of shafts and club-heads within a single set, the less likely it is that a Swingweight matched set will resemble an MOI matched set. Because the Swingweight Scale is not an MOI measurement device it does not produce a set of clubs with matching moment of inertia.

 

[LinksTurf]

Thanks for your replies guys. I have considered doing it myself jusme. I've regripped a few times, so confident of that. Just not sure about whether or not the swingweight would make a tangible difference, so reluctant to take it into my hands right now. I've read that some people notice and others don't. I don't fancy using lead tape. Mucked about with it a few years ago for a different reason and didn't like the look on my club, and I did seem to notice the feel of that, though of course my experiments were somewhat unscientific. I may well have moved the COG to a place that didn't suit me. It is equally possible the change I felt was all in my head, but even if that was true, its difficult to ignore the mental effects. Gisle, I appreciate what you are saying, and I know there is a chance that I will not feel the difference, but I just worry about such a radical change with taking so much off. I was at the Scottish Golf Show recently and spoke to a couple of the fitters there, and the Ping and Mizuno reps said they would definitely restore the club to the swingweight i tried out if I ordered a club with a shorter shaft. It's just that I want to replace my irons and fairways first, so was looking at a temporary fix until its time to buy another driver.

 

[Foxholer]

Cutting down the Driver is definitely likely to increase control with (I believe) little effect on distance. The reason Driver lengths have increased (imo) is to be able to get more distance from Iron Byron (robot/machine) testing, but that's rather different to personal swings!

And, having mulled my earlier explanation over, a better one is to describe the Swing Weight as the leverage of the (approx 200gm) head when held. With a shorter shaft, that leverage (Swing Weight) decreases. Archimedes knew a thing or 2 about that (and a lot of other) stuff!