Shortening my driver shaft?

[Atticus_Finch]

I can't control my driver and I've been swithering over getting a new one, but recently I have also been thinking about getting my old one shortened to see if it made a difference.
On holiday in Florida last year I played with rented Titleist clubs and noticed that the driver was shorter than my G10. It felt more comfortable and I felt I was able to control it to a certain extent.
As far as I know, my driver at the moment is 45.75" long. Can anyone advise what my next step would be?
or has anyone else went down this route?

 

[kid2]

Hi Atticus......Iv been contemplating this myself.....
I was reading an article in a another magazine today that was mostly about this....The average length of driver shaft on tour is 44.5* and the average manufacturers length of shaft off the shelf is between 45 and 46....
Maybe the pro's are onto something.....How would you go about getting it shortened?

 

[Billser]

Foregolf in naas do that kind of stuff, although it may be a bit far for you kid unless you are up in dublin anytime,
they won a world clubmaker award last month i think.

i think they can fit your own clubs to your swing etc.

 

[rickg]

How would you go about getting it shortened?

 

[mattyb0y]

I shortened my driver once mate... was a nightmare i really c**kd it up! My adivse is dont but if u do seriously consdier other options before!

 

[Lipout]

Atticus,
Playing off the handicap you do, i would imagine that you do not suffer lack of distance. Therefore accuracy is the key. This is the first i have heard of the tour pros playing with shorter shafts, obviously to gain accuracy. Most modern drivers will get the ball out there, the problem being is if "out there" is in the trees. I am interested to see what others will say, but it does seem to make sense to me.

 

[Atticus_Finch]

Atticus,
Playing off the handicap you do, i would imagine that you do not suffer lack of distance. Therefore accuracy is the key. This is the first i have heard of the tour pros playing with shorter shafts, obviously to gain accuracy. Most modern drivers will get the ball out there, the problem being is if "out there" is in the trees. I am interested to see what others will say, but it does seem to make sense to me.

I'm aware that my distance will suffer, but I don't really have a problem with that. When I was last fitted my clubhead speed was 107mph, so a couple of mph less is fine as long as the ball lands on the short stuff.

I've started to think that the manufacturers have focussed too much on distance and how far you can bang it down the fairway. That's all fine and well, but if you can only do it 3 or 4 times out of 15 then it's no use.
Give us clubs that we can control!!
Even if I don't go ahead and get mine shortened, the shaft length will feature very highly in any considerations I have when buying a new one.

 

[Sam]

At best you are talking about 1.5" to 2". Presume we are also talking about circumcising the thicker end! Using tape, could you not have a range session with hands 2" down the grip?

 

[Atticus_Finch]

I tried choking down on the grip the last time I was out, but I didn't feel comfortable with the butt sticking out. I may have a longer session on the range trying it.
I'm probably only looking to take it down to 44.50"
I may pop into the shop at the weekend and see what can be done.

 

[madandra]

Just buy The Perfect Club Al

 

[kid2]

Foregolf in naas do that kind of stuff, although it may be a bit far for you kid unless you are up in dublin anytime,
they won a world clubmaker award last month i think.

i think they can fit your own clubs to your swing etc.

Thanks Bill.
Its not too far up the road to bring the kids and herself for a spin some day anyway....

 

[Atticus_Finch]

Just buy The Perfect Club Al

Eh....Naw you're alright Andy.

 

[leewestrudd1]

i got a custom fit on a titleist 909d3 a few weeks ago and was struggling a little with it so had 3/4" taken off by the pro at my club,it has improved by 5o%,had a lesson yesterday aswell and we had a look at setup etc on the driver and 3 wood.its working better already as long as i maintain doing what he told me,more confidence at address with the shorter driver though

 

[John_Findlay]

Sounds like a good plan to have the shaft shortened, Alan, if you're suffering at the mo'. You know fine well you can afford to lose a few (30) yards and still be hammering it past us all. Can your pro not sort it out?

Just out of interest how d'you measure the shaft length correctly? I just measured mine from the end of the butt to the point it first reaches the clubhead and it's 42.5 inches. I know I had it an inch short of normal when it was custom fit for me but that seems awfy short.

No "size isn't everything, it's what you do with it" jokes please.

 

[leewestrudd1]

the loss of distance is very marginal on mine,i know its not running as far because of the conditions but its around the same distance as at full length and still agood 30yrds further than th r9 i had previously

 

[andiritchie]

I think it depends on how much you would like to take off the club.If you trim it down from the butt it could play a fraction softer also you could lose the clubs swingweight.

You might not feels the difference in balance so that could be all good,however if you do some lead tape needs to be put either on the clubhead or a plug it the butt to keep the weight correct but then the club will play softer as the swingweight will be the same but with a heavier head-the shaft will bend more.

The only way you can keep the driver as you have it in terms of weight and flex is to have the club cut evenly from tip and butt and weighted correctly

Cutting it down from the butt could be the great for you or you will end up with a knackered shaft

 

[SharkAttack]

I have two Ping drivers both shortened to 44.5" (Just in case you think this is for height reasons I am 6' 2"). It makes a great difference to accuracy and no difference to distance. I say no difference because you hit the centre of the club a lot more often and the fairway, so that 1 in 10 you catch well with the longer club doesn't make up for 9 in 10 you catch well with the shorter club.

I read an article recently about this and it was found there was no real difference between 43" and 45.5" in distance only in accuracy. What are you more accurate with a 17* hybrid or 5 wood? I would guess the hybrid and the main reason will be the fact that the shaft is 2" shorter.

 

[DCB]

Noticed an article about this recently and have thought about is as a possibility to help me with my driving accuracy. The article did suggest that the average club golfer will not lose ang real distance by reducing the shaft length slightly. the loss in distance was more than balanced out by the increased accuracy.

I did this once before to an old Callaway Great Big Bertha. It did make the club easier to handle, it's just I couldn't get on with the Callaways Draw bias

 

[bobmac]

If you want your driver shortened or lengthened, take it to ANY pro who will do it for you in minutes.
It should not cost you any more than £3-£5 to have it shortened and if you dont think it helps, take it back and he/she will restore it back to its original length.
I understand what people say about this changing the swingweight and balance of the club, but to be honest, most would not notice the difference and if it helps you hit your driver straighter, who really cares?

 

[need_my_wedge]

Hi Atticus......Iv been contemplating this myself.....
I was reading an article in a another magazine today that was mostly about this....The average length of driver shaft on tour is 44.5* and the average manufacturers length of shaft off the shelf is between 45 and 46....
Maybe the pro's are onto something.....How would you go about getting it shortened?

Was this the article Kid2? Read this in our Pro's regular newsletter last year sometime:

SHORT: NEVILLE BLAND, HEAD PRO WEST BROCTON GC
Holds six course records and a diploma in sports psychology
Why have golf clubs gotten longer over time? Because golf companies believe it helps them sell more. They believe that the longer the club, the greater the distance it can hit.

But while this is true of short irons, so the percentage of off-centre hits increases as the clubs get longer and lower in loft.

Even with today’s high-MOI designs you will lose five per cent of your distance for every half-inch off centre that the ball is struck (If you’ve never tried it, put some impact tape on your driver and hit some balls. You will be surprised how far off centre even your good shots are.).

Golfers understand the benefit of having the correct length of irons and putters – and the same has to be true for woods. But this doesn’t mean long or short. That’s too simplistic. Fact: Your longest drives will result from the longest-length club with which you can hit directly out of the centre of the face the greatest percentage of the time.

Height and arm length are most often used to determine club length – but the swing is a major factor, too. A golfer who swings steeply ‘over the top’ and slices the ball can’t handle a shaft as long as a golfer who swings more from the inside into impact. Likewise, a player with a smooth transition from backswing to downswing can cope with a longer shaft, whereas a player with a forceful, jerky action cannot.

Most golfers fit into the latter category, which means there is only a small percentage who can handle the modern longer clubs. But don’t worry. The average driver on the pro tours is 44.25in. Even Tiger Woods has consistently used a 43.5in driver – that’s probably 2in shorter than yours.

It’s not that the professionals don’t need the distance, it’s just that they aren’t capable of hitting the ball out of the centre with the longer lengths at the speed at which they swing.

If you wish to maximise your distance the key is to increase head speed, effectively. This can be assisted by establishing the correct shaft length. But research has shown that a decrease in weight creates a more dramatic change in head speed than an increase in length. Losing weight in what I call the ‘delivery system’ – the grip and the shaft – is the greatest help. And using a club with a head of optimal loft for the speed at which you swing will also provide a useful boost.

But before you do anything you would be well advised to consider which aspect is the most important to you: distance, accuracy, feel, trajectory or consistency. If distance is still your answer, to attempt to increase it merely by using a longer club will cause all the other factors listed to suffer. There’s always a trade-off.

A slightly longer club does have the potential to hit longer. But this will only become a reality on the rare occasions when the club’s sweet spot and ball collide. At all other times, i.e. most of them, your drives will be more off-line and shorter!

The same article states that the Tiger man uses a 43.5 inch shaft in his driver to maintain accuracy......

There is another article in there supporting the use of longer shafts, up to 47 inches (48 is the max allowed), but they also state the same as above, in order to get the optimum distance/ direction you do need to smash it right on the sweetspot. See here:

LONG: DAVE REGAN, HEAD PRO WEST BYFLEET GC
Ex-European Tour player and a Golf World Instructor
The new ‘Rules of Golf’ have closed another loophole by limiting the COR (or spring effect) that some thin-faced metal driving clubs apparently exceeded. Using them, even ungifted amateurs benefited by being able to carry the rough a few more times per round.

It’s not just the thickness of the face that’s limited – so is the size of the head (460cc), the length of the shaft (48in), even the height of the tee (3-4in). We must surely accept that the end is nigh for distance increases. All this to “protect the integrity of the game” even though the vast majority of golfers never break 90.

Interestingly, the top Pros have had to use conforming driving clubs for a while now – and still they hit the ball miles. Perhaps we will also have to ban swing gurus, dieting, regular gym visits and golfers over 6ft tall.

As a Club Professional I look for ways of making the toughest game of all more enjoyable for the average player. And one of the last windows of opportunity still open for regaining shrinking distance is shaft length. The typical driver for men is 45in. That leaves us 3in to play with before we infringe the new rules. I’ve experimented with a driver of nearly 47in and, defying current views, have never been straighter. Encouraged, I widened the experiment by getting my staff to fit longer shafts, too – again with positive results.

One might argue that “It’s all right for Pros.” So our next trial was to watch amateur golfers of varying ability use demo clubs of varying length. The results were astoundingly positive towards the much longer shaft.

Going longer does make the shaft slightly whippier, which helps with distance, but also it allows the golfer to stand taller and adopt a more athletic posture, promoting a bigger body turn. The clubhead also now looks in perspective, and the arc is obviously wider and faster.

Clubhead speed is all well and good, but still you must strike the ball near the face’s centre-point and relatively square to the target. In this respect, the new 460cc head helps more than we (and perhaps the manufacturers) realised.

Some believe that lesser golfers should use shorter shafts to gain a decent strike, but they should drop the old ideas, get out and watch amateurs in action – as we have done – to see if this is the case. It isn’t.

Our experiment suggests that a fairly grooved swinger (not necessarily a low-handicapper either) will invariably be very satisfied with what we now refer to as ‘Power Specification’. They can give it the full supercharger on wide fairways, with the bonus of gripping down an inch or two on the tighter holes. (The better players find that gripping at the top gives more shaft lag and aids the fade drive; they grip down for the draw).

Many amateurs may be swayed to buy by brand or be influenced by advertising alone, ignoring the benefits of buying at their Pro Shop. But it is services like demo clubs and extended trial periods, not to mention expert advice, which makes the Pro Shop vital when purchasing.

Club players can wander around vast golf superstores for as long as they like… They’re not going to see anything to rival this shaft length. Let’s face it, superstore staff are not going to pop onto the range to see their customers swing.

I feel it’s right to give the amateur golfer the option of experimenting with a longer shaft. If it doesn’t work – fine. They can always have it trimmed by their Pro, free of change. Go on, demo one. After all, what have you got to lose – but distance