Longer Driver Shaft

[rf53]

Has anyone gone to a longer driver shaft and found the transition successful? I understand that the gain in distance may be mitigated by loss of accuracy. I also understand it should be a process worked out within a fitting session. However, leaving those two things aside, I’m just wondering what the experiences have been for those people who have simply purchased a new longer shaft, plugged it in and started to play it? Given the current 2020/2021 circumstances where a fitting session is not always possible or advisable, I’ve been thinking about trying this experiment and going from 45.5” to 47” just to see what it is like. I am a decent ball striker, so I’m hoping the additional length won’t hurt my accuracy too much. Who has done this and how did it turn out?

[Vinsk]

30 minutes ago, rf53 said:

Has anyone gone to a longer driver shaft and found the transition successful? I understand that the gain in distance may be mitigated by loss of accuracy. I also understand it should be a process worked out within a fitting session. However, leaving those two things aside, I’m just wondering what the experiences have been for those people who have simply purchased a new longer shaft, plugged it in and started to play it? Given the current 2020/2021 circumstances where a fitting session is not always possible or advisable, I’ve been thinking about trying this experiment and going from 45.5” to 47” just to see what it is like. I am a decent ball striker, so I’m hoping the additional length won’t hurt my accuracy too much. Who has done this and how did it turn out?

I think it may offer some distance for those who have good ss 110+. I tried going from a 44.5” to 46” and didn’t see much difference. But my driver ss is around 96-105mph. 

[rf53]

16 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

I think it may offer some distance for those who have good ss 110+. I tried going from a 44.5” to 46” and didn’t see much difference. But my driver ss is around 96-105mph. 

Did you find any change in accuracy?

[Vinsk]

38 minutes ago, rf53 said:

Did you find any change in accuracy?

Not really. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Jim Venetos...we discussed his swing on this site. I swing from a position that I hold...closed stance and remain quite still on the back swing. So honestly I’m pretty consistent with my driver and figured a little longer shaft would give me some more yards. My accuracy was a little less as when I did make a mistake ( like opening too much on my downswing) my cut would be a little more drastic than with the shorter length. 

[boogielicious]

13 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Not really. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Jim Venetos...we discussed his swing on this site. I swing from a position that I hold...closed stance and remain quite still on the back swing. So honestly I’m pretty consistent with my driver and figured a little longer shaft would give me some more yards. My accuracy was a little less as when I did make a mistake ( like opening too much on my downswing) my cut would be a little more drastic than with the shorter length. 

Mickelson played with a 47.5” driver yesterday. He was a bit squirrelly. 

[Vinsk]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

Mickelson played with a 47.5” driver yesterday. He was a bit squirrelly. 

Yeah I can imagine players who swing it fast can get a little squirrelly when they try a longer shaft. I’m considering trying a ‘softer’ flex to see if I can gain a little speed. 

[rf53]

1 hour ago, Vinsk said:

Yeah I can imagine players who swing it fast can get a little squirrelly when they try a longer shaft. I’m considering trying a ‘softer’ flex to see if I can gain a little speed. 

That is exactly what I was thinking. Since all the reviews I have seen indicate that with a longer shaft the swing weight is increased and at a certain length swing speed is actually diminished, I was thinking of trying a longer, but more flexible and lighter shaft to see if I can mitigate the additional swing weight and pick up a little swing speed and a few more yards. I have also read that the additional swing weight could shallow your swing a bit, which depending on your swing might not be a bad thing.

I imagine there could be some club fitters out there who are reading this thread and rolling their eyes, but hey, what the heck! There are some pretty decent older shafts out there at low prices that one can experiment with. We might as well have a little fun as the world implodes around us! LOL.

 

[Adam C]

You don't need a fitting for this and honestly I don't think I would trust a fitter to get you any better off than you can achieve by yourself. I put a youtube link on here a couple months ago to my video about building an extra long driver. An extra long driver is not a one and done deal, even more so than the rest of the bag (which is coincidentally why I don't believe in most modern fitting practices). It's trial and error and making small tweaks to the set up. What I can recommend are a couple things to increase your chance of success. First make sure you have a driver head that you can remove weight from. Slider weights or weight screws doesn't matter but you need to be able to lighten the head when going from 45 and change to 47 or 48 both for swing weight and shaft stability. Second, go with a lighter shaft than you typically use, say 5-10g. Third I would say go with a softer shaft over a stiffer one. The worst thing you can do with an extra long driver is rush the downswing from the top. This is why you see so many people lose the ball right or not pick up any club head speed. A softer shaft in general will allow for a smoother transition as you can feel the load of the shaft and don't need to force it.

[rf53]

12 minutes ago, Adam C said:

You don't need a fitting for this and honestly I don't think I would trust a fitter to get you any better off than you can achieve by yourself. I put a youtube link on here a couple months ago to my video about building an extra long driver. An extra long driver is not a one and done deal, even more so than the rest of the bag (which is coincidentally why I don't believe in most modern fitting practices). It's trial and error and making small tweaks to the set up. What I can recommend are a couple things to increase your chance of success. First make sure you have a driver head that you can remove weight from. Slider weights or weight screws doesn't matter but you need to be able to lighten the head when going from 45 and change to 47 or 48 both for swing weight and shaft stability. Second, go with a lighter shaft than you typically use, say 5-10g. Third I would say go with a softer shaft over a stiffer one. The worst thing you can do with an extra long driver is rush the downswing from the top. This is why you see so many people lose the ball right or not pick up any club head speed. A softer shaft in general will allow for a smoother transition as you can feel the load of the shaft and don't need to force it.

Based on what you are saying it sounds like I might be headed in the right direction. The shaft I have my eyes on will play at 47.5 inches. It is 10 g lighter and more flexible. Right now I am playing a taylormade M6 driver. It does not have slider weights, but it does have a weight at the back which is interchangeable. The stock factory weight is 3.5 g, and they do make an aftermarket 2 g weight, or I can just take out the 3.5 g and see how that works.

[Adam C]

4 hours ago, rf53 said:

Based on what you are saying it sounds like I might be headed in the right direction. The shaft I have my eyes on will play at 47.5 inches. It is 10 g lighter and more flexible. Right now I am playing a taylormade M6 driver. It does not have slider weights, but it does have a weight at the back which is interchangeable. The stock factory weight is 3.5 g, and they do make an aftermarket 2 g weight, or I can just take out the 3.5 g and see how that works.

Ideally you would want something with more weight change ability. Even pulling the 3.5 all together isn't going to get you much change in SW. I ended up dropping about 8g to get where it felt right in my Epic Flash I used. But if it's all you've got and don't want to spend more on an experiment, then give it a go. I would suggest that you find a shaft as counterbalanced as possible in that case to try and even out the weight.

[rf53]

On 1/23/2021 at 3:29 PM, Adam C said:

Ideally you would want something with more weight change ability. Even pulling the 3.5 all together isn't going to get you much change in SW. I ended up dropping about 8g to get where it felt right in my Epic Flash I used. But if it's all you've got and don't want to spend more on an experiment, then give it a go. I would suggest that you find a shaft as counterbalanced as possible in that case to try and even out the weight.

Hey, I don’t want to jinx the experiment by calling victory, but it worked. I used a regular flex and much lighter shaft that weighs 48.5 grams. It has a med/high launch and is cut to 46.5” and plays at 47.5”. I put it on the TaylorMade M6 head in the upright setting. I did not remove the weight screw or tinker with the head at all. My first two drives were a hook and a fade/slice. However, once I became use to the feel and slowed down my swing to about 75% the results were impressive. The ball flight settled in at a mid launch draw. I definitely picked up yards. I don’t know how many because at my range we hit into a lake, but I know where my drives usually end up and this was well beyond that even into a decent breeze. 
 

The lighter, more flexible shaft must have compensated for the added swing weight. The strikes were on the screws. I am encouraged by the results. We will see what happens when I put it into play. 

[Adam C]

37 minutes ago, rf53 said:

Hey, I don’t want to jinx the experiment by calling victory, but it worked. I used a regular flex and much lighter shaft that weighs 48.5 grams. It has a med/high launch and is cut to 46.5” and plays at 47.5”. I put it on the TaylorMade M6 head in the upright setting. I did not remove the weight screw or tinker with the head at all. My first two drives were a hook and a fade/slice. However, once I became use to the feel and slowed down my swing to about 75% the results were impressive. The ball flight settled in at a mid launch draw. I definitely picked up yards. I don’t know how many because at my range we hit into a lake, but I know where my drives usually end up and this was well beyond that even into a decent breeze. 
 

The lighter, more flexible shaft must have compensated for the added swing weight. The strikes were on the screws. I am encouraged by the results. We will see what happens when I put it into play. 

Hopefully it keeps on working. SW is always personal so whatever the final balance came out to, sounds like it worked.

[rf53]

On 1/26/2021 at 4:46 PM, Adam C said:

Hopefully it keeps on working. SW is always personal so whatever the final balance came out to, sounds like it worked.

I put the long shaft in play yesterday. There is definitely something to this. I hit nine fairways. At least four of my drives were significantly longer than usual. On those four I gained fifteen to twenty yards each. I only had one really awful drive that went way right on me. I noticed that with the longer shaft a more controlled swing at 75% yielded the best results.  Really going after it tends to make the club head stay behind. 
 

All in all the driver felt fine. It did not feel too heavy or freakishly long as reported in some of the YouTube videos I saw with people attempting to use longer shafts. I would say my results were better than expected, but we will see how it goes in the long haul. For now, the long shaft will be staying in my bag  

 

 

[cooke119]

I think it was Cobra that use to offer the "Long Tom" which had a longer shaft, (don't remember length), I don't believe they make them anymore because only few could hit them straight.  

1 minute ago, cooke119 said:

I think it was Cobra that use to offer the "Long Tom" which had a longer shaft, (don't remember length), I don't believe they make them anymore because only few could hit them straight.  

Looked it up on eBay, shaft length 48" they are selling for around $100.