Using a 5 Wood Shaft on Your Driver

[David L Yskes]

So after struggling with my driver off and on for what seems to be forever, I picked up a 5 wood shaft, hazardous smoke stuff and put my driver head on it..      

Initial thoughts wow it was so easy to swing !!     I still had some typical misses..    

But for a fairway finder .. wow I felt like I had a lot more confidence swinging the driver...  I've never been a long hitter, and always have struggled with consistently putting my drives in the fairway...   

Has anyone else went that short for a driver shaft??  What was your results??     I know using a 3 wood shaft is typical for trying to be more consistent...  

[Shindig]

I haven't done this, but I have heard of players putting deliberately shorter shafts in their drivers.  I think TaylorMade had a driver with a deliberately short shaft at some point, maybe a decade ago. 

If I wanted this at some point, I'd probably just use an Anthony Kim grip when playing, although I recognize that isn't the same thing.   A decade ago, before I had my first fitted driver, I did have a period of time where I used that AK grip on driver shots;  I was also (somehow) of the belief that I should have a shorter driver shaft and this was before I recognized just how overrated fairways are -- even worse, back then, a 200 yard drive was a great one for me, so giving up distance for the fairway was not a good trade. 

[ChiTown]

@David L Yskes that’s pretty cool. Maybe you’re heading down the path of single length Driver, fairway woods, and hybrids. 🙂  I know there’s a lot of physics stuff around shorter shaft, swing weight, etc. But if it’s working for you … go for it!

[David L Yskes]

On 7/23/2023 at 1:55 PM, ChiTown said:

@David L Yskes that’s pretty cool. Maybe you’re heading down the path of single length Driver, fairway woods, and hybrids. 🙂  I know there’s a lot of physics stuff around shorter shaft, swing weight, etc. But if it’s working for you … go for it!

So i do use the Cobra One Length LTDx Irons and love them!!      I will say i had thought about doing something similar with my driver and 3 wood, just having them be the same length, be it a 3 wood length or 5 wood length.    I did try out the Cobra one length hybrid, but it felt way too short.. and the club head looks so tiny vs my cleveland hybrids.    

I will say with the shorter driver shaft, my swing feels better.  I still have those misses , but i'm working on eliminating them.   Now I can't say if i'm losing any distance, since i'm not consistent enough with my driver..       But i'm sure i'll lose distance on the drives when you really hit it pure.     

 

[Carl3]

On 7/22/2023 at 5:19 PM, David L Yskes said:

So after struggling with my driver off and on for what seems to be forever, I picked up a 5 wood shaft, hazardous smoke stuff and put my driver head on it..      

Initial thoughts wow it was so easy to swing !!     I still had some typical misses..    

But for a fairway finder .. wow I felt like I had a lot more confidence swinging the driver...  I've never been a long hitter, and always have struggled with consistently putting my drives in the fairway...   

Has anyone else went that short for a driver shaft??  What was your results??     I know using a 3 wood shaft is typical for trying to be more consistent...  

Do you need a stiffer shaft since the driver head probably weighs more?

[David L Yskes]

10 hours ago, Carl3 said:

Do you need a stiffer shaft since the driver head probably weighs more?

I honestly do not know..    i know my average swing speed on my driver is about 95mph    

 

So a went golfing today and used the 5wood shaft....     Now i will say i today was probably the worst i've golfed all season lol, it was so awful that i stopped keeping score.     Now this is what tended to happen when teeing off.....   I'd hit the worst shot ever, top it, shank, slice, you name it, it happened...  I'd tee up a second ball and smoke it down the middle of the fairway lol....    

I did have a couple good Tee shots with the driver, so it wasn't a complete loss.      on the back 9, i did change the loft ( up ) 1 notch , to close the face a smidge and to give me a lil bit more loft.     and it did seem to straighten out my shots a bit.. but i still had a bunch of awful tee shots with the driver lol...        

I think one of the biggest things i need to keep in mind is to not have the ball so far forward, and that it needs to be more like a 3wood shot 

[Carl3]

14 hours ago, David L Yskes said:

I honestly do not know..    i know my average swing speed on my driver is about 95mph    

 

So a went golfing today and used the 5wood shaft....     Now i will say i today was probably the worst i've golfed all season lol, it was so awful that i stopped keeping score.     Now this is what tended to happen when teeing off.....   I'd hit the worst shot ever, top it, shank, slice, you name it, it happened...  I'd tee up a second ball and smoke it down the middle of the fairway lol....    

I did have a couple good Tee shots with the driver, so it wasn't a complete loss.      on the back 9, i did change the loft ( up ) 1 notch , to close the face a smidge and to give me a lil bit more loft.     and it did seem to straighten out my shots a bit.. but i still had a bunch of awful tee shots with the driver lol...        

I think one of the biggest things i need to keep in mind is to not have the ball so far forward, and that it needs to be more like a 3wood shot 

Wouldn’t closing the face give it less loft. My sense is that if I used my 3 wood or hybrid shaft with my driver head it would be a little too flexible and I would have ballooning fades and slices. So by closing the face with a shaft adjustment, you might be counteracting this tendency. Pure speculation 😂

Edited July 31, 2023 by Carl3

[billchao]

On 7/30/2023 at 12:27 PM, Carl3 said:

Do you need a stiffer shaft since the driver head probably weighs more?

Isn’t a fairway wood head typically heavier than a driver?

[p1n9183]

I play with 2 drivers. 
The bomber is a regular driver with loft 7°. 
The other is the "fairway finder" or "3 wood". Is a regular driver but with a heavy shaft and I grip it as low as the grip let me. Loft is 11°

I can still play this last one from the deck on par 5s and the big head gives me a lot more confidence off the tee than a normal 3 wood, specially on hard tee shots with penalties all over the place.  

[Carl3]

8 hours ago, billchao said:

Isn’t a fairway wood head typically heavier than a driver?

Interesting. Looks like the driver head is probably 90% the weight of a 5 wood head. What about drag at about 100 MPH? I would think the driver head would put more moment force on the shaft and bend it more.

[billchao]

13 minutes ago, Carl3 said:

Interesting. Looks like the driver head is probably 90% the weight of a 5 wood head. What about drag at about 100 MPH? I would think the driver head would put more moment force on the shaft and bend it more.

I honestly don’t think that has as much of an affect on the swing as the change in swingweight would.

[arturo28mx]

For years I have played around with shorter shafts in my Titleist drivers. Yes, I feel I have more control in hitting the center of the face. But the swingweight will be much lower, and this affects tempo.

Most drivers come in D3 swingweight. Every inch I trim costs me 5-6 swingweight points. TRimming an inch means I will end up with a C7 or C8 swingweight and for me that is still playable because I'm 66 years old and a lighter club is better for me. However, if I went down and inch and a half I would end up with a swingweight of about C4 or C5 and that is just too low. You can't feel the head, the club is too light and your tempo goes down the drain.

Titleist drivers have interchangeable weights so I fix the above problem by installing heavier weights you can purchase on line. Lead tape is another option.

Edited September 8, 2023 by arturo28mx

[ChetlovesMer]

3 hours ago, arturo28mx said:

For years I have played around with shorter shafts in my Titleist drivers. Yes, I feel I have more control in hitting the center of the face. But the swingweight will be much lower, and this affects tempo.

Most drivers come in D3 swingweight. Every inch I trim costs me 5-6 swingweight points. TRimming an inch means I will end up with a C7 or C8 swingweight and for me that is still playable because I'm 66 years old and a lighter club is better for me. However, if I went down and inch and a half I would end up with a swingweight of about C4 or C5 and that is just too low. You can't feel the head, the club is too light and your tempo goes down the drain.

Titleist drivers have interchangeable weights so I fix the above problem by installing heavier weights you can purchase on line. Lead tape is another option.

You could always use a shaft which is a few grams heavier than your driver shaft. @p1n9183 kind of mentioned this with his "Fairway Finder" driver. I personally find this solution better than adding the weight to the head. 

Or use a grip which is a few grams lighter. In my eyes, this is "the best" solution, but not always possible, especially if you (like me) prefer a mid-size grip. There simply aren't that many mid-size light-weight grips out there. 

Back in the day we would remove the grip, push a cork halfway down the shaft, drop in lead powder, then push another cork to hold the lead powder and then put the grip back on. In today's world shafts are available in so many weights that practice has pretty much gone the way of the dodo. 

On 8/2/2023 at 11:28 AM, billchao said:

Isn’t a fairway wood head typically heavier than a driver?

This.

One last thing to remember is you may want to "loft up" your driver. Again @p1n9183 mentioned this in his post. Back in the early 2000's it was somewhat common for folks struggling with the driver to build a shorter, heavier shafted driver out of a "senior driver head". The senior heads were often lofted up several degrees. 

One more, one more thing. 

This concept is not new. As I mentioned it was quite common back in the early 2000's. People used to call it "A Thriver". As a matter of fact, Hireko Golf started producing them. 

Introducing the Acer XV Ultimate Thriver

 

 

[David L Yskes]

Well, since my last post, i actually had an epiphany after a round of golf and heading to the driving range, i changed my driver head to the "up right lie" angle, and wow it has made a difference.   

 I have even thought about going to a heavier shaft, something in the 80g range. 

today i did try using my Hazardous Smoke 70g stiff shaft ( 3 wood length ) as my driver shaft and it felt pretty damn good.    I did look at the original Tensi shaft on my driver and it's only a 60g (stiff ) weight.   

But, also in this change, i put the 3wood head on a 5wood shaft, same shaft too, and that actually made hitting my 3wood off the deck really easy..     

I'll give an update sunday night after i get home from golfing that morning.   

[cipher]

15 minutes ago, David L Yskes said:

Well, since my last post, i actually had an epiphany after a round of golf and heading to the driving range, i changed my driver head to the "up right lie" angle, and wow it has made a difference.   

 I have even thought about going to a heavier shaft, something in the 80g range. 

today i did try using my Hazardous Smoke 70g stiff shaft ( 3 wood length ) as my driver shaft and it felt pretty damn good.    I did look at the original Tensi shaft on my driver and it's only a 60g (stiff ) weight.   

But, also in this change, i put the 3wood head on a 5wood shaft, same shaft too, and that actually made hitting my 3wood off the deck really easy..     

I'll give an update sunday night after i get home from golfing that morning.   

Interesting. What is the overall length of your driver with this shaft? 42” or so? I was fit by PXG to a 43.5” driver overall length. X-Stiff, 11 degrees and very heavy for how short it is. D something. Made a huge difference for me as well.

[pganapathy]

On 7/31/2023 at 8:14 AM, David L Yskes said:

I think one of the biggest things i need to keep in mind is to not have the ball so far forward, and that it needs to be more like a 3wood shot 

If you are going to do this, then ensure you have more loft, whether static or dynamic.  If not, you will not maximise your distance because the launch angle will be too low

[billchao]

19 hours ago, cipher said:

Interesting. What is the overall length of your driver with this shaft? 42” or so? I was fit by PXG to a 43.5” driver overall length. X-Stiff, 11 degrees and very heavy for how short it is. D something. Made a huge difference for me as well.

How did they do the fitting for a shorter shaft? Did they have shorter shafts to try out?

Last time I did a driver fitting I had asked about the possibility of playing a shorter shaft but there was no real way for us to test that so we just left my driver at standard length.

[cipher]

54 minutes ago, billchao said:

How did they do the fitting for a shorter shaft? Did they have shorter shafts to try out?

Last time I did a driver fitting I had asked about the possibility of playing a shorter shaft but there was no real way for us to test that so we just left my driver at standard length.

Yeah the PXG fitter had shafts to test that were that short for me. I think 43.5” OAL was the shortest.