Lenght of your driver shaft?

[jfrain2004]

Has anyone done a DIY on their driver shaft and brought it down to a more manageable 43" - 44"
I did with mine and have never looked back as far as fairways hit ( And even more distance on average as I'm coming out of the sweet spot far more often )
Just interested to hear who has gone down this route?

http://www.azgolfinstructor.com/2008...iving-lessons/

[wachesawgolfer]

The problem is those 46 inch drivers swingweight out to D2 or so and have a certain CPM flex for the length. When you cut a driver 2 inches, you lose 6 SW points and the flex is lessened four clubs, 20 cycles, that 1/2 inch per club. So your new stiff driver at D2 and stiff 250 CPM or so becomes a ladies hefted/ senior flex club after it is cut two full inches.

If your serious about playing 44 inch drivers it is best to have it shafted by a competent club maker who can trim it to flex at 44inches and weight the head/hosel to obtain a playable swingweight. Remember most modern 460 heads weigh 198 grams to play a shaft of 45.5 inches or longer so weighting is a must.

The Tour players can get tour weighted heads at 210 grams, not generally available to the public for whatever reason.

[wachesawgolfer]

The problem is those 46 inch drivers swingweight out to D2 or so and have a certain CPM flex for the length. When you cut a driver 2 inches, you lose 6 SW points and the flex is lessened four clubs, 20 cycles, that 1/2 inch per club. So your new stiff driver at D2 and stiff 250 CPM or so becomes a ladies hefted/ senior flex club after it is cut two full inches.

As addendum, the CPM does not change, it just plays softer due to the shortened length. Its the reason you 9 iron is 4 cycles stiffer than your 8 iron and your 8 iron is 4 cycles stiffer than the 7 iron and so on, and your driver is on average 50 cycles less than your 5 iron. If you play 250 at 46 inches, the same feel would be about 266 at 44 inches.

[Fourputt]

Has anyone done a DIY on their driver shaft and brought it down to a more manageable 43" - 44"

I replaced the 46" stock shaft on my Mizuno with a 45" UST ProForce V2 65 gm. Even though it's still as long as any shaft I've used, I have better control than I had with a 45" Callaway FTi. It's not the length of the shaft, but matching the shaft to your swing that's most critical. With a shorter shaft you might hit straighter, but you will also be shorter, unless the change also fits your swing tempo (I know because I've tried that route too).

Just shortening the shaft won't guarantee anything ... might just as well choke down on the grip.

[golf_junkie27]

The Tour players can get tour weighted heads at 210 grams, not generally available to the public for whatever reason.

Is this what the process "hot melting" can do for someone looking to increase the weight of the head?

[wachesawgolfer]

I replaced the 46" stock shaft on my Mizuno with a 45" UST ProForce V2 65 gm. Even though it's still as long as any shaft I've used, I have better control than I had with a 45" Callaway FTi. It's not the length of the shaft, but matching the shaft to your swing that's most critical. With a shorter shaft you might hit straighter, but you will also be shorter, unless the change also fits your swing tempo (I know because I've tried that route too).

The whole purpose in shortening the shaft is to increase center hit contact, the result being longer drives since you get more distance from sweet spot hits than you do from mishits off the center. The distance gained should offset the lower swingspeed considerably. If you already make good center contact you would never shorten the shaft. Kim says he grips down to get the center contact which he cannot do at full length regularly. Tour players obtain greater distance from their swingspeeds than amateurs due to the better contact. It has nothing to do with swing tempo, only center contact.

[Fourputt]

The whole purpose in shortening the shaft is to increase center hit contact, the result being longer drives since you get more distance from sweet spot hits than you do from mishits off the center. The distance gained should offset the lower swingspeed considerably. If you already make good center contact you would never shorten the shaft. Kim says he grips down to get the center contact which he cannot do at full length regularly. Tour players obtain greater distance from their swingspeeds than amateurs due to the better contact. It has nothing to do with swing tempo, only center contact.

Good tempo usually translates to better timing, and timing is everything in achieving good clubhead speed. No matter how bad the rest of your swing, if your timing is good (meaning that you have focused all the power available in your swing at the point of impact), you will get the most possible out of even a poor swing. If your timing is off, it doesn't matter how hard you try to swing... the impact will never be what it should be. Good timing is a key result of good tempo. If your timing and tempo are out of sync, then hitting the sweet spot squarely only means that you have maximized the results for a weak swing.

Then too, modern drivers are so forgiving that you can miss the dead center sweet spot and still experience very little loss of distance if you do everything else right. It's a misconception that the new drivers have a larger sweet spot... the sweet spot is the one point where the ball gets the maximum rebound. What modern drivers have is more forgiveness when you miss the sweet spot, and a larger area in which you receive that forgiveness.

[Sherlockian]

To actually answer your question,YES, I cut down my GBBII 415* with a 44.5" NV 65S to 43.5". Due to my apparent lack of "superhuman sensitivity", I could not tell any difference in swingweight, cpm, stiffness, and any of the other mumbo jumbo golf equipment terms . I did find out that I could hit my driver better and with more consistency than before, and actually added a little distance too. After discovering the benefit of a shorter shafted ,large cc driver, I did go to my local shop and had it reshafted with a 43.5" TT Dynalite Steel. Going to a steel shaft instead of the graphite was a comfort decision for me. I prefer the extra weight of steel(117grams instead or 55-65). Up until a few years ago, my driver was a Callaway Steelhead with 43.5" shaft and before that, a Wilson persimmon with a 43" shaft. I don't think everyone will find the same results with the shorter shaft as me, but I think it is worth a try. I now have more confidence in my driver than before, which so far has translated into 2-4 strokes off my score(my handicap is finally starting to go down).

[wachesawgolfer]

To actually answer your question,YES, I cut down my GBBII 415* with a 44.5" NV 65S to 43.5". Due to my apparent lack of "superhuman sensitivity", I could not tell any difference in swingweight, cpm, stiffness, and any of the other mumbo jumbo golf equipment terms

SW and flex are the very reasons you reshafted to steel, at the shorter length it felt better to you. Those mumbo jumbo golf equipment terms may mean something afterall, if they did not, you would still be in the shorter graphite shaft.

[wachesawgolfer]

Good tempo usually translates to better timing, and timing is everything in achieving good clubhead speed. No matter how bad the rest of your swing, if your timing is good (meaning that you have focused all the power available in your swing at the point of impact), you will get the most possible out of even a poor swing. If your timing is off, it doesn't matter how hard you try to swing... the impact will never be what it should be. Good timing is a key result of good tempo. If your timing and tempo are out of sync, then hitting the sweet spot squarely only means that you have maximized the results for a weak swing.

Rick, its pretty much accepted club fitting to put a player in the longest shafts they can make solid center contact with, as the length plus the center contact translates into the most distance for that player with his given swing speed. Whether one's tempo changes with shaft length is more of a swing issue with a player. Many players swing their nine iron better than their driver, but having said that there is an ideal length for a nine iron for each player he should not exceed lest he sacrifice solid contact. The static fitting charts are a good starting place for length but a fitting can reveal your optimum length at each club. Many folks can handle longer clubs with no real off center loss. Its a fitting issue, not a tempo issue. We should work on our tempo so that it is consistent no matter what club we hit. While big drivers are forgiving, there is no substitute for on center hits for maximum distance. Heel and toe shots just are not great even if they are somewhat forgiven.

[Sherlockian]

SW and flex are the very reasons you reshafted to steel, at the shorter length it felt better to you. Those mumbo jumbo golf equipment terms may mean something afterall, if they did not, you would still be in the shorter graphite shaft.

Did you miss the smiley after mumbo jumbo? What I was meant by that was too often amateur/Hi index(myself included) golfers get caught up in all of the technical aspects of golf equipment instead of working on problems with their swing/course management/fundamentals. They think that those new irons will cure their chilli-dipping, that new driver will give them 50 more yards and fix their slice, that putter will cure the yips. If they cannot maintain a proper swing, target line, tempo, stance, etc., no equipment/SW/Flex is going to change much. The shorter driver helps me make better contact with the ball because I maintain my angles and plane better, not because of swingweights and flex. Yes, I agree I went to steel because of feel, but the results with both shafts are the same.

[jfrain2004]

So back to the opening post. If tour pro's play with average shaft of 44" then that is because 44" gives them the best average distance, when you combine quality of contact, head speed etc. There is no doubt that Joe Citizen will hit longer drives with a longer shaft if the quality of contact is the same. By logical deduction if golfers of tour skill level can only manage quality contact with 44" then a regular club pro must be shorter and a wknd golfer shorter again. As Sherlockian was saying, is the wknd hacker ( Who is not a tour pro because they are not good enough to be atour pro ) going to be able to tell the difference between the swing weight of a driver with a 46" shaft which then is shortened to become a 44" driver. I know I can't :)

[mirv]

current driver has a 45 inch regular flex shaft, but i'm about to get a 45 1/2" stiff flex shaft. that is, according to the local pro, what i need to be using based on height and swing speed.

[JonnyGolf]

... Kim says he grips down to get the center contact which he cannot do at full length regularly...

I don't think AK should be the model here. I agree with what you've said, but AK grips down because that's where he feels comfortable. That guy could center cut a 60" driver every time, but he'd still grip it down the shaft.

[JonnyGolf]

current driver has a 45 inch regular flex shaft, but i'm about to get a 45 1/2" stiff flex shaft. that is, according to the local pro, what i need to be using based on height and swing speed.

How did he measure your swing speed? I'd try out a couple of stiff shafted drivers. If your swing speed isn't high enough, they will drive you crazy because you won't be able to feel the flex in the shaft when you swing, so it makes you swing harder.

Maybe that pro is dead on in his analysis, but I'd get on a monitor before I made any changes.