Am I missing out on distance in my fairway woods?

[bogeyhitter25]

I think steel's fine considering your +5.2 (so it must be working). Just go pro, and you'll be all set.

[SALUKI LEFTY]

This is the dumbest post I've seen. Everyone who gets sucked in to actually answering this person's question, I'm sorry. Anyone on this site I'd bet knows, get fit to find the real answer, but the majority of the time graphite will produce more yards as long as the person is fit correctly.

Also, I don't think handicap # and golf knowledge automatically go in hand. If you are educated, smart, and have common sense, it doesn't take a low handicap # to provide good advice.

[golfmonke]

As "pompous" as it may sound, there is almost no doubt in my mind that he has a much better grasp of the game compared to the average high handicapper, so I don't find it ridiculous at all that he would say something along those lines.

Really? How did you come to this conclusion?

He's asking a pretty GOLF 101 question here, how can you come to the conclusion he knows more about golf than a high handicapper?

[onthehunt526]

Really? How did you come to this conclusion?

Here was the point of the question, more or less to see what's out there... I live in a little tiny corner of New York in an Ivy League Town... that doesn't have a golf shop... I have to go an hour or so to Syracuse to get equipment or order it online...

Just because I play Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell, doesn't mean I'm a snob... Really I can't afford to play there...($3,000 a year for a membership)... I'd rather pay $800 at a public course or inexpensive private... (the Country Club of Ithaca)... and play as a reciprocal...

[golfmonke]

Here was the point of the question, more or less to see what's out there... I live in a little tiny corner of New York in an Ivy League Town... that doesn't have a golf shop... I have to go an hour or so to Syracuse to get equipment or order it online...

I wish I could find a membership at a private course for only $3000. $5500 is the cheapest around here, and it's a public course.

My friend who had family at Yale got a membership there for only $2500/yr. As to your question, there is no doubt you'll gain more distance by switching to graphite. Assuming you use a lighter graphite shaft you'll be able to generate more clubhead speed because it's lighter and you'll also be able to make the shaft longer which will add clubhead speed. How much ? That will depend on what shaft you're using now, what you switch to, and also how your launch and spin change as a result. Your original question only asked for the information above and did not ask for advice about whether you should switch or not, or what was better for your game. In that area, being a +5 i'm sure you know much better than me or a higher handicapper. I wouldn't ask a 20 hdcpr for advice either, unless of course they were really good at a certain area of the game.

[bm303]

If those distances are accurate I don't think you are missing out on "too much".

[ks8829]

1) best round 60 (I can't make the putt for 59) lol... It was on a par-70 so I don't really count it... I had 2 eagles, 7 birdies and a bogey...

Thanks for taking the time to reply to the questions. Merry Christmas and wishing you good health, a prosperous 09 and more importantly great golfing in the new year!

[Righty to Lefty]

As many of you may know I am a +5 handicap and shouldn't be asking advice from higher handicappers...

Yes you are losing out on at least

20 yards with your 3 wood and probably 20 with your 5 wood and you should be able to get some good accuracy with a high quality shaft. I am nowhere close to your league as far as total game but my swingspeed numbers are close I bet because of your driver distance. I bet your swingspeed is around 115-123 mph and at that speed you should be hitting your woods further. I play the original Tour Edge Exotics CB1 in my 3 and 5 wood with their stock graphite design X quad shaft in X stiff flex and they are about as close as you can get off the shelf to a tour caliber clubs. I got mine for new 150 bucks a piece and I promise you at your swingspeed you will hit the 15* 3 wood 290 and the 5 wood 270 because I do. I'm not talking on the range either. I have driven the green on our 18th hole at Sahara Golf and Country Club which was a flat unwind aided at sea level GPS tracked 277 minimum to carry the water and 290 to middle of the green. I hit the shot 296. You should set up and account with bombsquadgolf (bombsquadgolf is the website) and look into their woods fitting which is 200 bucks. They deal with high in tour issue golf shafts mainly like Matrix Ozik (probably the best golf shaft in the world) and they will get you set up for sure. So for now I would say to try and track down a Tour Edge Exotics 3 wood ( The CB1 original version with the stock X-stiff X-Quad shaft is verified to the be the longest stock 3 wood in the world) by going to there website and clicking on one of their online distributors. And the next step is to find the perfect graphite shaft for you which the bombsquad guys are IMHO better than Hotstixx because they deal with so much tour issue gear whenever you have the time and money. I have no reason to try and pump myself up about my distances especially to a far superior golfer but I know without a doubt that you can get more distance out of your gear with a better fit. To give you and idea of the gear they deal with, the Proforce V2 75 gram shaft finished in 42nd out of 45 shafts tested by them on Iron Byron so that shaft is one of the worst that they tested. And Tour Edge Exotics is basically there tour line because they don't make TOUR Tour Edge Exotics clubs and that is why people look at their 350 dollar fairway woods and think it is crazy when as far as tour issue fairway wood that is about the minimum you would spend. Hope this helps.

[ks8829]

I think the economy is making everybody cranking, especially on this tread.

[Jenks465]

I carry my 3-wood about 270 and my 5-wood 250 on average... which both have steel Rifle 6.5 shafts in them...

This will all depend on how much lighter you can make the shaft in the club without changing the swingweight to a level where you lose control and if changing the shaft changes your launch conditions. Rifle wood shafts are~ 125g so if you went to a 95g graphite shaft of the same length you would gain around 2 MPH swing speed (30 g difference in dead weight of a club ~ 2 MPH swing speed) which would result in ball speed increase of ~ 3 MPH (1 MPH ball speed increase equals 1.8 yards extra carry) therefore you would gain a total of 5.4 yards of carry as long as launch angle and spin rate remain the same!

[youngskip40]

As many of you may know I am a +5 handicap and shouldn't be asking advice from higher handicappers...

I fall into the category of people perhaps a little less than qualified to answer this question, but my opinion has to do with distance dispersion, not lateral accuracy. I imagine that being a +5, you don't have a big problem hitting it straight and the reality seems to be that accuracy (if you have the right shaft/flex) isn't the big issue when it comes to the graphite vs. steel debate. The difference is in the consistency of the distances. If you hit your 5-wood in steel 250, and you hit the ball to a green 250 out, you'll find most of the balls on that 250 mark. If you had graphite, you might hit the ball 265-270, yes. But now when you approach that 265 shot to the green, your accuracy to the left and right of the target will remain mostly the same, but you will invariable have some that jump 10-15 yards further, and some that don't quite make it to 265. Or at least moreso than you would with steel shafted clubs. That reason, more than any other, seems to be why more pros don't play graphite-shafted irons. Those guys could hit it straight with hickory shafted clubs, graphite, steel, it wouldn't matter. And if they could control their distances as well with graphite as they can with steel, best believe you'd see a lot more players hitting 185 yard 8-irons into greens.

[HytrewQasdfg]

I hit my Driver about 310 yards on average... it has a 47.5 inch Grafalloy 2X shaft in it...

Is 310 the carry on your driver or carry + roll? Is 270 really just the carry or carry + roll.

I'm going to turn the question on its head. Should you consider putting a metal shaft in your driver? Yea, you'll lose 10 yards, but your accuracy will skyrocket. Remember Tiger used a metal driver shaft until his sponser essentialy forced him to go to graphite.