Shaft Length?

[OldManMorris]

I seldom post, but I read this forum often for advice and news. A question is nagging me and I cannot wait to ask my local pro so I am posing it to all you:

I'm a solid player all around but one issue with my game is my consistency with my driver. I've been fitted in the past but I'm not sure if I have been fitted for shaft length and I was wondering if I might be swinging a club that's too long for me to handle.

I stand at 5'8" and swing smoothly with every club except my driver. There are moments where I can maintain a solid turn and finish with my driver but they are few and far between and most of the time I battle with either pushing it right or a push slice. Even my best shots always land 10 yards to the right of my target.

I don't have this inside out swing plane with my other clubs--at all, in fact from a 3 wood on the ground to a wedge I am confident in where I can put the ball. My current driver is 45 inches long and throughout the swing I feel as if it is athletically difficult to square the club at impact--consistently. Does anyone think I am playing with too long a shaft?

I understand that a shorter shaft may limit distance, but I'm not too concerned about that. I can hit it in the 260 range already, but I would sacrifice distance for accuracy and flush feeling shots. But, how much distance would I lose if I went down to 43 inches?

[Shindig]

  OldManMorris said:

I stand at 5'8" and swing smoothly with every club except my driver.

Two thoughts:

1. Look at how short players on TOUR hit. AK comes to mind: he's about our height. If you're worried the shaft is too long, try an AK grip with the driver. 2. Here's the issue with driver: most people know how far they hit 3W, hybrid, 5I, 9I, GW, etc. The only two clubs they try to vary distance on are putter and driver (the former appropriately). My suggestion: swing-thought with driver of "get the ball into play." Do this with and/or without the AK grip. When I think this, I tend to hit it farther and into the fairway. I'm not mentally strong enough to have this thought often enough.

[Danattherock]

I would go for a professional fitting myself. First thing I would get attention to is the flex of the shaft. Consider changing shafts in the driver perhaps. Maybe you are swinging too light a flex. Faster swing speed now than when you were previously fit? A variable to give some thought to at any rate.

[Blades4me]

  OldManMorris said:

I seldom post, but I read this forum often for advice and news. A question is nagging me and I cannot wait to ask my local pro so I am posing it to all you:

I'd suggest you chock down on the driver and see what happens. If the drive straightens out after that then the shaft is probably too long. If you are still pushing the ball to the right then you mite be getting "stuck" in back and a lesson will help that. Those are the 2 that occur to me; there may be more.

My addage is, when all else fails,,,,,,get a lesson. Look at Tad Fugikawa's (sp) swing with his driver. Its interesting b/c he seems to swing around his body and does a very good job of it. A quick note on a longer dirver shaft--I play a 47" driver shaft and have found that it can be a "virus" that can sneak into the rest of the clubs. Due to the longer length I tee the ball more foward and have to flatten my swing out, which is good for the driver, but not so good for the rest of the clubs. I've learned to keep this in mind during the round, but it can still creap into the rest of the clubs once in awhile.

[Shorty]

  OldManMorris said:

My current driver is 45 inches long and throughout the swing I feel as if it is athletically difficult to square the club at impact--consistently. Does anyone think I am playing with too long a shaft?

You will lose a yard or two. Considerably less than you might imagine. Wishon's tests prove it.

I had two TM drivers and cut one down to 43 inches and one to 44. Remember that most pros use drivers shorter than the "standard" 45 inches. My expeience was that the 43 inch driver was a tad short, but 44 inches is fantastic. There are swingweight issues to deal with - certainly at 43 inches but TM MWT makes it easy to address these, but take an inch off your driver and learn to live with the extra control and NO loss of distance. In fact, with my Superquad at 44 inches I didn't bother to add weight and it transformed my driving.

[Ken Smith]

The short answer is... it depends. The guys are right, you should probably have a dynamic fitting done to really determine the appropriate length. I will tell you that I'm 6'3", and play all of my clubs at +1". My driver was 45.5", and I was all over the place with it. In fact, I generally sliced or pushed it, just as you're doing. I ended up rebuilding my driver at 44", and now I have no problem lacing it right down the middle. I can't really say that I lost any distance either...

[Primate]

Couldnt you just choke up a bit and see if it helps?