My driver: Should i change?

[lugonza_2001]

Hello all,

i have a Titleist 905T 9.5º with a Grafalloy Blue stiff shaft.
My handicap is 12 and my ss is 99-102 mph.

I like my driver but i don´know if it would be the best for me. I like the clubhead shape, it´s very easy to aim to the target, and although the shaft is for higher ss, i don´t feel unconfortable with it.
The bad thing is that i really need to hit it on the right spot to get the best of this club, and i don´t think that happens all the time.

I am getting fitted and my ss has increased a bit during the last year, but i don´t think it will ever pass 105mph.

Would you recommend me any other driver? Any particular shaft as well?
Should i keep my titleist?

Thanks a lot

[clemsontigers]

I had the same driver with the same shaft. My ss speed is 10-12 mph higher than yours. I liked the club and when I hit it well I really hit it well. I had the same problem with losing yardage on off center hits. I changed to the tour preferred Burner and feel it is more forgiving on off center hits. I think the biggest thing is to find the right shaft and put it in a driver you really like the looks of. Standing over an ugly driver head does not produce the best thoughts and bad thoughts produce bad shots.

[peter draggin]

if it works for you and nothing is wrong with it why change it?

[lugonza_2001]

if it works for you and nothing is wrong with it why change it?

Maybe something just a bit more forgiving would suit my game better?

Thanks a lot

[Shanks A Million]

Maybe something just a bit more forgiving would suit my game better?

The shaft is perfect for your SS, more loft might be a good idea. For your swing speed, a 10.5° driver would be ideal. But seing as how you have a driver already, my advice would be to take it in and have it cut shorter. There's a widely believed myth that a longer shaft will make you hit your driver further, but 99% of the time, it will actually make you hit it shorter. This is because it will decrease your on center hit percentage. When you miss the center of the face, even the hardest swing and the longest shaft will not buy you distance. The average amateur should be using a 43" driver, but the average driver on the market is 46". A lot of golf store fitters will tell you you want more length, but don't listen. It's usually free if you buy a new grip, so not much to lose, the shaft can always be extended again, again, for cheap if you change your mind.

[Crey23]

The shaft is perfect for your SS, more loft might be a good idea. For your swing speed, a 10.5° driver would be ideal. But seing as how you have a driver already, my advice would be to take it in and have it cut shorter. There's a widely believed myth that a longer shaft will make you hit your driver further, but 99% of the time, it will actually make you hit it shorter. This is because it will decrease your on center hit percentage. When you miss the center of the face, even the hardest swing and the longest shaft will not buy you distance.

I'm not sure the above statement is correct...at 43" you are looking at a 3W instead of a Driver.... for me a 45.5 standard length works. That I have issues with consistency is an issue of lack of practice, not club performance. You can always choke down an inch or so if you feel more comfortable, but does not make any sense to me to cut 2" of your shaft.

As for the distance, a study in dynamics will indicate that indeed a longer shaft will increase you distance as you increase swing speed. Your swing speed is the linear velocity or tangential velocity at the end of the club (the sole of the head). As the radius (shaft length) increases your linear velocity will increase as well. Putting numbers to this: If my SS is 100mph with a 46" club , assuming a consistent swing, with a 43" club my new SS is 93mph. That's a 7% decrease in SS, and taking some liberty in this calculation a 7% decrease in SS, would translate into at least a 7% decease in distance. Assuming I'm hitting average of 244 Yards (at 100mph), my new distance will be 223 Yards . Man you made go back to school for this..it's been a while since I do dynamics.... Bottom line a longer shaft does add (potentially) more distance, along with a myriad of other components. But when considering a new club, going shorter is certainly a mistake. You should get the 45.5 or 46 clubs and gradually grow to use the fill length, and not the other way around. As for the Burner clubs, these drivers are extremely forgiving. I had counterfeit Burner and was hitting 255 avg yards with a mean slice....I have now a stock r7 Limited and I am back to avg 250's and going mostly straight. Just go out and test a few drivers, get yourself on a monitor and see which driver gives you the results that you are looking for. Anyway, I hope this helps debunk the myth that length doesn't matter....

[ET-Taylor]

yeh but 233 yards Consistently is better hitting 244 6 times out of ten in to the bushes

[natp0wers]

We are around the same handicap, i currently game a 905R with a proforce V2 S shaft. Love the stick, but i will be switching to the R9 SuperTri for the 2010 season. I find it to be more forgiving and i am more comfortable with it at address.

[kpaulhus]

yeh but 233 yards

I chipped out onto the fairway and up and down for par....stuck under a palmetto bush. Sometimes that extra 20-40 yards off the puts me into a scoring club (9-SW) where as if I didnt have the distance I would be using a less accutare iron (4-6).

If I dont have room to screw up I use a 3 wood off the tee. If there is not too much trouble, why not blast one out there?

[lugonza_2001]

The shaft is perfect for your SS, more loft might be a good idea. For your swing speed, a 10.5° driver would be ideal. But seing as how you have a driver already, my advice would be to take it in and have it cut shorter. There's a widely believed myth that a longer shaft will make you hit your driver further, but 99% of the time, it will actually make you hit it shorter. This is because it will decrease your on center hit percentage. When you miss the center of the face, even the hardest swing and the longest shaft will not buy you distance. The average amateur should be using a 43" driver, but the average driver on the market is 46". A lot of golf store fitters will tell you you want more length, but don't listen. It's usually free if you buy a new grip, so not much to lose, the shaft can always be extended again, again, for cheap if you change your mind.

Ummm.... i don´t think i really need more loft, since i don´t hit low trayectory drives. The ball can go up to 100 feet or even more when i hit it well. I will try to see some drivers this week and i´ll see... Not looking for a beginner´s driver but i really think i need something easier to hit and still good looking at adress position. Thank you all for your help.

[Shanks A Million]

I'm not sure the above statement is correct...at 43" you are looking at a 3W instead of a Driver....

The problem is, your math is flawed. You take into account the driver shaft as the only determinate of length. This is not true, the actual lever is much longer, comprising of the arms as well. Here's some food for thought.

Theorists will point to the radial arm length in a golf swing as being the prime determinant of swing speed; stating that the longer the radial arm, the greater the swing speed and resultant distance in a golf shot. A common misconception is that club length alone is used as the determinant of the radius of a golf swing. Regardless of how many hinging points and resultant secondary arcs/planes are involved, the true center of a golf swing is a point somewhere between the golfer's shoulders (this center point moves laterally between the shoulders during the swing). Hence, you must include the golfer's arm length into the radial arm length equation for any meaningful analysis. Therefore, assuming a 45” driver length and an arm length of 24”, the radial arm in the golf swing is actually 69”. This means that a 1” decrease in club length results in a radial arm length decrease of 1/69th or 0.014493. A 2” decrease in club length results in a radial arm length decrease of 1/34.5 or 0.028986. As you can see, these fractional decreases in radial arm length do not produce any measurable decrease in swing speed or distance. However, what they do produce are progressive increases in the ability to make consistent center face ball contact which translates into greater distance.

Tom Wishon and robot tests agree. A 2" increase in shaft length provides roughly 7 yards of extra distance. You assume that with a 46" driver, the on center hit % will be the same. If you can control a 46" driver and hit the center of the clubface every time, guess what? You're better than the tour pros, who use 44.5" drivers. The best swingers of the club on the planet can't

hope to control a 46" shaft (Mickelson uses a 46" driver, and guess what lost him the U.S. open?)

TROUBLE WITH LONGER DRIVER Q: I bought a 46-inch driver. I hit it good until I bought it and now the only way I can hit it is to choke way down on the shaft. What do I do now? - Clark Bedow, Sacramento, Calif. A: The biggest problem is that you probably took the price tag off. Never take the price tag off a new driver or putter. Seriously, the downside of a extra-length club is for every extra half inch, it becomes very much more difficult to hit the ball on the center of the clubhead. What's happened to you is not unusual. Remember that your your distance comes from a center hit, not so much from strictly clubhead speed. You may want to shorten and reweight the club and see if that works better. As an aside: many golf pros have switched to a 45-46-inch and then gone back to 44 or 43. - Jerry Mowlds, Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, North Plains, Oregon

Pros. The gain in swing speed is severely offset by smash factor. While you may gain 7% swing speed, you will lose smash factor. When I hit the center of my driver face, the ball goes about 275 yards (depends of conditions of course). When I miss it, it goes about 210 yards. The ballspeed on center is about 165 mph, while the ballspeed off center is about 125 mph. If I went to a 46" shaft, I could hit it nearly 300 yards on a good center swipe. Why then, don't I? Because I'm not stupid enough to think that I can catch the center of the face every time with a longer driver, so I stick to my shorter one.

Ummm.... i don´t think i really need more loft, since i don´t hit low trayectory drives. The ball can go up to 100 feet or even more when i hit it well.

If you went with a stiffer shaft, and more loft, you'd get the same distance and height, but more control. I use more loft than I should use because it helps me control the driver. 100 feet isn't too high for a driver, in fact, high is good. Higher shots go farther. The average tour pro hits it right around 100 feet at the apex, and the longer hitters hit it higher.

[lugonza_2001]

Well, i just came back from the golf store, and i saw 2 of them i really like:

Cleveland DST Tour, very nice looking at adress. I think this Tour version has a slightly smaller head than the standar one.

Ping i15, nice looking as well, a bit more expensive. Bad thing is i heard this club is almost only for pros (Golf Digest).

The G15 doesn´t look bad either.

Do you like any of the 3?

[ronbo25]

Hello all,

Go take a look at the new drivers out there and pick out a few that suit your eye. Then take your current driver, along with a few of the new drivers, and get on a launch monitor. See what the data looks like. You may find that your current driver gives you the best results. Don't forget, the shaft has a huge influence on the trajectory and spin put on a ball. Some would say the shaft is a more important decision than the club head itself.

Your swing is your swing and what a club does for you will be different than what it would do for me. I have learned that I will NEVER buy another driver for me, or my family, without getting fitted.

[Jay-Bird]

I hit the new Callaway FTiz the other day on an in-store launch monitor. I was hitting it side by side with the new FT Tour, last year's FT-iQ, and FT-9. The FT-iz is as advertised. If anyone has 400 bucks for a new driver, this would be the one to get.

[Crey23]

The problem is, your math is flawed. You take into account the driver shaft as the only determinate of length. This is not true, the actual lever is much longer, comprising of the arms as well. Here's some food for thought.....

Shanks, my math is not flawed....the only variable in length is the shaft....your arms should not change. And while I agree that the way you swing (ie your path) that radius will be different, but as I stated, "having a consistent swing..." If you have a consistent swing, and you add 3" to your shaft you will change the radius, and you will add more distance provided you can hit it. With that said...If you were to add 3" to head from, say 2001, I'm sure that your results would be awful. But with todays technology in drivers, on how forgiving some of these are, you can be a consistent hitter at 45.5" or 46".

There is some truth to a shorter shaft, but to as far as 43"on the driver is lunacy. As for my game, I realized that there is much more to do with the type of shaft than length. I just switched from a r7 CBG Max to and r7 Limited. The limited and the CBG both had 45.5 shafts, but I was very inconsistent with the CBG, I changed to the r7 Limited, that has a much better shaft, and now I', about 60% on fairway with an additional 20 yards. There is far more that helps your accuracy and consistency than an extra inch or tow in your shaft.

[Dub]

Why all the debate and indecision by the OP?

I suggest you just go to a course with a well stocked pro shop and demo a few sticks on their range.

It's simple, really.

Do a side-by-side comparison to your driver and all of theirs.

[Crey23]

There is an interesting article in this month's Golf Digest that talks just about the benefits of longer drivers. I tried linking but I couldn't.

In any case check it out..it was pretty insightful.

[Cussin hacker]

Why all the debate and indecision by the OP?

Great idea but not always possible for many people. He is from Madrid.....I assume Spain so you are right there should be a range there that offers many good clubs to try. I'd try the Ping G15 myself.