Shortening the driver shaft...

[Incognito]

I tried hitting a friend's driver the other day that was cut down to 43" and I LOVED it.

Upon further research, I read that cutting a driver shaft will also stiffen the shaft.

I have about a 97 mph driver swing speed leaving me at the border of a stiff shaft.

My question:
If I decide to cut down a driver shaft by a couple inches, should I be looking at a regular flex shaft to accommodate the stiffening of the shaft, or will a stiff flex be sufficient.


Thanks in advance!!!!

[CG031]

I got a R flex and cut the driver down from 45.75" to 44.50"...I've had a lot of rounds where I've hit 13/13 fairways on my course. I'm by no means the longest hitter out there (240-250 yds off the tee) but boy do I hit it straight with this thing!

It's probably taken a few yards off my tee shots, but it's made me accurate.

[Shanks A Million]

  Incognito said:

I tried hitting a friend's driver the other day that was cut down to 43" and I LOVED it.

If you cut from the butt end, it won't be too big of a difference. If you find it hard to get airborne, then maybe opt for a regular flex shaft. I use a regular flex shaft that was cut 3", but it was tip cut, and it plays right around X.

[rebby]

I sort-of addressed this one right here earlier this week.

In summary...

1. Cutting the shaft down from the butt end will have a negligible affect on the flex. Cutting from the tip however, will make a noticeable affect.
2. You swingweight will be altered quite a bit (lowered) by cutting 2" off of your shaft.
3. Bring swingweight back up with a combination of a heavier shaft and/or grip in combination with adding weight to your clubhead.
4. Be aware of a change in lie angle, less of a problem w/a driver, but be aware nonetheless.
5. I LOVE the idea of a shorter driver shaft. I play my driver at 44.5". I'd go to 44" but, I like the weight of my current shaft and didn't want to add that much weight to my clubhead.

[Crey23]

  rebby said:

I sort-of addressed this one

Exactly!!!

You have a MWT driver. You can gain some wieght back to the head if you buy a few additional weights. I wouldn't cut it shorter than 44"...a 3w is 43.5", and according to most on this forum that preach cutting the driver shaft always state that 44.5" is what the pros use....

[kilbyman]

How tall or you? Might be a silly question, but it makes a difference. I'm 6'2" and have an extra inch on my irons, so 45.75" for my shaft is perfect for me. That being said, the average male would probably be best served with the 44.5" shaft.

Aside: My driver is a "players driver," which means that at it's 1.25" long stock shaft is actually shorter than average off the shelf. TM is selling 46.5" shafts in the Superfast! Wow.

[c. lassiter]

I think this is silly.

And while I have certainly tried my share of different shafts through the years, I think there enough variables in the game without adding new ones. Once you start adding new tweaks, where does it end? Shorten the shaft, then discover you need something softer, then add weight to the head to adjust the swingweight, then discover this causes you to push the ball right, then strengthen your grip to compensate, etc., etc.

If you like the accuracy of a shorter club off the tee I'd recommend you hit your 3 Wood and leave the driver as is.

[JML22]

wait
so you're perfectly fine using a 46.5 inch driver? give or take

[Shanks A Million]

  c. lassiter said:

I think this is silly.

Sure, and every pro on tour, every low handicap here, and pretty much every local pro would disagree, but hey, what do they know? The bottom line is that 99% of all drivers sold today are too long. The Burner Superfast is 46.5" long, while the average tour pro plays a 44.5" driver. I play a 44" driver, and I hit about 75% of the fairways, and if you count first cut, more like 85%.

Why make it harder on yourself? Why give up distance? Cut down the driver to 44". It's cheap, it's effective, and it's almost never a bad idea.

[Incognito]

thank you all for all the great advice. I'm going to be looking to get my shaft cut down this week.

One last question: How much should I expect to pay for something like this? Do I need to buy a new grip?

[kennay92]

  Incognito said:

thank you all for all the great advice. I'm going to be looking to get my shaft cut down this week.

i went to golf galaxy about 3 months or so ago and got my 3 and 5 woods cut down as my 3 wood was longer than most peoples drivers and 5 was creepin up there. anyways, got em both cut down, re grip (which is free with the cut down), and grip cost all under 25 bucks. (i opted out for a cheaper lamkin grip, about a 4 dollar grip)

[CG031]

I don't lose that much distance either. Maybe 5-10 yards of carry.

I hit the CENTER of the club face far more often too.

[Nike Markiie]

Same here. Best thing I've done to my bag.

[Gerald]

  c. lassiter said:

If you like the accuracy of a shorter club off the tee I'd recommend you hit your 3 Wood and leave the driver as is.

Well ..... a 3 wood has a much smaller headsize and most of todays 3 woods also have way toooo long shafts in them. A slightly shorter driver can add a lot of accuracy, but it is not a couple of inches ..... more like 1/2" to 3/4" less.

[Shanks A Million]

  CG031 said:

I don't lose that much distance either. Maybe 5-10 yards of carry.

Well, the actual loss of distance when doing tests with swing robots shows a loss of about 7 yards between a 43" and 46" driver. It's really much less than people think. I think the real factor here is that the shorter, stiffer shaft actually plays more into the carry factor. Most people use a shaft that's too stiff, and too little loft. What I found was the opposite, cutting down the shaft gave me

more distance when the club was hit on center. In my case, the shaft had been too weak, and thus I had gotten too much spin according to the clubmaker.

[max power]

It's probably a good idea for the vast majority of amateurs, but cutting the driver shaft down is not the final word. A recent golf test (I don't remember where), showed amateurs hitting the longer shafts (45.5-46") a little bit longer than shorter, traditional length driver shafts, with a very slight increase in accuracy. Sounds counterintuitive, and probably is, as I expect most people will experience some increase in accuracy by going down 1/2" to 1 inch. But I'm more of a fan of choking up (or is it down?) 1/2-1" when need be. I'm speaking about the 45-45.75" shafts, I agree that the 46" (and 46.5") shafts probably aren't helping anybody.

[Titleist_ProV1x]

  Incognito said:

I tried hitting a friend's driver the other day that was cut down to 43" and I LOVED it.

Just cut the shaft from the butt end and you won't have any problems, just make sure the swing weight is adjusted back to were you like it, as far as distance goes you won't lose any, if anything you will gain yards by making contact in the center of the face more, you'll also hit more fairways because a shorter shaft gives you better control

[NormH3]

Silly question. Won't choking down on the club give you a similar outcome? I realize that swingweight can be affected, but wondering if this might be an easier fix to the longer shaft problem.