Shortening the driver shaft...

[Golfingdad]

My first round on Gamegolf with the new 44.5" (or so) G30 was a success and I didn't see much loss of distance at all (if any).

My recorded drives (all of them):  275, 291, 156, 215, 273, 280, 280, 196, 271.

The 291 gets thrown out because it was severely down slope.  The 156, 215 and 196 get thrown out because the distance is measured from where I dropped after a penalty, not where the ball ended up. So that leaves me with 275, 273, 280, 280 and 271 as my first 5 solid drives with the (shorter) G30.

By comparison, my last round recorded locally (not in Phoenix) with my BB Alpha: 265, 264, 263, 231, 228, 231, 271, 257, 241, 235, 187. The ignored ones wrestled with trees.  The others, IIRC, were just mishits.  I don't remember the wind situation, so I'm not going to say that I gained distance with the G30, but I believe that I didn't lose any, and I'm certainly gaining a better average because contact is going to be consistently better, that I can see for sure already.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the first trial. :)

[utrinqueparatus]

While I agree that going to a three wood will certainly fix much of the problem except one.  The driver face has a much bigger area to hit the ball.  When I hit my 3 wood accurately I can hit it 230 yards which is often better than my driver which I usually slice or snap hook it as I warm up. I'm 6'-4" tall and 65 years old and have had surgury on both shoulders. So needless to say when it comes to accuracy, I miss hit more three woods than with the driver. I'd like to find a 14-16  degree lofted three wood that has a larger head (club face) that I can use for Teeing off and use it off the deck.  I'm presently looking into the little Bertha Three Wood and the Callaway RX fairway Wood.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here is a thought for you. Tom Wishon makes a Fairway Club called the 919F/D (Fairway Driver). The club is available at 11 or 14 degrees with the option to have the loft bent up to 1 degree either strong or weak. This club fits your requirement for having a 3 wood type club but with a larger head. This one is 200cc. Take a look wishongolf.com if nothing else it a great education reading some of the articles on fitting. And yes, I do use Wishon, so am a convert. Driver set at 10.25 with 44.5" Wishon Red Label 65g (Stiff). In addition two hybrids, set at 20 and 24 degrees with Wishon Black Label Hybrid shafts 85g. Enjoy.

[Jmdmbike]

I play a Ping G30 driver and 5 wood. Cut 1" off the driver and 1/2" off the fairway. Played one round last weekend, felt comfortable and I think it helped me control the ball better on average than I normally do. A few more rounds before I declare victory, but off to a decent start. 

[DrvFrShow]

One thing you can do for a test run before you cut is use some electrical tape and build up the end of the grip about 1" down about 1/8". It'll force you to choke up on the club a consistent amount effectively shortening the shaft without cutting it. This way you can see if you like it before you cut it. Legal for a tournament? No. But for a regular round? Who really cares? And it's perfectly fine for a range session. I played 4 rounds with mine like this before cutting. If you don't like it, the tape comes off and no harm done. If you like it you know what to do.

[rkim291968]

There are shaft extenders.   If you cut a shaft an inch or two and it turns out to be a mistake, you can add a shaft extender and gained back what you cut off.  

[DrvFrShow]

True there are shaft extenders, but it's time and money, and possibly a new grip as well. Just saying. The electrical tape for the test run before you cut works fine.

It will make the driver feel lighter. It made my BB a C8 from a D2, and my Razr Fit a D3 from a D6 (this was a good thing).

[The Wrong Fairway]

I bought a 913d2 driver off of that we'll known auction site. When it arrived I realised that the person I had got it from had failed to mention it was playing at 43.5 inches. I got the driver cheap so thought I would give it a try before looking for a new shaft. Turns out it was one of the best things that could happen to my game. More accurate and I picked up distance as I hit the middle more than I used to. Didn't need to mess with swing weights as it felt fine to me. Try it on an older/cheaper driver. Worse that can happen is you have to put some lead tape on it or maybe a new shaft. You can pick them up really cheap as long as your not obsessive over what shafts you play. Titleist drivers seem to me to be good for it as you can adjust the loft and lie with the surefire hostel and you can change the weights in them. I would be quite surprised if you didn't come back on to post that you had big gains from shortening the big stick.

[Joeyvee]

So if I cut 0.5" off of a driver, and say I weigh the piece of graphite I cut off, should I place that exact amount of tape on the head of the club? I am an Engineer, but I don't feel like thinking about this right now. It's been too long since Physics. 

[Joeyvee]

I was embarrassed that I left this as it was so I did some quick math at work. 

If you have a driver with a 200g head, and a 45.25" (or 114.936cm) shaft and you multiply them you get 22,872 g/cm

If you then shortened your driver to 44.5" (or 113.03cm) you would need to add 2.35g to the driver head to get the same 22,872 g/cm.

 

I'm at work so pardon conversions, units etc.. 

[Hacker James]

again, the whole swing weight calculations do not always solve the problems. You can mess around with static measurements and weights all you want, but as far as dynamic weight or apparent swing weight will still vary from individual to individual. What works best for you may in fact be off quite a bit from accepted changes. Lighten the grip to increase head weight, shorten the shaft, adding lead or whatever, surely can bring you back to what you had before the change, but still might not feel the same. For instance changing the shaft length will also effect the kick point, bend profile. As Tom Wishon maintains, there are at least twelve considerations for a proper fitting of club to individual. From an engineering stand point, yes the math is sound but from a reality standpoint not so much. That being said, it should get you in the ball park. Lot of sense in the old adage..."If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it". I might add...If you insist, at least plan for variances. 

 

reminds me of this guy in high school. He was one of the "nerdy" scientific types. He went to a pool hall one night, protractor and right angle in hand and commenced to measure incident angles e.t.c.

He left the pool hall with a lot less money in his pocket.

Edited October 9, 2017 by Hacker James

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, Joeyvee said:

So if I cut 0.5" off of a driver, and say I weigh the piece of graphite I cut off, should I place that exact amount of tape on the head of the club? I am an Engineer, but I don't feel like thinking about this right now. It's been too long since Physics. 

 

44 minutes ago, Joeyvee said:

I was embarrassed that I left this as it was so I did some quick math at work. 

If you have a driver with a 200g head, and a 45.25" (or 114.936cm) shaft and you multiply them you get 22,872 g/cm

If you then shortened your driver to 44.5" (or 113.03cm) you would need to add 2.35g to the driver head to get the same 22,872 g/cm.

 

I'm at work so pardon conversions, units etc.. 

I tend to agree with @Hacker James, because you likely would be changing a lot of things by cutting the shaft that way. Adding weight won't necessarily make the club swing the "same" as before, anyway.

The good part is you can just choke up half an inch instead. See how that works before making a larger commitment.

 

17 minutes ago, Hacker James said:

reminds me of this guy in high school. He was one of the "nerdy" scientific types. He went to a pool hall one night, protractor and right angle in hand and commenced to measure incident angles e.t.c.

He left the pool hall with a lot less money in his pocket.

Not surprising, since he likely didn't take spin into account. . .

 

 

Edited October 9, 2017 by Lihu

[Hacker James]

choking up is a good way to see what effect changes in length occur, but then as I have mentioned in other threads, you then have to take into account apparent counter weighting by virtue of your having moved the fulcrum of the lever and resultant excess shaft above your wrist/fulcrum. However, since you are only talking about 1/2 inch , the effect should be negligible. 

Edited October 9, 2017 by Hacker James

[Antneye]

Stupid question, but how do you measure shaft length?  Is it the disconnected shaft?  From butt enf to the hozel?  From but end to club-head?  I'm curious how long my driver is but am not really sure how to check it.  I'm 5'6 and sometime feel the club may be too long for me.

[Hacker James]

butt end to bottom of sole, but best to google it to see a photo as descriptions can be misconstrued.

 

Here is one of many:  http://www.fujikuragolf.com/how-to-measure-golf-shaft-length/

Edited October 9, 2017 by Hacker James

[Joeyvee]

I Shouldn't have even said anything. I forgot about the argumentative nature of this forum. Which is really sad by the way.

By no means did I mean that cutting your driver shaft, then replacing the loss in weight, would somehow give you the exact same shaft characteristics, just shorter. 

That was a very incomplete answer that I left up there, and the simple fact is that if you find a club that works, be it from a Trackman equipped fitting, or the local goodwill, once you change the length of the shaft you have a different club. If it helps, great. If not then I am sorry. 

[Lihu]

48 minutes ago, Joeyvee said:

I Shouldn't have even said anything. I forgot about the argumentative nature of this forum. Which is really sad by the way.

Wow, we certainly didn't intend to hurt your feelings. . .

 

48 minutes ago, Joeyvee said:

By no means did I mean that cutting your driver shaft, then replacing the loss in weight, would somehow give you the exact same shaft characteristics, just shorter. 

Some assumptions were made as to why you wanted to add weight? At this point, given this statement, I'm really curious why you'd add the weight at all?

 

48 minutes ago, Joeyvee said:

That was a very incomplete answer that I left up there, and the simple fact is that if you find a club that works, be it from a Trackman equipped fitting, or the local goodwill, once you change the length of the shaft you have a different club. If it helps, great. If not then I am sorry. 

Why are you sorry? You asked a question and we answered as best as we could?

[Hacker James]

1 minute ago, Lihu said:

Wow, we certainly didn't intend to hurt your feelings. . .

 

Some assumptions were made as to why you wanted to add weight? At this point, given this statement, I'm really curious why you'd add the weight at all?

 

Why are you sorry? You asked a question and we answered as best as we could?

@Joeyvee  Ditto...you were perfectly right in posing the questions and taking the time to clearly demonstrate what actions you were taking. It showed the meticulous effort and thought you put into it. The responses you received were only intended to add rather than supplant  the reasons for making changes, not only  for your benefit, but for that of anyone following the thread. 

[Hacker James]

On 10/30/2015 at 1:53 PM, DrvFrShow said:

One thing you can do for a test run before you cut is use some electrical tape and build up the end of the grip about 1" down about 1/8". It'll force you to choke up on the club a consistent amount effectively shortening the shaft without cutting it. This way you can see if you like it before you cut it. Legal for a tournament? No. But for a regular round? Who really cares? And it's perfectly fine for a range session. I played 4 rounds with mine like this before cutting. If you don't like it, the tape comes off and no harm done. If you like it you know what to do.

I read somewhere that Ben Hogan had a wire running under his grip as a reminder thing. Sounds like that would not be legal, but perhaps back then, it was of no concern, or maybe he used it only in practice.