Choked down driver =

[Ignorant]

Oh great, this is going to turn into another driver distance thread. Way to go Ignorant.

Don't get upset. Like I said, I am astonished, not saying I do not believe.

[ohiolefty]

I'm glad it works for AK.

I have a massive mental block about choking down. Massive. Irrational.

When I'm struggling to hit the sweet spot with the driver I usually have a path/balance issue that I can, now, usually fix on the fly if I keep my head out of my arse.

I wish I could choke down. It makes sense. You'd have more control of the club which increases the likelihood of hitting it in the center of the face which, of course, equals more distance.

[$2 Nassau]

I think I know the reasoning behind this approach. Most "average" Golfers generally don't make solid contact in the sweet-spot, and therefore are not achieving optimum distance for their particular swing-speed.

Yup. My initial thought was that it's part of a marketing scheme. An extra inch or so could offer someone a few mph's in additional swing speed. So a guy goes to his local golf retail shop and picks out a few drivers....He likes them all, his swing speed is 102mph with the other drivers, but with the TM driver it's 105mph. Sold. LOL

[Gordon McTavish]

Yup. My initial thought was that it's part of a marketing scheme. An extra inch or so could offer someone a few mph's in additional swing speed. So a guy goes to his local golf retail shop and picks out a few drivers....He likes them all, his swing speed is 102mph with the other drivers, but with the TM driver it's 105mph. Sold. LOL

It's almost like they are creating a problem that the average guy is oblivious to, and then sees their solution, i.e. "we make out current clubs difficult to strike consistently, so let's convince our target audience that the next batch on production will be longer."

As for gripping down, aside from a means to controlling distances, does this not potentially indicate ill-fitting clubs?

[bigoak]

another variable is that as you choke down the diameter of the grip is smaller. have you ever tried a smaller grip. makes you a little handsier

[mdbuschsr]

@ Ignorant
I really don't want to take this down the "I don't believe his driver distance" road. Let me just say, the 300+ driver is not an average. Not even close. My unofficial average is more like 240-260 including roll. I just happened to get that particular drive just right. I was just as astonished as you.

@ 6'3" with an "average" driver swing speed of 95mph per Golf Galaxy, I don't find it terribly difficult to have all of the stars align once in a great while and achieve the swing speed and contact necessary to smack one out there 300+... Nothing scientific, I'm just sayin'.

Honestly I couldn't care less right now if I never hit another that far. If I can find the short grass, I'm happy!

[Gordon McTavish]

[QUOTE=mdbuschsr;528690@ 6'3" with an "average" driver swing speed of 95mph per Golf Galaxy[/QUOTE]
Is that 95mph after gripping down? ;)

[mdbuschsr]

Actually that is before gripping down. Good point, but what am I giving up in gripping down, 3-5 mph? Not a rhetorical question, I really don't know.

[Gordon McTavish]

Actually that is before gripping down. Good point, but what am I giving up in gripping down, 3-5 mph? Not a rhetorical question, I really don't know.

I think it would be interesting to compare the actual speed between the two grip positions, not just clubhead speed.

[kafka01]

There wouldnt be a need to be gripping down if the manufactures wouldnt keep increasing shaft length every year - just to make the claim that the new driver (with 46inch) is longer than your old one with 45 inch. Of course it is, they do the same stuff with irons. Couple years back PW had 50-48° now you can find popular models with 45 ° which basically is a 9i and then they step down 5° - and on top of that they make longer shafts.

And then if you look on tour, a lot of the guys play 45inches or shorter in their drivers and they are supposed to have a much tighter impact pattern than we amateurs have on the clubface.

What a joke by the manufactures, and sadly a lot of people buy into it...

[Mrd19abhs]

Choking down actually works extremly well for me to help me hit more fairways tho I have def seen a loss of yardage. I previously was hitting about 240-250 on drivers with a little slice but only hitting 3 or 4 fairways a round. Since choking down i have been hitting 7-9 fairways a round but have only been hitting it 210ish

[JWL1957]

I cut my driver down to 43.5" from 45" and added a few pieces of lead tape. I'm back to hitting my little cut/fade. 45 inches was way too much shaft length for my long arms adding to the error of margin.

[JML22]

i grip down
better to be 260 270 in the fairway than hitting 3 off the tee

[Flounder]

This is my first post, please be gentle;

This topic is near and dear to my heart as I have been struggling with the driver ever since going to Stack and Tilt. (I've trained with Nick Clearwater and James Hirshfield) After much research on the net and different driver purchases, I've concluded the following; 64% is the magic number. Multiplying my height, 5'7" by .64 gives me a shaft length of 42.88", so I built a 43" driver/thriver (thriver=driver with a 3wood length shaft) that I can flat KILL. The trick with building a "chopper" as I call it, is get enough loft (mine is a 12 degree Tour Edge Exotics xcg3) and getting the correct flex once you "chop" 2 inches off of it. I was lucky to get a perfect used shaft. The shaft was a 55 gram senior ping shaft. When it was finished it had a regular flex and had swingweight of C-0. I added one of these to get some of the mass back and fine tune the balance. http://www.balance-certified.com/pag.../11/19/0150711

I can swing this thing as hard as I can and to me , that's the sign of a good fit.

[Ignorant]

I think it would be interesting to compare the actual speed between the two grip positions, not just clubhead speed.

You mean the ball speed? Good point, as the smash factor could be different due to cleaner impact.

From where I stand the accuracy is not only about hitting the fairway better but also hitting it closer to the sweet spot of the club. And suprisingly (!!!) the latter creates the former...

[Ignorant]

This is my first post, please be gentle;

Struggling with S&T;? Friendy advice: give it up.

[melchior]

Struggling with S&T;? Friendy advice: give it up.

And now we know where you got your forum handle from.

On topic: I might have to do that, lately I've been having good contact from time to time with my driver but on days when it's not quite working out I never thought about choking down on much of anything other than wedges since I don't have the distance control to have a 3yds off of a 5I or something.

[JWL1957]

I also agree with the shorter shaft theory. And here is why. About 4 months ago, I took my old Powerbilt Citation persimmon driver to the course to hit a few shots with it. I could not believe how accurate the damn thing was considering that the sweet spot is about the size of a pea in comparison to my jumbo headed Burner. I was hitting high fades about 250 yds. I then hit my Burner with the stock Reax "S" Shaft a few times..........and a little light went off in my pea sized brain. The Burner shaft was 2" longer than my "Ole Powerbilt" and putting me on too flat a swing plane. I went home and trimmed the butt of the Burner shaft 2" and added enough lead tape to bring the swing weight to D-1. I took the Burner back out to the course and found my old high fade ball flight that I always had back in the persimmon days. I gave up about 10 yards distance.... but who cares. This winter I will get a driver head that is about 1 degree upright and keep tinkering with this. I am almost 6'3" and play 1.5 -2 degree upright irons. I do not lengthen my shafts due to having 36 1/2 arm length. I have made posts on here before about my love/hate relationship with the driver, but now I really believe that I am onto something good with my driving. Took 20 years......... but oh well.