43.5" vs 45" Driver

[ronaldkuntoro]

Do you think a 45" driver will shoot longer than a 43.5" driver?

43.5" is sure giving more consistency to your drives.

[Zeph]

A longer club will always in theory give more speed and more distance. The advantage of a shorter club is that it is easier to swing and can be more accurate. Hitting the sweetspot with a 45" driver can be more difficult, so you could end up hitting the 43.5" driver farther.

[TourSpoon]

A longer club will always in theory give more speed and more distance. The advantage of a shorter club is that it is easier to swing and can be more accurate. Hitting the sweetspot with a 45" driver can be more difficult, so you could end up hitting the 43.5" driver farther.

You definitely get into the law of diminishing returns because hitting it on the sweet spot becomes the issue. The driver shafts are getting longer but there has to be a breaking point. I remember when Killer Bee used to have a 48 inch option.

[SouthernILGolfer]

Somewhere in the middle should be about right, my driver is just over 44" i think(standard length for it). Anything shorter than that, unless you're really short yourself, would seem way too short.

[plugged]

I don't think you can make a definitive statement about driver shaft lengths and accuracy that fit every individual. Yes, longer shfts do tend to be less accurate, but I know some folks are no more accurate with a 44.5" shaft than they are with a 46" shaft. I had the shaft length on my Burner cut by an inch and a lightweight grip put on and it has helped by driving accuracy, but only marginally so. It does make me feel more in control of my swing though, so it has helped my mentally if nothing else.

[JML22]

I think its more important for the shaft to fit your swing than the length

[ET-Taylor]

yeh because the longest driver i have ever owned my current one which is 46" goes the straighest out of my drivers so length isnt always the main issue and im only 5'5 ish

[kafka01]

Tour guys - 44 - 44.5 mostly - amateurs 45 - 46? That doesnt make sense, does it? Or can we make better contact on a more frequent basis? I dont think so.
In theory and also in some occasions in reality a 46 is always longer than a 44 inch shaft - doesnt matter on which clubhead you put it. But its not about the rare occasion but about the average!

[enis750]

I call a 43.5" "driver" a 3 wood.....just sayin

[sblack5]

I have found that driver shaft length and finding the sweet spot has to do with player height and arm length. My shaft is 46 " long and I hit it a lot more accurately and find the sweet spot more often than a 43-44 " driver. Very player dependent.

[ronaldkuntoro]

Tour guys - 44 - 44.5 mostly - amateurs 45 - 46? That doesnt make sense, does it? Or can we make better contact on a more frequent basis? I dont think so.

Most amateurs think they need all the extra swing speed they can get from a 46" driver. Tour players play 44.5" because they already have a high swing speed and do not need extra swing speed.

I certainly do not agree with that statement. Extra swing speed does not equal hitting sweet spot every time.

[JWL1957]

I cut 1" off of my 2009 Burner and I am hitting more flush than ever. My distance loss seems to be right around 5 yards or so.
It has been a great trade-off for me, and I have that fun feeling when I address the ball with it now.

Might not work for everyone.............just throwing it out there.

[popcorn]

I do believe the longer shaft driver will get more distance than shorter shaft driver.The tour guys have more power than us. Even they use 40" driver they could still beat us who use the 46" driver. What they want is accuracy. That is why they always use shorter shaft driver. For us, the golf manufacture always try to make us believe he can make better club that can hit the ball further than others. That is why they always make the club shaft longer.
I chopped my TM burner driver about 1" down. I lost about 10 yards but more controllable. So it works for me.

[saevel25]

If you are hitting it with the same consistancy, making the same solid contact, a 2.5" increase in shaft length will only give you a 5.5% increase in swing speed, more beneficial for higher swing speeds. But at 90 mph swing speed, thats an increase to 95 mph, Which accounts for about 10-15 yards increase in distance. But more amatuers can not swing consistantly with a longer club like that. Also, higher golf ball speeds mean higher spin rates, which means any sort of fault in your swing, lets say a slice, will be exagerated more.
So you might hit a ball straighter at 43.5", and actually get more distance because your 46" driver might end up 15 yards more right.

[gregsandiego]

Hmmm.I rented clubs at a Michigan course and they gave me an old Wilson set. I think the driver must have been 43" because at first I'm thinking, what are these ladies clubs?

Sure did seem easier to hit square than my 45"  r5 XL.Now I'm on the hunt for the old standard.

Someone above said that a 45" driver is really a 3 wood. Really? 3 woods have much smaller club heads don't they?

[McObra]

I'm not even sure how long my driver is.  I do know that if I choke down an inch and a half I have better control than I do if I grip it at the end.

[Mulligan Jeff]

I'll bet tour players use drivers that are less than 45" - it would help them be more accurate.

[trickyputt]

Jack Nicklaus said hit it long and learn accuracy later in his book "My 55 ways to lower your golf score". So I did design a driver that was as long as I could muster, a 47.5 inch 460 head design. I achieved lengths that put me off the white tees back to the tips. I used some recent hot heads the xhot and R1 for those who want to know. The point however, is that this idea of a longer shaft comes with two physical realities with which one must deal. Point one is the longer shaft promoting a more horizontal swing. You cannot elevate yourself past the height you are physically given, and at some point, you lose left-right control, as a 96 inch driver would be so flat and circular a swing as to not allow a down the line accuracy. The long drive crowd plays the draw with the 50 inch shaft for example, whereas the fairway golfer must be prepared for general shots that may be left or right or straight dependant upon the link in question. Consider the horizontal element of a plus sign + and understand it is this element of accuracy that becomes disaffected. Two is that the the head sizes necessary to allow acceptable striking consistency must also balloon to 460 size from 440 or 430 or less as this shaft length grows. There is a real relation between length and head speed as there is between face striking consistency and head size as well as aerodynamic effect and head size. Players using smaller driver heads at shorter shaft lengths achieving higher head speeds are maximizing the advantages of this relationship while simultaneously controlling the steepness of their swing plane which is the vertical component of the + sign accuracy vector. To control a balance of horizontal forces and vertical forces is to control accuracy generally. To do this at a higher head speed is to promote distance, but I now respect the smaller headed driver with a shorter shaft because of previously stated ideas. I have not yet created two drivers with similar shafts but different lengths, the shorter with a smaller head to prove this, but I have the parts and will do so out of academic curiousity alone. My suspicion is that the better players who describe their success with the more controllable setup will be proven correct, but until then I hope to keep an open mind about the subject.