Distance and Degrees

[Free Ballin]

With the new drivers of today I was wondering what the difference in distances you will get with the different lofts of the driver. I use a 12 deg Cobra Fspeed with a reg. shaft. I have a pretty fast club speed. I was wondering if I will get a significant increase in distance with a lower loft club. Using course markers to the best of my ability, I will say that I drive the ball 260 -270 yds. I get a lot of height on my drivers. I probably need a stiffer shaft but it was hard to turn down a free club. I don't have a place to demo clubs or get my swing speed near me.

[Silvertree]

It's all about optimum launch angle for the person. I don't think there is a general rule of thumb or I have never heard of one.

[supercow]

Like Silvertree said every individual has a different set of optimum characteristics. If you don't have access to a launch monitor then work out your 5 iron distance and work back. First you have to work out how far you hit your five iron (carry). Then you can use a chart from the following website to calculate your swing speed.

http://www.theworldofgolf.com/clubfitting.asp

Since your 5 iron swing speed is normally 80% of your driver swing speed you can extrapolate your driver swing speed (by multiplying your 5 iron swing speed by 1.2). Then you use a virtual launch monitor such as the one provided at Sonic Boom Golf to determine your optimal launch characteristics.

http://www.sonicboomgolf.com/distanc...ndashboard.swf

That said, if you have severe swing faults no equipment will make you better.... :(

[supercow]

One more thing, if you're not making solid contact with your driver you can incur pretty extreme drops in efficiency and subsequent drops in ball speed and distance even if though you may be making 100 mph swings. In which case, this process becomes entirely invalid....

Just noticed that that website has the driver speed from 5-iron distance so no cheesy multiplication should be necessary in this case.

[CG031]

I have a 13.5* driver only because I was hitting really low "stingers" with my 10.5* so my pro suggested i get 13.5*...You'd probably get more distance out of a 10.5* driver, HOWEVER, it'll take some time to adjust to because it's probably gonna go pretty low at first.