Your experiences with different driver lofts and shaft flexes

[TJBam]

I recently made the switch from a 10.5* stiff flex (cut down 1") to a HT regular flex and have seen significant improvement in my game off the tee.

All my tee shots with my 10.5 resulted in low screaming slices.  When I changed to a HT with a longer shaft, I'm seeing a higher straighter tee shot with a baby fade.  The change has been remarkable as my instructor has never touched on driver (only irons).  Meaning that I didn't change my swing, just my weapon.

It feels like a dirty little quick fix, but I have been very happy with it as the fairway is my new found best pal.

What has worked for you?

[Ratliff]

I went from a regular flex 10.5 to a stiff flex 9.  I have been hitting the ball much better since I made the change.

[Jeremie Boop]

The driver I did the best with was an 8 degree tour edge bazooka I bought new years ago. It was stolen along with all my clubs at that time and have never had enough to buy another brand new driver so I always end up with a higher loft driver and feel like I lose distance due to lack of roll out. I currently have a r7 quad at 10.5 that goes so high at the end of the trajectory that it barely rolls at all. If I had this same driver in a 9 degree I'd probably gain a decent amount of length from roll. I can't hit a regular flex driver, feels like it will break.

[ApocG10]

Whoops, accidently reported my own post when I meant to edit it, hahaha.

[Jeremie Boop]

Originally Posted by ApocG10

Whoops, accidently reported my own post when I meant to edit it, hahaha.

ROFL.... Pretty hard to offend yourself with a forum post !

[jrasch]

I have the R11s and my loft is at the lowest setting with I think is 7.5* I still hit it higher then guys I play with, that have higher loft drivers.

[Dave2512]

44.25" 460cc 10.5 stiff but it plays a little softer due to the added weight at the tip to bring the swing weight back up after shortening. My 2013 FIR isn't great at 43.7% but a lot of the misses are first cut to either side and long. Quite a few of the courses we play have short par 4's where the fairway stops short of the green or are split near the green. So far so good but I'll likely upgrade the shaft, probably go a little heavier.

[Mr. Desmond]

Tough subject - My driver SS needs measuring - believe it's between 88-92.

I start with loft for a fit, fine-tune with shaft, and then ball - I do not load heavily or quickly - I like a butt soft shaft, stiffer mid, softer tip in an R flex. I seem to gain more consistency with a D4-D5 Swingweight. I like a ball with some spin and a urethane cover - the TP3/RBZ Urethane/Cally Hex Chrome.

I swung an Adams 12.5 with a mid-kick Fuji Blur Shaft - nice but no roll.

I went to an R1 and Oban Revenge 55 R flex. - and after more swing adjustments since April/and using the thread about hitting up on the ball, having the ball around the big toe/or outside the shoulder socket and lining up for a draw - I've got it where ball go high at 10.5 using the RBZ Urethane.

I reeled off a 270 yd drive with a 10-12 mph wind in my back last week and 90 degrees - that's long for me. I kept on going to the 230 marker looking for my ball and it was near the green - it was the short par 4 dead center fairway. I laughed. Missed the 8 ft bird - ugh.

[Jeremie Boop]

My swing speed with 52 degree wedge is about 100 but I haven't found out what my driver swing speed is. Not sure how much difference there should be by club. I do know that anything less than stiff flex on driver feels extremely whippy. There isn't anyplace close to where I live that can do a true club fitting for driver.

[Mr. Desmond]

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

My swing speed with 52 degree wedge is about 100 but I haven't found out what my driver swing speed is. Not sure how much difference there should be by club. I do know that anything less than stiff flex on driver feels extremely whippy. There isn't anyplace close to where I live that can do a true club fitting for driver.

I would hop on a Launch Monitor and hit a ball with a driver and 6i.

100 mph with a 52 seems odd.

[jrasch]

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

I would hop on a Launch Monitor and hit a ball with a driver and 6i.

100 mph with a 52 seems odd.

I was thinking the same thing

[Jeremie Boop]

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

I would hop on a Launch Monitor and hit a ball with a driver and 6i.

100 mph with a 52 seems odd.

It could be, that's probably a little off, but I would say not by a whole lot. I hit my 55* sw about 100-110 so I figure the ss has to be fairly close to 100. I probably "overswing" in that I have too much shoulder turn or something than necessary for my irons. I think someone else said that in another thread about my swing. Problem is, if I limit my backswing my timing gets thrown way off. Problem is though, there is no place near me that I know of that has a launch monitor.

[Mr. Desmond]

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

It could be, that's probably a little off, but I would say not by a whole lot. I hit my 55* sw about 100-110 so I figure the ss has to be fairly close to 100. I probably "overswing" in that I have too much shoulder turn or something than necessary for my irons. I think someone else said that in another thread about my swing. Problem is, if I limit my backswing my timing gets thrown way off. Problem is though, there is no place near me that I know of that has a launch monitor.

Are you swinging at a ball or in the air?

Okay, I see what you're doing there ...

If you hit your 55 SW about 100-110 YARDS, not mph, then yes, your Driver SS may be in the upper 90's to 100. But Speed does weird things - get the 6i and Driver measured. I say 6i because it's what a 5i once was in terms of specs.

[Jeremie Boop]

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

Are you swinging at a ball or in the air?

Okay, I see what you're doing there ...

If you hit your 55 SW about 100-110 YARDS, not mph, then yes, your Driver SS may be in the upper 90's to 100. But Speed does weird things - get the 6i and Driver measured. I say 6i because it's what a 5i once was in terms of specs.

Again, I would love to actually get a real swing speed measurement but there isn't anywhere I know of around me that I can do so. Some rough distance averages for me right now are 200 yd 6i, 180-185 yd 7i, 165 yd 8i, 150 yd 9i, 140 yd pw, 120 yd aw, 110 yd sw, 90*ish* yd lw *60*. I rarely hit my 4 or 5i so I don't have any averages for those. These are for a clean strike of course, not true averages counting a duff or bladed shot.

Of course this doesn't really help with swing speed all that much due to clubs all being different when it comes to length. I use cheap wilson golfballs too, nothing fancy.

[Mr. Desmond]

Sounds as if you may be above 100 mph with the driver with those distances

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

Again, I would love to actually get a real swing speed measurement but there isn't anywhere I know of around me that I can do so. Some rough distance averages for me right now are 200 yd 6i, 180-185 yd 7i, 165 yd 8i, 150 yd 9i, 140 yd pw, 120 yd aw, 110 yd sw, 90*ish* yd lw *60*. I rarely hit my 4 or 5i so I don't have any averages for those. These are for a clean strike of course, not true averages counting a duff or bladed shot.

Of course this doesn't really help with swing speed all that much due to clubs all being different when it comes to length. I use cheap wilson golfballs too, nothing fancy.

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

Sounds as if you may be above 100 mph with the driver with those distances

Yeah Jeremie, Des is right.  I actually have pretty similar distances to yours with my irons, and I've been on a Trackman a few times.  Last August I got fitted for my irons and with an i20 6-iron (actually it was a 7 iron head on a 6 iron shaft) I was averaging 179 yards of carry.  My swing speed to acheive that distance?  86 mph.  Also had my driver swing speed measured and it's in the 107-108 range.  So, you most likely do swing over 100 mph with a driver, and probably also with a 3 wood.  Definitely not with a wedge though.

To the OP, the thing that has helped me is going to an extra stiff shaft.  On paper, I don't fit the bill of a guy in need of an XS shaft (like I said above, only 107-108 SS), but during the fitting, it was pretty clear that I hit the ball much straighter ("er" is the big key here ... not "straight" by any means, but "straightER" ;)) with that shaft without really losing any distance.  (Oh, and I have a 45" driver, which for Callaway, is .5 or .75 shorter than stock)

[TJBam]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

To the OP, the thing that has helped me is going to an extra stiff shaft.  On paper, I don't fit the bill of a guy in need of an XS shaft (like I said above, only 107-108 SS), but during the fitting, it was pretty clear that I hit the ball much straighter ("er" is the big key here ... not "straight" by any means, but "straightER" ;)) with that shaft without really losing any distance.  (Oh, and I have a 45" driver, which for Callaway, is .5 or .75 shorter than stock)

I'm thinking I should've tested the HT TM SuperFast with both regular and stiff.  They only had regular in stock.  All my irons are stiff along with my 3 wood.  I'll have to check to see about testing one in stiff.