Experiment?

[Hardballs]

Struggling with my woods lately, been concentrating on my 4i, which I'm now hitting lovely 200+ whilst my fairway woods turned to shit! I own the geek golf fw woods, 3&5 at 15* & 18* at lengths of 43" & 42" Im thinking of turning these more into hybrid style clubs by reducing the lengths! The lofts and lie are very similar to that of some long hybrid clubs but the lengths are significantly longer by approx 2" Has anyone ever cut 2" of a fairway wood and seen an instant improvement by hitting it more like a hybrid rather than a wood?? I'm gonna do it anyway, but just wondered if anyone else has experimented this way??

[WUTiger]

IF you trim off 2" from each shaft, you will lose 12 swingweight factors. (Like D4 down to C2).

IF you went with a lighter grip, you could recover some of the swingweight. You might go to a skilled clubsmith so he can do the calculations to see if light grips would help much.

[Hardballs]

Oh yeah, that is quite a difference, when I had them made Im sure i remember the guy added weight to the bottom of the club to get it to d4, I best phone him, he lives miles away! It's just that I noticed a few so called hybrids look just like woods to me, with shaft specs more like an iron? Rather than sell my woods and try out hybrid, could I turn my woods to hybrids?? Or am I talking complete nonesense??

[MissouriHack]

Butt Cut my driver down 1.75 inches. I can use it now, Works great. I just made it a little longer than my three wood that I can hit well.

[Hardballs]

I had my drivers made to 44.25, they work great! But it's fair to say, hitting 3w off the deck is one of the hardest shots to do well, ive tried to keep the traditional 3&5 fw combo, and although ive refrained from trying a hybrid, (think ill borrow my friends for a round) there's no mistaking that hybrids appear easier to hit, and my reckoning is mainly the shorter shaft, (amongst other factors like weight distribution!) but could I actually turn my fw woods into hybrids??

[Hardballs]

There's only 1" difference between my 3&5, I can hit my 5 much better than my 3! Think ill butt trim the 3w by 1" and start there!

[MissouriHack]

but could I actually turn my fw woods into hybrids??

Nope there just going to be short FW's. lol

[dbuck]

Have you tried just choking down 1/2-1"? How do you hit the 3W off the tee? The 43" makes it play like what some drivers used to play and I would hate to give up that option. I think I would just add a hybrid around 20-22* and around 40"+/-. I like a smaller head hybrid with some weight low to help get it up.

[MEfree]

A buddy of mine who plays similar to me realized that his Driver was longer than Tiger's and cut it down recently and is pleased with the results.

I have been pretty happy with the results I get choking down some on my Driver as well as my 3w & 5w at times.  My 5w has a 3w shaft in it, so I have more of a tendency to choke down on that club and will also choke down on my irons and go with the longer club when I am in between clubs.

[Hardballs]

Have you tried just choking down 1/2-1"? How do you hit the 3W off the tee? The 43" makes it play like what some drivers used to play and I would hate to give up that option. I think I would just add a hybrid around 20-22* and around 40"+/-. I like a smaller head hybrid with some weight low to help get it up.

Yeah when I choke down a touch I hit it better! Rarely use it off the tee, I like and hit my drivers straight so no need, it's a fairway wood, I used to hit it for my 2nd shot on all par 5's but I've just lost confidence in it and smash a 4i now instead, anyway, it appears nobody has thought of this before, I've just been looking at specs of my current irons, and some hybrids, regarding length & swing weight, so I'm gonna leave the 5w and have a tinker with the 3w