Swing weight explained please

[ThumbtackR9]

I don't exactly understand swing weight.  I tried a little experiment a little while ago.  I have a Titletist 917 d2 driver I bought used a couple of weeks ago.  It is a 10.5 degree loft.  Has a Diamana 60 gram regular flex shaft.  The way I measure it is I take the club and sit it on the ground like I am getting ready to hit.  I take a 48" wooden ruler and put it on the ground under the hosel on the ground or floor and measure to the top of the grip.  The best I can measure it is 45 5/8

I put a stick on marker on the face and hit 10 balls then I put on a new stick on marker and  made a mark 1" down from the top of the grip and hit 10 more balls. My pattern this way was much more consistent and I feel like I have much more control of the club.  Now if if cut the club off 1 inch is it going to swing completely different?  Will the ball go as far?  Does swing weight mainly have to do with how the club feels.  If I cut 1 inch off will the head feel light

I don't like to choke down on the grip.  I feel like a standard grip held at the top of the club is just right.  If I choke down the grip feels too small so I don't want to do that. I guess what I am saying is if I cut one inch off will it make that much difference?

[iacas]

The static weight of a club is just that - the weight of a club.

The swingweight is a representation of the relationship between the amount of weight in the bottom two thirds (roughly) of a golf club compared to the top third (roughly) of a golf club. If you put the fulcrum at about 14" from the grip end, a heavier "head" will have a heavier or higher "swing weight."

Gripping down will lower the swingweight a tiny bit more than cutting off the top inch.

[ThumbtackR9]

So if I cut off one inch, re grip. it with a winn dry tac grip do you think I would be able to tell any difference or will it make any difference in how far the ball goes.  I know I can swing it now gripping it at the end and then choke down one inch and swing it and I can't tell any difference.  I guess if I do it and I can really tell a difference I can always use a shaft extender and get it back to where it was.

I have another old club I've had for years.  It is a Tour Edge Hoduni   Bazooka. driver. It measures 43 1/2 inches long.  It still has the tour edge grip on it so I don't think I have ever cut it off.  I love the length but it has way too much loft.  It doesn't say anywhere on the head but I believe it is 16 degrees.  I need loft but not that much.  I have no idea what swing weight it is but I like the length and the way it feels.  Thanks for the information.

[WUTiger]

For shaft trimming, the swingweight drops 3 points for every half inch you cut off. If you trim an inch off, this would drop the swingweight 6 points.

I'm not that familiar with Titleist drivers, but it appears the 917D2 SureFit feature allows you to increase the head weight of the driver. You would need to check with your clubfitter for details. For every 2 grams you add to headweight, you increase the swingweight by one point.

Another way would to go with a lighter grip. For every 5 grams you lighten the grip weight, you pick up a swingweight point. Not sure what your stock driver grip weights, but if you got one of the lightweight 25-gram grips you could recapture quite a bit of swingweight. I don't have my components catalog here, but you could look through and find a lightweight grip.

You should do this with a clubfitter - don't chop on a $500 driver on your own.

[Hacker James]

I was tempted to chime in with swing weight calculator e.t.c. just as @WUTiger correctly alludes to. In spite of all the tech stuff, the swing weight has more to do with how it "feels" to you. Sometimes, you can make a change and do nothing else in the way of compensation and it feels and performs well.  Just like true loft and dynamic loft. For instance, there might be a 1/2 degree difference in a club's loft, but the same thing can be accomplished by a simple adjustment in stance/ set up or the way you hold a club. If you google swingweight calculator,there are any number of them online and with all the technical explanation you could want (or lack of, for that matter).

[1badbadger]

19 hours ago, ThumbtackR9 said:

I don't exactly understand swing weight.  I tried a little experiment a little while ago.  I have a Titletist 917 d2 driver I bought used a couple of weeks ago.  It is a 10.5 degree loft.  Has a Diamana 60 gram regular flex shaft.  The way I measure it is I take the club and sit it on the ground like I am getting ready to hit.  I take a 48" wooden ruler and put it on the ground under the hosel on the ground or floor and measure to the top of the grip.  The best I can measure it is 45 5/8

I put a stick on marker on the face and hit 10 balls then I put on a new stick on marker and  made a mark 1" down from the top of the grip and hit 10 more balls. My pattern this way was much more consistent and I feel like I have much more control of the club.  Now if if cut the club off 1 inch is it going to swing completely different?  Will the ball go as far?  Does swing weight mainly have to do with how the club feels.  If I cut 1 inch off will the head feel light

I don't like to choke down on the grip.  I feel like a standard grip held at the top of the club is just right.  If I choke down the grip feels too small so I don't want to do that. I guess what I am saying is if I cut one inch off will it make that much difference?

Yes, it sounds like you measured the club correctly.  Here is an image that shows it:

To answer your question, yes, there will be a noticeable difference in the way the club feels and performs if you cut 1" off the shaft.  The head will feel much lighter.  1" will reduce the swingweight by about 6 points, which is a lot.  However, I'm a big advocate of shorter driver shafts and in my experience most players will benefit from this.  In terms of distance, many people think that you'll give up distance by shortening the shaft, but most guys actually gain distance.  Hitting the ball on the sweet spot trumps the couple of mph you might lose in swing speed.  A shorter club is easier to hit more solidly, more often.  Straighter, longer drives are usually the result.  I would suggest some lead tape or other method to get the swing weight back up though.

[ThumbtackR9]

I guess I don't understand what the difference of chokeing down 1 inch (  seems like that would make the swing weight different) and cutting off one inch and re gripping.  Is it right that the more you choke down on the grip the lighter the swing weight is.  

I am with you on the shorter driver.  LIke you said I can hit it in the center of the club way better with the shorter club.  It seems from what I can read 43 inches used to the the standard but over the years it has gotten longer.  Thanks for the input.

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, ThumbtackR9 said:

I guess I don't understand what the difference of chokeing down 1 inch (  seems like that would make the swing weight different) and cutting off one inch and re gripping.  Is it right that the more you choke down on the grip the lighter the swing weight is.  

I am with you on the shorter driver.  LIke you said I can hit it in the center of the club way better with the shorter club.  It seems from what I can read 43 inches used to the the standard but over the years it has gotten longer.  Thanks for the input.

There are two ways that you can look at this.

Way 1: Static "Swingweight"
- If you cut off some of the shaft at the butt end, the 14" point from which you measure is changed, too. So the 45" driver becomes a driver with a grip on 14" of one end (that will weigh about the same as before), but now has only 31" on the other end instead of 32". The distance is shorter AND the weight is lighter, so both reduce the swing weight.

Way 2: Dynamic "Swingweight"
- If you grip down without cutting off the shaft, the "effective" swingweight is actually reduced more because you effectively have the shorter 31" as well, except on the tail end you have 15" of grip and shaft, which weighs more. The butt of the club is effectively heavier, AND the length of the club is shorter.

So in some ways, gripping down actually reduces the swing weight MORE than cutting off an inch… except that the way swing weight is measured is the first way - it doesn't care where you grip the club.

[Hacker James]

Think teeter totter or see saw, whatever you wish to call it.  As alluded to above, you are simply moving the fulcrum of a lever.

[1badbadger]

On 8/18/2017 at 1:58 PM, ThumbtackR9 said:

I guess I don't understand what the difference of chokeing down 1 inch (  seems like that would make the swing weight different) and cutting off one inch and re gripping.  Is it right that the more you choke down on the grip the lighter the swing weight is.  

I am with you on the shorter driver.  LIke you said I can hit it in the center of the club way better with the shorter club.  It seems from what I can read 43 inches used to the the standard but over the years it has gotten longer.  Thanks for the input.

I've found that choking down 1" isn't the same as cutting 1" off.  To me, when I choke down on a club, I don't get the sense that it's shorter, if that makes sense.  But when a driver really is an inch shorter, it's very noticeable.  

It's like choking down on a 7 iron 2" to hit a punch shot.  We've all done that, no problem.  But if you were handed a 7 iron that was shorter than your PW, it would feel way different.  

Here is an interesting point...I've known guys who consistently choke down on their driver every time, but they have never added weight to the head or tried to increase the swingweight because the club felt too light.  But most of the guys who actually cut the shaft down do something to get the swingweight back up to where it was, or at least close.

[ThumbtackR9]

I've seen people choke down on drivers and I know they haven't done anything to the driver either.  I can swing this 917 d2 and hold it at the very end or choke down a inch or so and swing it both ways and I can't tell any difference in the way it feels myself.

One of the guys said on a post I read somewhere to don't get hung up on swing weight.  He said if you cut the club off and it feels ok and you hit it ok don't worry about it so I don't really know.  I have a Callaway x2 hot driver with a fubuki 50 gram shaft in A flex.  It measures 43" long.  I took it to the shop here in town and let them check the swing weight.  It was way light.  I liked the way if felt.  I had some lead tape so I taped it up.  With the tape the head it weighs the same as the 917 d2.  Both heads weigh 200 grams. I know the shafts weigh a little different. 

I may send the 917 d2 off to someone that knows what they are doing and have it cut down a little.  I would hope to be able to use the same shaft.  I just like the shorter driver.  Thanks for all the comments.

[arturo28mx]

I have taken several drivers down from 45 inches to 44 inches. Swingweight went down by five points. I agree swingweight is not that important.  The only consideration, for me, is to be able to feel the clubhead. If I cannot feel where the clubhead is my swing is all over the place. I just added back enough weight to feel the clubhead even though I have no idea what swinweight that would be.

[ThumbtackR9]

Thanks arturo28mx for the reply.  I agree with you.  I think if the club head doesn't feel to light to you and your hitting it to suit you then play it.  Just my 2 cents.  Thanks

[1badbadger]

2 hours ago, arturo28mx said:

I have taken several drivers down from 45 inches to 44 inches. Swingweight went down by five points. I agree swingweight is not that important.  The only consideration, for me, is to be able to feel the clubhead. If I cannot feel where the clubhead is my swing is all over the place. I just added back enough weight to feel the clubhead even though I have no idea what swinweight that would be.

What you described is exactly why swingweight is important.  Not in the sense that all your clubs need to be a specific weight, like D2 or D4 for example, but the head has to feel heavy enough to sense during the swing, but not too heavy that it requires too much effort to swing, or it disrupts your tempo.

I agree some players get too absorbed in the numbers, and don't focus enough on feel.  When a player swings a club and doesn't notice that it feels too heavy, or seems too light, and doesn't think about it at all...that's the correct swingweight, whatever it happens to be.  But it is an important to hitting your clubs solidly.  You might not know what the actual swingweight of your driver is, but when you cut it down you knew it was too light.  And it's different for everyone depending on their strength, tempo, change of direction, and personal preference.  

[arturo28mx]

8 hours ago, 1badbadger said:

What you described is exactly why swingweight is important.  Not in the sense that all your clubs need to be a specific weight, like D2 or D4 for example, but the head has to feel heavy enough to sense during the swing, but not too heavy that it requires too much effort to swing, or it disrupts your tempo.

I totally agree with this statement