Adam C

There is no reason you can't just put 1/2 inch extensions in if you are just wanting a bit more length. If you are wanting to refresh the set a bit more then go with the 105s. Don't do the 120s. You like the the 105s, go with the 105s. Fitters trying to change things with shaft specs is unfortunate/a result of what they have to work with/understand. If you really want to change your ball flight in a significant way, then you bend down the lofts a degree or two. That is how you adjust ball flight. Shaft changes will be far less significant and in many cases not permanent as your body will adapt to the different shaft feel so what you see from your first handful of swings will be mitigated as you continue to use them over time.

It's all you. Just having two drivers right now to mess with is bad enough for my game.

Yeah, I had narrowed it down to a few options before settling on the Callaway because I got a good price. M5, M3, Mizuno 190G or 200G were all in the running. I was leaning towards one of those since they have dual weights, giving me more options for tweaking without needing to buy or modify weights.

Thanks. Sounds like we are on the same page with all this. I agree that most of these shafts people use are too stiff and way too heavy. Seems like every time I saw someone trying this it resulted in either high blocks to the right or low left line drives. I think a little extra flex can help with the timing also, which is a big trick when working a 48 inch shaft. It's gotten cold here but I ordered a 8g weight for the Epic Flash. Interested to see what my strike pattern looks like with the 15g vs the 8 vs 0 weight. Like you said, SW goes way up with no adjustments but with the light shaft it doesn't feel crazy at all, at least swinging it in the yard.

I think you need to start by quantifying what you prefer about the R7. Distance, accuracy, feel, look. Like Erik said, year to year you aren't changing much but here we are talking about 10 years of tech, and that is something significant. Drivers today are different and you probably can't really do an apples to apples comparison with them. They are larger (head size compared to the 400cc R7), lighter, and have longer shafts. All those things take getting used to. And I wouldn't assume that the specs on your R7 will translate into a modern driver just because they are so different. Could you add weight to the head, cut the shaft down, and try and replicate the R7? Sure. But I would suggest hitting the M3 with the stock setup first (at least 100 balls) just to get used to it. Then you can start looking at ball flight (ie too high, losing it left, etc) and you can adjust the hosel or slider weights accordingly. Also, I wouldn't worry about the spine or flo personally. If you have a good quality shaft, it does not do anything. If you have a shaft that would in theory need it, then you have a bad shaft and turning it different directions won't change the fact that shaft should be in the trash not a golf club.

This is exactly right. You will need some time (few hundred balls) to get used to the new shafts. One reason I don't love the modern fitting session. Five swings with 5 different shafts doesn't really tell you how you will hit each shaft. It only tells you how your body immediately reacts to a given shaft when coming from something different.

In case anyone was thinking about building a 48 in driver, here is a video on how I went about it. Will also be follow up video where I try and hit it coming soon.

DG will be a lower launching shaft in general and will be constant weight vs. the progressive weighting of the AMT Black. That being said, I would be very surprised if you see much difference in these shafts. Sounds like you are switching heads also, so that will make it even more difficult to determine what differences the shafts are presenting as the heads will impart the largest changes.

Thinking it is real but has been refinished by someone other that Scotty. Looks like they sanded the whole thing down to remove dings which included sanding off the face milling. Can't say for sure that it's not fake. Colors and textures seem slightly slightly off, but again that could just be the refinish.

There are still a lot of M2 drivers being played out there with an almost cult following. The Cobra drivers before the F9, most people will agree were not the best.

Your woods are already longer than standard by design so making them even longer is not usually necessary or recommended. You can check the lie angles of the driver and 3 wood yourself to see if the lie angle is okay. Lie isn't really a huge deal with woods especially driver as it doesn't effect ball flight much. If your grips are bigger however, I would definitely get equally large grips on the woods. Other than that, if you are hitting the driver well and getting good distance in relation to the rest of the bag, I wouldn't bother changing much. If you feel like you are leaving distance on the table, you might want to do some sort of fitting or at least a side by side with your current driver on a launch monitor to see how the numbers look.

So you can do what you did and add head weight to counter the grip weight. You can find lighter midsize grips, which obviously isn't always a viable option. You can also find shafts with more tip heavy balance points. You could also add a little length to the club to get that weight back. All these options have pros and cons. My personal feeling on SW is that it's mainly about getting a consistent feel through your irons and wedges. I don't care about matching woods, hybrids, putters to an iron SW. Most important for me is a smooth weight progression through the set so each club is getting heavier moving from driver to wedges. The simplest option is start out with just the new grips and no additional weight at the tip. Use whatever iron you want, and hit some balls with impact stickers, foot spray powder, dry erase marker on balls, launch monitor, etc, to look at your impact pattern. Then start adding some lead tape to the back and repeat the process. At some point you should find your consistency is at it's best and adding or taking away weight from that point is detrimental. Then just add the same amount to the rest (remembering head weight influences longer clubs more than shorter so you may want to shave a gram or two off in the longer irons vs. the shorts). Only other thing to look out for if you add weight to the clubs is how you hit them at the end of the round when you are tired compared to the start of the round. Most people can handle an 130g shaft for the first 5-10 swings, but not necessarily by the end of the round.

Are you that low launching with all your clubs? Also if you are only getting 268 yards of carry at that speed, contact must be an issue also. I would guess you are making contact very low on the face. Might want to check that first before trying to find a super high loft driver.

You are overthinking it. You are basically going to have such similar shafts by hard stepping the 6.5 or softing the 7.0 (both in flex and more importantly in weight), that if you can hit one, you can hit the other or vise versa. You will get much more definitive results from bending the lofts to adjust trajectory. You would really need to move into a different weight class before I would say you would see any noticeable difference over the long haul between shafts.

Might be an old deflection board. Hard to say from the angle. If you provide a couple more pics from other angles I might have a better/more definitive answer.

If you have a vent hole and a good fit between the shaft and head, you won't need the clamps. Always take a drill and remove the epoxy from inside the shaft, at least enough to see light through it with the grip off. I always poke a hole in the tape through the grip's vent hole just to ensure I don't have a pressure build up if the grips are left on.

Are you installing new shafts when this happens or using used shafts? If they are used, make sure you are drilling out the old epoxy to have a vent hole. If you do this, you shouldn't ever need to clamp anything, unless you live in an earthquake zone or under train tracks.

I will take a picture. I have modified it slightly in that I put a brushed nickel finish on the steel section of the stroke lab shaft. Every other part of that club is matte finished and that bright chrome was distracting in my opinion. I got it like new from Callaway Pre Owned for like $130. I occasionally forget that no matter how much I might want to, I can't use a mallet style head. Would do $90 shipped to FL.

In many cases there is not a huge difference between a starter set and a higher end set of a certain age. The starter set is a simple forgiving design, using less expensive materials and designs. Quality control will be looser than with high end stuff. Graphite shafts will be light and maybe more prone to breaking. Feel/sound will not really come into the equation with the cheaper sets whereas newer sets will have thought about these sorts of details. The starter set is basically a club design from 20 years ago with lower to mid grade materials. Still very useable but not packed with technology like newer clubs.

If you are looking for a Stroke Lab 7, I have one I would sell you. Literally used one time on course. It's a 34 with the oversize grip.

Golfworks has clear/off white epoxies, though ideally you should not be seeing any epoxy between the hosel and ferrule if the fit is good. Also, you don't need special epoxy removing products. Simple grip solvent very lightly applied to a rag/paper towel can wipe away any residue you may have left on the neck. I always make this the final step in the build process before letting them sit to dry. Wipe the hosel, shaft, and head if it's a wood or hybrid especially. Amazing how many shafts and heads I see where they have dried epoxy on them that could easily have been wiped away if people just took a few extra seconds.

John: Again if we are basing all this on trying to get that height and spin down using equipment, you are better off with the 9. Like I said above, if you need to loft up to 10.5, the result will also give you more draw bias in the set up which will be helpful to anyone who fades the ball. If you start at 10.5 and decide to loft down, you are then setting the club into a more fade bias setup which would probably be an issue.

Green is probably closest to the original fitted shaft.

Don't go with 10.5, stick with 9. Shaft flex and profile will have very little effect on height. Loft is a far greater influence. Remember these clubs are adjustable so you can alway take the 9 and loft it up to 10 etc. This will also cause the club to sit more closed which will help you. Yes, you can do the same with a 10.5 and loft down but you then open the face more thereby promoting a slice.

That seems like a good option. I personally like the Rogue shaft line but the Project X shafts are also good. As far as weight goes I would drop 5-10 grams off what your 3 wood is to decide on the weight.