Cut Down or Lengthen the Driver?
Vegan702
New member
I did the same for the last few round when I used my driver, I choked down about 1.5" and liked it. I can't say for sure I lost or gained any yards, however, the ball was in the middle which is better than being 15 yards longer in the rough or desert.
The last round I played I didn't use my driver at all, only my 3w and 5w and had one of my best rounds of the year, until I broke my 52 wedge.pjcedog
New member
I probably hit as many fairways with a long driver as I do with a shorter driver and the extra distance I get with a smoother more effortless swing I can put on the longer driver actually helps my accuracy I believe. Could I hit a few more fairways with the shorter driver? Maybe, maybe not. My thinking is why leave myself a 4 or a 5 iron second onto a really long par 4 when I can hit the longer driver another 20+ yards and hit a 6, 7 or even an 8 iron into the same green? If I want to hit a shorter more accurate tee shot then I can always choke down on the longer driver or just hit the 3W or hybrid and leave the driver in the bag.
bigvivec
Banned
My feeling, all things considered, is this…
On the one hand I believe that almost all golfers will be better served with a shorter shaft…it is more likely that smash factors will be higher, the club will be able to be controlled more easily and consistenly which will result in a minimal if any loss of total distance and more fairways hit…
On the other hand, disregarding the argument that OEM’s are in an arms race, each one trying to produce a driver that in perfect impact conditions produces the longest drive, IMO that is what it is and no one is requiring that you play a club as is off the rack…however, as it has been pointed out in other areas, most recreational golfers (read: -us-) DO play clubs bought off the rack with no further customization…to that end if a person has job, limited practice time, is interested in the game but not enough to do more than a standard 10 minute big box store launch monitor hitting cage fitting, and not interested enough to spend the time, energy, and money to alter or change the shaft and resulting swingweighting issues associated with doing so of an off the rack club which may or may not pan out as thought; in short, they just want a club that they tried that seemed to work pretty well, stick it in the bag and call it a day…with that in mind, that same player that has been playing whatever the OEM’s put in their hands is now comfortable with the timing, look at address and angles of swinging a longer club and actually will hit it better than a shorter club mainly based on familiarity…that the longer club will every now and then be struck sweetly and send the ball a longer distance than they could with the shorter shafted club is only a bonus, as most players, while being “good” relatively speaking, just aren’t consistent enough with ANY club in their bag to be able to attribute a .15 variance in smash factor to the length of the shaft; that variance will exist pretty much regardless of the shaft length which means that the frequency of “good” swings will be more or less the same with a longer or shorter shafted club and the “good” swings with the longer shafted club will produce better results; that makes the longer shafted club the better club for them…should that person have the rare combination of talent for the game and time to practice with that talent extensively, I believe that they will hit a shorter shafted driver consistently better and their distance will not suffer…I don’t feel that this is true for longer shafted drivers; given time to develop a sound technique with either a shorter or longer driver , both of which have been perfectly fitted and tuned for that individual, I think that the shorter driver will win out in the end in terms of average distance and dispersion as the physical laws that govern the increased variance of control the further you stand from the ball are undeniable…
Since most people buy off the rack and are used to 45” or longer shafts, have just enough time to play every now and then and maybe cut some family time out to hit the range occasionally, since the average golfing handicap is around bogey golf and most people aren’t consistent enough from swing to swing with a pw let alone a driver, I think that there is an excellent chance that the longer shafted driver will perform better on average with the “good” shots getting more distance than a shorter driver…
One side note:
I was reading a bit on Sean Fister (long driver) and his smash factors…I was surprised that they were well below 1.5 as I figured that those guys had dialed themselves in for optimal performance…he was hitting the low 1.3’s and high 1.2’s on most shots with the odd one popping off in the mid 1.4’s…related to this, I was watching a replay of the Long Drive Championship (do they call it the world championship? I missed that part…) and they were spraying the ball all over the place; left, right, +/- 50-60 yards in distance…they hit enough down the pipe to make the grid, but they weren’t anywhere near what would be considered acceptable for 18 hole play as their misses were MISSES and those that did make the grid had a large degree of distance variance…now it’s an entirely different sport, they “swing” like they’re trying to move a car, but all the same the best in the world with a long shaft weren’t as good as I’d thought that they’d be in terms of acceptable variance and dispersion as applied to real golf…
Bite sized summary…
The path to better driving will take more than just cutting an inch or three off your driver…unless you’re willing to go through the fitting process, find a shaft that will play to your specifications at a shorter length then make the necessary weighting adjustments and then practice to develop your swing with the shorter club, IMO you’re better off playing one that tested well with off the rack specs that is already suited to your swing as indicated by your actual in hand results in the store or range…getting to the point that a shorter shaft will benefit will require a bit of dedication both in the clubfitter’s studio and on the range which I feel will pan out more positively in the end but is not an end that is as easily reached as taking the best driver that you hit in the store or demo day and playing it as is…
FWIW I’ve hit my longest drives with a longer shafted driver and had some very good rounds with it…my gamers are all 44.5” or less now (three in the rotation currently) and I hit a very high percentage of fairways…I’m a better player now than I used to be when I played the 45 ¾” driver and my swing is more consistent…I highly doubt that the shaft length played into that much at all and think the lessons, play and practice were the cause of my better play currently…I feel the shorter shafted drivers are more controllable, but sometimes wonder if the potential for an extra few yards would outweigh the potential for greater shot dispersion variance and think that I might be cheating myself out of a little potential distance and while my driving would be less accurate, it would still be accurate enough…my gut tells me that better scoring will come from the short grass, but when I play a wide open course that defends itself with distance I wonder if I wouldn’t score better with an 8 iron in hand rather than a 6…I’ve played courses with fairways that were at least 70 yards wide…I remember thinking that I’d have loved a longer shaft playing there…my course is quite narrow with lots of water, trees and OB though not particularly long…that colors my personal choice as well…if that wide fairway course was my home course I’d be working a lot harder on my Sean Fister impersonation…
So my answer to myself is that it all depends…I plan on shafting up one of the heads I have with a longer shaft and finding out the answer…but at least in my case the answer isn’t as black and white as it would seem, and to apply the statement that one is better than the other to the golfing public as a whole IMO fails to take into account all of the individual variables that go into choosing a club and the purposes and applications that club will serve to a given person…so in the end I agree with both the pro and JB (surprise!) and think that an individual should be fitted and ask themselves pointed questions regarding their game, the conditions they’ll be facing, and what they are looking to do off the tee before making a purchase…
Just my 20lbs of 2 cents…
On the one hand I believe that almost all golfers will be better served with a shorter shaft…it is more likely that smash factors will be higher, the club will be able to be controlled more easily and consistenly which will result in a minimal if any loss of total distance and more fairways hit…
On the other hand, disregarding the argument that OEM’s are in an arms race, each one trying to produce a driver that in perfect impact conditions produces the longest drive, IMO that is what it is and no one is requiring that you play a club as is off the rack…however, as it has been pointed out in other areas, most recreational golfers (read: -us-) DO play clubs bought off the rack with no further customization…to that end if a person has job, limited practice time, is interested in the game but not enough to do more than a standard 10 minute big box store launch monitor hitting cage fitting, and not interested enough to spend the time, energy, and money to alter or change the shaft and resulting swingweighting issues associated with doing so of an off the rack club which may or may not pan out as thought; in short, they just want a club that they tried that seemed to work pretty well, stick it in the bag and call it a day…with that in mind, that same player that has been playing whatever the OEM’s put in their hands is now comfortable with the timing, look at address and angles of swinging a longer club and actually will hit it better than a shorter club mainly based on familiarity…that the longer club will every now and then be struck sweetly and send the ball a longer distance than they could with the shorter shafted club is only a bonus, as most players, while being “good” relatively speaking, just aren’t consistent enough with ANY club in their bag to be able to attribute a .15 variance in smash factor to the length of the shaft; that variance will exist pretty much regardless of the shaft length which means that the frequency of “good” swings will be more or less the same with a longer or shorter shafted club and the “good” swings with the longer shafted club will produce better results; that makes the longer shafted club the better club for them…should that person have the rare combination of talent for the game and time to practice with that talent extensively, I believe that they will hit a shorter shafted driver consistently better and their distance will not suffer…I don’t feel that this is true for longer shafted drivers; given time to develop a sound technique with either a shorter or longer driver , both of which have been perfectly fitted and tuned for that individual, I think that the shorter driver will win out in the end in terms of average distance and dispersion as the physical laws that govern the increased variance of control the further you stand from the ball are undeniable…
Since most people buy off the rack and are used to 45” or longer shafts, have just enough time to play every now and then and maybe cut some family time out to hit the range occasionally, since the average golfing handicap is around bogey golf and most people aren’t consistent enough from swing to swing with a pw let alone a driver, I think that there is an excellent chance that the longer shafted driver will perform better on average with the “good” shots getting more distance than a shorter driver…
One side note:
I was reading a bit on Sean Fister (long driver) and his smash factors…I was surprised that they were well below 1.5 as I figured that those guys had dialed themselves in for optimal performance…he was hitting the low 1.3’s and high 1.2’s on most shots with the odd one popping off in the mid 1.4’s…related to this, I was watching a replay of the Long Drive Championship (do they call it the world championship? I missed that part…) and they were spraying the ball all over the place; left, right, +/- 50-60 yards in distance…they hit enough down the pipe to make the grid, but they weren’t anywhere near what would be considered acceptable for 18 hole play as their misses were MISSES and those that did make the grid had a large degree of distance variance…now it’s an entirely different sport, they “swing” like they’re trying to move a car, but all the same the best in the world with a long shaft weren’t as good as I’d thought that they’d be in terms of acceptable variance and dispersion as applied to real golf…
Bite sized summary…
The path to better driving will take more than just cutting an inch or three off your driver…unless you’re willing to go through the fitting process, find a shaft that will play to your specifications at a shorter length then make the necessary weighting adjustments and then practice to develop your swing with the shorter club, IMO you’re better off playing one that tested well with off the rack specs that is already suited to your swing as indicated by your actual in hand results in the store or range…getting to the point that a shorter shaft will benefit will require a bit of dedication both in the clubfitter’s studio and on the range which I feel will pan out more positively in the end but is not an end that is as easily reached as taking the best driver that you hit in the store or demo day and playing it as is…
FWIW I’ve hit my longest drives with a longer shafted driver and had some very good rounds with it…my gamers are all 44.5” or less now (three in the rotation currently) and I hit a very high percentage of fairways…I’m a better player now than I used to be when I played the 45 ¾” driver and my swing is more consistent…I highly doubt that the shaft length played into that much at all and think the lessons, play and practice were the cause of my better play currently…I feel the shorter shafted drivers are more controllable, but sometimes wonder if the potential for an extra few yards would outweigh the potential for greater shot dispersion variance and think that I might be cheating myself out of a little potential distance and while my driving would be less accurate, it would still be accurate enough…my gut tells me that better scoring will come from the short grass, but when I play a wide open course that defends itself with distance I wonder if I wouldn’t score better with an 8 iron in hand rather than a 6…I’ve played courses with fairways that were at least 70 yards wide…I remember thinking that I’d have loved a longer shaft playing there…my course is quite narrow with lots of water, trees and OB though not particularly long…that colors my personal choice as well…if that wide fairway course was my home course I’d be working a lot harder on my Sean Fister impersonation…
So my answer to myself is that it all depends…I plan on shafting up one of the heads I have with a longer shaft and finding out the answer…but at least in my case the answer isn’t as black and white as it would seem, and to apply the statement that one is better than the other to the golfing public as a whole IMO fails to take into account all of the individual variables that go into choosing a club and the purposes and applications that club will serve to a given person…so in the end I agree with both the pro and JB (surprise!) and think that an individual should be fitted and ask themselves pointed questions regarding their game, the conditions they’ll be facing, and what they are looking to do off the tee before making a purchase…
Just my 20lbs of 2 cents…
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jefffann
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I've tried both.The loss in accuracy wasn't noticable for me when lengthened but the loss of distance was noticable when shortened.I think it depends on the player.And you can always choke up for more control.And you can't strech it back out without installing a new shaft or an extension when shortened.
BigLeftyinAZ
Well-known member
Please don't forget you tee your driver up which also equates to more yardage.. Also even when most tee up their 3 wood one would will gain yardage.By your statement that length of club is distance factor ,why then hitting 3 wood tee'd up with no added length to shaft ball goes farther?..
I know for me I have a 15 yard gain off the tee with my 3 wood vs the deck.
Almost forgot
A driver hit on center at 43" = 250 yds. 43 1/2"= 262 yds. 44" = 270 yds. 44 1/2" = 275 yds. 45" = 275-280 yds. As you can see a significant increase in distance is achieved up to 44". After 44", distance increases only a minimal amount .
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I was talking about my 3 wood vs my Driver off the tee...not my 3 wood off the deck...so I was trying to make it "apples to apples" except for length of shaft and loft.
I am assuming this was with the same swing speed and launch conditions (spin, etc) and is this carry distance or total distance???