Advice for shortening driver

gc-spurs

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I'm a lady golfer and broke my driver last December and got myself a new one for Christmas. Was having a hit with a few of the ladies drivers, the guys at the store were looking at my swing speed and all that jazz and suggested I try a few mens out. Sure enough tried a few mens ones out and really liked them, went with the Cleveland Classic XL Custom. I was hitting it well when I was trying it out, and I'm still hitting it well now.

I'm pretty short at 5'2, and the driver is longer than my previous obviously. At the time they said to give it a try without shortening yet and see how it goes. So a few months on, it goes OK and I'm hitting well, and I'm faced with the question - could it be better if I had it shortened to something appropriate to my height? I've never had clubs properly fitted before (well except for my putter but its not like I was a good putter to start with so that was an easy choice), so thought I'd beg the question - do you get something fitted that seems to be working well the way it is?
 
Belated welcome to THP.

im not sure how to answer your question so I'll leave that to others with more knowledge.
 
Welcome! I'm not knowledgeable enough to give sound advice, but sounds like you are getting along fine with the current length. Are most of your shots finding the sweet spot? Have you tried choking down on your current driver to see if anything changes? Obviously choking down is not a perfect grip position and changes a whole lot of other things, but could be worth a go. Will also wait to see what others have to say.
 
Have you tried choking down an inch of so on it to see how your ball striking compares chocked down vs. normal? If you strike the ball better choked down and want to get it shortened to that length, you could then take it to a clubmaker to do as they can add to appropriate weight to the club to maintain the same swing weight on the cut down version if you desire that. I am by no means an expert but that is my $.02 worth.
 
If your hitting it well then why mess with it?
If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

Welcome to THP.
 
It is easy to pull a grip and butt trim. Just use masking tape around the shaft where you are cutting so it won't split. SW will change a little, but only you will know if that matters. If you have a 3 wood you like and hit well, measure it and see where you are at with it length wise. I'm at 46" with the driver and 43.5" with the 3 wood and I'm 5'10". I'd say anything around 1.5 to 2 inch difference is good. At your height, you really should get fit for length if possible.

Any thing changed on a driver length wise is easy to reverse, so don't be afraid to experiment.
 
Just my opinion, but a standard length XL seems very long for your height. I think you could chop two inches off easily. Whether you hit it better or not remains to be seen though. I will say that 1-2 inches has a pretty dramatic change in swingweight - 6 to12points.
 
I will be attempting this over the next week or so. My driver is playing a little long at 46" and during my fitting it was recommended that I shorten the shaft to 44.25 -44.75".
 
That is a good question. I will say that my wife is a pretty good ballstriker and at 5'4" her driver is 42.5" - anything longer and she starts having more erratic contact. It sounds as if you need to establish the quality of contact first - how frequently are you hitting the center of the clubface. You can do this the old school way of using impact tape on the face or you can measure your smash factor if you have access to a reliable launch monitor.

You very well may hit this as well as your previous driver but since that was also not fitted, neither may be a good fit.
 
My own experience, I had my driver shaft shortened and it was the worst thing I did. It changed my swing and hitting way shorter than ever. Ended up changing clubs.

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I am 5'6" and use a standard 45.75" shaft. Thinking about cutting about an inch off but I am not sure if I will like the swing weight. Not sure what to do.
 
Its all personal preference but I'll add that I'm 6'3" and feel comfortable with my driver an inch shorter. Better control for me
 
I cut all my drivers to 44". Way better dispersion, my friends all shorten as well.
 
I have tried cutting one to 44 and another to 44.5 and never hit them near as well as when they were 45 for some reason. And I typically choke down on the 45 a half inch. Guess it must habe been the swing weight decrease that didn't suite me.
 
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