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Is short the way to long?

SuperStroke
PhillyV said:
I agree. You hit some serious bombs with the BB
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And I wasn't even hitting the ball well Saturday. You should have seen me drive it Friday. I hit some nukes.
 
45.5 to 44.5.

I hit better, longer and straighter. I changed because I figured it won't hurt to try.
 
I play mine at 44.75. I found myself choking down on stock offerings bc I was all over the place with a 45.5 - 46 inch shaft. Like others have said I'm hitting the center face more consistently with a 44.75 set up.
 
I prefer the driver to be right at 45". I have experimented with both long and short and it just seems that 45 works best for me
 
Is short the way to long?

All these success stories have me really in the verge of cutting mine down. I am so inconsistent with center face contact. Mostly I catch it low on the face and towards the heel. I have done some slowmo videaos and I really see myself coming up on my toes and standing up which is more of a swing mechanic issue but I am thinking that I do that in response to the club being longer and fear of hitting ground first. A shorter club would let me release
And extend the arms through impact, correct?


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I make consistently better contact at over 45" than I do at under 45". Currently playing 45.25" but in my recent fitting, the results were better with a bit more length. Shorter is better for some, but not all. it's worth mentioning that swingweight and head weight have a /lot/ more to do with how often I hit the center of the face than the length of the shaft.
 
baldguy said:
I make consistently better contact at over 45" than I do at under 45". Currently playing 45.25" but in my recent fitting, the results were better with a bit more length. Shorter is better for some, but not all. it's worth mentioning that swingweight and head weight have a /lot/ more to do with how often I hit the center of the face than the length of the shaft.
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Yeah but you're 12' tall.


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after an accident involving my 2 year old shutting my driver shaft in a door.:at-wits-end: I had to replace it so went to get a fitting to my surprise I always seamed to hit high on the face and have been fitted with a slightly longer and heavier shaft played 18 with it and some range work, wow its like a new club hitting 5-10 yards longer which is a bonus, but I have never gone 18 with out one going into the rough from the tee box. I am now thinking of going back with my 3, 5, 7 woods as well.
 
dizzyg12 said:
All these success stories have me really in the verge of cutting mine down. I am so inconsistent with center face contact. Mostly I catch it low on the face and towards the heel. I have done some slowmo videaos and I really see myself coming up on my toes and standing up which is more of a swing mechanic issue but I am thinking that I do that in response to the club being longer and fear of hitting ground first. A shorter club would let me release
And extend the arms through impact, correct?


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Choke down an inch or two on the grip and take a normal swing. This will give you an idea of what you can expect.
 
I have been playing drivers at under 45" since I started to get back into the sport 10+ years ago. Preference is 44.5 to 44.75. I don't even bother hitting a driver at 45"+, without automatically choking-down on the grip.
 
I've been messing around with a 4' Cobra Long Tom at the range recently, and I've found contact to be pretty consistent - certainly on a par with my 44.5" XL Custom. However, I am 6' 6", so I wonder if that does make a difference.
 
I've noticed I've been teeing the ball a little higher and choking down on the club a little, so I guess I'm making the club a little shorter? I like the control I see and distance doesn't seem to be much different.
 
i have pondered cutting my driver down to 46" the last few weeks i'm still on the fence about it been testing it out by gripping down a bit still not sure what i wanna do but i think i may cut it down and see how it goes.
 
I've been thinking of shortening the shaft on my driver (which is at 46"). I have moderate success when I choke down on it. I recently hit a friends driver and their's was at 44.75 I believe. Just at address I had tons more confidence in my swing.
 
I have seen a huge difference when choking down on my Optiforce but then the grip is too small in my hands, so I need to get it shortened and get a couple extra wraps on there. I keep going back to my old reliable R7 cgb driver because I tend to find the center of the face more often probably because it is an inch shorter than most drivers out in the market right now.
 
My center face contact with a 44.5" driver is so much better than a 45" or longer, I've never played anything longer than 44.5" for more than a couple rounds. The only trick is I also like a little heavier swing weight than standard so all of my driver have a decent amount of lead tape on the club head.
 
I saw some things that I'm not sure I totally agree with.

If you butt trim, the shaft will play slightly stiffer, assuming you're playing the hands in the same spot on the grip. It's just simple physics because of the same weighted head at the end of a shorter pole. Now, will the average person notice it? Will you notice it as much as tipping? Nope, but technically there is a difference.

On choking up, I agree that this is a simple test, but would caution that the grip plays differently when choking up. The diameter is typically smaller which normally allows for more left bias. It also puts more club behind the hands, which at least for me, impacts how well I can rotate the hands through (which is why the Boccieri Secret grip didn't work for me). Both of these things are different than if you cut down, regripped and used the proper grip position.
 
Tadashi70 said:
I am seeing a lot of 44.4" drivers popping up and I wondering if this is the course to long and straight. The industry has gone longer but it seems the golfers want more control which I feel will lead to longer shots. Lets face it, a ball hit down the fairway has more of chance of running out than a ball hit in the rough.

Why did you go shorter? Are you thinking about going shorter?
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I went to the SLDR Mini because of accuracy. Hitting my old R1 on the screws could get me out as far as 300 total. Hitting the Mini on the screws gets me out to 270 total. In 2 rounds with the Mini I think I have hit it on the screws more than I did in the last year with the R1. My dispersion with the Mini is so much tighter than the R1 was too. So I'll take the hit on my maximum possible distance for a higher likelihood of hitting the maximum possible and having it be more playable as a whole. So a 7000y course is not going to be my first choice for me. I was never playing that length anyways.

I love the shorter length of the shaft. When I was at Golf Galaxy on Saturday messing around I took a couple of swings withe full size SLDR. It felt too big, too ungainly.
 
ryebread said:
I saw some things that I'm not sure I totally agree with.

If you butt trim, the shaft will play slightly stiffer, assuming you're playing the hands in the same spot on the grip. It's just simple physics because of the same weighted head at the end of a shorter pole. Now, will the average person notice it? Will you notice it as much as tipping? Nope, but technically there is a difference.
On choking up, I agree that this is a simple test, but would caution that the grip plays differently when choking up. The diameter is typically smaller which normally allows for more left bias. It also puts more club behind the hands, which at least for me, impacts how well I can rotate the hands through (which is why the Boccieri Secret grip didn't work for me). Both of these things are different than if you cut down, regripped and used the proper grip position.
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While I agree that there is a slight change in flex by butt trimming it does not change the tip stiffness and that is all that matters. Most shafts are made to be butt trimmed several inches with little to no flex change.

Never be afraid to experiment. Everything in golf is subjective and 99.9% of most everyday players will never feel the difference in SW or a slight change in flex.

Good read; http://www.ralphmaltby.com/search?query=butt+trimming&search.x=18&search.y=15
 
HoosierGolfer said:
While I agree that there is a slight change in flex by butt trimming it does not change the tip stiffness and that is all that matters. Most shafts are made to be butt trimmed several inches with little to no flex change.

Never be afraid to experiment. Everything in golf is subjective and 99.9% of most everyday players will never feel the difference in SW or a slight change in flex.

Good read; http://www.ralphmaltby.com/search?query=butt+trimming&search.x=18&search.y=15
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I took 2" off of mine and I can't feel the difference in swing weight but I can see the difference in length and dispersion.


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Very interesting read. I myself have no idea what my driver's length is. I've never felt comfortable choking up on a driver. If there's a tight fairway i'm likely going to hit a 3 wood.
 
The best way to more distance for most of us is just plain better contact. Sweet spot at 95 mph goes farther than toe or heel at 100 mph. I play a 44.5" because I hit the sweet spot more often that way.
 
This is an interesting topic .. The driver has always been a bug in my game . Better this year , but still not like my irons and hybrids . If I did this , and hit 250 to 255 straight all day every day .. Than I would be more than happy to do this
 
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