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44" Driver Experiment.

SuperStroke
So I was bored this morning and screwing around with some old clubs, and I pulled out my old Big Bertha War Bird Circa 1995 and it was 44" stock, which makes me feel good cause to this day i have never found a driver I hit with such consistency, I need my back to get better and the mercury to drop about 15 degrees so I can test this thing out!
 
JPsuff is right about swingweight. Make sure you are ok with the swingweight of your new club. Keep in mind that by going with a heavier shaft, you are decreasing the swing weight. Also by shortening your shaft by 1", you decrease the swingweight about 6 points. So to keep your swingweight the same as your 45" club, your clubmaker either added weight to the head, or put on a lightweight grip. (I think the Winn Lite brings up the swingweight about 5 points from a normal 50g grip).
Good luck with the club!

mullie
 
So when people say they "Decrease" the swingweight does that mean the club feels heavier?
 
In non-technical terms, swingweight is a measure of how the weight of the club feels when it's swung. So decreasing swingweight = clubhead feels lighter. It has nothing to do with the overall weight of the club.
 
I have been playing a 44" shaft for years. I'll definately take the better accuracy over a few more yards. Club manufacurers have been increasing shaft lenght for years in order to claim longer distances in their ads. When Iron Byron is hitting it, you get longer distance so they can put the claim in their ads "10 yards longer", but when I hit it - it goes all over the place. I am always suprised too when you see the "Whats in the bag" feature in the golf magazines that many of the pros play shafts that are shorter than stock, and most of those guys are tall guys. Many times its the shorter guys using the longer shaft to try and get some extra distance. I think you are going to like the shorter shaft.
 
So....

Would a tall person with longer arms and shorter shaft have the same swing arc as a shorter person using a 46" shaft?

I guess if you are under 4' you'd need a 60" shaft :p
 
Saturday is the first time I will be using this on the course so I will report back with live action testing. So far on the range I have lost maybe 5-10 yards am hitting it much more accurate with a pretty substantial (intended) draw which in the end will probably roll out further than my FT. Only thing I don't like about the Neutral face is it's alot more difficult to play a fade. However if I can rail this down 85% of the fairways I can live with that.
 
I have been using a 44 1/2 lite shaft. Awesome accurate results.
 
I have one question for the OP. Rather than tinker back and with with shaft length, different shafts, etc... Why not just get fit and get the perfect shaft for your game? Both length, flex, etc...
 
JB said:
I have one question for the OP. Rather than tinker back and with with shaft length, different shafts, etc... Why not just get fit and get the perfect shaft for your game? Both length, flex, etc...
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I assume the shafts that will be availabe for testing down at WPB will be stock length? This will not cause any problems cause if I like the shaft/head combo I can always cut it down and regrip it at home. The length that works best for me especially with the R9 head is 44.5. Much better accuracy and actually I have found a few yards more distance. I suppose it's because when I don't spray the ball as much, I can swing with more confidence, which = better ball contact which in turn = more distance.
 
Gray Golf said:
I assume the shafts that will be availabe for testing down at WPB will be stock length? This will not cause any problems cause if I like the shaft/head combo I can always cut it down and regrip it at home. The length that works best for me especially with the R9 head is 44.5. Much better accuracy and actually I have found a few yards more distance. I suppose it's because when I don't spray the ball as much, I can swing with more confidence, which = better ball contact which in turn = more distance.
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Everything will be at stock length.
 
Gray Golf said:
I assume the shafts that will be availabe for testing down at WPB will be stock length? This will not cause any problems cause if I like the shaft/head combo I can always cut it down and regrip it at home. The length that works best for me especially with the R9 head is 44.5. Much better accuracy and actually I have found a few yards more distance. I suppose it's because when I don't spray the ball as much, I can swing with more confidence, which = better ball contact which in turn = more distance.
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+1 Gray. My R9/VooDoo is at 44.5 and has greatly improved my accuracy and has given me a few more yards. I still can't keep up with the big dogs, but I can get past the ladies tee's now.
 
jdjanda said:
So....

Would a tall person with longer arms and shorter shaft have the same swing arc as a shorter person using a 46" shaft?

I guess if you are under 4' you'd need a 60" shaft :p
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Not necessarily.

Assuming that the distance to their hands from each of their shoulders is the same then yes they'd have the same arc. But it's possible that a shorter person may actually have longer arms than the taller person so that would change things.

The only difference between a taller and shorter person (assuming that they're both using equipment that would create an equal shoulder to hand distance for both) would be swing plane and the shorter person's swing would be flatter.

But shaft length is certainly not all there is to distance. There are many more important factors involved such as weight shift, hand movement, head position, shoulder and hip turn, etc. that, in my opinion, contribute far more to distance than shaft length.
I am six feet tall and for years I used a driver that was just 43 1/2 inches long and had a stock steel TT X-100 shaft and I had no trouble at all with distance and I routinely got the ball out near (and often beyond) 300 yards so it's obvious that the shaft length had little to do with how far I hit a ball.

What's interesting is that as the graphite revolution took hold, I began experimenting with a variety of shafts and I was using the "graphite standard" of 45-inches for driver length and though I could occasionally produce a really awesome shot, I found over time that I was actually losing distance and more importantly - accuracy.

After I got all the experimenting out of my system, I went back to shorter shafts and ended up at 44-inches and my distances are right back up there and my accuracy as well.

I'm not saying that I am some sort of "proof" that longer isn't better, but it was that way for me. Apparently my physical characteristics work best with a shaft around 44-inches long and that's that. There are probably many other six-foot-tall people out there with similar characteristics who may very well do much better with a longer shaft.

I think though, that as a general rule shorter is better.

For as long as I can remember, people who had trouble hitting drivers often settled upon using a 3-wood instead and they usually got pretty good results overall. I've never believed that there was anything magical about a 3-wood, but the common denominator is simply that a three wood is shorter than a driver (usually by about an inch - "Hmmm...") and therefore easier to control. And as Gray Golf pointed out, the shorter shaft leads to more control, which leads to better contact, which leads to less dispersion, which leads to better shots, which adds up to more confidence and that reinforces everything.

I'm sure there are people out there who can manage to handle and control 46-inch or longer shafts but all I know is that I'm not one of them.



-JP
 
JPsuff said:
For as long as I can remember, people who had trouble hitting drivers often settled upon using a 3-wood instead and they usually got pretty good results overall. I've never believed that there was anything magical about a 3-wood, but the common denominator is simply that a three wood is shorter than a driver (usually by about an inch - "Hmmm...") and therefore easier to control.
-JP
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Keep in mind that higher loft is easier to control as well.

There is no way around any of it. THe easiest solution for anybody is to just get fit. There is no shorter is better or longer is better. There are launch characteristics that can be measured and properly achieved with a fitting.
 
JB said:
Keep in mind that higher loft is easier to control as well.

There is no way around any of it. THe easiest solution for anybody is to just get fit. There is no shorter is better or longer is better. There are launch characteristics that can be measured and properly achieved with a fitting.
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Ok I agree with this....who do I use to get fit? Gotta remember this is Iowa not FL or AZ or any other pinnacle of the golfing community.

Edit: I am also a little timid, last time I was "professionally" fit for my irons it ruined my game for about 2 months. I'm open to suggestions here but you have to understand where I'm coming from here. No one has launch monitors except Dicks and from prior experience there I don't trust it. I'm open to suggestions here but you have to realize we all don't have access to the things you do.
 
JRod said:
Ok I agree with this....who do I use to get fit? Gotta remember this is Iowa not FL or AZ or any other pinnacle of the golfing community.

Edit: I am also a little timid, last time I was "professionally" fit for my irons it ruined my game for about 2 months. I'm open to suggestions here but you have to understand where I'm coming from here. No one has launch monitors except Dicks and from prior experience there I don't trust it. I'm open to suggestions here but you have to realize we all don't have access to the things you do.
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You can certainly get fit without a launch monitor. Talk to Andy our THP Pro for recommendations or definitely talk with local teaching professionals. If you are getting properly fit, you should not have a break in period really. In my opinion, there is no reason not to have equipment work for your swing rather than the other way around at your skill level.
 
A couple questions:

1- My driver was at 45.75" and after cutting it down to 44" the swing was a little light. Would using a lighter grip, like the Winn Lite, help compensate for the change in swing weight that results from cutting a shaft down?

2 - From what I understand, cutting a shaft makes it stiffer. My swing speed puts me in a stiff shaft. Would cutting it down by 2" turn it into an extra stiff?

3 - If cutting a shaft makes it stiffer and I plan on cutting any future drivers I own down to 43"-44", should I compensate by going with a regular instead of a stiff shaft?

Lastly, while I would love to get fitted for and play a Miyazaki, it's not within my budget so I'm forced to stick with stock shafts and alter them as best I can to fit me. Anyway, any help on this subject is much appreciated.
 
tacotruck said:
Lastly, while I would love to get fitted for and play a Miyazaki, it's not within my budget so I'm forced to stick with stock shafts and alter them as best I can to fit me. Anyway, any help on this subject is much appreciated.
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Nothing wrong with many stock shafts. Getting fit for ones clubs does not have to mean high end. It could mean a stock shaft.
 
JB's right.

You don't need a $400 custom fitting session and an equally expensive shafts to have clubs that fit you properly and work well.

I would ask around and see if you can find a club guy or perhaps even someone at a bigger outfit like Dick's and get a static fitting (length and lie) and then have someone watch you hit some balls or at least watch you swing the club. That, combined with a conversation about your game and how you like a club to feel is quite often all that's needed to have them set you up with good shaft as well as one that's in your price range.
If they have a Frequency Analyzer or even just a bend board that's even better because they can actually measure a shaft's basic characteristics and set you up with a shaft that is going to be that much closer to what you need and should get you well inside the ballpark.

Down the road, once you've become accustomed to your setup and have a better idea of what works and what doesn't, you can get a more detailed fitting and add in a few tweaks and some fine tuning.

But don't think that being fitted has to be a costly and time consuming affair. It certainly can be if you want it to be, but just like Chevy's and Ferrari's one may be fancier and pricier, but both will take you where you want to go just the same.


-JP
 
tacotruck said:
A couple questions:

1- My driver was at 45.75" and after cutting it down to 44" the swing was a little light. Would using a lighter grip, like the Winn Lite, help compensate for the change in swing weight that results from cutting a shaft down?

2 - From what I understand, cutting a shaft makes it stiffer. My swing speed puts me in a stiff shaft. Would cutting it down by 2" turn it into an extra stiff?

3 - If cutting a shaft makes it stiffer and I plan on cutting any future drivers I own down to 43"-44", should I compensate by going with a regular instead of a stiff shaft?

Lastly, while I would love to get fitted for and play a Miyazaki, it's not within my budget so I'm forced to stick with stock shafts and alter them as best I can to fit me. Anyway, any help on this subject is much appreciated.
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From what I understand cutting from the butt will actually make the shaft play slightly weaker. So I would say no to 2 and 3. But the person to answer that would probably be biglefty or JB.
 
tacotruck said:
A couple questions:

1- My driver was at 45.75" and after cutting it down to 44" the swing was a little light. Would using a lighter grip, like the Winn Lite, help compensate for the change in swing weight that results from cutting a shaft down?

2 - From what I understand, cutting a shaft makes it stiffer. My swing speed puts me in a stiff shaft. Would cutting it down by 2" turn it into an extra stiff?

3 - If cutting a shaft makes it stiffer and I plan on cutting any future drivers I own down to 43"-44", should I compensate by going with a regular instead of a stiff shaft?

Lastly, while I would love to get fitted for and play a Miyazaki, it's not within my budget so I'm forced to stick with stock shafts and alter them as best I can to fit me. Anyway, any help on this subject is much appreciated.
Click to expand...


1. Cutting 1 3/4 inches from a shaft will lighten the club overall and will lighten the swingweight by about 10 or 11 points (like going from a D-3 to a C-2). A lighter grip will help, but taking that much material away will likely require some head-weighting as well to get the swingweight back to where it was.

2. A 2-inch shortening of a shaft from any end will make it play stiffer but material removed from the butt end will affect the shaft differently than if it was removed from the tip end. A shaft that was "tipped" 2-inches may very well move up almost an entire flex (from a Stiff to an Extra Stiff) but material removed from the butt end would most likely result in a sort of "Half-flex" change (like from a "S-flex" to a "SX-flex").

3. Changing to Regular shafts just so you can cut 2-inches from the butt to make it stiffer doesn't really make sense. If you have a choice of shafts you should go with a shaft that most closely suits your needs in its "stock" form so that any trimming required would be minimal. It's possible that trimming 2-inches from the butt of a "R" flex might push it more towards Stiff, but there are other things to consider as well such as the overall flex profile which might be compromised by trimming that much material from the shaft.

With all of the shaft possibilities out there today, it really shouldn't be necessary to trim anything from a shaft other than what the manufacturer recommends for installation. Even "tipping" a shaft to customize it for a particular player is usually only something in the 1/2 to 1/4-inch range. Trimming large amounts of material from a shaft in an effort to create something other than what it was designed to be is a crap-shoot at best and may or may not yield the result you're after and in the worst case, may render a shaft virtually unusable.


-JP
 
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