Lowering Driver Loft?

Sean

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Has anyone lowered the loft of their driver and seen positive results? I stumbled on an article in Golf Digest that suggests lowering one's driver loft will, in general, see distance gains.

 
Mine is at 8* on my Epic SZ but I’ve always been a high spin, high ball hitter and played lower lofted drivers.
 
I've recently lowered the loft of my SZ Xtreme to try and squeeze a few more yards out and just bring the spin down a bit. After knocking it down from 12 to 10.5 and lowering the tee height I've definitely seen slightly less ballooning and a wee bit more distance as well.
 
Mine is at 8* on my Epic SZ but I’ve always been a high spin, high ball hitter and played lower lofted drivers.

I am going to experiment today and lower the loft to 9.5º...as low as my driver will go.
 
Just keep in mind that lower loft equals farther offline if you have any side spin. There is a reason the average PGA Tour player has a negative attack angle(more spin) with his driver - control.
 
People should really read the article before just lowering loft. The general basis of it is lower loft AND hitting proper launch angles through fitting provides more distance and for the most part, only players with a positive angle of attack.

NOT just lowering the loft equals more distance.

If you do not have a positive angle of attack, lower loft could be robbing you of distance actually and the article says the same thing.

Lower lofts will have more speed, due to less oblique angle at impact, but if you are not launching it high enough, the lower loft will not help increase distance.
 
People should really read the article before just lowering loft. The general basis of it is lower loft AND hitting proper launch angles through fitting provides more distance.

NOT just lowering the loft equals more distance.

Lower lofts will have more speed, due to less oblique angle at impact, but if you are not launching it high enough, the lower loft will not help increase distance.

True this. Many don’t have the necessary clubhead speed to start lowering loft. My daughter has a beautiful swing and delivery but plays an 11.5* driver to hit it about 200 yards. If I lowered the loft to 9* on her driver she would be shorter off the tee. It’s all about optimizing launch angle and spin and for many who swing under 100mph, that means at 10+ degrees of loft.
 
True this. Many don’t have the necessary clubhead speed to start lowering loft. My daughter has a beautiful swing and delivery but plays an 11.5* driver to hit it about 200 yards. If I lowered the loft to 9* on her driver she would be shorter off the tee. It’s all about optimizing launch angle and spin and for many who swing under 100mph, that means at 10+ degrees of loft.

It's less a speed thing than most believe. Club Champion pointed this out in the article linked in the first post and said the same thing on THP Live with their founder. Lower loft will increase speed. But the angle of attack is where it comes full circle. The flip being so common, is what the genesis of what this article is speaking to.
 
I am not that fast in swingspeed and sometimes (quite often) do not have optimal launch so I just went 1 degree higher in loft and in general have added a bit of distance


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How soft the fairways are make a difference in how much loft I play. If it's very wet and soft I'll up the loft 1 or 2 degrees but luckily the fairways I mostly play on are normally not overly soft like they were when I lived in California. I'm about 10-15 yards longer playing in Minnesota these last two years just because the soil and drainage are so much better for keeping the fairways a consistent firmness even after it rains.
 
My best drives were with a lower lofted driver. My worst drives were with a lower lofted driver. 8.5 degrees. I was swinging up on the ball. Problem was swinging up on the ball doesn’t feel natural to me leading to all sorts of bad swing mechanics. I prefer hitting much more neutral. I’m back in a 10.5* driver and I get less extreme differences. It’s all about what fits the swing and mentality. Which is what the article basically said after the click bait headline.
 
I’m more than happy with the 12 degrees of loft in my driver LOL.
 
Mine is at 8* on my Epic SZ but I’ve always been a high spin, high ball hitter and played lower lofted drivers.

This is me. Compounded by Texas wind and hardpan ground, I play mine at 9* and it works for me. Even considered going lower in the future.
 
I dropped my M5 from 11.5*, I think, to the standard setting of 9* and had my best driving day of the year. I don’t know if it was the loft change, face angle change, a better swing, or a combination of all 3 but it worked for me
 
I traded in my Ping G400 Max 10.5* for a 9* Max and it clearly lowered the flight and increased my distance. I was hitting it too high getting no roll.
 
There's way too many golfers and courses out there to think that it's a general solution. More ball speed and less spin (the two likely results) doesn't necessarily mean more distance. Swing speed, AoA, all of it matter. It could help some, especially with carrion swing faults, but it could be argued just as easily that a good number of people would benefit from more loft.
 
My driver isn't adjustable and is a 10.5 and I hit it fairly low. I can flight it fairly well depending on if I want to hit it higher or lower. Even then there are times when I will hit a low stinger with it lol. I did that last sunday night and last night it a little draw. Both went about 300 after rolling out. The one last night I bet didn't get more the 7-8 yards on the ground. It was like when a batter ropes a line drive right over the pitchers head.
 
I recently switched from 10.5 Ping G400 Max to 9 degrees Callaway Epic Flash with a 44.5" shaft and have increased my distance by about 10 yards on average.

I think a lot of it depends on your swing, I was hitting the ball too high and my descent angle was too steep.

Some of it for me was confidence as well, I have been far more accurate with this driver so I am now able to take full swings with confidence.
 
Has anyone lowered the loft of their driver and seen positive results? I stumbled on an article in Golf Digest that suggests lowering one's driver loft will, in general, see distance gains.

I have experimented with this quite a bit and for me, it all depends on how I am hitting the ball. I keep going through some weird swing differences with my driver right now. I seem to do better at around 10.5 as far as consistency with fairly high spin rates, but I can hit at 9.5 a bit longer, lower launch and less spin, yet I have to strike it well which not doing at the moment.
 
seems like an easy test if one has drivers to test with. I've been a 9 degree guys and have learned I do better with more loft but still having relative lower spinning shafts and heads
 
I cannot urge people enough to read the article before just dropping loft. The headline may be catchy, but it is way more in regards to just lowering loft.

They are speaking of lowering loft AND getting fit and hitting a launch window. Not just lowering loft.
 
The way I see it, the loft is a tuneable parameter to hit key launch metrics. Launch angle, spin, ball speed, etc. I've been dialed into an 8 deg a couple of times and with a recent tweak to my ball position on drives, my AoA dropped a bit ( from ~5 deg positive to ~3 deg positive ) which reduced my launch angle. Dialed it back to 9 deg and I was back in my window again.
 
I cannot urge people enough to read the article before just dropping loft. The headline may be catchy, but it is way more in regards to just lowering loft.

They are speaking of lowering loft AND getting fit and hitting a launch window. Not just lowering loft.
You had me up to the “launch window” part.
 
You had me up to the “launch window” part.

The article actually explains it quite well. While the headline is click bait, the article is quite good and features some great friends of ours in Nick Sherburne and TO.

They are NOT just saying lowering loft and you get more distance. They are saying lowering loft while being fit is achieving more distance. The reason is multifaceted in that first, a large number of golfers flip at impact and come in with a positive angle of attack.

I have a couple of posts earlier in the thread that break more of it down.
Lower lofts can create more speed due to a less oblique angle.
But they also create less spin and less launch.

The article linked in the OP is quite good and actually breaks it all down, but it is definitely not just "lower loft for more distance". You have just as much a chance to lose distance as you do gain it.
 
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