Question about driver fitting and shaft lenghs.

On Thursday, I will be having a driver fitting at a Club Champion facility, and I have a few questions for those that have done it:

1)How do you keep the fitting realistic?
I was fitted 4 years ago, but it did not go well because my swing indoors does not resemble the one outdoors. It is a lot more loose and smooth since it is not under competitive pressure, and I am usually much longer because of it. Plus since I get to swing so many times in a fitting, I get into a groove. In golf, it is one driver swing every 20 minutes, and In my case, it is a very timid swing after I have gone OB in my first hole...
How can I keep a fitting realistic?

2)Shaft lenghs!
I tend to hit my 44inch mini driver straight and fairly well. The weird thing is that, in theory, it should be more penalizing since it is a much smaller head than a normal driver, but I get the feeling that when I mishit it, it feels a lot more solid that a normal driver. I know that some folks cut down their driver to 43.5 for better control. However, I am thinking that if I do that, the regular driver will probably end up being about the same lengh/distance than my mini driver.
I seem to remember that THP had an experiment last year about shaft lenghs and concluded that 46 inches was best for most or something along those lines. Does anyone remember?


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Go in with an open mind is the biggest thing.
I would definitely not say that longer is better for most. I would say everybody is different and finding what works best for every person is the key to unlocking the best your swing can give you (a combination of distance and accuracy).

I would agree with JB and say approach this with an open mind. You want this to be an accurate fitting so be sure to be open to all options, including stock shaft options. I recently just had a fitting done in the best place in the world to get fit with an endless amount of shaft options but i ended up going with a stock option because it was the best for me. Trust the fitter and the process. If you are truly going to need a shortened or longer shaft, it will show in your fitting.

I agree with JB. Stock length for my driver is 45.5", and I have mine cut to 44". For me it's alot more control with the shorter shaft with no loss of distance. I lost 1mph clubhead speed but gained almost 10mph ball speed due to hitting the sweet spot of the face more often.

Be open with the fitter, mention what you're ultimately looking for.

I will be keeping an eye on this thread as well as I have a driver fitting booked for Friday

Good luck with yours

Trevor68 said:

I seem to remember that THP had an experiment last year about shaft lenghs and concluded that 46 inches was best for most or something along those lines. Does anyone remember?

Click to expand...

That was an opinion from Danny at UST. He believes it's better to be closer to the green and in the rough than further from the pin and in the fairway. It got spread around as gospel for a while, but most club manufacturers are backing off of 46" drivers nowadays.

You'll be longer if you can hit center face more often. Play the longest length that you can still control.

Spread like gospel? Interesting choice of words.

If I recall what Danny was saying is that most driver head technology is so good now that the difference between a perfect strike and being a little off is not as penal as it once was. Thats why he would recommend going with something that you could generate a little more speed with and get more distance out of.

Now do I go with that train of thought personally? Not really. Been through two driver fittings in the last 5 months and both times walked out with a shaft length of 45 because my numbers were better almost across the board. But that's golf, the uniform policy should be that there is no uniform policy. All swings are different.

Yeah, go in with an open mind and try to swing the way you do on the course. As to shaft length I was fitted 1/2" short on all my clubs. Mention to your fitter you might want to go even shorter and hit your Mini for him. Then you can try choking down a bit on the clubs you try and see what your distance penalty (if any) is. Better to be straight than long.

Try to keep the swing you play with as your swing and not something specific to a fitting.

Now that my fitting took place, I have a question for you guys:

We found that the best shaft for my mini driver is a Stiff 661 Evo TS (65g) instead of my current Stiff 565 Speeder (55g).
While looking at the trackman data, I noticed that with the 661 my launch angle increased from 11 degrees to 14 degrees, my angle of attack decreased from -3.4 to -1.7, and my spin came down from 3600 to 3000. All of these things are good things. I can understand that the spin came down since the 661 has a stiffer tip, but I am baffled at why my launch angle increased and the attack angle decreased. I would have expected the launch angle to be even lower since it is a stiffer shaft, and I would have assumed the attack angle would remain the same.

Can anyone say why this happens?


Driver: Nike Covert 2.0 12.5 degrees
Fairway: Callaway X2Hot 4 Wood
Hybrid: Callaway X2Hot 5 & 6
Irons: Taylormade Rocketbladez 8,9,P
Wedges: 52 Mizuno, 56 rtx, 58 smart sole, 64 rtx
Putter: Ping Scottsdale TR 33