[MyGolfSpy]

Speedline 9064LS Distance Fitting System

"For the first time in the industry, a distance fitting system (DFS) version of the Speedline 9064LS is also available that allows the consumer to adjust for not only face angle and loft but also for club length. With the DFS, the head and shaft length on this special version of the 9064LS is adjustable and the consumer receives a kit with all the tools they need to optimize their driver to meet the demands of different conditions and specific swings.

All DFS versions of the Speedline 9064LS come at a standard length of 45.5 inches and D3 swing weight. However, with the DFS kit, the length, loft and face angle can be adjusted using the specially designed removable spacers and weight inserts. Each DFS kit includes a torque wrench, additional spacers and additional weights—all of which fit into a conveniently designed zippered case. Ultimately the consumer has shaft length options between 45 and 46 inches and loft/face angle options of one degree either way.

“Shaft length may be the most dramatic factor in determining distance,” said Tim Reed, Vice President of Research and Development for Adams Golf. “As the first company in the industry to engineer a changeable system not only for loft and lie but also shaft length, we feel we are finally giving consumers the option to truly optimize their drivers for increased distance off the tee. With the advent of this technology, if you are not fitting your driver for shaft length, you’re not fitting properly.”

The DFS version of the Speedline 9064LS driver will ship to golf shops beginning Aug. 10 and will offer the Aldila RIP Alpha or the Aldila RIP Gamma graphite shafts. The suggested retail price for the DFS version of the Speedline 9064LS driver is $479.99.

[cheymike]

I'm beginning to wonder if any of these club designers actually PLAY golf. Yep, a longer shaft will give you longer distance. It will also put you further out in the weeds!!!

[JohnBarry]

479.00 ouch

[TWshoot67]

It's almost like who can come up with thebest gimmick to get golfers to believe they will be the longest driver on tour. why not just make a 50" driver and let her rip right into the weeds like mentioned above. I'll play a 44.5 and be 20 yards less but in fairway.....LOL

[GolfSpy T]

TWshoot67, on 30 July 2010 - 01:55 PM, said:

It's almost like who can come up with thebest gimmick to get golfers to believe they will be the longest driver on tour. why not just make a 50" driver and let her rip right into the weeds like mentioned above. I'll play a 44.5 and be 20 yards less but in fairway.....LOL

I'm with you man. I do all sorts of analysis on my game. The first thing I've learned is that I suck. Looking at the root cause of said suckage, however; it's pretty clear that if I hit even a couple more fairways on average, I'd be a much better golfer. I'm not one of those GolfWRX guys who has a 130MPH swing speed and routinely hits the ball 390 yards up hill into a head wind, but I'm good for 260-275 depending on wind, elevation, and ground conditions. I'm good for a handful of 300 yarders every year. All that said, I've finally smartened up and would happily trade 20 yards of distance for 10 yards (maybe even 5 yards) of accuracy.

More to the point, all this adjustability stuff is starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth.

[cheymike]

I'm with ya TW & GST. I'm in the same boat. I KNOW I'd be breaking 90 if I could hit the fairways a bit more often. I'm not a long hitter (around 240ish average) and never will be. So I know my 2nd shot is going to be a bit longer than most. Add 20 yards right or left in the weeds to that, and it really makes things suck in a major way. I'm going to be cutting down my Nike SqDymo to 44.5 from its current 45.75 and I really don't care if my 2nd shot might be 10 yds longer. At least it should be from the short grass a little more often.

[jwpanzer]

GolfSpy T, on 30 July 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

I'm with you man. I do all sorts of analysis on my game. The first thing I've learned is that I suck. Looking at the root cause of said suckage, however; it's pretty clear that if I hit even a couple more fairways on average, I'd be a much better golfer. I'm not one of those GolfWRX guys who has a 130MPH swing speed and routinely hits the ball 390 yards up hill into a head wind, but I'm good for 260-275 depending on wind, elevation, and ground conditions. I'm good for a handful of 300 yarders every year. All that said, I've finally smartened up and would happily trade 20 yards of distance for 10 yards (maybe even 5 yards) of accuracy.

More to the point, all this adjustability stuff is starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth.

BEST POST EVER!!!

This is exactly why I enjoy this site more than WRX. Also, this is why I recently defected from a longtime relationship with Taylormade and went to PING. Enough with this total adjustability and 46 inch shaft stuff............learn how to hit the club correctly. (OK, I'm also a club ho and hate how TM comes out with new clubs every 4 months that I have to have and ruins resale value.)

Taylormade, Cleveland, and now Adams are turning to these super long shafts and claiming they are longer and more forgiving.............on what????......the iron byron never misses. Bubba Watson was interviewed about length off the tee box and his first suggestion was to get a shorter shaft. Accuracy and consistency off the tee box will always be more important to me. If you can hit a 46+" shaft accurately..........more power to you. I just don't like how it is being advertized as game improvement. But then again, I also suck.

[GolfSpy Matt]

I've been playing my driver between 44" and 44.5" for about 3 years now, and there's no way I'd change. I think people make the assumption that longer club = longer drives, but this is not the case for me; I hit it straighter AND longer with a sub 45" shaft. An extra inch of shaft length only equates to 2-3MPH of clubhead speed (IIRC) and that doesn't mean squat if you're mishitting the ball.

[jamo]

I've always been of the belief that changing shaft length doesn't really do much. People overblow the added distance of lengthening the shaft, and they overblow the loss in accuracy by lengthening the shaft.

It would be good to see a side by side comparison with the same club head with different lengths of the same shaft. I guess that would be tough though because to cut down a shaft you would change it's kick and flex characteristics.

[xxio]

I used to be a 44.75" driver player and constantly trying different drivers that were longer to experiment with and could not play anything over 45" and hit any decent number of fairways.

I bought a SFTP 46" stock length. Surprisingly I could hit it decent at 46". I eventually went down to 45.25" because of swingweight issues. I'm playing it very comfortably at 45.25" and maybe gained a consistent 5 yards and surprisingly maybe even more fairways.

Sometimes technology does work.

Now whether an adjustable shaft is a good piece of equipment or a better as a fitting tool is the debate for me, not whether any driver above 45" should not be tried.

My daughter tried the acculength kid's club with the adjustable shafts technology but only for a short period.

[Sprinklerhead]

Truly a 'longer length doesn't matter' issue...

I put a 43.5 inch steel shaft in a driver and started finding far more fairways. The surprising thing was that I actually gained distance because I could slot the plane of my driver far more easily and ended up winning the local Remax long drive contest with that club. I've since gone to another driver that when I nut it, goes great...but it's longer shaft makes hitting fairways a challenge. I think 6 or 7 out of 10 golfers would be better served with a shorter driver shaft. I started keeping stats on fairways hit/roughs hit/strokes lost to OB off the tee and while the short game is where you score, the tee is where you can really screw up an otherwise great round.

[Rounders]

Think about how many people leave the driver in the bag and pull out the 3 metal. I always here from guys "I can hit my 3 wood just as far as my driver" I've seen it on the range at demo days and have experimented with it myself. My solution and some of my recommended advice for 50 somethings is a shorter shaft with more loft, even 12 degrees. I've even done it myself switching from a 9 degree to a 10.5 this year. I've hit way more fairways this year.

[Justin66]

cheymike, on 30 July 2010 - 01:42 PM, said:

I'm not a long hitter (around 240ish average) and never will be.

The male average, according to the National Golf Foundation and Golf Magazine, is 235 yards. It's "only" five yards, but still- above average! Don't sell yourself short... maybe you won't be Bubba Watson long, but there's more than one way to break 90.

I agree with all of you. There's nothing left for the OEMs to tout- they can't justify what they're selling their products for, so they resort to gimmicks. Notice that there isn't an "adjustable face/lie angle/length combo driver" yet? That'll be next year. Probably from Taylormade.

[Justin66]

Cmor24, on 03 August 2010 - 10:44 PM, said:

Think about how many people leave the driver in the bag and pull out the 3 metal. I always here from guys "I can hit my 3 wood just as far as my driver" I've seen it on the range at demo days and have experimented with it myself. My solution and some of my recommended advice for 50 somethings is a shorter shaft with more loft, even 12 degrees. I've even done it myself switching from a 9 degree to a 10.5 this year. I've hit way more fairways this year.

This is exactly what the gurus like Ralph Maltby and Tom Wishon talk about. The 3 wood is easier to hit. Loft negates sidespin, so a 15* 3 wood is going to have less than a 9* driver. Couple that with the shorter, more controllable shaft and it's easy to see why more people hit their FWs better. But that's where the OEMs try to get us- the pursuit of more distance. By lengthening the shafts and lowering the lofts, they can create the "illusion" of distance.

If you swung like a robot and hit the face center every time, you could use whatever length shaft you feel like. Since none of us are robots (that I know of...) it's up to a proper fitting to determine how long a shaft and how much loft you can handle (not to mention face/lie angle, swing weight, grip size, ammong other things) to get as much distance as possible without giving up too much accuracy. That's what a proper driver fitting does... and what most major OEMs don't want people to know.

[dragonheart67]

Wow, to hit one of those long shafted clubs, I would have to flatten out my swing and lose my consistency. I would rather use the extra money to pay for some video lessons or a proper club fitting.