SHORTENED MY DRIVER

[OHIOgolf]

So I have been struggling with getting the club head around fast enough as well as closing the face (MAJOR SLICE 50-80 yards off target). I take lessons and have tried everything under the sun including getting fitted. I went and spoke with a golf pro in my area, I had brought up the idea of shortening the driver after hearing some PGA pros doing the same thing. Now since I'm 6'1” he said that's probably not the best idea (being that I'm tall) but it's worth a try.

 

So I did it, chopping it down 1.25”, it took some getting used to but I am now hitting straight shots 265-270 yards with the confidence off the tee to use the driver. In fact drove two greens yesterday where I would've normally used 4-5 iron.

 

Has anyone else tried this/ done this and had success as well without really losing yardage?

 

 

 

Titleist 718 ap3 (X-stiff,2 flat)

Cleveland RTX 2.0 wedges

Taylormade Spider Tour Putter RED 35” 1* Flat

Taylormade r1 (x-stiff)

Left Handed

OHIO NORTH

22.4 HC

[Flipper554]

Yup. I've been doing it forever. I have never played a driver over 44.5”. I have a good friend that builds clubs and when I get a new driver I get him to shorten the club and do all of the frequency and swing weight magic. I have tried the stock 45.75 shafts and just can't hit the center of the club consistently, a lot of heal hits that go right.

[mooremikea]

My driver is 44.5 inches and don't see myself playing anything longer than that.  Center face contact is more important to me than 1 or 2 mph faster club head speed.  After shorting the driver you might want to add a some lead tape to the head so the balance of the club feels correct to you.  There are swing weight formulas for this but there is no right or wrong answer because it depends on the player's preference.  

[Berg Ryman]

No need to yell about it my man 

 

Seriously though, good on ya for making your own and driving your own path. Hope it helps get that handicap down for you!

[PlaidJacket]

I've thought about this many times over the years as the topic always resurfaces from time to time. Just yesterday I think; I commented about this in either the SLDR post or the Cobra F8 - F8+ post. I've been experimenting with a new Fly-Z+ trying to find a good shaft fit. Until last night I was considering cutting down the latest shaft I bought to try which is the same one I have in my SLDR. TM/Fujikura Speeder 57 S flex. However, I always grip down about 3/4" on all my clubs and..... I was inspecting the face of my SLDR and have good center face wear on it. Much better than I thought. So effectively I'm swinging a driver that is 44.5". I think for the time being I'll just go with what I have before shortening the shaft.

 

I will tell you guys this. I have a ShotMaker installed in my driver and I do believe it helps with shot disbursement. It does. You can search in the blog for Shotmaker and read the review and opinion from several years ago. Personally, if you like to play for accuracy the Shotmaker might be for you. As an added bonus it really makes your club feel much more solid. I'll put one in every driver I own.

[Shankster]

Bubba Watson is 6'3” he uses a 44.5” driver. Tiger is 6'1” and used a 43” Driver for years.

[null]

When I was out at Callaway ECPC in 2013 they told us that nobody on their tour staff played a driver over 45.25 and that most were between 44 and 45

[Shankster]

Pretty sure with most all of the commentators saying we “ams” suck along with equipment brands changing technology every other year does us no favors.

 

The way it sounds is from the marketing side of things, we'd all do better with a 49” Driver, SSDSGI irons & wedges, 5 range finders, super duper tech putters with sharks with fricking laser beams attacked to their frickin heads.

 

I'll stick with old tech.

[ole gray]

I have three shafts for my driver (Ping F6).   One of them is at 44.5 and it is the most consistent and accurate of the three. 

 

 

Callaway came out with the Fusion a year or so ago and one of the versions comes stock with the 44.5 shaft.   It's a pretty darn good driver however it does have a funny sound when you miss the sweet spot.   I suppose one could get over the sound however moved on.  I'm really surprised more companies don't offer this as part of their line up. 

[Kegger]

I just had a new shaft installed playing at 45". Now 45" seems pretty standard, but I'm coming from the stock shaft being 45.75" which is just ridiculously long! I was already gripping down on the stock shaft, so moving to a shaft 3/4" shorter feels so much more natural.

 

I'm now ready to also hack some off of my 3w and 5w!

[Miboy62]

I have a 44" coming for my F8+ Driver.

[null]

Another example where club makers are misguided in making their standard drivers longer than pros. I'm told it's to maximize club head speed, and tout longest driver we've ever made, and I am sure it's true but it assumes amateurs are pretty consistent ball strikers at impact - I know I'm not. So it's a disservice to the buying public some/many who don't realized what they might gain in tighter dispersion (length and side to side) for little if any loss in average distance. Many buyers are unwittingly complicit?

The average golfer goes and hits a bunch of drives on a launch monitor at the a big box store. They don't care about dispersion or shot patterns. All they care about is those one or two that they "absolutely crushed".

 

It's why OEMS market for distance and make off the rack club 46 inches

[JTexGolfer]

I am playing my G400 at 45.25 inches, which is .5 shorter than their “standard” G400. It's the longest driver I have played to date and I love it so far, but I have played much shorter drivers in the past and liked them as well. I think a lot of it is very shaft dependent. And I also don't swing near as fast as the Tour pros so my misses can't get out their as far as theirs can!

[revkev]

Okay here we go again....

 

What length were you fit for? The pros are fit for the length that they use and there is a very specific reason for that length.

 

For example I was once fit for a driver by the fitter who fit Sergio for his 43.5” driver. Sergio was fit for that driver to slow him down. I was fit at 44.5 because at 45.5 I hit the ball in the heel.

 

I'm happy that folks are seeing good results from using a shorter driver but if you cut a shaft on a whim and you're the guy or gal who should be using 45.5 or 46 (and there are some) you just threw away a chunk of change.

 

So go get fit before you cut. At least grip down for a while before you cut. In fact if you follow Plaid's suggestion and always grip down you can grab a few extra yards when you need it by griping back up on long straight holes.

 

 

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[MattF]

I'm picking up what Rev is putting down, but I cut my Mizuno 1" to 44.5" and I've never hit it more in the centre of the face before and I'm able to, for the most part, keep the ball on the same hole as opposed the one next to it.

[OHIOgolf]

Revkev I was fit however I feel that he was wrong in doing so based on my height not club head to ball relationship

 

 

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[TBT]

I have been playing a 44.5" driver for about 5 years now and I am 6'2"

 

I switched to it after a fitting at a Callaway Performance Center.

 

He had me hit drivers of 3 or 4 different lengths and we found that I only gave up 3-5 yards of distance by going with the shorter driver but I was 65% more accurate....easy decision!

[figzuki]

Cut mine down myself to 44'.   Read lots of swing weight and all sorts of other criteria that people try to scare you with. In my case, I fell in love with the decision I made immediately.  The only reason why my scores are low 90's high 80's is because of my driver.

 

Started hitting more fairways immediately, as a result of this I did not lose any distance since I have the confidence to swing a little harder.

 

Was telling my boss what I did so he went to Dick's on a Friday afternoon and cut his down to 44.5 for a Sunday round and he said it worked wonders for him.

 

I tried to apply the same thing to my fairway woods and hybrids and it did not work, just better to choke up on those for me.  Had to end up getting new shafts because I cut mine down too far lol.

[Shankster]

According to the wrist to floor “standards” I found, I need a 43” Driver.

[OHIOgolf]

According to the wrist to floor “standards” I found, I need a 43” Driver.

And that's kinda how I was fitted instead of testing multiple club lengths. Sometimes I feel that when I do go to fittings I find the fitter to be either really involved or not at all

 

 

Titleist 718 ap3 (X-stiff,2 flat)

Cleveland RTX 2.0 wedges

Taylormade Spider Tour Putter RED 35” 1* Flat

Taylormade r1 (x-stiff)

Left Handed

OHIO NORTH

22.4 HC

[Kegger]

Just shortened my 3w and 5w this past weekend. So now I'm playing Driver: 45", 3w: 42.75", 5w: 41.75". We'll see how the fairway woods go.. I was routinely gripping down as much as 1" from the deck (some off the tee as well), so I figured I'd chop off .50" to start and see how it goes. I don't mind a little grip down, but 1"+ at times was excessive and felt weird...

 

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[grad2004cca]

I bought a stock Callaway GBB Epic 3w Fukikura stiff shaft with the coupler on it already off of eBay and installed it on my GBB Epic driver and haven't looked back since. I've lost 8-10 yards, but hit a nice little 5 yard fade confidently now. 

[Zylem]

I took an inch off my driver last season then used lead tape to bring the swing weight back up.

 

What I noticed was close to your findings. I lost 5 yards off my average distance. What I gained was it brought dispersion in by about 5 yards.

 

A local shop owner was interested in my experiment and let me use all his equipment at no charge. I believe I had a post here awhile back with more detailed findings. We used contact tape to track off center hits. The difference there was I had one more on center hit with the cut shaft verses the stock length. So not as much difference there as I had guessed.

 

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[Shankster]

Any PING guys that want to bring swing weight back up, PING will do hot melt for around $10, that's a hell of a deal. I'm about to send mine back, it is just the G, a little weight up top to quiet it down and get the swing weight back to normal.

 

Edit: this is permanent, so if you don't like it you're SOL.

[BigtazzGolf]

I bought a stock Callaway GBB Epic 3w Fukikura stiff shaft with the coupler on it already off of eBay and installed it on my GBB Epic driver and haven't looked back since. I've lost 8-10 yards, but hit a nice little 5 yard fade confidently now.

Did something similar but opposite lol.

I had a cally driver shaft just sitting so I grabbed a cally 3 wood head and away I went.

Took a few rounds to get used to it but I've fallen in love with it.

Buddy said it looks like an old school driver with the small head vs today's driver heads.

 

 

Tazz

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[revkev]

Yes - this is a hot topic.

 

I'm curious about a couple of things -

 

1. What did your fitter say? Surely he looked at length? What did he recommend? That's where I would start because you are about to get tons of uninformed suggestions here (they are uninformed because we don't know your swing).

 

2. The pros are fit for their equipment. While some may sacrifice a bit of distance for accuracy many are already doing it by virtue of their swing - the average PGA has a slightly negative AoA because he wants to swing every club the same and doesn't need to chase the extra yardage a positive AoA would net him. Instead he recaptures some of that through equipment. For example Sergio Garcia is not using a 43.5” shaft for accuracy, it's because that length allows him to hit the longest, straightest drives possible. He has very fast hands and it helps slow them down a bit.

 

3. To me it's bizarre that your pro wouldn't talk about shortening your driver and even more so that he would dismiss it based on your height. We have six pros of varying types that work at my club. The one who uses the longest shaft is the shortest height wise and he is the only one that still has playing aspirations.

 

All of our pros will talk about any golf topic ad naseum. They all have seen the bulk of the membership hit balls, at least. If in doubt they would go to the range and take a look at a guys swing prior to making a comment like that one.

 

Finally, my shaft is shortened to 45” because that's what I was fit for. That length gives me the most hits on the sweet spot of the driver based upon my swing.

 

That's what you need to shoot for with yours. Good luck!

 

I'm very perplexed about your pro. What are his credentials?

 

 

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[deejaid]

 

I'm very perplexed about your pro. What are his credentials?

 

 

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This is the first thing I thought when I read this as well. I actually read it twice to make sure it said “Pro”.

 

The driver is the most unique club in the bag in that its shots are exclusively hit off a tee. The balls teed height is a big variable in making correct center contact, while every other clubs majority of shots are from the ball directly on the ground. To say you shouldn't cut down your driver based on your height might be one of the most lazy recommendations I've heard. It sounds like the “advice” of a Big Box “fitter” that has a Chemistry final tomorrow.

 

I guess the title Golf Pro doesn't mean much these days.

 

 

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[JohnnyPenso]

I wanted to try a shorter driver so I had my X2Hot cut to 44" from the tip end and then swingweighted by my fitter back to D2.  I had never measured it before and when we did it came out to 46" before the cut .  Couldn't be happier.  Have only hit it once on the course but on the range I'm striking it better than ever with a much more controllable and consistent ballflight and contact.  I have a brand new AeroBurner that hasn't made it to the range in 3 weeks because I'm having so much fun hitting my new "short" driver.  I'm seriously thinking of chopping an inch off of my 3 wood now

[PING Apologist #9]

After trying my 3w shaft on my driver with very positive results, I whacked my driver shaft off by 1" as a further experiment while in the interim before I go get fitted for a new G400. WOW! Way more consistent for me at both the range and during a round. Like a total day & night, light bulb coming on moment! Made the round for me yesterday way, way more enjoyable to finally be hitting solid drives on or near the sweet spot, and not saying once to myself: "Ah crap! I gotta hit driver again!". Now I want to hit it every time and that's the way it should be right? It's yer buddies that should be sayin': "Ah crap! He's got the driver out again!"

[Shankster]

There's a reason 43.5” was the standard for like 70 years... it just plain works.