What is your Driver shaft length?

[KC Golf]

On the Community Call this week, an interesting discussion was had on driver shaft length.

While the USGA has a max of 48”, the current local rule for the PGA and LPGA tours is a max of 46”.  The PGA Tour average appears to center around 45”.  Stock OEM length appears to be 45.5 - 45.75”.

Please enter the poll, so we can see if there is a popular driver length, you are all gaming these days.  Hopefully @GolfSpy_APH can share the results next week.

Thank you in advance for your input on the poll.

I have just added a second question to those who game two drivers.

 

PS.  For those curious on how you measure shaft length, here is a photo, I just borrowed this pic from @chisag,  I hope that was okay Sam.

 

Edited May 16 by KC Golf
Clarified/ 2nd question

[KC Golf]

Thanks Sam! 

[TSauer]

My driver is currently playing at 46.25" at 6'6", so I voted accordingly, but I plan to trim that down to 45" or so to bring it a smidge closer to my 3w.

[chisag]

29 minutes ago, KC Golf said:

Thanks Sam! 

 

... This is a fascinating topic. The formula is easy. Play the longest shaft that allows you to hit the sweet spot consistently. The trouble in paradise comes when grooving your swing with, say a 46" driver or longer on the range, standing in one spot and through repetition finding that sweet spot most of the time. Very different than playing a par 3, then moving to a par 5 and need a solid drive when you haven't hit your driver with the last 7-9 shots or more. Add in water/trees/bunkers that don't exist on the range and the tension that can introduce to your swing and it is a very different endeavor. 

... Best case scenario is playing a practice round and putting something on the face that lets you see where you make contact under playing conditions. For most that will be 44-45". Of course some have great swings and excellent hand/eye coordination and can play longer shafts, but they are the exceptions. 

 

[HikingMike]

Timely poll! I wasn't on the call but I've also seen a lot of discussion also around the forum on this topic lately - in the 2030 ball rollback thread, the TaylorMade Qi10 testing, and some others.

I agree on the pros' lengths. Using the men staffers listed on Ping's and TaylorMade's websites with the driver length, I got an average of 45.1597 inches for those 18 pros.

The stock length in my current driver is 45.25" (though with a different stock shaft option it would be 45.75"). My previous driver was 45.5", though I looked it up and supposedly it is 45.75" stock.

[KC Golf]

38 minutes ago, HikingMike said:

Timely poll! I wasn't on the call but I've also seen a lot of discussion also around the forum on this topic lately - in the 2030 ball rollback thread, the TaylorMade Qi10 testing, and some others.

I agree on the pros' lengths. Using the men staffers listed on Ping's and TaylorMade's websites with the driver length, I got an average of 45.1597 inches for those 18 pros.

The stock length in my current driver is 45.25" (though with a different stock shaft option it would be 45.75"). My previous driver was 45.5", though I looked it up and supposedly it is 45.75" stock.

That’s an interesting average stat. I find it interesting that some quite tall Pros are still using a 45” shaft length.  Looking up Titleist TSR.  Interestingly a stock TSR1 is 45.75” where as the rest of the TSR line is 45.5”

52 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... This is a fascinating topic. The formula is easy. Play the longest shaft that allows you to hit the sweet spot consistently. The trouble in paradise comes when grooving your swing with, say a 46" driver or longer on the range, standing in one spot and through repetition finding that sweet spot most of the time. Very different than playing a par 3, then moving to a par 5 and need a solid drive when you haven't hit your driver with the last 7-9 shots or more. Add in water/trees/bunkers that don't exist on the range and the tension that can introduce to your swing and it is a very different endeavor. 

... Best case scenario is playing a practice round and putting something on the face that lets you see where you make contact under playing conditions. For most that will be 44-45". Of course some have great swings and excellent hand/eye coordination and can play longer shafts, but they are the exceptions. 

 

Sam, you are quite right on this.  Consistent contact with my driver has been a more recent problem for me after adjusting my swing over the Winter. I think I need to start choking down even further to see if that works better for me.

Once I figure out how short to cut it. What I find interesting is that cutting a shaft by 0.5 - 0.75” has a major influence on swing weight as well, so it’s an interesting multi-variable dilemma on what works for each individual golfer. 

Today as part of my driver analysis, I am going to look at the differences between my FW swing weight vs my Dr swing weight, since I really like my 3W feel / swing weight, but it could also be the shaft length too.

Thank you everyone for participating in this poll!

[Kenny B]

The pros and I have nothing in common when it comes to the golf swing, so I don’t really care what shaft length they play.  I play slightly less than 46” because that’s what clubs off the shelf usually are.

[chisag]

23 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

The pros and I have nothing in common when it comes to the golf swing, so I don’t really care what shaft length they play.  I play slightly less than 46” because that’s what clubs off the shelf usually are.

 

... Kenny the only thing about Pro's that I find relative is forgiveness. Obviously a Pro wants max yards with their driver and max accuracy with their irons. So if they play a CB over a MB that says quite a bit. And if their driver length averages 45.25" that says even more. If they could dead center a 46.25" driver as well as a 45.25" driver they certainly would.

... The other thing is OEM's are always in competition for distance. So if Callaway has a robot hit their driver at 46" producing 280yd drives because it hits the sweet spot perfectly every time, other OEMs have to follow or their 45.25" driver hit perfectly would be 272yds and that is of course shorter. As you know golfers are not robots. I know first hand talking with both at the pga show that corporate sales over rules engineering every time. 

Edited May 10 by chisag

[Donn lost in San Diego]

1 hour ago, chisag said:

 

... This is a fascinating topic. The formula is easy. Play the longest shaft that allows you to hit the sweet spot consistently. The trouble in paradise comes when grooving your swing with, say a 46" driver or longer on the range, standing in one spot and through repetition finding that sweet spot most of the time. Very different than playing a par 3, then moving to a par 5 and need a solid drive when you haven't hit your driver with the last 7-9 shots or more. Add in water/trees/bunkers that don't exist on the range and the tension that can introduce to your swing and it is a very different endeavor. 

... Best case scenario is playing a practice round and putting something on the face that lets you see where you make contact under playing conditions. For most that will be 44-45". Of course some have great swings and excellent hand/eye coordination and can play longer shafts, but they are the exceptions. 

 

On the range, I started this:  I hit the same club only 2 or 3 shots at a time, then switch, and I jump up and down 3 or 4 clubs each switch.  To force concentration on the newest club in my hand.  Gets away from the wasted time of driving range tempo, which I think Jack Nicklaus wrote in Golf My Way.

[funkyjudge]

The LONGEST driver shaft that I will use results in a playing length just a hair less than 45”, but most of my driver shafts play at 44.5” to 44.75”.  Because of this, every driver that I own, with the exception of my 2023 Ping G430 Max, have weight added to the clubhead to get a decent swingweight and balance in those drivers.

[TJ Hall]

It really is interesting…play a shorter shaft in my driver from what is on the shelf.  Will pick up a new driver and it just feels so much longer, I don’t like it!  

[EugeGall]

This was an interesting discussion point on the last community call. 
My road to moving shorter:

Got back into golf early 2022 after 10 year hiatus (don’t ask) and bought new clubs, my present to myself for being smart in getting back into golf, plus I didn’t really want to be seen with 10 year old sticks. I put my “new” misses down to the break. My fairways, irons etc. all got back on track to what I remembered. However the driver had developed a big miss right, sometimes the slice was just a sight to behold. I never missed right before, but I persevered and yes it got better, but consistency just wasn’t there not constant but enough to annoy and play with my head. I kinda learned to live with it though.

Got fitted for new driver a few months back which must have been on one of my good (lucky) days only the odd miss. So yes I thought it was my driver. However you got it the miss started to come back. Racking my brain on what to do next I suddenly had a mad idea to take my old R11 to the range and see if I could hit it the way I used to and no lie it was a dream, straight shots to a baby draw; it was like stepping back 12 years. Sitting down to argue with myself that was I really going to put a 14 year old club in my bag I looked over at my R11 next to the Paradym and there it was the R11 was shorter. Nah it can’t be that simple, but I quickly marked up the Paradym, choked down and bang, the heavens rejoiced as my driver sang to the flight I hoping to see. Played for a few weeks with this setup and my Eureka moment was proven, driver average up 12 yards, dispersion is consistent. So I cut it down to 44.5” from the stock 45.75” and haven’t looked back. 
Swingweight so far doesn’t seem to be an issue, but I’ve bought a heavier weight which I may try out just to see. 

Conclusion for me - 44.5” is more out of the screws. 45.75” can be all over the place with the miss low and heely. 

Edited May 10 by EugeGall

[KC Golf]

Thank you everyone who has participated in the poll.  Let’s hope we get more input from the broader forum.  The survey should yield some interesting data points.

Some great comments on driver length as well. I think I will start measuring some of my old drivers to see how much shorter they are.  I am curious more than anything else.

The poll should give us some good data prior to our next Community Call next week.  

Have a great weekend.  We hope you hit them straight and far!

Edited May 11 by KC Golf

[Haro]

Been using a 48 inch for past 10 years. 
Gain 20 yards of distance and just as good control 

[wely324]

I just recently was experimenting with a G430 at 45.5”, while my current driver has been 45” for the past few years or so. Choking up on the ping improved strike consistency a good bit, without much loss in distance. I have tried less than 45” but I did not like the results, seems like 45” is my sweet spot.

[russtopherb]

45" here, that's what I was fit into last year. I'll choke up a bit if I need a little more control. 

[Rico_de_Gallo]

My old driver was standard and didn't realize it's length (47) until after I got fitted for my current driver earlier this year. Went from Taylormade Superburner 2.0 to PXG BlackOps I'm now swinging a 45 in. driver and I could tell a huge difference in my strike location. Love the shorter shaft and would even contemplate a little shorter but still putting in some work with the current set up

 

[HikingMike]

On 5/10/2024 at 7:51 PM, KC Golf said:

Thank you everyone who has participated in the poll.  Let’s hope we get more input from the broader forum.  The survey should yield some interesting data points.

Some great comments on driver length as well. I think I will start measuring some of my old drivers to see how much shorter they are.  I am curious more than anything else.

The poll should give us some good data prior to our next Community Call next week.  

Have a great weekend.  We hope you hit them straight and far!

They should put this in the daily MGS email. I hope so anyway. We could use some more forum votes here.

[HikingMike]

On 5/10/2024 at 11:01 AM, KC Golf said:

PS.  For those curious on how you measure shaft length, here is a photo, I just borrowed this pic from @chisag,  I hope that was okay Sam.

Probably most of us don't have anything like that. But I think what it's doing is acting like the flat horizontal surface with the club shaft at the expected playing angle. Right? 

So what I did was just propped the driver at a flat angle, and then measured with a rigid tape measure (and added a tiny bit since the tape measure has the lip on the end and doesn't hit the floor perfectly). It came out to what the stock length was, and I took that as confirmation.

If you want to be really precise, I suppose you could measure the angle too. 

[RetiredBoomer]

The poll is closed,
but my new BRNR driver comes at a compact 43¾" long,
and mine is a quarter-inch shorter at 43½" .

[revkev]

Mine is 44.25” it’s what I was fit for.  However Taylor Made replaced my stealth 2 head with a Qi10.  I need a little time to see if this will make a difference. After one range session I was very happy - on the course I was concerned that my spin was up. Don’t know that it will make a difference in shaft length (I have two other shafts with Taylor Made adapters that are 45”) but I hate changes when I had something that was working out.

 

 

[KC Golf]

13 hours ago, RetiredBoomer said:

The poll is closed,
but my new BRNR driver comes at a compact 43¾" long,
and mine is a quarter-inch shorter at 43½" .

Re-opened the poll for you!  Thanks for the responses.

[KC Golf]

34 minutes ago, revkev said:

Mine is 44.25” it’s what I was fit for.  However Taylor Made replaced my stealth 2 head with a Qi10.  I need a little time to see if this will make a difference. After one range session I was very happy - on the course I was concerned that my spin was up. Don’t know that it will make a difference in shaft length (I have two other shafts with Taylor Made adapters that are 45”) but I hate changes when I had something that was working out.

 

 

May be Jamie @GolfSpy_APH can help me with the poll to see if people can vote multiple answers if they have 2 drivers in the bag.  

However, I will keep the poll open now since we have more input from the Spy community to get better / robust results.  

[GolfSpy_APH]

2 hours ago, KC Golf said:

May be Jamie @GolfSpy_APH can help me with the poll to see if people can vote multiple answers if they have 2 drivers in the bag.  

However, I will keep the poll open now since we have more input from the Spy community to get better / robust results.  

You'd have to edit the poll and just add a question for those that have a second driver. 

[KC Golf]

14 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

You'd have to edit the poll and just add a question for those that have a second driver. 

Thank you.  I have added a second question.  

[Josh Parker]

I play at 44.5 or 44.75

[Shrek74]

My BRNR Mini Driver is at 43.5".

My Stealth+ 2W is at 43.25".

When I did have a regular driver, it was at 45".

[Donn lost in San Diego]

On 5/10/2024 at 10:36 PM, Haro said:

Been using a 48 inch for past 10 years. 
Gain 20 yards of distance and just as good control 

You must have excellent back/neck/shoulder muscles and eyesight and coordination.  Makes me think of Ted Williams, who said he could see the threads spinning on the baseball on a 90 mph pitch.  I have unequal back and shoulders, due to pretty severe spine curves, scoliosis (side hunchback)  and kyphosis (the neck protrudes forward well in front of the torso, walk like an Egyptian).  I do have long arms, so I shorten woods about 1 to even 1.5 inches shorter, it enormously helps me bang the middle of the ball with the middle of the face.  Age 69, midway tween reg and senior flex.

[JY56]

I've been trying out new woods recently.  I found it interesting that Ping offers there CB Alta driver shaft at 45.75 but all their other shafts are 45.25.  I didn't have any issue making good contact with TM either, which is 45.75.  I was thinking I would order one of the optional Ping shafts but get it at 45.75 but sounds like that might not be the best idea, so 45.25 it is.

[brogies]

45.5.” Went an inch longer when I got fitted for my new Ping G430 Max 10K.