I think this proves something....

[mygreenaliem]

Currently in UK visiting my boys. Took them to the range to see how there golf is progressing.

My son asked me to hit his driver - he is 8 years old. I hit it and then another, then another and each one went dead straight and past the 225 yard marker! Lovely flights too.

What's my point? I am convinced the shorter shaft made the difference - obviously this was extreme but I am gonna trial a 43 inch driver - shortest I have had is 44. Maybe even try 42?

[+TourSpecGolfer]

you will lose head speed no doubt but gain a bit of accuracy.

Also keep in mind many driver shafts will be ruined cutting them that short.

[DaleUK]

I'd also love to build a 43.5 Driver but I'd also hate ruin the Shaft!!

[Spoon]

If the shaft is heavy enough no worries. If thinking sub 43 then

Just use a fw shaft

[DaleUK]

Would you gain any real advantage over a 43.5" 3 wood??

[EPONfreak]

Didn't/doesn't Sergio use a very short shaft?

[idrive]

IMO,

Most of the better players use a shorter shaft, 44-45" I don't know of any using one shorter than 44"

(not saying there isn't)

They will gladly give up a bit of distance in favor of accuracy.

And this is what I would do IF I had the swing speed and hit the ball as far as they do.

But I don';t. So I swing the longest club I can and still keep it in the fairway.

[JakeBarnes]

I play a 44.5" driver. I found that I am willing to sacrifice a bit of distance for accuracy and it has paid dividends.

[swisstrader]

Ha! I'm going the other way...I keep going longer, but went up one degree in head. Perfect combination of forgiveness and distance for me.

[chiromikey]

Ha! I'm going the other way...I keep going longer, but went up one degree in head. Perfect combination of forgiveness and distance for me.

i'm right there with you! i found i can keep a 47" driver in the fairway every bit as often as anything shorter. a bad swing is a bad swing...

[supo]

well i have a lot of sub 44.75 inch drivers

i DONT loose that much distance really bec a 290 yard shot in the trees is a shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit shot .

and a 270 yard fairway , middle yes shot is a good shot.

i kwno what id prefer.

my 2 very short drivers ive built are the 43.75 inch / GD p9003x shafed yonex nextage 9*

and the 44 inch ryoma d-1 /GD p9003x and i dont find they looe much at all if any

the heads are 202 and 205 gram to compensate and the sw is still d2-d3

overall weight at 325+ gram

not a problem.

i play at NSW and ill only take the ryoma now its that relaible , and its long. the run i get with this is great. and the accuracy is second to none.

the yonex i take to longy when its horriblly windy. keeps the ball well down.

both these are very very good purpose built drivers and i dont think they are much shorter at all. and il lguarantee they are straighter

[mygreenaliem]

well i have a lot of sub 44.75 inch drivers

i DONT loose that much distance really bec a 290 yard shot in the trees is a shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit shot .

and a 270 yard fairway , middle yes shot is a good shot.

i kwno what id prefer.

my 2 very short drivers ive built are the 43.75 inch / GD p9003x shafed yonex nextage 9*

and the 44 inch ryoma d-1 /GD p9003x and i dont find they looe much at all if any

the heads are 202 and 205 gram to compensate and the sw is still d2-d3

overall weight at 325+ gram

not a problem.

i play at NSW and ill only take the ryoma now its that relaible , and its long. the run i get with this is great. and the accuracy is second to none.

the yonex i take to longy when its horriblly windy. keeps the ball well down.

both these are very very good purpose built drivers and i dont think they are much shorter at all. and il lguarantee they are straighter

Was hoping you would chime in!

All good stuff - and I like Swisstrader's point too.

I found it astonishing I hit my sons driver so well! I am gaming Yamaha tour with Diam X at 45 and its a great combo. I like the shaft a lot. I am going to try my second X shaft in my Epon Zero and see what happens. Will keep you posted.

[ant]

this has been discussed on another thread here recently so i'm not gonna play broken record here just got some questions for people who went for longer shafts. can you honestly say, without it being for the sake of argument or whatever, that going with longer shaft actually improved your game as far as your scoring goes ? do you find yourself in the fairway more often or in a better position on fairways ? how about distance, direction and trajectory consistency, did you find you are more consistent with longer shaft ? these are honest questions that require honest answers and these are the questions you should be asking yourself.

[+TourSpecGolfer]

It's funny how some can keep a longer shaft in the fairway better than a shorter one.

On the LM longer shafts consistently have more head speed. but if your not hitting it center that will do little for your score.

[chiromikey]

this has been discussed on another thread here recently so i'm not gonna play broken record here just got some questions for people who went for longer shafts. can you honestly say, without it being for the sake of argument or whatever, that going with longer shaft actually improved your game as far as your scoring goes ? do you find yourself in the fairway more often or in a better position on fairways ? how about distance, direction and trajectory consistency, did you find you are more consistent with longer shaft ? these are honest questions that require honest answers and these are the questions you should be asking yourself.

for me and my swing tempo, yes...a longer shaft works. i've gone back to 45" and i get too quick in my take away and transition. the longer shaft really keeps my tempo in check and gives me some extra distance without having to swing any harder. of course i still make the occasional bad swing but because i'm not swinging as hard as i tend to do with a shorter shaft i typically don't miss that far off and not more than 1 or two fairways per round...and even then it's usually still playable.

i wouldn't recommend a long shaft for everyone but it definitely works better for some swing types!

btw, i'm only 5'6" and have a very flat swing to give you a little perspective.

[EdGolf]

I tried a longer driver for two months and have HURT me bad.... Going back to playing 45" for me. Not sure if it's the lighter shaft at longer length that screw my tempo or the add length? I've a feeling it's a combo of both. Maybe a 46" with a heavier shaft would work for me but till then, I'm switching back to shorter.

[stevopagolf]

With my 10.5 Ryoma and Royal Deco a shade under 47, I am longer with no negatives on dispersion, I am more accurate than I ever have been. It is such a forgiving head and I am longer. I am more of a swinger than a hitter so I think longer works with my tempo. I also think those with 105 plus SS probably do better with shorter lengths as they don't necessarily need the extra distance a longer shaft can bring

[chiromikey]

my average driver swing speed is right at 105 and i am ALWAYS appreciative of any extra distance!

[mygreenaliem]

All really interesting points being raised here and obviously we are all different builds, swings, tempos etc. I think the reason the "kids" shaft worked for me was that it allowed my compact swing and aggressive transition work naturally - by that I mean I was just swinging naturally and it allowed me to go at it, rather than swing smoothly which I have to do with a longer club which is not my natural swing. These are my thoughts, could be completely wrong, but seems to make sense. We will see

Edited June 11, 2012 by mygreenaliem

[EPONfreak]

Interesting thoughts here. It seems tempo, SS, transition and I guess skill all go into the mix. I've been working on my tee shots lately as missed fairways have been bugging me. I'm significantly more accurate with 3 wood and like many have been wondering whether a shorter driver shaft experiment should be considered. I do have SS to sacrifice.

[ant]

Chris, i think there is more to it than that. most club heads today, jdm or otherwise, would be designed for specific shaft length. so if you take that and chop off an inch thats what about 6 swing weights less and the club would feel accordingly. say if you go from 45 to 43.5 and dont add both weight and swing weight back with that shorter length then the club gonna feel very different and a person swinging it would have a hard time figuring out where the club head is during the swing but if you shorten the club but keep both swing weight and dead weight in acceptable range for a given individual then that would be a whole different deal i think.

It's funny how some can keep a longer shaft in the fairway better than a shorter one.

On the LM longer shafts consistently have more head speed. but if your not hitting it center that will do little for your score.

[ant]

the average driving accuracy on pga tour is ~60%, the leaders in that stat are at ~70%. based on what you say and keeping in mind that again on average the driver would be used for about 12-14 shots per round and doing a little math i'd say either you are simply an exceptional driver of the golf ball as in a much better driver than pga tour leaders in driving accuracy and if thats the case more power to you but with such numbers you are hardly a good comparison to the average tour player not to mention average golfer, or you are not hitting your driver all that much during your average round, and why would that be, in which case what you say does not indicate driving accuracy to draw any conclusions from for the purpose of this discussion.

i typically don't miss that far off and not more than 1 or two fairways per round...and even then it's usually still playable.

[Vegaman]

Some people get less hurt by a longer shaft. Usually players with a bit slower swing and people that doesn't hit it that far. If you don't hit it that far, then even if you hit it off line it might end up in the fairway or maybe in the light rough. I hit it quite far, so a shot that is as much off line as some of my golf buddies end up in the trees, just because it travels farther. But when it comes to dispersion, NOBODY will hit a longer shaft straighter than a short one, it's just that is hurts some people much less, or not much at all. But if you get professionally fitted to one driver that is 43.5 and another at 46 or more, you WILL hit the shorter club straighter on a TrackMan for example.

Of course, if you have a club head that is designed to go with a 47" long shaft cutting it to 43.5" will mess up the club because of weight, lie and even loft. But if you get a driver built from the start with a 43.5" shaft in mind, that will be the straighter driver guaranteed.

[chiromikey]

the average driving accuracy on pga tour is ~60%, the leaders in that stat are at ~70%. based on what you say and keeping in mind that again on average the driver would be used for about 12-14 shots per round and doing a little math i'd say either you are simply an exceptional driver of the golf ball as in a much better driver than pga tour leaders in driving accuracy and if thats the case more power to you but with such numbers you are hardly a good comparison to the average tour player not to mention average golfer, or you are not hitting your driver all that much during your average round, and why would that be, in which case what you say does not indicate driving accuracy to draw any conclusions from for the purpose of this discussion.

i would never pretend to compare myself to any tour player but i am fortunate enough to be better than average when it comes to the driver. it may come out of the bag 12 times per round and since i've been focusing on my game for the past year i will typically miss 2 fairways. there have been days i've hit every fairway and there have been days i was lucky to hit 6! it also helps that my home course is quite forgiving. i played 36 holes yesterday, missed 3 fairways the first round and one the second. so maybe you're right and i embelished a little...2-3 missed fairways is probably more accurate.

regardless of all that, comparing me to a tour player is where you make your mistake. if i was playing courses set up with fairways tightened down to half their width i'd probably be excstatic to hit 50%! i've played the tpc scottsdale many times and been to the phoenix open just as often. even playing from the same tees, the course is two entirely different animals between it's set-up for the public and the tour. instead of shooting low-mid 70's i'd have to be on my game to stay in the 80's if i had to play a pga tour calibre set-up like that.

i'm only offering another side to the discussion, whether you or anyone draws any conclusions from my input is entirely up to you...

Edited June 11, 2012 by chiromikey

[ant]

good point on lie angles tho i'm frankly not following manufacturers logic on that. take ryoma d1 premia for example at 46.5 length and 60 lie angle. for a very tall person that might work great but average height person or somebody with very flat entry how upright is that ? are you supposed to toe it up at address and then the shaft droop would faltten it out prior to impact ?

Some people get less hurt by a longer shaft. Usually players with a bit slower swing and people that doesn't hit it that far. If you don't hit it that far, then even if you hit it off line it might end up in the fairway or maybe in the light rough. I hit it quite far, so a shot that is as much off line as some of my golf buddies end up in the trees, just because it travels farther. But when it comes to dispersion, NOBODY will hit a longer shaft straighter than a short one, it's just that is hurts some people much less, or not much at all. But if you get professionally fitted to one driver that is 43.5 and another at 46 or more, you WILL hit the shorter club straighter on a TrackMan for example.

Of course, if you have a club head that is designed to go with a 47" long shaft cutting it to 43.5" will mess up the club because of weight, lie and even loft. But if you get a driver built from the start with a 43.5" shaft in mind, that will be the straighter driver guaranteed.