Frank,
My question is this: what are the implications for shaft flex, swing weight, and lie angle of cutting off 2 inches from my driver instead of replacing the shaft? Thanks for all you’ve done and continue to do for our great game.
Denny, AZ
Denny,
Thank you for the kind comments.
I will answer your questions about what changes to expect when shortening your driver but first let me say that we have received many e-mails from golfers who have over years shortened their drivers — something I have been recommending — and are now hitting the ball farther on average. They find themselves in the fairway more often, are scoring better, and consequently having more fun.
Denny, if you shorten your driver about two inches the swing weight will decrease by about 10 to 12 points — most of us can detect a swing weight change of about five points. The shaft will feel a little stiffer if you have a very sensitive feel. The lie angle will become a little flatter because the club head is a little closer to you but not enough to affect your drives much. You may be able to adjust for this slight lie change if you have an adjustable driver.
The swing weight is probably the most significant change and you may want to add some weight in the weight ports found in many head designs today.
Before you do this –i.e. cut two inches off your driver — I suggest that you choke down about two inches and hit a number of balls on the range to get used to the control you never had with the flagpole length shaft installed in most recently introduced drivers today.
Hope this helps and I am sure that many manufacturers will soon offer shorter drivers in an effort to help golfers enjoy themselves more by generating lower scores from more accurate and longer — on average — drives.
It is amazing how our ego directs us to buy anything that will give us that one LONG drive irrespective of the consequences to all others. An interesting fact is that Jack Nicklaus’ driver was 43 5/8 ” long and he was a reasonably good golfer 🙂
Hope this helps
Frank
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