Shaft Weight and Swing Speed

ericmccllgh2 · April 23, 2019

Recently I've seen it talked about that Tiger had switched from a 70g D+ LTD to a 60g, and I thought I heard that it was to help him regain some speed that he felt he had lost. How much would dropping 10g in a driver shaft help with a player's speed? I know there are so many more important variables to getting optimum drives, and these guys have much better passes at the ball than I, but in your experience in fitting/real world, how much swing speed might a player pick up by switching into a 60g-ish over a 70? Not talking about ball speed as the change in weight might change smash factor, but really just wondering about MPH on the club head speed by going lighter?

tsecor · April 23, 2019

I just went 10g lighter on one shaft and its barely noticeable.....on a 2nd shaft I went 10g lighter (different mfg) and it feels like its a feather so swing weight and type of shaft come into play quite a bit.

Stuart_G · April 23, 2019

Lots of variables - but for me between 55 gm - 68 gm I wont see any appreciable change. Going further (heavier) might slow things down a bit - but then that likely has more to do with the amount of arthritis in my hands than any issue of strength.

drscott266 · April 24, 2019

Balance point on the shaft matters too, as in where do you feel the weight. I don’t even mean counterbalanced or not, different shafts have different balance points and that can affect how fast you swing it (or not). I have an evenflow white that feels too heavy, while the HZRDUS smoke feels pretty even.

Bend profile matters too... I always find the softer handle of the Diamana White profile to make me feel like I am swinging fast and smooth. The HZRDUS T800 felt whipping to me and forced me to slow down.

My point in all this is a heavier shaft that fits my tempo and swing will likely go faster than a lighter one that doesn’t fit me.

300_Straight · April 24, 2019

Some players may actually swing the lighter shaft slower because of a number of different variables. If you're a timing based player, you just may need the extra weight to time the shaft correctly. All things equal you might gain 1-2mph.