Fairway wood shaft in driver?

wjmfour1 · January 9, 2020

Looking for a Graf alloy prolite driver shaft and found some deals on the bay for fairway wood shafts ... I normally play my driver @ 44.5" and was wondering if there were any negative impacts to doing this. I realize the fairway may be a little heavier which could be a good thing due to shorter playing length... any comments?

Adam C · January 10, 2020

Don't see any issues. Those shafts I think were 44 inches uncut, so you should be good there. Even if it fails miserably, can't imagine you spent more than $15 on the shaft so.

EddyVN · January 10, 2020

shorter shaft will just throw the swing weight out quite a bit. Always the biggest issue with cutting down a driver. You would need a bucket load of lead tape if you go too short, or hot melt

I had a D4 driver that went to C1 when I experimented with a very short driver a la Jimmy Walker

HitaHouse · January 10, 2020

Should work fine but just offering a few details here. The Prolite driver shafts came in around 60-62g with the Prolite fairway shafts at about 70g. I believe it is true that the fairway shafts may be higher launch and less stiff compared to the driver shaft. If you are really looking for the playing characteristics of the driver shaft, the fairway may be a bit different. I was/am a fan of the Prolite shafts and you are correct that they can be found for nice prices.

Another place to find Prolite driver shafts is in old Big Bertha drivers. The Prolite was a go-to shaft upgrade for those. With the bore through heads, the shaft will be fairly long and have a small tip prep area.

Stuart_G · January 10, 2020

Sorry it's not clear, are you asking about pulls of the driver shaft model that has been previously installed in a fairway - or are you talking about new uncut versions for the prolite fairway shaft model?

wjmfour1 · January 10, 2020

These are new uncut fairway shafts

Stuart_G · January 10, 2020

Then they will be long enough to play whatever length you want. The main difference is that they are designed a little bit stiffer for the heavier fairway wood heads. Whether you'll notice the difference or not is difficult to say w/o you actually giving it a try. Of course going shorter in playing length will allow you to get the head weight higher and closer to a fairway head weight.