Counterbalanced driver

[jgaudy15]

Anybody on here have any experience/insight on counterbalanced drivers? Pro's or cons? What benefits do you see? Any info is appreciated.

[Valtiel]

I assume you mean a counterbalanced shaft IN a driver, and there has been tons of conversation on the topic if you search. The basic summary is that a shaft with a higher balance point will obviously shift more weight towards the hands, which can have the effect if making the head feel lighter. This can be used to lessen the increased sense of heft in a longer driver build, or allow you to add more weight to the head of your standard driver build. It is a pretty personal thing and you will hear people on both sides in terms of their opinion.

[Stuart_G]

If you are asking about adding a counterweight into the butt of the shaft or using one of the specialized grips that has weight added for that purpose, then there is no real answer to the question that applies equally to everyone and no generalizations that can help. The short answer is that it changes how the club feels. Some people find they like it and it helps their swing, while some people don't like and it makes the swing worse. It's 100% subjective and no one has been able to come up with any reliable way to predict how it will turn out for any particular individual. If your curious, give it a try and see how it goes. That's the only way to get an answer.

 

As far as "counterbalanced" shafts go (which is really not an accurate label - it's not even close to the same thing as actually counterbalancing the club), it's just one aspect of managing swing weight or MOI of the club. The only real benefit is that it allows for longer playing lengths without having to remove weight from the head (at least if you think the longer playing lengths really are a benefit - which is far from true for most am's).

[pioneerhockey37]

I’ve used a Tensei Orange pro for the last 3 years and its been awesome. I will say you need to add head weight in order to feel the face of the club, when I first switched I lost the feeling around the club face due to the kick point. As long as you take that into account, counterbalanced shafts can feel great.

[shoot4par]

This is solid. Nicklaus used to use a counterweight in the grip if I'm correct?

[Ri_Redneck]

"Counterbalancing" is a tricky process because it can affect golfers in very different ways. Some can benefit greatly while others are just the opposite. Traditional counterbalancing, as is mentioned above about Nicklaus, was simply adding a bit of weight to the b u t t of the shaft to make the head of the club feel lighter. This sometimes allows the golfer to feel like they can swing the club faster (and some actually DO). However, adding these weights ALWAYS increases the TOTAL WEIGHT of the club. These b u t t weights can also come in handy if you have clubs that have a SW that is too high and a total weight that is too low since the b u t t weight will increase total weight while decreasing SW.

With a CB shaft like the Tensei Orange, Copper Mamba, etc. The manufacturer is REDISTRIBUTING weight instead of adding it. That allows the fitter to give a light head feel while not changing the total weight at all. But again, this is all dependent on the balance of what the golfer needs and wants.

When I was experimenting year before last with an over-length driver using the Copper Mamba, I was able to get my desired SW at 47.5" with a 197g headweight on the F7. Since I ended up going back to 44.5" with it, I simply added headweight until the feel was right. Since energy is the result of mass x velocity squared, increasing mass can actually give added distance, though not as much as CHS. I think the head weight on the F7 now is like 217g, but it doesn't FEEL any heavier than my other drivers. Sadly, distance gains must be small because I don't see it blowing the others out of the water.

The only way to know if you will benefit from counterbalancing is to give it a try.

BT