Driver shaft length, swingweight and stiffness relation

Flip bad golfer · October 13, 2020

Hi Guys,

I am about to embark in my very first driver shaft install. I like drivers to be on the shorter end and I just got ahold of a TM R1 head.

Here is my plan: Prolaunch red Stiff shaft cut (butt cut only?) to make playing length 44.

Swingweight will be on the extreme low end, using an MCCplus4 Midsize grip and my shaft measuring in at 71 grams, I calculated needing roughly 14-16 grams to get me in the realm of D3. I have the weights for that.

The problem is now by adding 14 grams to the head of the driver will affect stiffness.

What would you guys do in this situation? Leave the stiffness alone? Tip trim to make up for it? Forget the swingweight and just swing the lighter swing?

Flip bad golfer · October 13, 2020

how I plan to achieve that weight right now is a mix of 6g shaft weight and 8g split between toe and heel weights

Edited October 13, 2020 by Flip bad golfer

Ephemerlol · October 13, 2020

When I was dialing in my driver at 44" I wound up tipping the shaft to compensate for the extra head weight to bring it back to D3. I would check the manufacturers recommended tipping instructions for fairway woods and match up the head weight.

J13 · October 13, 2020

I would take the length from the tip section. I build a ton of these setups in my shop and I would recommend finding the weight and setup that works then replacing the lead weights with hotmelt (real hotmelt not rat glue or cheap stuff). If you need help with that lmk I do a lot of works for guys on here. If you have someone local great just make sure they use real stuff as most don't. Good luck with the setup!

Stuart_G · October 13, 2020

3 hours ago, Flip bad golfer said:

Hi Guys,

I am about to embark in my very first driver shaft install. I like drivers to be on the shorter end and I just got ahold of a TM R1 head.

Here is my plan: Prolaunch red Stiff shaft cut (butt cut only?) to make playing length 44.

Swingweight will be on the extreme low end, using an MCCplus4 Midsize grip and my shaft measuring in at 71 grams, I calculated needing roughly 14-16 grams to get me in the realm of D3. I have the weights for that.

The problem is now by adding 14 grams to the head of the driver will affect stiffness.

What would you guys do in this situation? Leave the stiffness alone? Tip trim to make up for it? Forget the swingweight and just swing the lighter swing?

Do you have any experience hitting/testing the prolaunch red stiff? Knowing how it feels with a particular head weight is an important part of deciding about whether any tipping might be needed or not when you need to change the head weight.

Edited October 13, 2020 by Stuart_G

Flip bad golfer · October 13, 2020

4 minutes ago, Stuart_G said:

Do you have any experience hitting/testing the prolaunch red stiff? Knowing how it feels with a particular head weight is an important part of deciding about whether any tipping might be needed or not when you need to change the head weight.

I have experience hitting it on a friends 3W. it was tipped and butt trimmed to standard length and per the tip chart for the shaft (w2 I believe). As far as hitting it with a heavier head, I don't have any experience with that.

Will 14 grams on the head really affect the stiffness much? I don't necessarily worry too much about it being say halfway from stuff to regular. but that's about as "soft" as I really want to see it if that makes sense.

Stuart_G · October 13, 2020

39 minutes ago, Flip bad golfer said:

I have experience hitting it on a friends 3W. it was tipped and butt trimmed to standard length and per the tip chart for the shaft (w2 I believe). As far as hitting it with a heavier head, I don't have any experience with that.

Will 14 grams on the head really affect the stiffness much? I don't necessarily worry too much about it being say halfway from stuff to regular. but that's about as "soft" as I really want to see it if that makes sense.

I'm guessing you don't know the head weight of your friends 3w?

It certainly can effect it, the question is how much is too subjective to really quantify. It will generally be less than a 1/2 of a flex. Maybe around 1/3rd of one - but it's only a very rough generalization, it's not really the same as truely going down in flex.

It will put you right about the same head weight as a 3wd so a good guess would be to use the same tipping as your friends club since that's what you've actually tested (assuming your friend didn't add a bunch of weight to his 3wd head above the stock weight). But on the other hand, It's already a stiffer tipped shaft and they tend to change less than the softer tipped higher launching shafts. But it also depends a lot on your swing and your sensitivity to changes in stiffness. The more aggressive the transition, the more the feel can change.