Who Among You Tried Shorter a Driver This year?

[NRJyzr]

Got a bit lucky, managed to find an 11.5* Original One at 2nd Swing, it's on its way.  Weather is to give us a bit of a break, and because I live minutes from the 2nd Swing hub, I should be able to take this on the course over the weekend, or next week.

 

Crossing my fingers.  🙂

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by NRJyzr

[enduro]

I tried a Ping G400 max at 44.25 with a UST Chrome and an Aldila RIP shaft. I experimented with a variety of swingweights using either lead tape or a heavier Ping weight. Neither option was better than the OEM Tour 65 shaft at 45,25". 

 

I also tried the Chrome in a King  LTD  and an F9 both  at  44.25 with similar results. The F9/ Chrome  worked better when I added  a 1 inch extension.  I'm consistently straighter and  longer at 45 vs 44.

 

 I drank the Golfwrx shorter driver koolaaid and decided it wasn't for me. YMMV, but around 45" is the driver length sweetspot for me. I dont believe playing a shorter driver is a magical cure all for everyone, its a preference not an indisputable law.

 

Full disclosure : I disliked the RIP shaft  no matter what length it was cut at.  

[Roejye]

I started off this year with a new to me driver that was cut down to about 3 wood length and had a light shaft in it. I was hitting it pretty well, but towards the end of the season felt like I may have been missing something. That and my inner club ho was acting up, so rather than get a new driver I got a different shaft. I got a grafalloy prolaunch blue supercharged off of ebay and had it cut down to 46". I figure it's easier to have it cut down than extended. I felt like the carry distance was better and the dispersion hasn't seemed to suffer, I would put that down to having the longer length for carry distance and dispersion was a combo of heavier shaft and not fighting a fade.

I'm hoping to fine tune it this offseason to try and maximize carry distance and work on getting the consistent fade. 

[jomatty]

I’m at 44.5.  I put a 42.5 5 wood shaft in for awhile and hit it better than ever.  But I think too much so I went back to 44.5.

[lefty1978]

After years of playing 44", I've moved the other way. This year I'm playing 45" and results have been good.

[blakehall]

44.5" with a bunch of hotmelt added to get up to D4.

 

Love it. It feels like a very easy to control little sledgehammer.

 

I've been toying with stretching it back out to 45" but I doubt I'd go longer again (without some really good evidence that it would be a positive change)

[GBBM]

I cut mine down to 44.5” and immediately started hitting it better, and farther. Going to experiment with a 9.5 388cc driver (S Yard t.388) with a 43.75” finished length that is en route from Yahoo Japan. Hopefully we get a weather window I can get out before the deep freeze sets in. 

[shot-savior]

I'll play driver at 44.50" to 44.75" (always).  Then, I employ a shaft in the mid to upper 70 gram range and a heavier weight (if needed). 

[MattM97]

No lie I thought about it several times this year, some awful driver days followed by amazing stripe shows followed by leaving my driver in my truck and just playing 3W then back stripe show and continue the circle. 

 

I think for me it's more lessons that will fix things but I'm not opposed to trying a shorter driver shaft, will consider one when getting fit for a new shaft in winter. 

[Britboy]

Cut down my Ping G410 LST to 44" and added an additional 15g head weight I also took an inch off my 3 wood and 1/2 inch off my hybrids. I've found the following :-

 

• Best ball speed has dropped from 155mph to 150mph
• Average ball speed has maintained due to more centre strikes
• Accuracy and dispersion significantly improvedOne thing to note

  In summary I'm a massive convert and don't plan to play a longer shaft again.

[platgof]

I took an inch off the Max 400 and doing much better. I was really struggling with the driver, and now it is so much better. I also cut the 5 and 7 wood a 1/2 inch. The shorter shaft helps to maintain a proper swing path, and not as flat as longer shafts.

[chipa]

On 10/28/2020 at 2:03 PM, NRJyzr said:

Got a bit lucky, managed to find an 11.5* Original One at 2nd Swing, it's on its way.  Weather is to give us a bit of a break, and because I live minutes from the 2nd Swing hub, I should be able to take this on the course over the weekend, or next week.

 

Crossing my fingers.  🙂

 

 

Good luck. I have read how much people love the mini but couldn't find one on ebay in my budget so I found a 12 deg. 320 older head for $30 from Bang and decided to make my own Mini. Unfortunately the face was more closed than left field so I sold it to a buddy and put a hi flying hybrid shaft in my old Macgregor 9.5 and now I think I must be hitting it the equivalent of an 11 deg. all things being equal. It is one of the most forgiving clubs I have in fact. It is in effect a 2 wood which used to be quite popular. I don't think I could ever go back to hitting bullets even if it meant 20 more yards.

[NRJyzr]

28 minutes ago, chipa said:

 

Good luck. I have read how much people love the mini but couldn't find one on ebay in my budget so I found a 12 deg. 320 older head for $30 from Bang and decided to make my own Mini. Unfortunately the face was more closed than left field so I sold it to a buddy and put a hi flying hybrid shaft in my old Macgregor 9.5 and now I think I must be hitting it the equivalent of an 11 deg. all things being equal. It is one of the most forgiving clubs I have in fact. It is in effect a 2 wood which used to be quite popular. I don't think I could ever go back to hitting bullets even if it meant 20 more yards.

 

Their scarcity seems to be a side effect of the pandemic.  Six months ago, 2nd Swing had over three dozen sets of i200s.  Now it's a handful.

 

If I hadn't found the Original One that I bought, I was thinking about a T-Zoid Forged, the blue clubhead.  About the same size.

 

Or an M1 430.  <shrug>

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by NRJyzr

[Thinnedit]

Mavrik playing at 45" seems to be the best mix of distance and dispersion.

Have a shaft in the same weight, one flex up (6.5) built to play 48" to train swinging harder, have gained distance with horrible dispersion at what I feel is a slower swing.

Put the shorter shaft back in and instantly feel like its easier to swing find the center of the face.

[RainShadow]

I tried 44.75 down from 45.25. 

No notable difference for men.

What I get the best results from is a heavier, softer flex shaft. 

Playing HZRDUS Yellow 75 5.5 in my G400 @ 45.25"

Sometimes I use an Atmos Blue TS @ 66g in stiff, but the heavier HZRDUS is really best for me, so I don't know why I experiment at all.

[Drivingrangehero]

I had mine tipped to play at 44.25 on my G410 lst, then I swapped the 12 gram headweight for a 18 gram and I’ve never been better off the tee. 
 

A demoed a couple of drivers in stock X- flex shafts off the shelf at stock length  (SIM + Maverik), then hit it against my Ping G410 Lst with a 44.25 inch Aldila Xtorsion Copper 60TX shaft. I found my ball speed to be almost identical between the 3 with the SIM on top by 1mph at 168 , which also had the worst dispersion by far ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . 
 

I’m a fan of the shorter driver with added headweight personally. It seems to fit my swing and allows me to hit optimum numbers with the tightest dispersion YMMV 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Drivingrangehero
Typo

[NRJyzr]

1 hour ago, RainShadow said:

I tried 44.75 down from 45.25. 

No notable difference for men.

What I get the best results from is a heavier, softer flex shaft. 

Playing HZRDUS Yellow 75 5.5 in my G400 @ 45.25"

Sometimes I use an Atmos Blue TS @ 66g in stiff, but the heavier HZRDUS is really best for me, so I don't know why I experiment at all.

 

Don't have a comment other than I'm also a fan of heavier shafts.  Even have an NV105 wood shaft lying in wait, once I figure out what im going to do with my fairway wood configuration....

 

[Flyers99]

On 10/28/2020 at 5:40 PM, enduro said:

I tried a Ping G400 max at 44.25 with a UST Chrome and an Aldila RIP shaft. I experimented with a variety of swingweights using either lead tape or a heavier Ping weight. Neither option was better than the OEM Tour 65 shaft at 45,25". 

 

I also tried the Chrome in a King  LTD  and an F9 both  at  44.25 with similar results. The F9/ Chrome  worked better when I added  a 1 inch extension.  I'm consistently straighter and  longer at 45 vs 44.

 

 I drank the Golfwrx shorter driver koolaaid and decided it wasn't for me. YMMV, but around 45" is the driver length sweetspot for me. I dont believe playing a shorter driver is a magical cure all for everyone, its a preference not an indisputable law.

 

Full disclosure : I disliked the RIP shaft  no matter what length it was cut at.  

Similar results for me. Tried 44-45 inches and the best results for me were at 45. No noticeable advantage with accuracy and no distance gains so I am staying at 45 inches for the foreseeable future. 

[jtmagic]

I tried a 43.5 driver, down from 45.5 for a very short time this summer.  Not sure if it was mental or didn’t give it enough time but never got comfortable with it.  Couldn’t get rid of the thin or low on the face miss. 

[NRJyzr]

56 minutes ago, Flyers99 said:

Similar results for me. Tried 44-45 inches and the best results for me were at 45. No noticeable advantage with accuracy and no distance gains so I am staying at 45 inches for the foreseeable future. 

 

That's really the whole point of all this.  Most of us trying shorter sticks are doing so because the current standard lengths don't fit us.  But....  45" drivers *do* work for some.
 

All about finding what works best.  Golf is not one size fits all.

 

I still think sub-70g graphite shafts and 45"+ driver lengths are an abomination in the eyes of the golf gods.....    😉 😈

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by NRJyzr

[toddmanley]

23 hours ago, NRJyzr said:

I still think sub-70g graphite shafts and 45"+ driver lengths are an abomination in the eyes of the golf gods.....    😉 😈

When I did my first proper driver fitting a year ago it was quickly apparent for me and my swing that anything in the 60g range was a non-starter for my swing. Tempo was horrible, strike pattern was inconsistent and it was just bad. My sweet spot is in the 70g range - knowing this helped a ton given I like to tinker a bit and try different shafts from time to time. 

[Carolina Golfer 2]

On 10/28/2020 at 10:37 AM, Orange Hog said:

About 5-6 years I ago I played in an event where I was sponsored by Bridgestone.  Something got messed up on the order sheet and they cut my driver down to 43.5".  Had no choice but to play it at that length for 4 days in the event.  To say I was floored with the performance was an understatement.  When I got back home I played several other rounds with my normal playing buddies and all of them commented on how confident I had become with the driver.  I really wasn't giving up much distance either, which was the biggest surprise.  Sadly I got rid of that Bridgestone J715 driver (still have major regrets about it) but I've dabbled with shafts from 43.5 to 44.75 inches long and, for me, the 43.5 to 44 inch range is money.

 

Recently I got my hands on a TM Original One 11.5* mini driver and decided to give it a shot.  It's an absolute BEAST off the tee!  The guys I typically play with hit it out there a long way and I'm hanging with them on every hole.  I don't think I'll ever go back above the 44" length on a driver again.

I had forgotten they were one of the sponsoring OEM’s in that event.  It’s a shame they moved away from the club end of the business.  I had the 815 for a season and it was really good. 

[Caesar's shank]

I've gone from 45.25 to 44.5 in G410+ albeit a different shaft rather than cutting it down. I *think* the biggest change was the SW moved from D5 to around D1 and I have much better timing and control of the club face, I guess all the factors played a part. 

41.5" in 5 wood and standard from there. 

[Orange Hog]

On 11/1/2020 at 2:30 PM, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

I had forgotten they were one of the sponsoring OEM’s in that event.  It’s a shame they moved away from the club end of the business.  I had the 815 for a season and it was really good. 

 

The J15 CB irons were puuuuure!  Still have my J15 3+ fairway wood.  I wish I had my old J715 driver in the bag.

[golfdaddio3]

I recently cut mine down half an inch and it plays either 44 or 44.25 now (not sure which) and had to add quite a bit of lead tape to the head. It doesn't hurt much if any in length and is much easier to swing. 

 

Don't see myself ever playing a maximum of 44.5" Also my irons and wedges are .5" long and I'm 6'1

Edited November 5, 2020 by golfdaddio3

[evoviiiyou]

Ive been at 44.75 my entire golf life and recently with SIMMax and max D noticed a slight toe pattern (nothing crazy but off center).  I decided to try a shaft I had as back up at 44.5" (not much change) and it has been really key in centering the strikes perfectly more times than not.  I am going to play this for the rest fo the winter and tea eat from there on the next driver build (maybe SIM 2.0, or the new Mizuno driver coming).

 

I say easy experiment is take an old shaft get it cut to length, and add the loft sleeve so you can try it in the game.  All the sing weighting and grips stuff can come later, but the experiment is to see if you like the shorter length and then get it maximized through SW and Loft sleeve, tipping, but trimming etc...you might be pleasantly surprised. I was.