Driver Length - what are you playing and why ? does anyone really know the tour average for length ...

[sevenfourate]

Been playing 44.5” for 20+ years. But: with the onset of age: and the shortening of my driving distance - I thought I’d stretch that back to 45”.

 

All I’m now doing (At times) is finding parts of the clubface I’m not used to - while losing distance.

 

Where’s my hacksaw…..🤣

[Rbsiedsc]

Tried 44.5” most of the year on my EF SZ pro orange combo. Really struggled with heel strikes. When I connected were bombs. Three rounds out now with epic max ls and HZRDUS rdx blue at 45.5 or .75, haven’t measured but stock, I am hitting center and toe more often and my distance consistency is better. 

[pgatw]

I'm short, 5' 7". I play 43.5 driver. Anything longer messes up my swing with the rest of my clubs. When I experimented with longer drivers I found that I can make the driver work, but everything else went off the rails. Also found very little difference in distance with the 43.5 driver vs 46 driver.

[Alan Pllu]

I have been experimenting this year with my driver. Length isn't something I have ever tinkered with so I bought a weight kit for my ts3 and a couple of spare shafts and started off at 48 inches with the lightest weight in the head and worked from there trying different weights and playing lengths. 

 

I found that at 48 inches and lighter headweight I lost distance even on good strikes, just felt the head was too light and it seemed to mess up my sequencing. 

 

48 inches with slightly heavier headweight was absolute bomb balls when I caught it, ball just seemed to fly forever and I ended up hitting distances up fairways I have never seen before. Trade off was too many low heel strikes that spun up massively and ended up going nowhere so on average I was shorter than normal. The long ones were fun but the heels were too big a drop off to play it. Surprisingly I never had much trade off in accuracy because the miss had so much spin and went so much shorter it never had a chance to get wayward! 

 

I have now ended up in a small batch hzrdus yellow 6.5 tx can't remember the weight exactly its either 60 or 65g playing at 45 inches (-0.5 from where I was standard) with +6g in the head and after some fine tuning with the weight cartridge and hosel settings I have driven really well for my last 3 rounds. Hitting it much more on my start line and strikes are in a tighter grouping on the clubface.

 

No loss of distance if Anything I'm averaging longer because of strike and launch conditions being better and more consistent and I'm hitting the short stuff more often so getting some roll out. 

[Jim53]

6 hours ago, AC-Golf said:

Check out Aldila Ascent 50X.  I have not hit it, but it's 61g, and it's the lightest X I know.  I like the NV 2K series. X Stiff in the high 60s and very stable. 

Looking around Ebay there appears to be some Aldila NV 44 magnum in X flex, I think it is an older shaft but would be fine for experimenting. 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Jim53

[NRJyzr]

On 9/9/2021 at 3:38 PM, NRJyzr said:

For the last several years, I've been playing my driver at 43.5", with an occasional round at 43.25".  Recently, I assembled a HZRDUS Black 62 shaft for my King LTD, cut it to play at 45" as an experiment.

 

So far it's worked well, but I've noticed I'm not actually hitting the ball farther than I had been.  That aligns with my driver fitting from a few years ago,where my max swingspeed was at 43.25" or so.

 

I'll keep going with my experiment this weekend...

 

 

My experiment has ended the way it always has with a 45" driver.  I found no real distance benefit with an increase in lateral dispersion.  A considerable increase.  I was able to keep it together for a while, better part of one round, but had four penalty strokes in the next round, and it wasn't much better yesterday in my club event.

 

Back to 43.25" to 44" for me, I guess.  <shrug>

 

[OspreyCI]

Played 44.5 and 44.75” and very comfortable at 45”.

[Spoon]

44” for me in the last several months and the weakest part of my game(driver) is now my strength. 
 

just decided to experiment w an expensive Diamana x series 3 wood and stick it in a driver. Was 44” and wow i became mode consistent and was hitting Center more often. Driving became the easy part of my game. 
 

now all my drivers are 44” i tested a 45 for kicks snd wasnt as consistent. I build myself another one in 44.5 to see if i Can gain some distance on the 44 while maintaing forgivness. 
 

so far 44” is my magic number. 

[Tax77]

G410+ at 44, set to flat lie. About the best thing ever for me.

[sm_watts]

I don't know that height has anything to do with it; I'm 5'5" on a good day and I've settled in on 45.25" as the longest I can play my driver and still hit a good spot on the face consistently.

[Frenchman]

Switched from 45" to 44.75" this year. Why? Because my fitter told me to, and he was right. I'm 10 yards longer and hitting more fairways. 

[MJBGolf]

44,5” incl. the Butt cap of the grip. Have experimented over the years, but I always fall back to 44,5”. Told my friend and club builder about a month ago, that from now on, No more experimenting with length. If I ever suggest changing my Driver Length again cause of a new shaft, Stop Me!  The list of “Stop Me” is growing…..😊

[mgoblue83]

On 9/9/2021 at 12:00 PM, smithy23 said:

Hi All 

 

Something i guess over the years has always wondered.... 

 

I got fitted 5 years ago for driver shaft - Oban Iwasa Red 04 Flex tipped an inch to 44" End of Grip to adaptor. 

 

Purchased a new driver last year G410 SFT with the std tour silver 60g shaft at 45" EOG to adaptor. 

 

It may now be physclogical but i seem to struggle with a 45" shaft and newer drivers just seem to be getting longer and longer. 

I have the Oban now in the Ping and am happy and fairly consistent even if i do feel im leaving some yards out there and interestingly having just seen the latest TxG video on testing shaft length it got me wondering what is everyone playing in terms of driver length ....

 

Are you buying off the rack and rolling with it , if your getting fitted is it something fitters are saying we need to go shorter / longer etc just keen to know 

 

There has always to me seemed to be this myth that tour average is like 44 / 44.5" anyone know if thats true ?? 

 

For ref im 5'10" so think i pretty much fit into the bang average height category here

 

cheers all and stay safe 

 

You should be asking for playing length not end of grip to adaptor.

 

I'm 6'2'' and choke up a little on my 45'' G410 LST. I'm a 2 handicap with lots of speed but anything longer than 45'' turns me into a 25 handicap. 

[smithy23]

1 hour ago, mgoblue83 said:

 

You should be asking for playing length not end of grip to adaptor.

 

I'm 6'2'' and choke up a little on my 45'' G410 LST. I'm a 2 handicap with lots of speed but anything longer than 45'' turns me into a 25 handicap. 

Yes i know your absolutely spot on regarding playing length and i think this is what everyone posting really has alluded to. 

 

I know my 44" shaft plays on the G410 at 44.75 and that seems my ideal but not sure as ive said if its a bit psychological now or actually that its a better fit being a bit shorter side. 

 

Just cant help but feel im leaving distance out there this way so was keen to see what others are doing 

 

 

 

 

[mgoblue83]

1 hour ago, smithy23 said:

Yes i know your absolutely spot on regarding playing length and i think this is what everyone posting really has alluded to. 

 

I know my 44" shaft plays on the G410 at 44.75 and that seems my ideal but not sure as ive said if its a bit psychological now or actually that its a better fit being a bit shorter side. 

 

Just cant help but feel im leaving distance out there this way so was keen to see what others are doing 

 

 

 

 

 

A quality strike will always produce more distance than a poor strike that is slightly faster.

 

Play the longest shaft you can consistently center strike. The fact that the tour average is under 45in should tell everyone that we would be better off and hit it consistently longer playing something in the 44-45in range.

[LegendJeff]

I play a 44.25" and 44.5" driver and those lengths are best for me. 34" WTF and 5'8'' tall 

[rgk5]

Reduced my Cobra F9 from 45.5" to 45".  A solid move for better control and no loss in distance.

[Red4282]

I did a pretty extensive test this year with driver length with some interesting results. Going any shorter than 45” didnt see me any benefit. I was just as consistent at 45 1/4” than i was at 44”. I tried lengths all the way to 46.5”. This definitely got me more ball speed and distance. Went from averaging 304 to 315. I also missed alot more fairways. Went from high60% down to about 50%- about 2 less fairways a round. Interestingly it wasnt from bad strikes like i thought it would be, just face control is a little harder the longer you go. Ive decided to stick with the 45.25 length as im plenty long enough for any course i play, and 2 fairways is nothing to brush off, those missed two could be as much as 4 strokes a round.

I think it would be opposite if you hit low % of fairways and were much shorter, id say look hard into a longer shaft, the extra distance may help.

[Royal690]

I just removed the shaft from my SIM Max and it measures 44.75" from the tip to the end if the grip.  On the TM website they list the length of the club at 45.75", I assume that's measured with the head on?    

 

For those of you that are playing shorter shafts, are you adding weight to the head to account for the change in swing weight or are you having the head built around that shorter length?  If you are adding weight how many grams are you adding for each 1" removed? 

 

[Golf Pig]

Does anyone have current data for the average driver length on the LPGA Tour?

[Barfolomew]

I'm mid experiment

 

I have one around 42".... G410 so easy to load with weight.  Accurate, not long but close to long enough, has way more Horsepower then a 3wd.

 

I think the shafts all of us are using are too soft, that's what she said!  I think that's the reason 45" drivers suck for accuracy,  It's like players throw a mental party if they hit the fairway let alone the right part of the fairway...... even TV commentators get all mouth foamy when Pros hit a fairway and that don't make sense.  Sure you can get into a groove on the range but that don't count.  I just received a new 46" Aldila RIP Alpha 80x 2.0 torque,  she's gorgeous and ready to get cut.  I actually would love to try her out at all lengths at 1/4" increments from 48" all the way down to 42"...... just so I could finally see full picture of what's going on.... pisses me off that Rory and the boys can easily do this experiment by just sayin the word to one of their Taylormade lackeys and find the exact length that's best..... I'm figuring of doing my own cutting and gluing that I've never done before to save all that $... just bought a hacksaw and a Rod Blade and glue lol.  Now I need to start a thread on how to remove an adapter without the fancy tools lol....

 

I think there is a sweet spot.... I've even written down the pros and cons of short vs long lol.... ease of swing is also a consideration, if you have the shaft too short you have to swing harder which causes errors so you want to find that accurate, middle of the face and excellent control of curve/height but still have an efficient amount of power needed to get a usable distance.

 

guessing length might be between 43.25" - 44.25"

 

Short Pros:

Center of face

Control to correct part of fairway

Workable.... cut, draw and straight

 

Short Cons:

Less Distance

Swinger harder

 

and the Long Pros and Cons are obviously the reverse.... but what if you used a Long Drive XX shaft in a 45" does it play like a short controllable driver but still get usable yardage? 

 

If only I was a sponsored tour pro I could do this whole experiment in a single afternoon between cups of tea on the veranda

 

 

[Jim53]

I just ordered a Adila 44 magnum in X flex to build at 48" to start then butt trim to find the sweet spot. I play @46" now so not too big a leap and maybe I will gain a few feet.

[CMZ24]

For those of you giving your driver lengths, are your lengths before or after the grip? 

[NRJyzr]

4 minutes ago, CMZ24 said:

For those of you giving your driver lengths, are your lengths before or after the grip? 

 

I measure to the ungripped end of the shaft, club assembled.