Just want to shorten driver for accuracy - Tips?

[lekimann]

I know it's been talked about before but couldn't get a specific answer and seems so complicated. I have a ventus black 6x that I got from gg with my sim2. I didn't do anything special when ordering so it is whatever it comes standard. I want to shorten it half an inch and not sure if i should do it at the butt end or the tip. I don't want to have to do anything else in regards to adding weight to the club. 

I can also just chock down on the grip too but I feel like it's not the same thing. 

 

My chs is around 115 when I try to hit hard and around 109 when I swing smoothly. 

[Jlocke22]

Standard Taylormade is .75 inches (45.75) over Standard (45"). I believe when you cut on a graphite shaft you can kind of throw the rules out on swing weight changes but it will obviously go lower. I recently did same thing to mine and play a HZRDUS Smoke Yellow 6.5 70g. After cutting down I played around with some lead tape and settled on around 4 grams and then ordered some heavier replacement weights that totaled 4 grams more than what I had. 

 

A decent way to play around with things is mark off with a marker .25/.5/.75 down the grip and hit a few swings from there. Settle on one and have someone or yourself cut off that much. You can also add some lead tape to see what is comfortable and get it pretty damn dialed in then order some weights if needed. 

 

If you don't replace anything in terms of weight you may not be a fan at that speed in terms of control or maybe you will love it who knows! Always fun to experiment a bit. 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Jlocke22

[lekimann]

Thanks for the reply. Honestly, I never really looked at where my hands were on the grip when I play. Maybe by gripping lower and at the same spot consistently I will hit the sweet spot more. 

 

I'm putting it on a stealth plus 8 degree so maybe I can move around the movable weight to compensate if I start to hit towards one side. 

[Strategery]

What's the current length? Don't tip the Ventus Black, just trim from butt.

[lekimann]

i honestly don't know. I just ordered it from gg with the ventus black. Here is a picture. 

[Ozzy Awarii]

Cutting it from either end will make the swing weight lighter. Depending on your swing weight preference this could be a good or bad thing (I like D4 personally). On TM's website it states the sim2 has a D5 swingweight with the stock shaft that has a similar weight to the ventus black 6x. Shortening it 0.5 inches will make the setup play at D2.  In the simplest terms possible, if you cut from the butt end it will slightly soften the profile of the shaft. While if you trim from the tip, it will stiffen the tip section of the shaft. Tipping is usually done to fine tune your numbers and can have different effects depending on alot of different factors. Hope this helped.

 

- Ozzy

[lekimann]

3 hours ago, Ozzy Awarii said:

Cutting it from either end will make the swing weight lighter. Depending on your swing weight preference this could be a good or bad thing (I like D4 personally). On TM's website it states the sim2 has a D5 swingweight with the stock shaft that has a similar weight to the ventus black 6x. Shortening it 0.5 inches will make the setup play at D2.  In the simplest terms possible, if you cut from the butt end it will slightly soften the profile of the shaft. While if you trim from the tip, it will stiffen the tip section of the shaft. Tipping is usually done to fine tune your numbers and can have different effects depending on alot of different factors. Hope this helped.

 

- Ozzy

 

So you are saying that if I cut from the butt end it will make the X into a Stiff? or are you saying that it will make it not stiffen it up as much as if I did it from the tip. 

I definitely don't want to soften the shaft but from what i've read that is not the case and it just doesn't stiffen it up as much as from the tip. 

 

Also, couldn't I compensate by getting a heavier grip? Or is that not the way to go? 

[lekimann]

honestly I will probably just play it as is for a bit and then cut it half an inch later on. that way at least i'll have a baseline of how it was before and if I prefer it that way then I can go the route of adding some weight to the club. Thanks everybody for the info!

[Stuart_G]

Everything you need to know is here:

 

 

[lekimann]

Thanks. I actually read that but my posts need to be moderated so I’m responding but it’s showing up hours later. 

[Ozzy Awarii]

11 hours ago, lekimann said:

 

So you are saying that if I cut from the butt end it will make the X into a Stiff? or are you saying that it will make it not stiffen it up as much as if I did it from the tip. 

I definitely don't want to soften the shaft but from what i've read that is not the case and it just doesn't stiffen it up as much as from the tip. 

 

Also, couldn't I compensate by getting a heavier grip? Or is that not the way to go? 

So basically what I meant by soften the profile was that if you were to get the setup back to where it originally was, the shaft would now play softer. So when you take off half an inch its 3 swing weight points, if you were to add 6 grams to the head, that would put the swingweight back to the stock D5 and the profile of the shaft would now play slightly softer than before it was cut. If you were to not add the weight back to the head, than the half inch cut from the butt will ever so slightly stiffen the butt end of the shaft, but not enough to be noticed. 

[lekimann]

Got it!

 

Cut from butt end and don't add weight then it will play slightly stiffer and have a D2 swingweight.

 If I do add weight to clubhead and make D5 then it will play slightly softer.

 

Cut from tip and don't add weight then it will play stiffer and have D2 swingweight.

If I do add weight to clubhead and make D5 then it will just be stiffer.

 

[bigdog8211]

I've been messing around over the winter with a short driver and have been loving it, almost to the fact I may get rid of the 3 wood and go with a "normal" length driver and a shorter one because it's way more accurate, but loses about 15 yards vs. normal driver length.

 

With your SS, I'd think you could cut it down and still carry a driver far enough, but gain accuracy.  I agree, choking down isn't 100% accurate since depending on the grip you're using, it may taper down.  

I'd say cut it and you'll be fine. 

[lekimann]

I've been trying to put my hands on the grip at the same place and I realized that I've been gripping it almost towards the end of the driver. Where on the grip do you guys usually put your hands.