thinking of shortening my driver...

[J.J.]

i posted about this once before a month or so back when i had my 10.5 g5 with the regular flex PLblue shaft.. then i went to a demo day and the ping rep told me to go with the 9* with the nv 65 stiff.. and to leave it stock length and just choke down some.. hit that fine at the demo day.. but ever since i bought it i cant hit it.. i feel like i have NO control over the swing what so ever.. then i can grab my 3 wood and just bomb it like no other..

so my question is.. should i have the driver cut down to the length of my 3 wood? or should i just cut it and leave it a little longer than the 3 wood? i'm only 5'6" so i think 45 3/4" is a little long for me

[irfan]

do you still feel like you cant control it when you choke down? if you cant then cutting it might not help much. still 45.75" is pretty long.. mine is 44.5 and i think most tour guys are around that now arent they? mark a line at 44-44.5" and try gripping at that level and see if it helps

[J.J.]

i do feel as if i have a little better control when i choke down.. the only problem is is i hate choking down.. i guess that pet peeve came from baseball i just hate having alot of club sticking out of the top of my hands.. it feels weird to me

[indacup]

The Rep told you to "choke down"?

He should be fired immediatly....

[J.J.]

yeah he did.. but he wasnt meaning it to not wanna measure me.. he was saying it simply meaning i still have time to grow and i wanted to get a shaft and driver setup that would last.. but i think i'd rather have more control over the driver even if it cost me more money later on

[ezra76]

It could be worth it to just shorten it up. I play a 44.75" driver and I'm 6ft. I also play with an older guy who can't be more than 5'5", he plays a 47" 7.5* driver and humbles me quite often. He has a very solid fundamental swing though so he can get away with that club.

[gunning4u]

If you have the money I would get a NV75 or any other 75 gram shaft and cut it down. If you cut it down to lets say 44 ½ it will bring the swing weight down considerably you might be in the D1 maybe C9 range. I cut mine down and love it. I think its like 3 swing weight points for every inch cut you could throw some led tape on there. Since Ez brought up short people I know a “midget” that played college golf a my old school who played standard length clubs, I don’t know why I just wrote this but I did just get back from the bar.

[RickinMA]

cutting an inch off will decrease swingweight by 6 points - you need to add 2 grams to get back each swingweight point (that is, if you want to be back at the original swingweight - if you're not making solid contact there, a change could be in order)

I think generally, the driver should be about 1" longer than your next longest wood - how long is your 3 wood?

I don't like choking down either - definately like to feel the end of the club

you should probably see a clubfitter - perhaps even the shop you bought it from would help you

you probably need 1/2 - 1" cut off and should probably have some weight put back in the head via lead/tungsten powder and a cork shoved down the shaft

I'm also 5'6" with a 33" wrist to floor measurement and find that 44.25" works best for me

[LyleG]

Height has nothing to do with club length. Wirst to floor measurement is all that matters when determining length.

As Rick said you will lose 6 swing points if you lop it off an inch. To recover this, you need to add 12 grams of weight ot the head. The problem now is that the 12g of weight will soften the flex of the shaft by 12cpm's or 1 full flex.
If you want an inch shorter I would cut it from the tip end, then add weight to the head. This should keep the swingweight up and not soften the shaft.