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Driver Help

six-t

Well-Known Member
Feb 24, 2005
12
1
I used to play a Wilson Deep Red 8.5 with a grafaloy Prolite shaft. I just demo'd a 9.5 club with a grafaloy Blue Stiff. I was hitting the Wilson 280 on a good drive few and far between averaging around 260-270. The higher loft with the Blue was insane I hit it much higher and was consistently hitting it 280. Does anyone have any ideas as I was set to buy a lower loft TI but now I'm thinking higher loft?? I would love some recomendations on new TI's and in the meantime I'm going to go demo some more.
 

Golfbum

THAT'S SOLID
Jan 14, 2005
296
0
High Lofted Drivers

Hello Six-t, welcome aboard Shot Talk.

Like you I tried a 10.5 degree driver late last season and was amazed at how much further I hit it compared to my 9.5

Now I did switch from a steel Rifle Shaft to a Fukikuri G60 graphite shaft, so that might have helped. However I noticed the ball carried further in the air, which was easy to tell due to wet fairways. I could see the ballmarks where the ball landed so I knew the carry distance.

I have hit a 12 degree driver and was amazed at how far I hit the ball with that thing. High and long. I have also hit my friend's Nike 460CC 13 degree driver and again I was amazed at the distance. That one I hit on the course so it was easy to tell how far the ball went as I had to pick it up while going down the fairway.

I was told by the pro at the golf store I deal with that higher lofted drivers are the way to go for slower swing speeds. Softer shafts sometimes help too.

The best thing to do if you have this option is get on a launch monitor and hit different drivers and see what the machine and the person doing the testing tell you. I do not have that option here, but if I did I would be on it trying different drivers.

Now this was not a lot of technical help, but after 23 years of golfing I know what happened when I went to the higher lofted driver. My next driver will not be under 10.5.

A friend of mine went through the fitting process last year, his clubs were stolen. He had been using a 9.5 degree TM420 with a stiff graphite shaft. His new driver is a Titleist 10.5 with a regular shaft and he is easily 20-25 yards longer now. He feels the regular shaft helps as does the extra loft. Either way it is working!

Good Luck, demo all the drivers you can get your hands on, different lofts and shaft flexes. Let us know how you make out.
 

Silver

I don't have a handicap.
Dec 5, 2004
1,863
1
The Prolite FatShafts in the Wilsons played very soft to their rating. Wilson even has this in their FAQs...this ticked me off because I had to buy a new driver when I grooved a good swing because the "stiff" in my Deep Red 425 was WAY too soft. My pro saw me hit and told me to put in my trunk and leave it there because there was no way that it was stiff enough for me.

I just switched from a stock stiff in my Cleveland to a Grafalloy Blue stiff and I have much more consistent carry. I don't go quite as far (the Blue stiff was probably the wrong shaft for my swing speed of 100'ish mph).

There has been significant research showing higher lofts gain more distance due to bettery carry, particularly, as GB said, in the slower swing speeds. I personally have a 10.5, but I was getting much too high a launch angle with the stock stiff, which is why I switched to something stiffer (the Blue) and I was thus getting greatly reduced distance from the insane launch angles (close to 20* most of the time). With the new shaft, I'm down closer to 15* and my distances have been much more consistent and much longer than the "pop ups" from the higher launch angles.

Do you have any idea what your swing speed is? It'll give us an idea of what kind of shaft/loft you might want to try. Also what is your tempo like?
 
OP
S

six-t

Well-Known Member
Feb 24, 2005
12
1
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #4
Loft and Swingspeed

My swingspeed is around 100MPH and has been clocked a little higher. The reason I had always played the 8.5 was because of my upright swing I always had a high ball. Since I've grooved my swing a little it might factor but the 9.5 was still fairly high with that shaft. I tried the new cleveland yesterday and had similar results with the higher loft. I'll go to Golf Galaxy and try the launch monitor and see what they say. Thanks and that was my first post. I'll post what I find out on Monday.
 

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