Ah, the driver swing. One of the more difficult golf swings to perfect because of both the length and the lightness of the golf shaft. You may have heard people say that shorter drivers help with accuracy and wondered if it actually is true?
Can a shorter driver shaft help your golf game? A shorter driver shaft increases the likelihood of a golfer making better contact off the center of the driver’s face. The more often a golfer hits the center of the driver’s face, the more consistency they will see in their driving accuracy and distance.
How Short Should Your Driver Be?
The average length of a men’s driver is 45.5 inches and for women, 43 inches. Obviously, everyone is a different height so these standard lengths are not universal for everyone.
For a majority of golfers, a driver that is half an inch shorter will improve their ball striking off the center of the face.
By making your driver shorter, you are moving closer to the golf ball and actually stiffening your club shaft slightly, which can help beginning and intermediate golfers with their swing timing and improve the center of gravity to square up the clubface properly.
How Do You Shorten Your Driver Length?
The easiest way to change the length of your driver is to just slide your hands down the golf grip about a half an inch. This mimics the same swing you would have if you were to cut down the shaft.
For more advanced golfers, you can take off the golf grip and use a saw or shaft cutter to take off the butt of your club. After you remove the top, you just slide on a new grip and you’re done!
- Here is a quick video explaining how to shorten your driver shaft:
When Should You Use a Shorter Driver?
Not everyone needs a shorter driver shaft. Unfortuately, its not the cure-all solution for all miss hit golf drives. For better, more consitent golfers, you may not want to change your driver shaft length at all as it will alter your swing timing and create more inconsistcy.
Golfers should consider a shorter golf shaft if:
- You struggle with hitting the center of the club
- You struggle with topped shots or sky shots
- Your golf ball doesn’t start down your target line
- You don’t hit many fairways
What About Distance?
One of the overlooked aspects of changing your driver length is the change that it makes to the swing weight of the club and the overall DNA of the clubshaft.
For most golfers, a longer golf shaft is going to produce faster clubhead speed. Faster clubhead speed combined with square contact of the center of the face will maximize the ball speed off impact. The problem is that a lot of golfers struggle with getting the square contact and are never able to use a longer length club to their benefit.
So yes, if you do cut your golf shaft down, you might not have as fast of clubhead speed but you will have an easier time finding the center of the club face
As I mentioned above, the DNA of the club shaft will also change and make the overall “feeling” of the club different. Because you are taking weight out of the grip, the club is going to “feel” heavier in the head.
This can be both a good thing and a bad thing depending on your swing preferences and swing patterns. For me personally, I like to feel the clubhead a little better as it feels that I have better control.
Conclusion
Using a shorter driver shaft will help most beginning and intermediate golfers square up the clubface better at impact thus creating more consistency in distance and accuracy.
Thanks for reading and feel free to comment below and share if a lighter driver shaft has worked for you!
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