I've played my drivers at 45.25" EOG for quite a while now, and I pulled a @maxbianchi last week at the range. With my bag of shafts, accidentally put my 3 wood shaft in my driver head. I set it down, and instantly loved the look of a shorter driver. Granted, that's a bit extreme because the driver was probably barely 44". I know the golf adage is that most pros go 44.5" etc, but I don't know if that's as true these days as it was before. I'm thinking of going 44.5" in one setup for tournament play, to value accuracy and reduce the chance for equipment to contribute to shaft rise through impact. Any experiences on going shorter experiences or anyone who plays <45, aside from adjust for swing weight, talk to me, I need enabling to try it.

Yes my M3 is 44.5” at D3. That 0.5” helps me make more solid contact and I don’t see any noticeable distance loss. Even if it is 5-10 yards I don’t miss those yards.

I’m at 44.75” but I’m also 5’6”

If you have access to a monitor I would love to see the data between the two club lengths for you. I don’t see myself going back up in length although my SIM is set up at 44.75”. I wanted to try that length and can always drop back down. As far as transition time when I dropped down, I recall it being pretty immediate in terms of the feeling of more consistent center contact.

Mine is 44.75 EOG Ping G400. That is what my fitter suggested

I have played my driver at 44.5-45" EOG for years. While I play everything at a more "traditional" length, I am especially sensitive to it in my woods for some reason. I'm 6'2" and have had no issues at all at that length driver. I also have not found any increase in distance when hitting a longer shaft. I always feel like I have less control and more difficulty hitting the center of the face. I end up choking down if I'm testing something at the current stock length.

Have played 44.5” Cobra F8 without any noticeable distance loss and saw some gains in control. But tough to keep up with when changing or testing shafts.

A good friend of mine who is a stick just got fitted for his driver. Shaft is going to be 44.5" and his numbers are awesome and better than what standard length was. With that being said, anytime someone hands me a shorter driver, I immediately notice and it feels weird to me/sets up odd to my eye. So I haven't tried it yet, but could probably use the control on some of my swings.

Eddie how did it go?? I know you're battling driver shafts frequently, it feels super weird at first, my three wood shaft was about 42.5 My driver now is 44, SW at D7, i feel like its the perfect length to feel like you have more control. I'm 6 ft for reference.

Thank you guys, I’m going to take one of my shafts and cut it down to 44.5” and give it a go. Now the question, which shaft? Lol. the other thing I noticed when trying the driver at 44” was that the head looks massive at address, a reassuring feeling haha. in order to compensate for swingweight loss, going to throw an extra weight in the sliding track for now, then source a heavier back weight later. Im thinking of taking the bf shaft which has played a little soft for me, and tip trimming the .75” needed to get it down to 44.5, and with it playing effectively shorter, wonder if it will stiffen it up a bit.

Anyone playing their driver <45"?

Eddie

bigjohntripod What, I lose ten yards? Who gives a shit. If it’s in the FW, I don’t care. Parred a 450yd hole going 4i-4i. Anything longer than 225 off the tee is a bonus to me right now.

This is exactly what I'm going for, fairway finder. I'm hitting everything except my driver with total control, and all I want is to find fairways for the upcoming events I play.

Jaybananapantsarthur But tough to keep up with when changing or testing shafts.

Funny you mention that, I think part of the reason I settled on 45.25 was so I wouldn't take a dive on selling shafts that were failed experiments.

ckay If you have access to a monitor I would love to see the data between the two club lengths for you.

Great idea for a feature, could get golfers of varying abilities to try it and see what difference there is or is not.

aharrelson358

Eddie I've always heard every .5" of tip trim would equal about a flex stiffer in feel. If the bf feels a little soft, that'll be a great one to try it on.

southpawfox

Yes! 44.75 @ D4 driver has been a game changer for me !

Also cut a half inch off both 3wood & 5wood, however irons are +1/2 over standard.

dphatt

I just experimented with a SIM at 44.75. I was actually surprised that my swing speed didn’t drop as much as I expected. I was also able to go after it and not push it right too. The club did look like a flinestone club so that would take some getting used to. I mean this is almost an inch off of my playing length. I might experiment more with this after this month and my tournaments start to wind down.

mljones99

I'm 6'6" and just can't do short drivers. 45.5 or 46 for me

Eddie

I’m on the range gripping down on drivers and first thing I realized is by gripping it where most people do I’m already effectively shorter.

i practiced it a half inch shorter than that, and the results were ok, missed weren’t as wayward, but the swingweight definitely feels lighter, so I am going to go tip trim the bf or the stock Diamana 1/2” to get it to 44.75” and then add some weight to the head and experiment with that next week. I’m going to keep the zf as is in case that experiment doesn’t work well and play that.

What’s so frustrating that any other club, I’m in such a good place with, really hoping this shortened driver experiment will work.

Hybrid and 3 wood off the deck was range pro status. Very little curvature, and solid.

ckay

I’ve never had luck gripping down on a driver. To me it was a different feeling in hands vs a club that was cut down to length.

Eddie

I’m taking baby steps, ended up shortening the BF down to 45”, that with gripping a little more up than normal, which is probably close to 44.5, it feels better. I had some tungsten powder put in the epoxy so I didn’t have to add more headweight, currently it’s at d3 at 45. Can feel more of a DTL path rather than super in to out.

I think I’m going to take the shaft down and go all the way down to 44.5” to see if I can get that total control feeling.

progress. The right miss is much less pronounced.

In the vid you will see the face more square and dtl right after impact.

ckay

Be careful of the aftermarket slider weights. Mine busted it’s threads after 2 balls on the range before my round. The threads literally sheared off of the weight and when I backed out the screw, the threads off of the weight were on the threads of the screw.

This is an issue that Billy Bobs is aware of and pulled off of the weights from their site. Trying to get a refund from the seller I bought from on eBay before I do a paypal dispute.

Eddie

ckay

good to know thanks for the head’s up.

Im looking to go tungsten powder in epoxy and lead tape on the carbon toe area to add weight, also lead tape on that carbon deadens the sound a touch, which I prefer.

Putterho

Choking down has always been a struggle with the longer clubs for me. I'll always remember Anthony Kim choking down with all of his clubs.

ForeLeft

Putterho For the next featured content, I'd like you, @Eddie and @dphatt to hunt down AK and film a round with him. NLU wild world of golf stye. I'd be happy to join along..... don't have to pull my arm. LOL.

I have cell phone numbers for the OU coaches and also message with a few of the players regularly. haha.

Eddie

I'm deeply torn.

so I’m definitely going to go shorter than the 45 3/8 that I was at.

So I have the Diamana S at 44.5, and the bf at 45.

Without a doubt, with 44.5", I definitely feel more on top of the ball at impact. Curvature is still pretty similar, and dispersion is pretty good, definitely can turn over a touch.

But the longest balls were without a doubt with the driver at 45. I don't know if it's mental, but 45" is definitely longer, in terms of carry. When I go after both shafts, 45 is clearly longer. I wish they were really similar so I could just go 44.5 and call it a day, but knowing I'm leaving yardage with control on the table is a tough pill to swallow.

the Diamana S and BF are pretty similar in terms of launch monitor performance when they were both the same length, so it's not that.

Fck, can't decide.

44.5" for max control, definitely leaving some yards on table.
45" seems good, definitely don't feel on top of the ball as much.

or 44.75" split the difference say best of both worlds.

;sadhu;jskdfh3o487ry3oiufheadk, my events start next week, got to figure this out asap.

dphatt

Eddie bring whatever you hit the longest. The course is not that tight and you can spray it.

Jaybananapantsarthur

If it's yardage with control then it makes sense to go 45. If you end up hating it you can chop the other half. Stupid to try to glue a half back on though.

andyk856

I just cut mine down from 45.25 to 44.75 it's not much but it just felt long and heavy. I mainly did it to get the swing weight down a bit. I like it so far.

dphatt

andyk856 what driver and shaft set up?

jaylefty

I play mine at 43.75 inches. I started at 44.5 inches and slowly got back to 44 inches which is my preferred length. At 43.75 the dispersion tightened and I lost no distance whatsoever. It was a huge shock. I even shortened my three wood from 42.5 inches to 41.75 inches and that also tightened up dispersion further as well. I’m 6’3 with a 39 inch sleeve. I guess my arm length allows for the levers to still work efficiently.

TFixer5

I did one of those online fittings because I am too lazy to get a real one. Called for -.75 on driver shaft. I'm hunting a TS4 and will try to cut it down to see what's what. Currently I am playing a 43"

adepallo

Absolutely! Been playing my driver at 44.25” for the last 4-5 years. Absolutely worth giving up a couple yards for the added control. Most important thing is making sure the swing weight is checked as most companies do not check this even on custom orders.