Driver and Fairway Wood Shaft Weight – A MAJOR Clubfitting Parameter!

It is interesting how things come together sometimes to help me (and hopefully you!) learn something valuable to help your golf game.

One of the ways that I personally learn more about clubfitting is to test concepts and ideas on myself.  I just put a shaft in my driver that is about a 57 gram shaft, and it is one of the best ones I have ever used.  Hitting the ball farther than I have in a long time but more importantly in the fairway. 

I had been using 76 gram shafts in my fairway woods, with good results. But I thought why not test the lighter shaft in one of my fairway woods – even though many of my fitting friends typically recommend using heavier shafts in fairway woods than in drivers.  So I put the 57 gram shaft in my 3 wood and 5 wood – and could not hit these clubs At All!  Back went the 76 gram shafts into these….

Then, this past weekend, I did a Driver Fitting with a player.  We started testing with 65 gram driver shafts, and with these his Club Path was about 10 to 12 degrees to the left.  So then we tested with 80 gram driver shafts, and the path improved to somewhere between 4 and 8 degrees left.  We finally did some testing with a 105 gram steel shaft – and Amazingly his swing speed went up about 4 mph from earlier results, and path was still better than with 65 gram driver shafts.

What does this mean for YOU?  First of all, changing shaft weight has the largest overall influence on the total weight of a golf club (assuming head weight is constant).  There are companies selling shafts that weigh 50 and even 40 grams, promoting that these might result in higher swing speeds for players.  I know that there are a number of players on the PGA tour playing 75, 85, even 100 gram weight shafts – but so far have heard of few playing very light weight shafts.  I believe there are two major things you need to remember related to shaft weight for drivers and fairway woods:

1. Lighter Weight Does NOT NECESSARILY Mean Faster Swing Speed!  Without testing, you have no idea if a lighter shaft will produce more speed, in fact (as noted earlier) Heavier Weight might produce higher swing speeds.  WHY? – there is a shaft weight that is best for a particular player in terms of how they swing the golf club, how they "synchronize" their swings to hit the golf ball well.

2.  Shaft Weight affects Golf Club Path.  Lighter shafts can promote a more outside-to-inside club path, and Heavier shafts can promote a more inside-to-outside club path at impact.  Lighter shafts may be exactly what a strong player does Not need if they already have a tendency to swing outside-to-inside.

Increasing swing speed with INCREASING shaft weight? – maybe Yes, maybe NO – something that you would not know without Testing!

The Fit Is IT!!

Tony