The Light Shaft Movement

I ran across this article in Golfweek (http://www.golfweek.com/news/2010/apr/20/driver-shafts-lighter-options-lure-big-hitters/) about big hitters on tour moving toward lighter golf shafts.  Why?  Well, the obvious answer is to increase distance through increased swingspeed.  The shaft is the one component of any golf club that has the greatest ability to affect the total weight of the club.  Scientific theory says that a lighter object requires less force to move it (ok, so this is extrememly oversimplified, but hopefully you get the picture).  By making the club lighter, there is a possibility to increase swingspeed.  The same applies to using longer shafts to increase club head speed (again using the laws of physics to our advantage, but club length will be digested in a later post I'm sure).  Distance is raw product of the transfer of energy (swingspeed + head mass) from the club head to the golf ball.  Lighter and longer shafts open the door to possible gains in distance by generating more speed.  Manufacturers have recently begun to exploit these principles by pushing the average driver length to 45.5 inches or more and the average shaft weight down to 65 grams.  This is a far cry from the standard of say, ten years ago when drivers were 43.5 inches long and had steel shafts that weighed as much as 125 grams. 

But what's the catch?  The one word answer is CONTROL.  I am by no means discouraging anyone from buying a 47 inch driver with a 45 gram shaft if that is what they want, but I will say that you WILL hit fewer fairways with it.  Distance also depends on one small factor, hitting the golf ball with the maximum amount of energy (derived from a combination of speed and MASS) in the center of the clubface to minimize energy loss from twisting of the clubhead resulting from an off-center hit.  An off-center hit negatively affects the direction and distance of any shot.  I know everyone saw the article in Golf Digest a few issues back touting that almost half of the golfers tested benefitted from the longer and lighter drivers.  What they forgot to tell everyone is that the sample size (number of golfers tested) was extremely small.  I will bet a dollar to a doughnut (I have NO idea where this expression comes from...) that if the sample size was increased to several hunderd golfers, the results would have been quite different. 

Obviously not all golfers are the same and FEEL plays a large part in what is comfortable and therefore effective for any one golfer.  My recommendation is that you find a professional fitter (that knows what he or she is actually doing) to help you determine the best combination of length and weight for your game.  Feel free to drop us a line with any fitting questions that you may have at http://www.tourtechgolf.com/.

Fairways and Greens