Testing Shaft Length in Drivers: What Does Extra Length Do?

How Does the Length of Shaft affect Driver Performance?

Earlier in the year we did some testing on the effect of different lengths of shafts in Driver performance. Typically, shorter shafts give more control and longer shafts give more club head speed. Is this true and how much of a difference is there between them?

We tested four lengths, 44.25, 45, 45.75 and 46.5 inches. All were 75 grams in weight and stiff flex. We used the same PXG 0811X 10.5 degree driver for all the shots. Also a swingweight of D2 was used for all lengths, meaning weight was added or subtracted from the head to maintain the same balance in all lengths.

 

 

 

The testing was done on an April day, about 14 degrees Celsius and a slight breeze approx 5mph helping. The golfer performed a warm-up before the testing. The ball used in the test was the Titleist ProV1. The methodology of the test was to hit 3 shots with the 44.25, then 3 shots with the 45, 45.75, 46.5, returning to the 44.25 and following the same procedure until 12 shots were hit with each.

 

 

Results

Shaft Length	Club Speed MPH	Ball Speed MPH	Carry Yards	Total Distance Yards
44.25	100.4	149.0	239.3	269.1
45	101.5	150.0	240.3	268.9
45.75	103.2	150.1	245.4	269.8
46.5	104.7	152.8	249.3	274.1
	Dispersion- Feet	Launch Angle	Spin Rate	Height - Feet
44.25	27.7	11.3	2565	73
45	38.6	11.3	2503	78
45.75	45.1	11.6	2968	84
46.5	30.2	11.5	2639	88

What we are mainly looking for length and accuracy. Dispersion is the indicator used for accuracy. Ball Speed, Club Speed, Carry and Total Distance are the indicators used for distance.

The 44.25 length gave the best accuracy with an average distance of 27.7 feet off the target line, the 46.5 length wasn't too far behind with an average of 30.2 feet. The 45.75 length was the worst with an average of 45.1.

The best ball speed, club head speed, carry and total distance came from the 46.5 length. The lowest came from the 44.25 with each shaft length gaining in distance performance over the previous one.

The 46.5 length had 4.3 mph more club head speed, 3.8 mph more ball speed, 10 yards more carry and 5 yards more total distance then the 44.25 length.

Shaft Length	Attack Angle	Club Path	Face to Path
44.25	-0.3	-0.5	-1.0
45	0.0	-1.3	-0.1
45.75	-0.2	-1.6	-0.3
46.5	0.3	-0.8	-1.5

 

While we were mainly looking at distance and accuracy we also checked the impact factors. At times shorter shafts and move the club path more in to out and longer shafts more out to in, meaning that slicers can have a much more significant gain in accuracy with a shorter shaft.

For this golfer who has a relatively neutral swing we didn't see big differences in club path.

Analysis

The best accuracy was with the shortest shaft and the longest distance was with the longest shaft. This is not always the case, many times with longer shafts centredness of contact gets worse and as a result ball speed is lower. When fitting for length we test the 4 lengths and use the one that gives the highest ball speed, while keeping an eye on accuracy.

The percentage breakdown of the lengths that work best in our fittings are

Length

 

44.25 inches 14.4%

45 inches 49.4%

45.75 inches 22.9%

46.5 inches 13.3%

 

 

 

Also note in the results, the club head and ball speed in the 44.25 length is 100.4 and 149, in the 46.5 length it is 104.7 and 152.8, a 4.3 difference in club head speed and only a 3.8 increase in ball speed, we normally would expect to see more ball speed but this is explained from the swingweighting of the clubs. With a shorter shaft more weight is needed in the head to keep the swing weight up, less weight is needed in the longer shaft, more weight in the head means a slightly better transfer to ball speed from club head speed and the lighter head in the longer shaft means a little worse transfer of ball speed. The lighter head also means a little more club head speed.

The change in club head speed for this golfer from shortest to longest shaft was 100.4-101.5-103.2-104.7. Jumps of 1.1, 1.7 and 1.5 mph. We could surmise that you gain around 1mph club head speed with each added inch to a driver with the little extra gains seen from the lighter head as the length increased.

Conclusion

For this golfer a longer shaft did give more length and the shortest shaft did give the most accuracy. The longer shaft does add club head speed but not to the degree where we might see 20 or 30 yard gains. Ultimately the test shows again the need for every golfer to test to see what works best for them, a 45 inch shaft works best for nearly 50% of golfers that come to Drive Golf Performance but that also means that 50% can find extra performance out of a different length.

Any questions and comments are welcome.