Driver Shaft Length - Is Shorter Better Than Standard Length? 

Good advise Mike. I cut my Ping G30 9* driver to a playing length of 44 inches. Driver came stock with a 10 gram weight in the head, so I changed it to 12 gram. Never hit a driver as straight as I do now. The only thing I lost was a trip into the woods.

On a hunch and with no data to back it up I went to a 44" driver last year and it was a great decision. I'm more accurate and the feeling of control has increased. I probably lost a few yards but the consistency of strike has improved so the yardage is more consistent from drive to drive. Important to get the club swingweighted back to whatever you're comfortable with. Between the shorter shaft and a midsize grip it required quite a bit of tweaking.

Your videos are quickly becoming some of the best presentations on the internet..........thanks for you contributions!

This is the most useful golf video I’ve ever watched, thanks

You've got a simple, smooth and easy swing. Wish I could do the same.

Great video, really interesting stuff, especially that you actually gained yards through a better strike location. Just proves again why a good professional fitting is so important

I'm glad someone's finally done a video on this. Proof is in the results. Said this for a long time. Woods are to long for the average golfer. Even tour pros are cutting them down but for some reason manufacturers keep making them longer. Brilliant Mike just hope people take note with this.

Had my Taylormade M1 Driver shorted by 1 inch today and played with it for the first time. Instant feedback was that the driver was amazingly easier to hit. Before shortening the club I struggled with a fade and now I may have to move the directional weight towards the toe to fight off a slight tendency to pull. Most drivers were slightly right of my target (left handed) but very manageable. Overall I am pleased with the adjustment.

Tried gripping down on my driver and 3-wood yesterday to find out if it was an option to help my accuracy. Have standard length M2's, which have midsize Golf Pride MCC plus 4 grips and the lack of taper as my hands adjusted down the grip really helped to keep the feeling of the grips thickness the same versus a more standard grip that gets smaller the further down the grip your hands go. Hit a dozen or so balls with each club and immediately noticed this helped improve the left-right dispersion closer with no significant loss of distance. Need to take it to the course next.

Excellent review Michael definitely worth looking at a shorter shaft. Well done very well explained.

Was fitted 2 months ago specifically looking at shaft length, settled at 44" shaft length, clubhead speed stayed the same with no loss of distance due to better strike location, the biggest difference was a much better dispersion, miss less fairways and have gone from 4.2 handicap to 3.1 in my last 3 comps. The game is easier from the fairway

I am 6' 2" and switched to a 44 1/2 in shaft this year with good results. At first, I lost a few yards, but the more I got used to it and built more confidence the more I was able to swing it faster. My distance is now up 10 yards from last year and I am hitting a lot more fairways.

Excellent video, I am going shorter to 44.5 or 44. Will be working this out with my club fitte, look forward to better ball striking. Very informative.

Great video - very interesting and allowed me the actually pull the trigger on my fitting with Titleist TS3 with a -1" Evenflow White T1100 6.5.

Love this video, explains why I hit it longer with less dispersion!! Only one complaint, should of done this video in April! Keep up with the great videos.

I'm a big believer in shorter clubs. My driver shaft is a Tour AD DI and we have cut it down to 43.5 inches. Interestingly my club head speed has increased with a shorter shaft as I am more in control so can swing harder. Strike location and therefore accuracy has also improved. I now have all my woods (same Tour AD DI shafts) playing shorter and also had my Mizuno irons cut down 1 inch...best thing I have done to improve my game.The manufacturers know that 80% of people will buy a driver based on the single longest shot they hit while in the shop on trackman, which has resulted in these ridiculously long Drivers.

Wow. I love your testing of the shaft lengths. I’m 5’9, and really the only club that I struggle with is any of my newer drivers. When I do, I “regress” to my old 905R Titleist, and it rarely fails me. It’s a 44” playing length. I feel like I’m always fighting the standard length, and the 905 just feels so natural. It truly is a fairway finder. After going on a Trackman last weekend it was proven for me. My old 905 was constantly straighter, and considerably longer that my new TSi2 driver.

I have the same shaft but with 2017 M2 head. I wanted to shorten the shaft but was not sure if that was the right thing to do. This video gave me confidence!! Thanks!

That’s an eye opener. Interesting findings!

the original driver length is 43.5" of course longer drivers do hit the ball longer! i used a 42" driver and hit the ball 330 when i was 40, jack nnicklas used a shorter driver shaft also the reason i tried the shorter shaft. find the speed of your 3 wood and then the driver! then try a shorter shaft in driver and see the speeds of short compared to long.

The majority of amateur golfers have convenient memories. They remember their longest drives but very few have any idea what their average drive length is. Manufacturers know this and feed our egos to the benefit of their bottom lines. I thought maybe common sense might be making a breakthrough last year with the high MOI Ping G400 max driver. But I can see with this years offerings that those who understood the greater benefit of directional control over distance were not financially sufficient to direct continued efforts in that direction. Very good and informative video despite a few slips of the tongue. Reconfirmation that strike is still king.

I like the tee hitting the camera! =)

This was a great video! I have seen this true In my own game. Taking off 1-1,5 inch makes it so relaxing to drive the ball And that also helps my game mentally. But the shock of being longer with a shorter shaft made me Laugh out loud.

Great vlog. Really interesting. Thanx a lot

Went from a standard length driver to 44", haven't looked back. Went from truly spraying balls around the 230 mark to hitting fairways consistently carrying at 250 yards. Unfortunately, the added distance brings in parts of the course I've never played before, specifically bunkers at 260 haha. Make sure to have adjustable weight clubs, unless you don't mind the look of 15g of lead tape on your driver head.

Excellent lesson.

When choking down on the driver to 43/44 tend to be more in control of my driver and no noticeable drop off in distance thks for this post

The last two drivers that I’ve had, the shafts were 44-44.25 inches in length. I feel that I get better, more consistent hits with that length. With ‘standard’ length drivers, the strikes were all over the face with some hitting of the ground behind the ball, as well. I’ve got a lot more confidence and find the fairway most of the time. I feel that length of shaft should be a part of the fitting process. Why should a person that’s 5’8” hit the same length as someone over 6’ tall?

I am a pga golf pro and have been playing 44 icch shaft for 6 years now. Best thing I have ever done. Easier to hit , less spin, and lighter. Win win win.

A few of the pros have cut it down to 43”. Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia and Jimmy Walker. They say.., better control and if only a few yards shorter.., rather be in fairway more. I would hv to believe other lesser known pros have also cut it down a bit. Drivers years ago were certainly not 45.5”. I cut my driver to 43.5” and yes.., more fairways. Good informative video. Thx

I have seen many videos talking about this subject and all of them have the same conclusion.

Really great test!. Most players hit 3:woods much better than driver. Same goes for long irons.

Michael... Best golf videos in my opinion!!! Definitely going to cut mine down. Could I suggest doing a video on a game improvement, players, and blade iron where you hit them off the toe, heel, thin, and fat and see how much distance you actually lose with each type of club? I think a bad shot will cost you with either club. Thanks!!!

Great vid, John Daily said get yor driver the same length as your fairway wood.

I'm a senior golfer with a nine handicap, I use a Nike " Covert " driver cut down to forty three and a half inches. I'd much rather hit my drive 230 yards and be on the " short stuff " than hit it 250 and be behind trees !!

Good stuff! Keep up the work

This is what I have been interested in for long time. Hitting the ball on the sweet spot is more important to most golfers. Thanks for the great experiment!

I'm 5' 7". First thing I do when I buy a new driver is have the shaft trimmed so that the club has a playing length of 44". Strike is more consistent.

Enjoy your Videos Michael.

Very interesting results. Would like to see some on course testing to confirm the consistency of each length in a gaming environment.

brilliant mike interesting

Changed to a 44.5" shaft on my Aeroburner. Consistently better distance and accuracy. 260-300 yds total distance after the change. Was closer to 250 avg with less accuracy before.

I really great and informative video. Am going to book some lessons at local range which has ball tracking as really struggling with driver and 3w, I will now definitely ask about shaft length

Great review. I bet the difference would be even better with a shorter golfer too as you are quite tall. I am only 5 ft 7 inches myself. :) I have my Ping Driver at 44 inches. I have been using 44 inch shafts for a while now. I love em. Much more control and I hit further too. Easier to hit the sweet spot! Thanks for this review. It was what I suspected. Spider Dubiel

its all about shot direction and hitting fair ways

Thank You for black and white data. I remember playing with a player who had all his irons clubs cut to the same length and his woods were also matched in length. Very consistent ball striker.

Can you do a video on a 60g vs a 70g shaft?

Nice to see the gains from the shorter shaft- anyone thinking of cutting their shaft, please be careful! That said, you can use a power miter saw with a fine toothed blade. Go slow- works great.

Got the Callaway Fusion driver 44.5 inches very accurate will never a driver longer now, much easier to hit.

HI MN, very interesting test You made! For You a shorter shaft is best. Myself a guy of 80+, former PGA teacher up here in Stockholm it is like this. My clubhead speed is very low, 75-80m/h, but I have a swing with, splendid ballhits on clubhead, made many tests with tape on clubhead on that issue. Have lengthen shaft on my two favor. drivers to 46 and 47", with those clubs I still can have a OK launch compare to other younger players. Thing is, if Y have good hits close to sweetspot You are in buisness with long shafts like me! // Thanks for good tests// Johnny

You gained 7 yards , you mistakenly said 7 mph. Great review 👍👍👏👏

Good video . I like the fact you didn't have to change the head weight and still have great results.

Thanks Michael for this I think i have the wrong length of shaft - instinctively I always choke down on my drivers, but now i shall try to get a suitable length for my height which is 5"8''

My driver is 43 1/2 which is 2 inches shorter than the norm and I'm more consistent in hitting fairways and maybe have lost only 2-3 yards. In my opinion, get your club to 44 inches and I bet you will hit more fairways.

Hi I am 6'6" swapped my 3wood shaft and put it in my driver head ( both clubs are Cobra driver is bio cel 3 wood is F7 both Stiff ,)best I've ever hit it hopefully seeing my pro tomorrow to get some stats .

Great advice I'll try gripping down an inch and see how it goes. Many thanks.

Great video! You should add that shortening the shaft affects swing weight, though. For most golfers a shaft of 44.5 with 12g of weight added back is going to yield the best results. Amazing how few fitters actually know this, though. OEMs are setting ‘standard’ length way too long just so they can say their driver is the longest. It’s marketing, not fitting.

I got fitted this year at Callaway in Carlsbad and they fitted me with a Epic that was a inch shorter.

drivers in Japan are 44.5 inches normally, yet most Japanese are quite short. I tried a 42 inch shaft and loved it, I am 6'4" and I think most people play drivers too long

I am 6'2" and my swing speed is around 110 mph, I cut my driver shaft to 44 1/2 inches to get more conssistency. Just like you now that I am hitting above the equator of the club I am getting better spin numbers and more distance. my average drive is around 265 carry now. So happy that I gut my driver and did not let me ego get in the way

Started gripping down on driver and fairway woods, amazing the differents

Cut 1” off my Titleist 915d2 as I was struggling with strikes all over the face .. I changed the weight to 19g the heaviest I could find.. result much better strikes therefore average distance up but also feel more confident that I’m going to hit a good shot and I’m sure that helps too !

nice swing!

I just got fitted for a driver and the guy told me not to cut down my shaft and to learn how to hit a 45 in length shaft. I been playing a 44 inch shaft and 9 degree driver for 18 years.... he fitted me for 45 inch and 10.5 degree head. Trackman said yes, golf course says no. I'm cutting down my callaway mavrik to 44 and cranking down to 9.5 tomorrow on lunch break

Shortened my driver by 1" before I even took off the wrapper. It's a bomber. But I got too quick with my swing over just a few rounds. Now I'm hitting 3/4 swings with my -1" driver and striking fear and envy into the hearts of my buddies. 😎

Nice video, very informative. I bet dispersion left and right was reduced too! Thanks, Michael! PS. It's ku ro ka ge (ge as in "get"), 4 different syllables. It's not ku ro 'cage'.

Really makes you think doesn't it. Club head speed is not everything. Great video👍🏻

Would like to see you use the long shaft and choke up to match the length of the shorter shaft and see wow that works so maybe you'll have the best of both worlds. Cheers.

Your downswing..... particularly from impact to follow through, is as good as any tour pro I've seen in 40 years of watching golf swings. One of the most graceful, relaxed driver swings in the history of the world. This is the swing we all are trying to emulate. Simply gorgeous!!

Michael, I wonder if you matched the swing weight of the shorter club with the longer club, I’d bet the strike would be closer to the center in the shorter club. I’m using the Callaway big Bertha Fusion “heavy” driver at 44 “ with the 12 gram weight. So far, I strike the the fusion in the center with my bad strikes slightly high toward the heel. Many of my golf friends choke up on their drivers, they can’t control the club at 45.5 “/ 46”. Thanks for the very good vlog.

Hi, I have bought a few 2nd hand drivers. How do I measure playing length/shaft length.? Thank you :)

I think this video is on point. I’m also 6’5 and I just purchased the new Taylormade Stealth 2 stiff driver. This driver is 46” long and I had to put it away at my last outing. I started using my GX-7 and I hit every drive right down the middle. The length is much shorter. 46” drivers should be shortened.

Great vid Mike. I have a standard 46 inch Stiff shaft in my driver which i cannot control to my liking,..looks like i will be cutting it down tonight.I did an online driver fitting and it came out 44.25 to 44.75. Interesting stuff. I have tried choking down slightly on my irons and i hit them further as well. Perhaps there is a method in the madness. Big thankyou for this vid..

Gripping down 2 inches on my m2 driver hitting straighter and longer and much more consistent.

hi mike, i gotta ask, did you try to match the swing weight (eg. d2 etc.)? and the lie angle? I think this is a great review but cannot stop thinking about swing weight and lie angle.

I moved from a 45.5" down to a 43.75" this year. Best move ever. Definitely straighter and more fairways already. Noticed a bit of a distance fall off but not more than 5 yards or so.

Did you just use the shorter shaft or did you add weight to get that 44” back to swing weight

Shorter shaft also seemed to help your Lie angle get your club head at a much better angle in relationship to the equator line...by a few degrees closer to 0*....long shaft if I recall, toe was up like 7*, shorter was only like 3* or 4* I am definitely going to get my driver shaft cut down...as yes, I hit my 3 wood straighter & usually as far as the driver! Driver never seems to be consistent as well!

Great video with surprising results. When you say the shaft is 44" long, are you removing the head to measure the shaft length from tip to tip? Thanks. Dan

85 years old now; played since I was 8 years old with a hand me down hickory stick 2 iron. When the shafts got longer I always trimmed mine down as much as 2 inches, never bothered about swing weight. I can still knock it out there 175 yards, including roll. Cut my R9 460cc Taylormade down to 43.50 inches.

After seeing a video about swapping a three wood shaft into the driver I decided to try it. Hit every fairway and only ten yards short of my driver. Much more solid strike and more control. Needless to say the three wood shaft is staying in the driver

Michael, well done. I really like the idea of a shorter length driver. Do you know through the evolution of golf how has what we refer to as a standard length 45.5" driver changed? I am going to go out and measure the length of some older drivers that I still have lying around. I had a Callaway Big Bertha in its day and loved it. I went through multiple drivers after replacing it over the years before I found a more modern Ping version that I can hit consistently. I would hate to go through that process again but the Ping is beginning to age and will be due for an upgrade. A shorter driver could offer me more control and not sacrifice distance which I cannot afford to sacrifice much of. An idea whose time has come.

Great video...excellent experiment with great data to back it up....just a comment, didn't Tiger in his hey days use a shorter than std shaft length?

I'm gaming this exact same driver head and shaft is stiff flex. I've never been consistent with this driver so I decided to cut the shaft to 44.5". At first, the swing felt awful. The combination of the shorter shaft and the change of swing threw me off. And then I added a third weight to get the swing weight to more or less what they were before. Now I'm only missing 1 or the most 2 fairways and they are still playable. I've even gained some distance as well. I'm aware that I'm modding this driver simply based on trial and error but I can only guess how much more I could've gain if I was properly fitted for the driver.

I recently put a callaway adapter onto an old Project x fairway shaft and started using it in my xr16 driver. It’s 3” shorter than standard and I love it. Hit the middle of the clubface much more consistently and I’ve noticed no real drop off in distance. Definitely hitting more fairways, but most importantly, on days where I’m not swinging it well, I find I’m still in play, instead of deep in the woods. Can’t see myself going back to a 46” shaft.

I got so tired of mis hits I took my driver out of the bag and used my 3H or 3W averaging around 230yds off the tee. I just had my Callaway Mavrik shortened from 45" to 43.5" and it feels way more controllable.

Michael Newton has silkiest swing on RU-vid. Change my mind!

Michael would it be worth trying to put your hands I tad lower on the grip would this change the strike meaning more consistently? I watched the race to Dubai and I’ve noticed Tommy Fleetwood when he hits driver you can see a good inch of the grip at the top sticking out, I could be wrong but that what it looks like on TV. Interested to hear your thoughts on both points, if you have time have a look at Tommy’s driver grip or is it just me seeing things! Cheers Michael.

Hi mike , interesting data. Would this work for irons also?

Thanks mike. My Height says I need 43.75. Yup I had 45.5 length and always had to choke down with hands on grip to get a better result but that presents a problem too as the tapered grip gets smaller causing accentuated hand rotational degrees off on the face. Looki g forward to cut down.

Very nice. Shorter shaft, smaller arc. It takes less strength to swing a shorter driver so you should swing faster gaining (not losing) distance and accuracy. Newton, maybe you should stick with the shorter shaft and slightly adjust yourself to strike more centered. Stats don't lie. It's down the fairways we must be.

I have wondered this myself. I'd love to take 2 identical drivers/shaft stiffness etc etc (except different length) and hit 50 balls with each. Then measure ACCURACY averages. I'd bet the shorter improves accuracy dramatically.

Been playing with driver cut one inch shorter for years. Got that tip from from Don Trahan .. It works!!

Great vid. How would you go about getting a shorter shaft fitted? Buy a 3 wood shaft off eBay?

Love your swing and tempo Michael! And thanks for looking at this aspect. I got fitted for the new TSi3 driver but noticed later on that the shaft is an inch longer and this could be the reason I am hitting it off the heel and hitting fades and sometimes slice. My ball flight has always been a draw. Just reluctant to put a saw to this new shaft though… what do you reckon?

43.5” for 35 years now. I just turned 50 and I still carry it 270+.Like others have said, it’s very unlikely you will like the club shorter without adding some weight back to the head.I add hot melt inside the head to avoid adding a lot of lead tape. I usually add about 12-14 grams of hot melt and then fine tune it with a bit of tape. I like mine at D-2 swingweight.

Hi Michael. do you think the same strategy would work on all clubs in a bag. I am 5.7 so shorter than average yet all my clubs are standard length. I certainly think my driver should be reduced (Ping G400 standard length) but if it was to help in the driver surely the same would apply to all my clubs? interested to hear your thoughts. this video looks like it could be a real game changer for me

Great video, goes to show how important club fitting is!

Hi Michael. If you had dropped down 1/2 an inch instead of 1.5 do you think your strike would have moved more to the center of the face?

My r15 is 3 wood length. Much more consistent! No dropoff in distance!