Extra long shafts

[Moonlightgrm]

Last night, after dinner, I hustled up to our club in an effort to play as many holes as possible on a Monday evening. Our place is a ghost town on Monday's and Tuesday's and I can usually play 18-holes before it gets dark on those evenings (Massachusetts). I met a walker on the third hole and he asked me to join him. He threw his clubs on my cart and we were in business. This fellow was a decent player (4-handicap) and a few years younger than I (turns out he's 55 years old). Our 6th hole is a 210 yard par 3 slightly uphill. The pin was back and my Bushnell told me it was 222 yards to the pin. I hit a solid 2-iron to the middle of the green. This guy steps up and hits a similar shot. As he's putting his club away, I notice that he hit a 4-iron. One thing led to another and he handed me his club and asked me to compare its length to my 2-iron. His 4-iron was 1/2-inch LONGER than my 2-iron. He went on to explain that he had seen a decline in his swing speed and wanted to recover some of his old length. He had all new shafts put into his irons, DG S300 with the caveat that each shaft was 3 clubs longer than standard. His 4-iron has a 1-iron shaft, his 5-iron has a 2-iron shaft, etc.. With his driver, 3-wood, and 5-wood, his shafts are 2-inches longer than standard. This fellow stands eye-to-eye with me making him about 5' 11" tall, but he seemed to control these extra long clubs quite nicely and was certainly longer than I. We both carded rounds in the mid-70s, but there's no denying I was envious of his length off of the tee and from the fairway. At 59-years old, I'd love to gain back the length I've lost over the past 2 or 3 seasons. I make due with my driver carrying 240-yards but I'd love to see 260-yard carries once again. Gone are the days of 190-yard 5-irons for me as 175-yards seems to be my norm. I love my Ping ISI irons (played them since 1999). Would it be prudent to re-shaft those irons with longer shafts? Maybe lighter shafts? What are the pros and cons?

[sekrah]

Wasn't sure what to expect when I clicked on this thread. Sorry about your shaft envy for this fellow.

[Rusty1885]

I give prop to anyone who can hit 2 iron solidly. I just don't know what you are thinking. Extending length of the shafts would make it harder to square the club face and not to mention may require lie angle adjustments. I used to hit my drives 280 now older and wiser my avg drives now are 245 but I'm happy as a clam shoot pars and under on some rounds.

 

If it ain't broke don't mess with it.

[Conrad1953]

Go with longer shafts if you want but you said you guys shot similar scores so

seems like you're keeping up with him just fine.

[Stuart_G]

Cons -

1) longer playing length are harder to control and get good impact - so could actually loose distance if you can't maintain good impact (and of course control can be lost as well).

 

2) longer length for your current heads means the swing weight will be significantly increased. 1-1/2" for an iron means an increase of 9 swing weight points and it's going to be virtually impossible to remove that much weight from the head to compensate. So do you think you could actually handle a SW of E1 in addition to the longer length? If you want to try over length clubs - it's better to order them from the factory - that way they can use the lightest heads they have to help manage that swing weight.

 

longer length may also require getting refit for shaft weight and flex so don't expect the same shaft model you are using now to still be the best choice.

[Moonlightgrm]

Thank you Stuart.

[raggal62]

You can experiment with a longer driver just to see if you can regain some distance off the tee. It's all about making solid contact with the longer club and yourself being a lower handicap player justifies your ball striking ability. But most times there's more to it than just installing an extension on your driver.

[rexroh]

I put a Blackbird shaft (from Cobra long tom driver) into my G30 driver. Plays at 47 7/8 inches long.

 

I have gained 10 plus meters. I still hit 12/13 fairways out of 14. It is worth a try. I have not extended my other clubs as I consider accuracy is more important.