You just got new driver and all the sudden you find yourself hitting weak, push-cut shots that you previously did not have? Even after changing your stance, ball position or the adapter sleeve settings you get the same results. What gives? Well, there could be a very simply solution you had not thought about.
Swing Weight of a Modern Driver
Today the average OEM driver has @ a D3 swing weight, whereas the matching irons are up to 3 swing weights lower. Granted, your sand and lob wedge may have the same swing weight, but they are much shorter and easier to control.
Modern drivers are loaded with features including adjustable shafts adapter sleeves and weights that honestly most golfers never change from the factory settings. Those features add weight to the club head and coupled with their longer assembly lengths to give you more leverage and swing speed are contributing factors to the higher swing weight.
What is Causing Those Fade or Push Shots
When a figure skater pulls their arms inward, they can spin faster than when their arms are out. This is the same principle as swing weighting. With the arms out, there is more mass away from the center of gravity and it will slow your velocity down. Same occurs when too much mass is concentrated toward the head, it can slow you down.
3 Ways to Reduce Driver Swing Weight
Shorten the Driver Length
Before you cut the driver down, you should experiment first. Try choking or gripping down on the driver grip to simulate the shorter length. Even gripping down ½” will reduce the swing weight by 3 points. You can hit balls at the range gripping at the end as you would normally versus ½” down and see it solves your issue. If you are curious, you can try ¾” or a full inch too and evaluate ball flight and feel. Once you find a length that optimizes your accuracy you can continue hitting the driver that way or you would be safe to remove the grip and resize it accordingly.
Use A Lighter Weight Screw or Weight
If your driver is equipped with removable weights, this is an option you have to reduce swing weight by swapping out for a lighter weight or screw. You may want to obtain a couple different weights to see how much lighter you need to go to justify the shipping charges. On a modern length driver, roughly 5g lighter will reduce the swing weight by 3 points. Therefore, you will need to know what the stock weight(s) you have in your driver head.
Counterweighting the Driver
I am going out on a limb, but I am sure most golfers are not even aware of what a shaft counterweight is, let alone why they may need one. Counterweighting a driver works by adding weight to the grip end thereby shifting the mass of the club toward your hands. This is akin to our figure skater example, but in this case it can increase the player’s ability hit the ball with less of an open face as well as increasing swing speed. It is worth an experiment if the first two options have not worked.
This process is more labor intensive because it requires either drilling a hole through the end of your grip to add different counterweights, like the Tour Lock Pro Plus. The alternative is removing the grip, adding the golf club counterweight, and then installing the grip as pictured above.
How much weight will you need? That is almost impossible to tell because it will vary for each person and even the driver you have. It requires 4 grams of weight at the end of your grip to reduce the swing weight by 1 point. Therefore, most golfers will not be able to tell much, if any, of a difference before adding 12 grams or more. Just like everything in life, too much is just as bad as not enough. So, there is trial and error when it comes to which weight is optimal.
In summary, your push, fade or even slice may not be your swing fault. It could be as simply as a driver that is too head heavy where the swing weight is more than ideal for your needs. Shortening your driver, re-weighting the head, or counterbalancing the butt end of the shaft are 3 great ways to put you back on the straight and narrow. This not only applies to your driver, but for all other clubs in the bag.
