By Madeline MacClurg
Recently, a few tour players have been experimenting with longer driver shafts in an attempt to increase their swing speed and distance off the tee. Dylan Frittelli, in the top five after 54 holes at the 2020 Masters, credited a longer driver for boosting his speed over the past couple of months.

Of course, Bryson DeChambeau declared his desire to put a 48-inch driver in play, and Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott made the switch for Augusta National.

Everyone wants to hit it farther, so whenever we see equipment trends like this, it always begs the question, should amateurs try it, too?

We asked Jordan Dempsey, one of Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers, and Golf Digest equipment experts Mike Johnson and Mike Stachura, whether it’s a switch golfers should consider.

“We’ve done several “longer” driver tests over the years. The results consistently showed the longest distances come from the longest shafts, but they don’t come that often.” Stachura says.

Lengthening your driver shaft might sound like a quick and easy way to add 20 yards to your tee ball, but it’s generally a bad idea for average golfers.

“Shaft length is personal, very much swing-type related.” Stachura explains, “Look at the number of LPGA players whose more languid, flowing swing tempos can take advantage of longer shafts and produce more clubhead speed.” However, most golfers are quick from the top, so using a longer shaft would actually make it more difficult to find the centre of the clubface and have consistent contact.

That’s why Stachura suggests a club fitting to find your optimal specs.

“A good fitter will see at what length you’re hitting the centre of the face most often. That’s where smash factor is very important (the ratio of ball speed to clubhead speed).” Stachura says.

JD Cuban

Sometimes, a slower swing speed produces more distance because you’re impacting the area around the centre of the face more often and taking advantage of the most powerful part of the driver. “In other words, the clubhead speed you might be able to gain from a longer shaft only matters if you’re generating the maximum possible ball speed.” he explains.

Dempsey agrees that a longer shaft is not the way to go for most golfers because it’s harder to control, and average golfers will struggle to make consistent contact.

Instead of trying to find a quick fix, he says to focus on your contact because most players don’t utilise the centre of the clubface and miss out on distance because of it.

“Better contact will not only help you hit it further off the tee, but you’ll also have more accuracy and control.” Dempsey explains.

The post Should average golfers consider a longer driver shaft? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

This bold statement isn’t originally mine. I was having an email exchange with former USGA Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge, when listening to the recent Hot List podcast. When there was a suggestion that golfers really haven’t improved despite all the advances in technology, Rugge, who often talked about the subject of handicap trends during his tenure at the USGA, told me about some handicap data that suggested just the opposite.

A quick call to the USGA confirmed that very fact. In the last 25 years, the average USGA handicap for a man has improved nearly two full strokes, from 16.3 to 14.4. For women, the improvement is no less impressive, dropping from 29.7 in 1991 to 26.1 in 2016.

Rugge called the 12 percent improvement in golf the equivalent of “the average 100 meter dash time for high school and college runners dropping a full second” or “the average 1500 meter time of high school and college runners dropping about 30 seconds,” or “the average batting average in baseball going up about 30 points.”

None of those things have happened, of course. Even if you look at more recreational pursuits like running a marathon, golf’s numbers look no less dramatic. For instance, the average qualifying time to get you a spot in the Boston Marathon as a 45-year-old man is exactly the same today as it was in 1990—3 hours, 25 minutes.

In fact, average golfers are getting better than PGA Tour players, too. PGA Tour scoring average (actual) in 1991 was 71.50. It improved to 71.12 in 2016. That amounts to just a 0.5 percent improvement.

Why are golfers getting better? It certainly seems a reasonable suggestion that a key contributor to making average golfers better is the fundamental changes in equipment technology over the last two decades. Go hit some tee shots with a 1990 TaylorMade Burner or try to find a decent hybrid from the first Bush Administration. Quite simply, it’s easier to get the first shot up in the air and in play today than it was 25 years ago. And it’s also easier to hit longer shots from the rough or fairway than it was in the days of 2-irons and steel-shafted persimmon 5-woods.

Mind you, the game hasn’t become easy. The short game is still challenging and increasing green speeds make getting the ball in the hole without three-putting at least twice a round a near miraculous performance for an average player.

In truth, it may not be the case that golfers have even developed better skills in concert with their lowered scores over the last quarter century. Again, equipment has allowed some of the more marginal swings to be rewarded with playable results.

But consider that golf courses aren’t getting any easier and old tracks aren’t being renovated to make them shorter and less of a challenge, and still handicaps are trending down. With everything from agronomy enhancements to work-life balance cutting into practice and play time, the deck is stacked against golfers getting better. And yet the numbers say we’re all shooting more lower scores than ever before.

With all the technological benefits being thrown our way, it really calls into question the anti-golf argument that the game is too hard. There simply are more ways to get competent at golf than ever before. That list includes better clubs and balls, of course, but it also includes better diagnostic tools to help golfers improve their swings and get into the right clubs and balls for their games.

So the next time you start surfing through the Hot List, consider this: It’s not just new toys you might be buying, it’s lower scores.

The post A Closer Look At Handicap Data Shows Just How Much Golfers Have Improved In Recent Years appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.