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adding 1 inch to golf shaft does what to swing weight

by Mr. Royce Weissnat Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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With the shaft, you can roughly say that half an inch makes up about 3 swing weight points. One inch longer means 6 swing weight points more. A club that is normally at D2 then ends up at D8 - in other words, considerably more than a Dustin Johnson would like to swing.

Part of a video titled Demonstrations on Adjusting Golf Club Weight - YouTube
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Says you add weight in two gram increments to change the swing weight.MoreSays you add weight in two gram increments to change the swing weight.

Full Answer

How do you add swingweight to a golf club?

Golfers can add one swingweight point (increase from D4 to D5, for example) by adding 2 grams of club head weight. Conversely, decreasing club head weight by 2 grams will deduct one swingweight point. The most common way of adding weight to a club head is by using lead tape.

What swing weighs do golf clubs have?

Swing weights range from A0 at the lightest to G10 at the heaviest, with most men’s clubs coming in around D0-D2 and women’s clubs weighing C5-C7.   The difference between two swing weights, D0 and D1 for example, is approximately two grams of weight in the club head.

Do longer shafts make a difference in swing weight?

- You buy a new iron but choose a shaft that is 1 inch longer because you are quite tall. The manufacturer makes this club for you by simply adding a longer shaft. He does not adjust the swing weight by taking weight from the club head. The result: a much too heavy swing weight.

How many swing weight points are in a half-inch shaft?

And that is the last thing you want: a set of irons with varying length and swing weight. With the shaft, you can roughly say that half an inch makes up about 3 swing weight points. One inch longer means 6 swing weight points more.

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Does increasing shaft weight increase swing weight?

Golfers can adjust the swingweight of their golf club by changing the weight of the shaft in their club. Assuming the shaft is not increased or decreased in length, an increase of 9 grams in shaft weight will increase swingweight by approximately one swingweight point (increase from D3 to D4, for example).

Does adding length affect swing weight?

The manufacturer makes this club for you by simply adding a longer shaft. He does not adjust the swing weight by taking weight from the club head. The result: a much too heavy swing weight. Just because you are tall does not mean you need a heavier swing weight than tour pros.

How much weight should I add to my swing weight?

An accepted rule of thumb is that increasing or decreasing the weight of the clubhead by 2 grams will increase or decrease the swingweight by 1 and the same impact would be achieved by adding or subtracting 5 grams to or from the grip and 9 grams to or from the shaft.

How does shaft weight affect swing?

The heavier a shaft is, the more likely it is that your golf ball will fly low and with less spin. If it's lighter, the ball will tend to fly higher and spin more. As Briand explains, the weight of a shaft has less impact on swing speed than golfers think, but that lighter shafts could increase the rate of closure.

Is D5 swing weight too heavy?

If it feels too heavy at D5, you can remove strips of lead tape one by one until it feels right. If your driver is heavier than D5, ask your club fitter to add a heavier grip or a counterweight to reduce swing weight to D5. Get Fitted By A TPT Authorized Fitter.

What does adding weight to back of driver do?

Placing weight more toward the rear portion of the head will make it higher spinning, higher launching and more forgiving. To simply add weight to the head, place lead tape directly in the center of the sole; this will slightly lower overall CG, as well, which can be beneficial for most golfers.

What does adding weight to a golf club do?

When most golfers talk about adding weight to a golf club, what they are really talking about is the swing weight of the club: adding weight to the head of the club in order to increase the speed of the swing and thereby increase the distance that the ball is hit.

What does heavier swing weight do?

Swing weight is the measurement of the head-weight feel of a club. A club with a heavier swing weight will feel heavier to a golfer than one with a lighter swing weight, because its balance point is closer to the club head.

What does swing weight c3 mean?

0:154:19Swing Weight Explained - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipIt's just a relative point routine measuring the dish basic balance point between the head and theMoreIt's just a relative point routine measuring the dish basic balance point between the head and the button of the the club. So when we put this on the swing of a scale.

Is a 70 gram driver shaft too heavy?

A 70-gram driver shaft is considered to be pretty heavy but not the heaviest. It falls into the middle but is still on the heavier side when you consider you could go with 50 or 60 grams instead. Those 10 grams sometimes make a significant difference.

Is 75 gram shaft too heavy?

75 and 85 Gram Shafts And Who They Are For? These are generally for your stronger and better players, as they will be generating a lot of clubhead speed, the weight of the shaft helps to keep the clubhead under control during the swing.

What happens if shaft is too light?

A shaft that's too heavy will cause a “labored golf swing.” A shaft that's too light will hurt your ability to make solid contact. When you find the right shaft weight, you'll experience a “high energy swing” with uniform contact.

What does shortening a golf club do?

0:020:50What Does Shortening the Shaft on a Golf Driver Do? - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipIt makes the shaft stiffer. And two it allows you for more control in the golf swing. It's going toMoreIt makes the shaft stiffer. And two it allows you for more control in the golf swing. It's going to play more like an iron and the swing will be more upright. Than if the shaft was of maximum length.

Should swing weight be the same for all clubs?

All of Your Clubs Should Have the Same Swing Weight Make sure all your clubs have the same swing weight. Even if you think your clubs are a bit light or heavy for you, all the clubs in your bag should at least be very close to the same swing weight.

Does shortening a golf club make it stiffer?

"Cutting more of the grip end will still stiffen the shaft a little bit, but only because in doing so you make the shaft shorter, and not nearly as much as when trimming more from the tip end."

What does heavier swing weight do?

Swing weight is the measurement of the head-weight feel of a club. A club with a heavier swing weight will feel heavier to a golfer than one with a lighter swing weight, because its balance point is closer to the club head.

What is Golf Swing Weight?

Swing weight is a common measurement in golf that indicates the overall feel of a golf clubs weight while swinging it. Swing weight refers to the weight of a golf club at one-third of its top section (head) and two-thirds of its bottom section (grip).

How does the weight of a golf club affect the shaft?

The swing weight of a golf club is often directly proportional to the weight of its head. If the clubhead is heavy, the swing weight will also be heavy. This will result in the shaft playing soft. When the clubhead is light, the shaft will play stiff.

What is shaft weight?

As the name indicates, shaft weight refers to the weight of the shaft of your golf club. Shaft weight is an important aspect of any golf club and can have various consequences on your game.

What are the factors that affect the swing weight of a golf club?

There are four key factors that can have an impact on the swing weight of a golf club: Weight of your club’s grip. Weight of your club’s head. Weight of your club’s shaft. Length of your club. Altering just one of these parameters will modify the swing weight and in turn the feel of your golf club when you use it.

Why is my golf ball fat?

Turf contact. A heavy swing weight may result in hitting the golf ball thin. In contrast, you may be hitting the ball fat because of too light swing weight. Shot contact with the club. If the swing weight is heavy, the shots tend to get hit towards the golf club’s heel.

Why is there more shot dispersion in golf clubs?

Although you can add weights and restore the original swing weight of the club, there may be increased chances of shot dispersion because the original stiff flex tends to get softened.

Why is a golf club so heavy?

A golf club that is too heavy will be difficult to swing, and can cause a golfer to tire out faster during a game. Secondly, a lightweight club makes it difficult for you to retain the right path through the swing and control the club. Both instances will result in inconsistency and many off-center hits.

How does lengthening a shaft affect swing?

Timing and Feel. In many ways, the biggest effect of lengthening a club shaft is how it affects your ability to swing the club. The combined changes in length and swing weight make the club feel different. In turn, these changes will affect your timing and even your mechanics, perhaps without you even realizing it.

What does swing weight mean?

Swing Weight. Swing weight isn't an actual weight so much as a comparison of the difference in weight between the club head and the butt end of the shaft. It's expressed as a letter-number combination, such as C9 or D2. Lengthening the shaft increases the swing weight, which makes the club head feel heavier. It may even make the club too heavy ...

Can you use extenders to lengthen a golf club?

However, using extenders to lengthen a club will change the flex of the club, sometimes by an unpredictable amount. Not only does the shaft become more flexible than before, thus further affecting accuracy, but it lowers the kick (or bend) ...

Does lengthening the shaft make the club head heavier?

Lengthening the shaft increases the swing weight, which makes the club head feel heavier. It may even make the club too heavy for you, which will slow down your swing speed and actually reduce your distance.

Does lengthening a golf club shaft affect accuracy?

Accuracy. As a general rule, lengthening any club's shaft will reduce your accuracy with that club. The longer the club, the more difficult it becomes to hit the ball solidly. This is especially true when the ball is on the ground rather than on a tee, since hitting the ball fat is more likely.

Is shaft length a factor?

Shaft length is certainly a factor in how far you hit a given club. However, some clubs benefit more than others. Installing longer shafts in wedges and short irons will almost always result in more distance, as most players have little trouble swinging the shorter clubs.

Do golf clubs have longer shafts?

Effects of Lengthening a Golf Club Shaft. Tall players like Bubba Watson have to use longer shafts in all of their clubs. Most players consider using longer shafts in their clubs at some time or another, believing that longer shafts equal more distance, although that isn't necessarily true. There are two ways to lengthen your shafts.

How many swingweight points does a golf shaft increase?

By increasing the length of the golf shaft by one-half inch, the swingweight will be increased by three swingweight points (increase from D2 to D5, for example). Conversely, by decreasing the length of the golf shaft by one-half inch, the swingweight will be decreased by three swingweight points.

How to change the swingweight of a golf club?

A golf club's swingweight can be changed by altering the club head, shaft, grip or length of the golf club. Swingweights are measured on a alpha-numeric scale, ranging from A0 (lightest) to G10 (heaviest).

How much does a 9 gram shaft increase swingweight?

Assuming the shaft is not increased or decreased in length, an increase of 9 grams in shaft weight will increase swingweight by approximately one swingweight point (increase from D3 to D4, for example). Conversely, a decrease by 9 grams in shaft weight will decrease the swingweight by approximately one swingweight point.

How to adjust swingweight?

Golfers can adjust the swingweight of their golf club by changing the length of the club. Adjusting the length of a golf club affects the weight relationship of the club head end and grip end of the golf club. By increasing the length of the golf shaft by one-half inch, the swingweight will be increased by three swingweight points ...

What is swingweight in golf?

A simplified definition of swingweight is the relation of weight between the head end of the golf club and the grip end.

How to remove weight from irons?

Weight can be removed from irons and wedges by grinding material from the club head. Golfers can add one swingweight point (increase from D4 to D5, for example) by adding 2 grams of club head weight. Conversely, decreasing club head weight by 2 grams will deduct one swingweight point.

What is swing weight?

As mentioned before, swing-weight is a measurement of clubhead weight relative to the grip end of the club.

What happens if you have too heavy of a swing weight?

These lessons apply to your golf clubs! If you have too “heavy” of a swing-weight, you might have an increased sense of the club-head during the swing, but lack the power necessary to return the club at impact squarely. If you have too “light” of a swing-weight, you might feel like the Hulk, but lack any regards to where the club-head is during different positions of the swing, which once again will limit your ability to return the club square at impact.

What does it feel like to swing a golf club upside down?

When you swung the club upside down, you probably felt like your swing was extremely quick, and you had no sense of rhythm. When you swung two clubs at once normally, you probably felt a great sense of where the clubs were during all parts of the swing, but also probably didn’t feel much power.

What determines the feel of a golf club?

Swing-weighting determines the “feel” of the club (does your club “feel” heavy, or light?)

Is there a standard weight for swing weight?

There is no “standard” as to how you swing-weight your clubs, so it truly is up to you to figure that out!

Is swing weight a measurement of total weight?

Swing-weight is not a measurement of total club weight

How many swing weight points does half an inch of shaft make?

And that is the last thing you want: a set of irons with varying length and swing weight. With the shaft, you can roughly say that half an inch makes up about 3 swing weight points.

How much weight does a golf shaft have?

The shaft weight itself has the least influence with about 9-10g per swing weight point. If you take the identical setup with a 110g shaft, you increase the swingweight by only one point with a 120g shaft. Always assuming the weight distribution in the shaft is identical - which it rarely is. In this respect, the shaft weight is not a reliable indicator, especially since one rarely knows the exact weight distribution.

How much do shaft, head and grip weight influence the swing weight?

There is no absolute answer to this and it depends, for example, on how the shaft behaves. Not every 100g shaft of identical length produces the same swing weight. Shafts themselves have different weight distributions. Therefore, shortening a shaft or changing the weight at one end or the other is relative. The following information is therefore not applicable to every setup, but gives a good estimate.

What weight swing does Sergio Garcia use?

The wedges are extremely heavy, but the long irons are very light. Sergio Garcia plays with a swing weight of C-8, which is very light. On the other hand, he plays one of the heaviest shafts of all, the Modus 130, and adds some weight to the end of the shaft.

How does swing weight affect performance?

The swing weight has a big influence on how you can move and accelerate a club during the swing . Among other things, it determines where the club head is at the moment of impact and how it can be controlled. As you can see, these are all important points that have a great influence on performance. But why is the swing weight not right ...

How to make a club head lighter?

To make the club head lighter, the shaft must be removed, the weight removed (drilled out) and the shaft remounted . Both processes are not very simple and require a lot of experience.

What is swing weight?

Swing weight is probably something that only a fraction of all golfers have ever heard of. Every player knows the difference between steel and graphite shaft. Or between stiff and regular. But if you ask a player what swing weight he has in his irons, you'll probably only get questioning looks. And yet, the swing weight is of elementary importance.

How much does a swing weight affect ball speed?

5 of 6 testers lost ball speed when going from D0 to D9, an average loss of 2.2 MPH, however, two players posted their highest ball speeds at swing weights above D0 – one at D6 and one ad D9.

What is swing weight?

In simple terms, swing weight is how heavy the club head feels when you swing it . More technically, it’s how much the club tips towards the club head when you balance the club on a fulcrum.

What is the difference between a D0 and D1 swing weight?

The difference between two swing weights, D0 and D1 for example, is approximately two grams of weight in the club head.

What is the correlation between swing weight and spin?

The correlation between swing weight and higher or lower launch and spin appears to be entirely personal . Three testers had their highest launch at D0, but the other three launched highest at D6 or D9. Similarly, four testers had their lowest spin at D9, but the other two produced the most spin at D9.

How far can you hit your irons?

As they worked through the range of swing weights, our testers saw their median distance change a minimum of 7 yards and a maximum of 39 yards!

Is swing weight a personal thing?

Just as with every other element that we’ve tested to date, swing weight is a personal thing that can’t be fit with simple rules of thumb.

Where is Matt from Plugged In Golf?

He's worked in nearly every job in the golf industry from club fitting to instruction to writing and speaking. Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.

How long is a 73g shaft?

Yes the total shaft length will be 42.5" inches which is why a 73g shaft will put me mid/high 60's in grams for shaft weight.

Can you build 2 identical golf clubs?

If you build 2 identical clubs - one with a shaft that is 9g heavier, the heavier shaft club will produce only 1 additional swing weight, so that part is near neglegable. The additional weight I don't feel is a great concern either, so to me it would be your physical conditioning, age etc. that would drive my decision.

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Let Me Start with A Loose Definition of “Swing-Weight.”

  • In the simplest way I can say it, swing-weight is how the club “feels” in your hand. To get a sense of what I mean, try the following: 1. Flip a golf club upside down, and swing it 2. Swing two golf clubs at once normally I think we all could predict how these two actions would feel, but as an illustration of a “technical” concept, I think it serve...
See more on thediygolfer.com

Weight Adjustment Guidelines

  • Here are some useful conversions that will help you when swing-weighting your clubs : *Note: A 1 point increase in swing-weight points would be the equivalent of going from D1 to D2, while a 1 point decrease in swing-weight points would be the equivalent of going from D2-D1. This table represents the general guidelines that I have followed for several years, but they aren’t perfect. A…
See more on thediygolfer.com

swing-weight “Language”

  • What does C9 mean? How about D9? There are some terms and concepts that you need to understand before proceeding. Swing-weights are all based on a standardized scale, which looks like this. The scale in effect gives a “ratio” of head weight to butt weight. The heavier the clubhead is in comparison to the grip end of the club, the further down the alphabet your swing-weight wil…
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Finding Your Optimal swing-weight

  • As I’ve said, experimentation is the best way to do this, but I would recommend starting with lead tape until you have determined a swing-weight that you prefer for different clubs. I recommend lead tape because it can be applied and removed quickly without taking apart the entire club. There is no “standard” as to how you swing-weight your clubs, so it truly is up to you to figure tha…
See more on thediygolfer.com

Measuring swing-weight

  • You can measure the swing-weight of your clubs through a mathematical formula in this Swing-weight DIY Calculator, or you can purchase a scale here. If you purchase the scale in the previous link, this video explains how to use it:
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Methods For Altering swing-weight

  • There are several ways that you can alter the swing-weight of a club. Each of these methods will have corresponding tutorials, so be sure to check them out! 1. Lead tape 2. Tip Weights 3. Lead Powder 4. Butt Weights (Counter-weighting) I’m sure there are other ways you could alter the swing-weight, but these are the most common.
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Summary

  • I know this might seem overwhelming to the newcomer, but I have plenty of tutorials regarding this topic, so work your way through them, and I promise everything will start to make more sense! Quick review… 1. Swing-weighting determines the “feel” of the club (does your club “feel” heavy, or light?) 2. Swing-weight is based on a standardized scale of letters and numbers from A0-G9 3. S…
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