Get Yourself Fitted!

We discussed lie angle and how important it is to the accuracy of your golf swing. Equally important is shaft length, closely followed by flex. If your golf club is too long or too short, it will cause you to change your natural set up, or create problems as you approach impact and you try to adjust the lie of the clubhead. If the shaft of your golf club is too stiff, you may lack distance or feel. If it is too flexible, you’ll struggle to achieve an accurate, repeatable golf swing. If you watch the videos on this page, you’ll see that clearly defining correct shaft length and flex is not easy - you’ll have to get fitted to determine what these should be for your clubs.

In Theory, it’s Simple

It should be pretty simple to roughly determine your shaft length. As we did for lie angle, set up your ideal, comfortable golf stance. Hold the club in the most natural position for your stance. Align the clubhead so that the sole is perfectly flat on the ground (the grooves should be perfectly level).

Now, adjust your arms and hands so that they are in the correct position for address. This is easy to do if the club is too long - if it is too short, you may find that your top hand is partly off the club!

Swing the club a few times. Make any small adjustments you need to get comfortable on the club. Wash, rinse, repeat, paying careful attention to the lie angle so that the grooves remain perfectly parallel to the floor. Once you have your most comfortable hand position, you should have a good idea of how long the club should be.

One word of caution - this method assumes that the lie angle of your clubs is correct for you. If it’s not, you not end up with optimum shaft length.

Shaft Flex

There are five levels of shaft flex - ladies’ flex, senior men’s flex, regular flex, stiff, and extra stiff. If you hit a seven-iron about 150 yards, then you should choose a regular flex shaft. There are differences between manufacturers, however, so you should always try to do a hands-on analysis of the clubs you plan to buy. Different shafts have different flex points, too, which can lead to more loft for a given iron. Many professional club fitters say that the average golfer uses a shaft that is too stiff for their swing, so once again this is a good argument for getting a professional fitting.

Good Fit Matters

Keep in mind that an extra three inches in length in a driver shaft only yields five to ten yards more carry distance, but hitting off center due to a shaft that is too long could result in as much as a 30-percent loss of yardage. If you hit your driver 200 yards, an off center hit could give you only 170 yards. You’re better off getting fit and ending up with a slightly shorter shaft. Go on to this page to learn how the parts of your club head can affect your game!