Wooderson, on 18 August 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:
However with shafts getting longer and longer for OTR clubs it has me questioning if shaft companies are taking into account us short shafted guys when designing their shafts. It seems to me that when you chop two inches off the butt of a shaft you would alter the overall bend profile of the shaft.
I conceptualize this when I think of Tom's zone profiling and realize that by cutting the two inches off I have shifted the measured zones. For instance the 36 inch measurement is now two inches closer to my hands. Tom or anyone else am I off base here?
From a PURE BEND PROFILE MEASUREMENT standpoint, no, you do not change the original shaft bend profile measurements when you cut off more from the butt end of the shaft. The reason is because all the bend profile measurements are set up in inches UP FROM THE TIP END OF THE SHAFTS. So for the purpose of the data base measurements, the bend profile measurements are the same regardless whether the shaft in question is 46" raw length or 44" butt trimmed length because all these measurements are done up from the tip, not down from the butt.
NOW. . . how a shaft plays when installed in a club vs its original bend profile measurements most certainly can be a little bit different due to several factors other than the playing length of the club. Bottom of bore to ground measurement is a big one as brought up by one of the posters. How much headweight is put in the club is another one that can affect the FEEL of the shaft, depending on the golfer's sensitivity to shaft bending feel during the swing.
There is just no possible way that any quantitative shaft measurement program could ever account for all these possible variables in how the shaft is installed and played. So it is up to each clubmaker or golfer to look at each "change" and determine if that factor requires any type of shaft stiffness adjustment or not.
One thing we have found when it comes to length is that there is an offsetting effect of the shorter shaft to the higher headweight. Yes, making the same shaft 2" shorter from butt trimming will SLIGHTLY stiffen the shaft - any time you take the same shaft cut it shorter, the shaft itself will be a little stiffer. But typically this is offset by the increased headweight that goes along with a shorter playing length, necessary to get the swingweight of the shorter club up to "normal" levels for the golfer.
The trick of course is to try to guess whether the addition of more headweight to get the shorter length club up to a normal swingweight is enough to make the shaft play NOTICEABLY more flexible or not. Most definitely there is no one hard and fast rule about this because shafts are designed differently in their stiffness progression - meaning shafts vary in how quickly their stiffness increases over their length.
Typically we have found that when you are looking at the playing feel of a shaft at a 46" playing length vs at 44" playing length, the vast, vast, vast majority of golfers require no special tip trim alteration for the shaft at the two different lengths. For a few golfers, yes, this can be possible depending on how refined their sense of bending feel for the shaft may be.
So in the end, it really comes down to this, 1) whether the golfer has played the shaft in question at a longer length like 46" and thus are familiar with its bending feel at that length; 2) whether they notice it playing more flexible or not at the shorter playing length.
If so, then the shaft may have to be pulled and trimming adjusted, with an extender then put into the butt end to bring it back to the desired playing length. But as I said, I would estimate that very very few golfers require such a trim adjustment when going from longer to shorter with the same shaft. Over the MANY years I have been communicating with and corresponding with clubmakers and golfers about clubfitting and clubmaking matters, I cannot remember the last time it came up that a clubmaker found that his golfer thought the shaft to change enough in a length reduction that it required a shaft trim adjustment or a different shaft totally.
So whack away from the butt, get the swingweight or MOI where you and your tempo like the headweight feel, and then go play with the club for a good period of time. After that, then think about its shaft feel vs what you like and vs the performance of the club. If you think the shaft really does play too flexible, then pull it and adjust its trim to see if you can get it right for your feel requirements.
TOM
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