by Jaacob Bowden
There's a lot of hype about how a lighter shaft can help you increase your swing speed...and to an extent that is true. Going lighter can be great for seniors, women, people that don't swing that fast, those with injuries, or any golfer who wants a bit of extra speed for that matter.
The true test of how well it will work, however, comes when it's competition time - whether you are playing in a tournament, just for a few bucks with your buddies, etc. Personally, I tried going down to the 65 gram shafts in the driver to get a bit more distance, and I hit it fine on the range. But whenever I got in tournaments I would lose a little sense of where the club was in my swing. This lead to some errant shots in times when I needed accurate ones. Thinking back about all of my drivers, the one that had a 90 gram shaft performed best for me under the gun out of all the ones I tried between 65-90 grams because when I got nervous and lost some of my sense of feel, the extra weight in the club came in handy.
Tiger actually seemed to be much more accurate off the tee back when he first came out on the Tour and was using a heavier steel-shafted driver as well. If I were him, I'd actually look in to going back to heavier. Giving up 10 yards would be well worth it if he were in the fairway more often.
Having heavier clubs can also be useful in your irons and putters too. Most touring professionals use steel in their iron shafts for the extra feel and control under pressure, and Retief Goosen won this year's Transitions Championship putting with the same putter with 40g extra weight that he used to win both his US Open Championships. For me, I like to use the B3 Heavy Putter for the same reasons...more feel under pressure, and the putter stays steadier when I'm sitting over nerve-racking testy par putts.
So definitely feel free to try going lighter...but also make sure to see how well it performs when you need it to perform the most. Going heavier may actually be the better option for you.
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