Driver Loft?

Question

I've had a decent driver for a couple years. It's a soft flex, 10.5 degree loft. I don't have a high swing speed, however, most of my drives are high and I lose much distance. I have tried to tee it lower, I get the same result, just not as high with more spin, lol. I've read a 9 degree loft is for higher swing speeds, but I am wondering if it would help me out, get the ball lower with more roll. Are there any ideas or anyone have experience with both?

Answer 1

I think that Salmon has never played golf before and has no idea what he/she is talking about.

There are 2 ways to lower your ball flight.  First is to get a lower lfoted driver.  Typically, lower lofts are better for higher swing speeds, but that is not always true.  9* from 10.5* is a decent amount of difference in a driver.

The other way to bring ball flight down is with a different shaft.  You could either get a stiffer shaft witch will bring it down, but you may lose overall distance depending on your swing speed and what flex you change to.  Or, you can stay with the same flex but get a shaft with a different bend profile.  You may have a shaft that has a very low kick point or a soft tip which means that it flexes the most at the bottom of the shaft, thus "kicking" the ball up higher.  If you switched to a shaft with a mid or high bend point, the shaft will have more flex higher up, more towards the grip end of the shaft and will produce a lower, flatter trajectory.

The best way to figure out what you need is to go to a demo day where you can hit a lot of different clubs in different lofts and with different shafts.  But, those are not very common so the next best thing is to go to a store that has a launch monitor.  You can hit different shaft/head combos and see what gives you the best launch angle, spin rates, etc and then switch based on that.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Try a stiffer shaft, that will bring you shot down some.

Answer 3

Your loft is pretty standard nowawdays, but it the most important part of a club is the shaft and that is where I would look for a different ball flight.  You may need a stiffer shaft, or more likely one with a mid or higher kick point.  Just going to a lower loft probably with the same shaft probably won't help much.  Go to a spring "demo" day and hit different drivers with different shafts until you find the trajectory you like.

Answer 4

I've played with 8.5, 9.5, & 10.5 over the last year.  All stiff flex.  The 8.5 was the shortest.  I haven't noticed much difference between the 9.5 & 10.5 though.  I presently play with the 9.5 but if I happened to have a 10.5 I wouldn't change it as that loft is fine.  I'm just speaking from personal experience, not technical stuff I read.  My ball spead on a launch monitor is 150 mph which translates to a 100 mph club speed.

Answer 5

it does not sound like a great difference in loft . percentage wse 11.5 percent . simp;e solution have your swing analtzed on launch monitor. you will find that the 10.5 is the better head . the fitter will then advise you the proper shaft for the flight you want . best way to get 600 dollar driver for no more than 75 dollars . then you have 500 to enjoy  best money saver ever

Answer 6

what buddy said above makes no sense. Anyways,

the trick to your height problem is alot more to do with the shaft then the head. Ill put it this way, my friend is a scratch golfer out of our home course. He uses a 10.5 degree driver and smashes it out an average of 360. Its insane. Anyways my point is that it doesn't really matter the head loft, what matters is the shaft. His for example is like tour stiff or something. but since yours is a soft try going up to a regular, the first thing to do is measure your swing speed. a regular is for those around 100. I strongly recommend staying with the 10.5

all the best