What Is The Correct Driver Loft For The Average Senior Golfer (Video) - by Dean Butler
What Is The Correct Driver Loft For The Average Senior Golfer (Video) - by Dean Butler

I get asked quite a lot about the loft of a driver, what’s correct for the senior golfer? And it’s basically you can’t just say that’s the loft that you should be actually using unless you’ve got the perfect swing. So what is the perfect swing? Well basically if you are swinging the club at less than 100 miles per hour, the loft of a driver for most people would be 11 degrees that is what we would recommend for you. Now you can first of all, I don’t know many senior golfers who swing the club over 85 miles per hour. So straight away, if any of you guys watching this now are using 10 ½ degrees or less. Possibly that driver is wrong for you and the reason is this, if you’re over the ball and you tend to swing the club very steep and that means swinging the club up and down, first of all your club head will be coming into the ball and it will be decelerating as you hit down and you will be delofting the club. In which case is a case for increasing the loft because your swing is naturally a state swinger, and if you’re not going to go and have a course or lessons to change that, the thing to do is to change your driver. A lot of the drivers nowadays allow you to change the loft of the club face which is the ideal.

If you are a shallow swinger where you sweep the club back and you hit up and you hit the ball very high and let’s say again it’s 10 ½, then obviously for you, you can actually go down and adjust the head by one to one and half degrees, we never go too severe but really you want to be looking at maybe one and a half degrees either way. Now if you can see, if you think about what we’ve just mentioned there, how many of you watching this now actually prefer hitting three wood to the driver? Because that three wood actually goes just as far as your driver, and I bet most of you are hand on hand would say yeah, that might be 10 yards difference between the two clubs. I’ll bet you that your drive is most probably 10 ½ degrees your three was most probably 15, 16 degrees. So doesn’t it add to the argument that if you use the driver that was the 11 ½ or 12 degrees, that you would get more distance, if that three wood which is shorter in length and more lofted is just 10 yards behind your driver, then surely it makes more sense to get more loft on that club face and by having more loft on that club face creates less sidespin and it gets better carry. So I would suggest you go out to the driving range, try out some drivers, remember if you’re using 10 ½ degrees or less, I think you’ve got the wrong loft of the club unless you’re swinging over 100 miles per hour. So try out 12 degrees, just start at 12 degrees and I think most of you would actually benefit and see the results of a 12 degree driver really improving not just the distance but the trajectory. And trajectory obviously is what we’re trying to carry the ball. How many times do we hit the 10 ½ and it’s got to go on the ground there. So looking at driver, look at what you’ve got in your loft but basically you’ve got the information there. Swing the club back, swing the club through, if everything is okay the shot will go nicely 10 ½ degrees, the 10 ½ degrees for the senior golfer, it really isn’t the club to start with, you start with the 12 degree driver. If you kind of get to the driving range and you hit balls with different clubs and you’re still not sure, again go down to your PJ pro or go down to your local driving range, you’ve got large monitors because it may be well that your shaft is working against you. Hopefully there you’ve got the technology and the tips I’ve given you to go out and put that into practice without getting too complex and then see what the results are for you, but remember if your 3 wood is very close to your drive and I bet it is, then look for a more lofty driver. 2013-12-12

I get asked quite a lot about the loft of a driver, what’s correct for the senior golfer? And it’s basically you can’t just say that’s the loft that you should be actually using unless you’ve got the perfect swing. So what is the perfect swing? Well basically if you are swinging the club at less than 100 miles per hour, the loft of a driver for most people would be 11 degrees that is what we would recommend for you. Now you can first of all, I don’t know many senior golfers who swing the club over 85 miles per hour. So straight away, if any of you guys watching this now are using 10 ½ degrees or less. Possibly that driver is wrong for you and the reason is this, if you’re over the ball and you tend to swing the club very steep and that means swinging the club up and down, first of all your club head will be coming into the ball and it will be decelerating as you hit down and you will be delofting the club. In which case is a case for increasing the loft because your swing is naturally a state swinger, and if you’re not going to go and have a course or lessons to change that, the thing to do is to change your driver. A lot of the drivers nowadays allow you to change the loft of the club face which is the ideal.

If you are a shallow swinger where you sweep the club back and you hit up and you hit the ball very high and let’s say again it’s 10 ½, then obviously for you, you can actually go down and adjust the head by one to one and half degrees, we never go too severe but really you want to be looking at maybe one and a half degrees either way. Now if you can see, if you think about what we’ve just mentioned there, how many of you watching this now actually prefer hitting three wood to the driver? Because that three wood actually goes just as far as your driver, and I bet most of you are hand on hand would say yeah, that might be 10 yards difference between the two clubs. I’ll bet you that your drive is most probably 10 ½ degrees your three was most probably 15, 16 degrees.

So doesn’t it add to the argument that if you use the driver that was the 11 ½ or 12 degrees, that you would get more distance, if that three wood which is shorter in length and more lofted is just 10 yards behind your driver, then surely it makes more sense to get more loft on that club face and by having more loft on that club face creates less sidespin and it gets better carry. So I would suggest you go out to the driving range, try out some drivers, remember if you’re using 10 ½ degrees or less, I think you’ve got the wrong loft of the club unless you’re swinging over 100 miles per hour. So try out 12 degrees, just start at 12 degrees and I think most of you would actually benefit and see the results of a 12 degree driver really improving not just the distance but the trajectory. And trajectory obviously is what we’re trying to carry the ball. How many times do we hit the 10 ½ and it’s got to go on the ground there.

So looking at driver, look at what you’ve got in your loft but basically you’ve got the information there. Swing the club back, swing the club through, if everything is okay the shot will go nicely 10 ½ degrees, the 10 ½ degrees for the senior golfer, it really isn’t the club to start with, you start with the 12 degree driver. If you kind of get to the driving range and you hit balls with different clubs and you’re still not sure, again go down to your PJ pro or go down to your local driving range, you’ve got large monitors because it may be well that your shaft is working against you. Hopefully there you’ve got the technology and the tips I’ve given you to go out and put that into practice without getting too complex and then see what the results are for you, but remember if your 3 wood is very close to your drive and I bet it is, then look for a more lofty driver.