Rickie's Shorter Driver

With all the reporting this week about Rickie Fowler wearing a motive force with a shorter shaft, I began trying to find extra data that might be of assist for any of you curious to try it. I did find a few beneficial bits.

According to Golf Digest, Rickie is using "a 43.5-inch Cobra F7+ driver with an Aldila NV2K 70X shaft." The shaft info may not help you, but the club model does because:

The Cobra King F7 driving force functions three weights with one in every of them heavier than the others. Fowler had the heavier weight positioned inside the the front position, which is designed to provide a lower ball flight with less spin.

I chose the photo above because you can see them. Golf Digest is unclear whether that front weight is heavier or lighter this week, but they know it has been changed since last week. Note that the heavier front weight lowers his trajectory and therefore his carry distance, but doesn't seem to have hurt his overall length off the tee much at all.

In reality, GC referred to that there has been a substantial amount of lead tape on the head final week, as Rickie was experimenting to discover the fine weight distribution. The Cobra techs then took the taped head and made weights that could fit.

Here's an exciting tidbit that I did not realize before:

Fowler stated his irons and fairway woods also are shorter in length, and bringing the driving force down in period made for an less difficult progression from club to club, as all are actually approximately the equal swing weight.

Rickie's only 5'9" tall, so it makes sense that his clubs would be shorter. However, given how long he is with those shorter clubs, it's a bit surprising to find that shortening his driver an entire inch merely brought its length down in proportion to the rest of the set.

The swingweight records is helpful here too. It appears from his remarks inside the article that his motive force changed into pretty heavier than his different clubs:

"The club is out in the front of me loads easier and with it being a bit shorter, it is simpler to keep when it does get a touch out of position."

The interesting part of this, which I found in a PGATOUR.com article, is that:

Fowler also is gambling a left-to-right ball-flight, which enables him higher manipulate his tee photographs. He became hitting a draw until recently to attempt to fix a fault in his swing; the membership turned into too steep in his transition to the downswing.

Now that Fowler has constant that, he can go back to the fade.

A fade is his preferred swing, but apparently the length and weight of the driver was forcing his swing off-plane.

So what does all this suggest to the common weekend player who may be struggling with the motive force?

Well, bear in thoughts that the majority weekend players generally tend to hit their three-woods higher off the tee than their drivers... And 43.5 inches is the period of a trendy 3-timber. Putting a motive force head on a 3-wooden shaft would give you greater distance due to the loft distinction and the ensuing lower trajectory. So the shorter shaft won't harm your distance in the end.

And you need to make certain that your motive force isn't heavier to swing than the relaxation of your clubs. Remember, if you cannot get the club around rapid enough, it is able to by chance alter your swing..

The adjustments for Rickie had been dramatic. He's hitting some thing like 25% more fairways this week.. And that's played him into a four-stroke lead. Today we'll see if he can convey it domestic with this new driving force setup.