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Can anyone offer some advice on building a 50" club for long drives and scramble tourneys?

I don't have much experience with that type of setup. What kind of extra distance can I expect if I do manage to actually hit the ball with a 50" club? Would it be a waste of time and money?

Any input is appreciated.

Krank Golf may be the place to look. I would suggest a 48" driver as a better long shaft option than the 50"

I have an SMT indio 8.5 with a 48" usga or 50" lda accuflex pro ld depending on how you measure it. Its max legal length. If your interested pm me ... head only or shaft only or the combo.

thats the real accuflex pro ld too, not the fakey

48" is max legal, so don't go over that. How much extra yardage you might get would depend on how well you can make contact with the longer driver. Unless your scores are in the 70's, I doubt you would hit a long driver well enough to hit the ball as long as your standard driver. If you do get one, plan on spending a lot of time getting used to it. I hit a long drive driver, 50" and it was way to hard to control. I'd have to hit it and nothing else for a few days, just to get used to it. For one thing, the swing weight is way up there.

I play in the high 70's and low 80's, a handicap of 8 or 10. I don't have any problem hitting my driver solid, I never top drives or pop them up. Once in a while I catch one off the toe or heel, but I'm sure the extra 5" will make matters worse. I was thinking of getting one off of ebay or Golf Exchange.com - Golf's Auction Place if I could find one cheap enough. Otherwise, I might order a Cobra Speed Pro D with a ProForceV2 LD and if I didn't like it, pull the shaft and put a standard length shaft in it.

I use a 46" driver. My control is the same for a 45" as I swing with same tempo. Building a 48" will take some experience as swingweight is an issue. As you get longer the swingweight gets higher unless you compensate. The hottest long drivers out there are now made by ""GEEK Golf" Steve Almo has left Bang golf to head GEEK Golf. The DCT driver head now has the distance record for a tournament event at 552 yards. They also make a FailSafe 2 model that has more carry than the DCT (DOT com This ) head. Why don't you do a search on other forums for the GEEK driver heads and members there can set you up. Golfdiscussions.com is a good place to start. Freegolfinfo.com also has a number of GEEK experts online. FGI also has a long driver section in their forum

Good luck

BTW I had a BANG Mellow Yellow made when Almo was still at Bang. That was one hot head.

Thanks Zaphod, I'll check that site out.

have you ever hit one of those longer drivers....it requires totally different timing....and can for some people it can seriously throw off their natrual swings

Not all of the head used in long drive competition are legal for USGA golf. If you're competing in a scramble, you'd be cheating if you use a driver over 48 inches, or with one of those heads. Just wanted to let you know.

A very general rule of thumb is for every 1.5" you make the club longer, you'll need 1 flex stiffer. Also, depending on what shaft you use, about every 1" longer, you want 1* less loft. Again, these are general things that you need to think about if you are going to build an LD driver. Another thing is cluhead weight 195g or less feels better with an extended clublengths.

A few monthes ago I went to a long drive demo where the guy that came in 6th at Mesquite was doing the demo. He has a 2 or 3 handicap also. His driver is 48", measured the way the USGA measures them, with a 95 gram XX stiff shaft. This guy is real good, and with a 2 or 3 handicap, he's not too bad at normal golf as well. And he told me he has a real hard time getting used to a 45 inch driver when he plays a round of golf, The difference is so much that it kills his game off the tee. I tried his driver a few times, and it was real hard to make a decent swing. I doubt most golfers could switch back and forth with any kind of success at both clubs.

Martini,

Check out Xtremedistance.com or mmgolf.com. Component builders specializing in long drivers.

Should be able to give you a response on any questions you have. Good spot to start research. Previous posts are right. As you increase shaft length flex, shaft weight, and head weight and loft becomes an issue with total package.

Other advise is to look on ebay for already built drivers. Just do a search in drivers using filters of 46, 47, 48 or whatever length you are looking for

Good luck

Thanks to all. If I can't hit the club I buy, you'll see it on the For Sale board, LOL!