Over the last few years a large percentage of new golf drivers have been launched with much lower overall weight. This seems to be a trend that everyone will follow over the next 12 months. Looking back in time to about 30+ years ago the standard club was made from a wooden head and a steel shaft, most of these weighed on average at around 370grams. Contrast this with today and you will find most golfers using a Titanium head with with an ultra-light shaft. Lighter weight grips are also slowly becoming more common as the 50gram average is slowly heading towards 40 grams.

Modern Clubs are Much Lighter

Modern drivers have hovered in weight around 300 grams, thanks to Titanium giving manufacturers an easy way to make bigger heads that weigh less. The bigger the head the easier it is to hit and that has made the game of golf slightly easier for the average player. As the trend to increase the head size gained momentum the USGA capped the size at 460cc, I can only imagine the size of golf clubs we would be seeing today if they hadn’t!

Shaft Companies Looking to Drop Extra Grams

Shaft technology has also made major advances over the last ten years, steel shaft commonly weight over twice as much as a modern light graphite shaft. With companies trying everything they can to shave a couple more grams off the overall weight. A good example is the Fujikura Blur 60, this shaft has a new type of finish achieved by using a low density paint, this has allowed them to drop the shaft weight to around 56grams! You can see from this example just how far the top brands are willing to go to drop some weight off their finished products.

What Benefit do I get from Overall Lighter Clubs?

Most large companies have proved after extensive testing that the lighter the golf club the more swing speed you will generate, this is in turn leads to longer distances. This works for many people but not everyone would agree as many will find a distinct loss of control. With a lighter club you can loose feel and find it harder to keep control of the head throughout the swing. It is no good if you get a slight distance increase but loose accuracy and end up in the rough. Again, as with most things in golf you will need to try different specifications of clubs and see if less weight gives you any benefit.

Lightest Golf Club Ever

The new Cobra Long Tom is probably the lightest club ever to hit the market from one of the leading golf equipment companies. The long tom is named after a powerful canon that was used in the second world war! As standard this club is 48″ in length (which maybe too long for the average golfer) and has an overall weight of only 269grams!

If you are looking for a light club then this is the one to test. The USGA has set a maximum allowed length is 48″ s(4feet) for regular play so this is as long as it gets. So far I have not managed to find a demo to hit but I can only imagine if a perfect swing is placed with one of these it could give me one of the longest drives I have ever seen. If you want to find out some technical information and available models then click here.

We will see in the coming months if the lighter club trend continues and it will interesting to see the new models that are launched at the 2012 PGA merchandising show in January. As with most things in golf trends come and go, if you have any comments about playing with lighter clubs then please feel free to comment below.