You may have seen my thread about swapping drivers - an 11 degree that I seem to be really accurate with but 30/35 yards shorter than my 9 degree that went a long way but when it is bad it is awful !! I wasn't sure which one to go for so asked GM members advice and the majority said 'short but accurate'.

I followed your advice and these are the last 2 days results -

Played in the midweek medal yesterday and took the 11 degree driver and left the 9 in the car.

This is what happened - I only missed 2 fairways and that was by feet not yards and shot a gross 78 net 65 and won the comp.

What I may have lacked in distance I made up with good club selection and actually enjoyed being on all those fairways.

And today played in a society - 27 holes and missed only one fairway !! I won the day !!!

Best bit of all I come home to find out that I am now playing off....... 11.1  !!!!!!!!!

12.5 to 11.1 in no time - thanks to you guys.

That will be £10 for the advice (paypal accepted)

Well done.

Tremendous. Well done.

It's nice when you have that step change in performance.

Now you just have to live with the bandit comments until your performance and handicap balance out.

Thanks for the feedback. I am considering a new driver myself, had a similar dilemma and you have helped me make my decision.

Thanks guys, if it wasn't for you I would have never sacrificed the 9 degree.

I am now starting to hit the 11 degree driver a bit further so the distance isn't a problem either. I really can't recommend it enough and playing from the fairways is wonderful !!

Hey Pengwyn, let me know how it goes if you change drivers - I would be interested to hear your results too.

I went for my driver fitting at the weekend and went on the assumption i would rather have accuracy instead of distance.

Long story short, i was recommended the FT-5 draw with 11 deg loft. Accuracy improved greatly and i even gained on average an extra 8yrds, bonus.

Ordered the club and should have it in two weeks. The only problem is i lost £70 when trading my current driver.

Best thing I ever did was swapping my driver, I had a 4th hand 9deg Ping G2 with a Prolaunch blue stiff shaft, which, when I was  playing well went really well. Then a couple of months ago a guy at work was after that exact club and swapped with me for a new 11.5deg Mizuno MX500 with a Aldila NVS Reg shaft.

It was the best thing I ever did, I have hardly ever missed a fairway with the Mizuno which I still hit consistantly around 280 yards and have won several longest drive awards with, mainly becuse it's the only one on the fairway!

Aldila NVS with an 11.5° loft is one high hitting combination after a 9° with a prolaunch blue!

I have the NVS regular fitted to my 10° Hippo Hex and that flys high enough.  When I chose the Hippo I was unsure as whether to go for the 10° or 12° but as the NVS is already a high launch shaft I decided to go for the 10°.  Thank goodness I did otherwise with the 12° it could have gone into orbit! (by the way if anybody is looking for accuracy and distance, this is one awesome combination - the comments I have been getting on my driving since I got it have been very complimentary)

I only ever hit it higher than my old combo on a mishit, when I hit it with my stock swing it genuinely goes no higher than normal.

I play at Dudley GC sometimes which I beleive is the highest GC above sealevel in the UK, so the wind can play havoc with anything too high.