Greg Norman is widely considered as one of the best drivers in golf history, so his opinion on the current craze of longer drivers holds weight.
Long-hitting Bryson DeChambeau, following his 2020 U.S. Open victory, announced to the world that he’d be testing 48-inch drivers, which is the current USGA limit on driver length. Since then, the golf world has been in a frenzy over longer driver shafts, and players have been trying to figure out if there are true performance gains for themselves.
While DeChambeau hasn’t yet used a 48-inch driver in competition, he’s inspired others to do their own testing. Phil Mickelson, for example, has been using a 47.5-inch driver in competition. Dustin Johnson, as we recently found out on our Fully Equipped podcast, was testing 47-inch drivers himself as of the Tuesday before he won the Masters. Viktor Hovland has been testing longer lengths, as well.
In the state of the current game, distance is an especially hot topic. Traditionalists worry about the integrity of the game and the future of golf courses, whereas professional and weekend golfers are more worried about how they gain distance for themselves.
Norman, appearing as a guest during the Golf Channel’s coverage of the 2020 QBE Shootout on Saturday, weighed in on distance and driver length in the current game.
“As one of the best drivers of the golf ball, what do you make of what guys are doing off the tee these days, and where the game is going?” Norman was asked.
Here is Norman’s answer in full:
“Well, I think the one guy who’s really made the huge difference is obviously Bryson. We can talk about that for hours on end if we wanted to. But, you know, one of the consistent questions going on on the driving range with these guys is, ‘What length is your driver? What length is your driver?’ And everybody is around 46 inches. Very few … I think Bubba was the only one with 44.5 inches. I remember, David (Feherty), we had our drivers at 43.25 inches, with 123-gram shafts. Now these guys are up around 47 inches! I was watching Brendon Todd hit his 47-inch driver yesterday, and he was just smoking it out there. It’s not just the length of the shaft, it’s the shaft itself, and torque and all that stuff, you know, the components. But these kids today have all this technology sitting with them and they can have access to it.”
If you’re interested in learning more about longer driver shafts and how they can help/hurt your game, check out the 48-inch driver test we recently conducted at GOLF.com’s sister company, True Spec Golf.
For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our recent Fully Equipped podcast in the Spotify embed below!
