Thinking about helping your junior get into golf by trimming down an old set of adult clubs you have lying around? It’s a common thought - it seems like a practical, budget-friendly way to get them started. This article provides a clear answer on whether you should do it and breaks down exactly what happens to a golf club when you shorten it. We'll cover the big problems it can create for a young golfer's swing and what you should consider instead.
Yes, you can physically cut down an adult golf club to make it shorter for a child. It’s a simple process with a hacksaw or pipe cutter. However, the more important question is, should you? As a golf coach who wants to see kids fall in love with the game, my answer is almost always no, you should not. While it saves money upfront, cutting down adult clubs creates a product that is fundamentally mismatched for a young player a_nd can lead to bad habits, frustration, and a swing that's difficult to fix later on.
Creating a good golf swing is about matching the golfer's physical abilities to the equipment. When the equipment is wrong, the golfer is forced to make unnatural compensations. For a child developing their foundational movements, this can be a serious setback.
Chopping a few inches off the shaft seems simple enough, but doing so drastically alters four performance characteristics of the golf club. Understanding these will show you why it’s not just a matter of club length.
The most immediate and damaging problem is weight. Adult golf club heads are significantly heavier than junior club heads. An adult driver head might weigh around 200 grams, whereas a junior driver head might only be 160 grams. That 40-gram difference is massive for a child.
Making the shaft shorter does not make the club head any lighter. What you’re left with is a very heavy head on the end of a very short stick. This creates an awful "swing weight" - the measurement of how heavy a club feels when you swing it. A cut-down club feels incredibly heavy and unbalanced, like trying to swing a hammer by holding it halfway down the handle.
Out of necessity, a child trying to swing this overly heavy club will develop a "lifting" or "heaving" motion, using almost entirely their arms and upper body strength. They can't possibly generate proper clubhead speed with a smooth, rotational swing. This teaches them to compensate for the gear, not how to swing properly. This all-arms motion is one of the hardest habits to break in golf.
Every golf shaft is designed to bend or “flex” during the swing. This flex stores and releases energy, helping to launch the ball and create distance. The amount of flex is matched to a golfer's swing speed. Adults with faster swings use stiffer shafts (Stiff, X-Stiff), while those with slower speeds use more flexible shafts (Senior, Ladies, Regular).
Children have much slower swing speeds than even the average adult with a "slow" swing. Adult-flex shafts, even the most flexible "Ladies" flex, are far too stiff for a child. When you cut a shaft down, you are trimming off the softest, most flexible part (the tip end, though you cut from the butt end), making an already-stiff shaft even stiffer.
A child swinging a cut-down, stiff shaft gets virtually no help from the club. It feels like swinging a piece of rigid rebar. They can’t generate the speed to bend it, so they get no extra “kick” at impact. The result?
A proper junior shaft is like a fishing rod - it’s designed to bend easily and whip through to help the lighter club head hit the ball efficiently.
This is the most technical but perhaps most important reason not to cut down adult clubs. The lie angle is the angle between the shaft and the sole of the club when the club sits flat on the ground. It's designed to ensure the middle of the club's sole is flush with the ground at impact.
When you shorten an adult club, you make the lie angle much, much "flatter." Because the child stands closer to the ball, the shaft is now at a lower angle to the ground. This causes the toe of the club (the far end) to dig into the ground while the heel (the end closest to the player) lifts up off the ground.
A flat lie angle has a terrible effect on the shot:
Proper junior clubs are manufactured with the correct, more "upright" lie angles to match a child's height and setup, allowing them to make a good swing and learn what a straight shot feels like.
Lastly, there is the grip. Adult grips are made for adult-sized hands. When a child tries to hold a grip that is too thick, they can't close their hands properly. This restricts the natural movement of their wrists, which is a major source of clubhead speed.
An oversized grip forces the child to hold the club in the palms of their hands (a "palmy" grip) instead of in their fingers. This kills any chance of properly hinging the wrists and releasing the club through impact. To overcome this, they'll often resort to a "baseball" style ten-finger grip, which further encourages an arms-dominant swing.
Even if you cut the club down, you’d still need to pay to have the thick adult grip removed and a properly sized junior grip installed, adding cost and hassle to an already flawed solution.
The solution is simple: buy proper junior golf clubs. Today's junior sets are not toys, they are sophisticated pieces of sporting equipment engineered specifically for the size, strength, and swing speeds of young players.
A good junior set will have:
The biggest hesitation for parents is understandable: “They’ll just outgrow them so fast!” This is true. But keeping a child in clubs that are too small for a little too long is far less damaging to their development than starting them in cut-down adult clubs. Furthermore, there are many cost-effective ways to get junior equipment:
If you find yourself in a situation where cutting down a club is your only option - perhaps for a single putter to use in the backyard or knocking a few balls around for fun - there is a way to minimize the damage.
Step 1: Choose the Right Club to Sacrifice. The best candidate is a ladies' graphite-shafted club. It will have the most flexible shaft and the lightest head available in an adult set.
Step 2: Determine the Correct Length. Have your child stand up straight, relaxed, with their arms hanging by their sides. Measure from their wrist to the floor. This measurement is a good starting point for the length of a mid-iron for them. Don't go too short - err on the side of slightly too long.
Step 3: Cut the Shaft. Using a pipe cutter (for steel shafts) or a hacksaw with a fine-toothed blade (for graphite), carefully cut the shaft at the grip end (the "butt" end). Wear safety glasses and a mask when cutting graphite to avoid inhaling dust. Ensure the cut is clean and straight.
Step 4: REGIMEN IT. This Is Non-Negotiable. You must remove the old adult grip and install a new, junior-sized grip. This is the only way to make the club even remotely usable for a child. Junior grips are inexpensive, and you can find tutorials online for how to install them at home with a basic grip kit.
Even after these steps, remember that the club head is still too heavy, the shaft is too stiff, and the lie angle is too flat. This is a stopgap, not a solution.
While you physically can shorten an adult golf club, doing so creates an unbalanced, excessively heavy tool that promotes poor swing mechanics from the very first swing. For the long-term enjoyment and proper development of your junior golfer, investing in a set of purpose-built junior clubs is always the superior choice.
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