How to Make a Golf Shaft Heavier

Thinking about making your golf clubs heavier can completely change how they feel and perform, but it's critical to go about it the right way. This isn't just about making your driver heavier for the sake of it, it's about fine-tuning your equipment to match your swing's tempo and overall athletic feel. In this guide, we'll walk through why you might want a stronger, smoother feel and cover specific methods to add weight safely and effectively to get the most out of every swing.

Why Add Weight to a Golf Club?

As a coach, I often see players with a swing tempo that's too quick or jerky, especially with the driver. An erratic swing can lead to inconsistency and poor contact. Adding weight to a club can be a fantastic way to smooth things out. A slightly heavier club provides more feedback throughout the swing, allowing you to better sense the clubhead's position from takeaway through impact. This heightened awareness can naturally slow down a frantic transition and promote a more rhythmic, fluid motion.

Here are the primary reasons a golfer might benefit from a heavier club:

• Slowing Down Your Tempo: If your swing feels fast and frantic, adding a bit of weight can help you find a more consistent tempo. A smoother tempo almost always leads to better strikes and more consistent golf shots.
• Better Clubhead Feel: Sometimes, a standard or lightweight club can feel out of balance. Adding 4–6 grams of lead weight to a clubhead can transform your swing from slicing the ball to drawing it, giving you a sense of power and control.
• Enhance Stability: While lighter shafts may seem beneficial for distance, they can create inconsistency. Added weight can provide the stability some players are looking for.

Before applying lead tape to your driver, understand the two types of weight you are dealing with in golf: total weight and swing weight. This is crucial for improving your playing strategy.

Understanding the Effects: Total Weight vs. Swing Weight

The concepts of total weight and swing weight are the backbone of club fitting and will dictate how your adjustments feel. Misunderstanding these can leave you feeling confused rather than in control.

Total Weight

Total weight is exactly what it sounds like: the club’s overall mass measured on a scale. It includes the entire physical weight from the tip of the grip to the bottom of the clubhead. Heavier shafts and counterbalanced systems can impact your swing, often calming jerky motions. However, you can't just add more weight without potentially sacrificing swing speed. The goal is an optimal balance that encourages rhythm without losing too much distance.

Swing Weight

Swing weight is more abstract. It's not about the actual weight of the club but how heavy it feels during the swing. It measures the club's balance point and is expressed on an alphanumeric scale (e.g., C9, D2, D4). The more weight you add to the clubhead, the higher the swing weight becomes.

• Adding weight to the clubhead (e.g., with lead tape) increases the swing weight, making the club feel heavier during the swing. This is often used to create an immediate emotional appeal based on the change a player may feel.
• Adding weight to the grip end (counterbalancing) decreases the swing weight, making the clubhead feel lighter in comparison. Although the total weight doesn't increase, counterbalancing provides a different feel. We will discuss more counterbalancing later.

Think of it like holding a hammer. If you hold it near the head, it feels easy to manage. If you hold it from the end of the handle, the head feels much heavier and harder to control, even though the hammer’s total weight hasn't changed. That's a good analogy for the feeling associated when you add or remove weight.

Method 1: Adding Weight to the Clubhead (Increasing Swing Weight)

The most straightforward way to make a club feel heavier is to add weight directly to the clubhead. This method is effective, reversible, and easy to experiment with.

Using Lead Tape

High-density lead tape is a golfer's best friend for making quick adjustments. It's affordable, widely available, and perfect for testing. A 2-inch strip of lead tape typically weighs about 1 gram. Adding two grams of weight to the clubhead will increase the swing weight by roughly one point.

How to do it right:

1. Establish a Baseline: Before making changes, hit 10–15 shots without any additional weight at a practice range. Pay attention to how the club performs, including trajectory and feel.
2. Start Small: Clean the clubhead with rubbing alcohol and start by applying a 2-gram strip of lead tape. Hit several balls and note how your body reacts to the change.
3. Assess and Adjust: Test different amounts of weight and observe changes in ball flight and shot shape. Adjust until you find the "sweet spot" with the right balance of control and power.

Where to Place the Lead Tape

The placement of the tape matters, as it can slightly influence the club’s center of gravity (CG) and ball flight:

• Center-Back: Placing tape on the rear center of the clubhead can help increase the launch angle and add forgiveness.
• Towards the Heel: Adding weight to the heel makes it easier to close the clubface at impact, helping to fix slices or even promoting a stronger hook.
• Towards the Toe: Weight added to the toe slows down face rotation, which can straighten out hooks or promote fades.

Using Hot Melt

Hot melt is a more permanent, clean method of adding weight to a clubhead. This process is often done by a golf professional and involves injecting a thermoplastic adhesive into the clubhead, allowing for precise weight distribution. Although it’s commonly used by professionals, it requires specialized equipment and should be handled by a professional fitter.

Method 2: Adding Weight Directly to the Shaft

For golfers who want to increase the club’s overall heft without focusing on the clubhead, adding weight to the shaft is a viable option. This method is typically done by club builders during assembly.

Using Shaft Tip Weights

Shaft tip weights are small brass or tungsten plugs inserted into the tip end of the shaft before the clubhead is attached. They come in 2- to 10-gram increments and provide a cleaner, more integrated way to add weight. Consult a professional fitter on how to best use shaft tip weights to dial in your swing.

Method 3: Counterbalancing (Adding Weight to the Grip End)

Counterbalancing involves adding weight to the grip end of the club. Although this increases total weight, it doesn't change how the clubhead feels during the swing. It's an excellent option for golfers who prefer a heavier overall feel without altering the clubhead dynamics.

Using Counterbalance Weights

Products like the Tour Lock Pro offer adjustable balancers that screw into the butt end of the club. Experiment with different weights to find a setup that provides more power and control by calming your hands and body.

DIY Method: Lead Tape Under the Grip

You can also use lead tape under the grip for a counterbalance effect. This method requires wrapping the tape around the shaft before replacing the grip. It's a straightforward approach that provides additional weight without affecting the grip.

Final Thoughts

Customizing club weight, whether with lead tape at the head or counterbalance weights at the handle, is about fine-tuning the feel to improve your swing. Take your time and experiment with small adjustments to discover the feel that offers the best combination of power and control for your game.

Understanding these adjustments can be complex, but it's worth the effort. We've developed a more straightforward solution designed to help golfers of all levels improve quickly. Our Caddie AI tool offers structured guidance to answer questions and assist you on the course. Caddie AI makes playing golf feel easier, boosting your confidence and helping you enjoy your game more every day.