First, wrist to floor measurements do not help in any way determine the proper length of a golf club. It was a method developed to give club fitters a base to start with, but truly has nothing to do with finding the right playing length of clubs. Basically all it’s good for is determining what the persons wrist to floor measurement is. Experience of the fitter, visuals (meaning how the club looks at address), impact labels, impact data and feedback from the player are the way length should be fit. As far as graphite being longer than steel, the comments are correct in that it was done that way for swing weight purposes. Length should fit you no matter what the material of the shaft is. The swing weight will drop a bit going from steel to graphite if there is a difference in the shaft weight. If the drop in swing weight effects the feel negatively, then you can add some weight back to the head. My suggestion is to not worry about swing weight and fit the length properly. Tweak the swing weight as needed, but at 1.5″ over standard, it should be in a decent range with the graphite shaft. If you use heavier Jumbo grips, that will also contribute to a lower swing weight and it makes it more likely you would need to add a few grams of head weight. But, maybe not. Remember, even though the swing weight number may drop due to the lighter shaft, the head weight will constitute a greater percentage of the total weight of the club once the lighter shaft is installed, even with jumbo grips at 60-65 grams. This sometimes makes up for the drop in swing weight number with regards to the head feel. I have fit a lot of players with longer clubs going from steel to graphite and they did not loose head feel, even though the swing weight number was lower due to the lighter weight of the graphite shaft. so, it’s not a given that you will have to add head weight back to get to a certain swing weight number.
Britt Lindsey