Important note: The one and only issue with the no-grip method is if you are building a driver to the USGA maximum limit for length, you can’t cut right to 46” because the club will be non ...

Having properly built golf clubs helps to eliminate variables, but using this technique to compare club length can cause a lot of problems.

What you must remember though is that when you’re measuring club length while out on the course. If you’re taking a free drop, or a drop under penalty, you must measure using the longest club ...

In most cases it's going to be your driver and, as the rules have specified, that club can be no longer than 48 inches (although there is a local rule that can reduce the length allowed to 46).

You should almost always use the driver as your club for determining clublengths for a relief drop. Unless you have a unique equipment setup, the driver is going to be the longest club in your bag.

You can use any club, even a putter, to measure your relief area. But because the putter isn't your longest club, you wouldn't be getting the maximum amount of relief if you used it to measure, so ...