Driver shafts are important to any golfer&#;but they can also pose several questions, many of which are best answered by an expert.
Matt Johnson from AFGolfStore, an independent golf retailer and fitting specialist, knows a thing or two about driver shafts. Here, he takes us through the fitting process for a new driver, and what driver shafts are currently on the market.
At AFGolfStore, we have no brand bias and only allow our customers to purchase clubs that offer true performance gains. I fit for Callaway, Cobra, Mizuno, Ping, Titleist and TaylorMade, and I&#;ve been a fitter for seven years, including five with Titleist.
When fitting for a new driver, we&#;ll start by looking at how someone swings the club for a guide on their shaft flex. Generally speaking, anyone swinging the club under 95mph would fit into a regular shaft, 95-105mph would be stiff, and 105 mph-plus would be extra stiff.
But you also need to consider that some players will swing it quickly but not aggressively, with more smooth and natural power, so they might not fall into the right flex. Then, we&#;ll play around with the weight. A quick and smooth player may not load an extra stiff shaft particularly well&#;instead, a heavy stiff may be a better fit, but this is a good starting point.
Then, we&#;ll look at ball flight. You won&#;t typically change the shaft based on someone&#;s launch&#;instead, you would change the loft, as that will do more. Many people obsess about a high or low-launching shaft. Yes, this works on a robot, but humans can override that, or the centre of gravity location of the driver head will change launch and spin. And, of course, if you tell someone that it&#;s high or low, they&#;ll change their swing accordingly, so it&#;s not a true representation.
Next, we&#;ll look at whether they&#;re missing it left and right. If a player is struggling to release the head, we will go for something that&#;s more counter-balanced where the weight is predominantly in the handle, which helps the clubhead to release easier, which is good for those players with a bit of a cut or slice.
In terms of driver shafts available currently, TaylorMade has 6-7 stock options, as does Ping and Titleist, while Callaway and Cobra offer a bit less. This is generally fine, but the odd person might occasionally want something that&#;s not there.
The Mitsubishi Tensei is a very popular shaft, the black and blue model especially. The Mitsubishi Kai&#;li is a new range which has, in a sense, replaced the Diamana&#;they have three colours: red (high launch, mid spin), white (low launch, low spin) and blue (mid launch, mid spin), which has been gaining some great traction on tour.
The True Temper Project X is another very solid shaft. It&#;s quite firm, so if a player is quite aggressive, that can often be a good shaft to go with. It&#;s worth noting there isn&#;t a tour version of the Project X, so all the shafts are the same.
There are also some excellent offerings from Project X with HZRDUS, which are in pretty much everyone&#;s stock option.
The Fujikura Ventus has been a hot shaft for a few years now&#;there are two types of Ventus shaft, one for retail and one for tour level. TaylorMade offers the Ventus shaft in the Stealth and Stealth 2, but it&#;s worth noting that the tour offering has VeloCore patented technology. That&#;s what makes it so ridiculously good but also more expensive.
The technology essentially means the head twists less, so you get less gear effect and less curvature in the ball flight, which results in very straight shots. We offer the VeloCore options in red and blue at AFGolfStore, which can fit into any head for testing.
Some people know everything about driver shafts before they come to us for a fitting, while others just want something that works, and they won&#;t really ask about the shaft&#;rather just about the flex. There&#;s a lot of data and information out there which can be both helpful and confusing at the same time.
Put simply, it comes down to a combination of launch and spin. If someone hits six degrees up on a driver, they probably don&#;t want too much loft. For example, Justin Thomas hits three degrees up, and uses a 9.25˚ driver. We use loft for ball flight, and we&#;ll generally optimise the flight in terms of launch, peak height and spin. Someone swinging the club at 80mph or 120mph can use the same lofts as long as they&#;re producing that same landing angle&#;we&#;re trying to get that around 35-37˚ for the driver.
This year, we&#;ve seen a lot of new drivers come out, and the Ping G430 is ridiculously good, super stable and super quick. You wouldn&#;t generally think of a Ping driver for distance, more for forgiveness, but the G430 is very good for any standard of golfer.
There has been a lot of buzz for the Callaway Paradym driver, too, while TaylorMade repeatedly brings out good drivers. The hype hasn&#;t been quite as high as when the Stealth came out, though, and we&#;ve seen a subtle change with the carbon crown with the Stealth 2 this year, but it still performs very well.
Titleist offers different heads, which makes fitting easy, and the new TSR3, in particular, is phenomenal&#;you&#;d struggle to find anything quicker than that. When you look at what the non-contracted players are using, that is normally a good barometer, and the TSR and the previous TSi are both very popular.
Nowadays, options are excellent for a new driver with a stock shaft. Generally, you can fit someone in 30 shots which is great, as people get tired of hitting a lot of drivers, and if people listen to you properly, you can easily do it in that amount of shots.
Many thanks to Matt for his time and insight!
About AFGolfStore
AFGolfStore was created from a small pro shop in Cambridge in and comprises three golf superstores in Cambridge, Milton Keynes and Peterborough. Operated by PGA professionals, the team is not commissioned or focused on selling specific brands or products, which guarantees them finding the right solution for the customer. AFGolfStore is also on Twitter at @AFGolfStores.
You will get efficient and thoughtful service from jundi.
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A look at Rickie Fowler's fairway wood shaft, which measures 42 inches with 0.5 inches of tipping.
Andrew Tursky
Fitting a golfer into the exact right shaft for them over the internet is a tall, if not impossible, task. All driver swings are different, and there are so many options on the current market. Shafts are made with different flexes, lengths, weights, kick points and torque properties, and shafts can also be tipped to change their performance and feel.
Frankly, finding the correct shaft for your driver is like navigating a minefield. That&#;s why it&#;s best to get fit into a driver shaft under the supervision of a professional fitter. Being that we don&#;t live in a perfect world, however, the reality is that many golfers will skip the step of getting fit and purchase aftermarket shafts without consultation.
Golfers buy certain shafts for various reasons. Some want to play the popular shaft on Tour, or the one Tiger Woods uses, or maybe they just heard from a buddy that a certain shaft is awesome. The problem is that buying a shaft because someone else uses it is like buying a size 44-long jacket because that&#;s what Tiger wears. It can be counterproductive to your game to purchase a shaft that isn&#;t right for you.
So, in this article, I wanted to help golfers with a few general rules and guidelines for fitting themselves into the right driver shaft. Of course, I can&#;t make any particular recommendations since I&#;ve never seen you swing. Hopefully, though, the information here can help you get into the right wheelhouse.
Along with Tim Briand, Executive Vice President of GOLF.com&#;s sister company True Spec Golf, I&#;ve compiled some things to consider when buying a new driver shaft.
Generally speaking, a driver shaft that&#;s too stiff will cause shots to launch too low, with too little spin and low peak heights. A shaft that&#;s too weak, on the other hand, may cause shots to spin too much, fly too high, and widen dispersion patterns.
A look at Tiger Woods&#; TX-flex shaft, which is quite stiff even compared to other tour players.
Andrew Tursky
Your clubhead speed is a factor in what flex is right for you, but as Briand explains, ball flight and performance are king. Slow swing speeds will generally require softer-flex shafts, while high swing speeds need stiffer shafts; due to variations in swing patterns, however, swing speed is only one portion of finding the right shaft.
Briand&#;s recommendation is to use your current driver shaft as a baseline. If your shots tend to be low and with little spin, try a slightly softer flex. If your shots are ballooning, try a stiffer flex. If you&#;re caught between two flexes, you can &#;tip&#; a softer flex to make it stiffer in the tip section. To accomplish this, a club builder will cut a portion of the top-end of the shaft to make it play stiffer; this is what many refer to as &#;tipping&#; the shaft.
Remember, though, that tipping a shaft will change the bend point, and it&#;s also irreversible, so make sure you know the purpose behind tipping your shaft.
The weight of a shaft has a similar correlation to performance as flex. The heavier a shaft is, the more likely it is that your golf ball will fly low and with less spin. If it&#;s lighter, the ball will tend to fly higher and spin more.
As Briand explains, the weight of a shaft has less impact on swing speed than golfers think, but that lighter shafts could increase the rate of closure. That means if your golf ball is starting left and/or hooking, it might be time to look at heavier shaft options.
Of course, the length of your driver shaft will significantly change how the golf club feels, but length affects strike point, too. As Briand says, a longer shaft will cause a less consistent strike on the face, and the golfer will tend to hit the ball closer to the heel. A shorter shaft, on the other hand, will cause a more consistent strike pattern, but impact location will tend to be on the toe.
A golfer&#;s physical size, arm length, swing speed, consistency, ball flight and feel preferences are all important aspects that go into finding the right driver shaft for you. Without going through a professional fitting, trial and error can help you determine a comfortable and effective length for you.
According to Briand, a high bend point will lower ball flight and a low bend point will raise ball flight. So, if you tend to have a ball flight that&#;s too high, look for shafts that have a high kick point, and vice versa. It&#;s important to note that variations in length and shaft tipping will impact the designed bend point of a shaft.
A low torque measurement means that a shaft has greater resistance to twisting, while a high torque measurement means it will twist more easily. Briand says that torque &#;plays more into feel than anything else.&#; The lower torque shafts will have a &#;boardy&#; feel, while the higher torque shafts will have a &#;whippy&#; feel.
Generally, high-speed players and those who hook the ball will gravitate toward low torque shafts, while slower swingers and slicers will lean toward higher torque shafts. It&#;s important to remember, however, that different golfers load and release the club very differently, so when trying out different shafts be aware of your feels and look closely at performance. If dispersion and ball speed are off, or the shaft just feels wrong, it&#;s probably because the shaft isn&#;t a right fit for you. Don&#;t force it.
Here&#;s an even more in-depth look at torque and what it means.
To hear more gear insights from Jonathan Wall and True Spec&#;s Tim Briand, subscribe and listen each week to GOLF&#;s Fully Equipped podcast: iTunes | SoundCloud | Spotify | Stitcher
Andrew Tursky is the Senior Equipment Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com.
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