Tool: Find the shaft for you
It’s no secret that little standardization exists within the shaft industry. The Shaft Playability Factor rankings help you account for flex, weight, torque, bend point and tip stiffness and find the correct shaft for you. Use this simple tool to take advantage of the most simple and effective shaft selection system in clubmaking!
Now, use this tailored list to select an appropriate shaft at The GolfWorks – online at www.golfworks.com or inside of any Golf Galaxy store and at www.golfgalaxy.com.
Putting: Is It Art Or Science?
Mass and dimensional properties of the putter will cause even the most talented golfers to struggle.
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Recent Comments
Ray286, when you get down to the very short clubs like the wedges, the shaft has less importance because there is little force applied to the clubhead by the ball at impact. The reason for this is the more oblique hit to the ball because of so much loft angle. So, you will probably never feel the difference if you use the 9 iron shaft for any of the wedges. It should play just fine and will not affect your wedge shots. Forget the spinner shaft, although it would work just fine. Shafts made specifically for wedges are simply marketing gimics in trying to get you to switch to a certain companies specialty shaft. All these shafts are top grade and play quite well, but again there is no playability advantage in using them.
Ralph, First let me say thank you for all the time and effort you put into these forums. The knowledge you past along is wonderful and greatly appreciated. I’m trying to assemble a set of irons. I’ve settled on the KE4 Tour with the Tour Flighted Rifle shaft. My Shaft MPF comes in at 3B2M which puts me into the 5.0 flex for this shaft. I’ve assemble a 5 iron demo and like the feel of this club. My question centers around the PW. Golfworks unfortunately has been out of the PW shaft in the 5.0 flex for quite some time. What do you think about putting the 9 iron or the SW shaft into the PW head? With these being flighted is there a significant difference in kick point between these 3 clubs? What do you think about the Rifle Spinner Wedge shaft in a PW? My GW and SW have the Spinner 4.5 in them. But my concern is that this would be a little too soft for a PW. Golf season is upon us and I’d sure like to get these on the course. Thanks again, Ray
djp, the commercial grade shafts have a much broder specification range. This means that some of your S flex shafts may be medium flex and some may be x flex. Most of these shafts fall into a standard bell curve meaning that most of them produced will be tighter in specifications with only a few in the odd flex (weight) ranges. The problem is that we do not know which shafts you may have in your set. You could have them "frequencied" to find out how good or bad they are. You should also check the swingweight and total weights. This information will give you an idea as to how consistent the set is from club to club. There are a number of steel shafts available in the 4B2M designation. If you are going to change shafts, I like the True Temper TT Lite XL shaft.
Ralph, I think I may have made a mistake in my recent iron purchase. I bought a set of TM R7 clones (T7 TM series) from Best Buy Golf Supply trying to save money. They are shafted with TT commercial grade stiff flex. I like the iron heads, but I'm worried about the shafts. Do you think playing with a shaft like this could be hurting my game? They don't seem to be very consistent in weight and flex. The 8 iron is much heavier than my Hogan Apex wedge. My MPF rating is 4B2M. I am a 12 HDCP. I appreciate any advice you might have. Dave
jfredX18, when a golfer has a problem with one category of clubs (driver in this case) and the problem does not exist in another category of clubs (irons), then the culprit is usually the equipment, but not always. First of all something is not right here. Your 9 iron distance tells me that you are probably an “X” flex stiffness in a shaft and you are playing a regular flex shaft in your driver. You may have a clubhead speed and acceleration of the clubhead that does not allow the clubhead to pass in front of the shaft as it comes into impact. If the head lags behind because you are simply overpowering the shaft, the loft will be decreased and the face angle will be more open at impact. We have demo clubs set up in our schools to allow players to experience this. We simply take a LL flex shaft driver and an X flex driver with the same specifications and have the students hit them. Keep in mind that in all but these extreme shaft flex differences that a shaft that is too flexible for a golfer will usually hit the ball higher and to the left. This occurs because of too much shaft flexing allowing the head to be farther out in front of the shaft at impact. This increases the loft too much and closes the face angle too much. You also say that you have been on a launch monitor. What was your driver swing speed? Did you hit any test drivers better than your driver or were the results the same? Here is a swing problem that is fairly common; some golfers will tend to slide forward coming into impact with the longer clubs. This can cause the golfer to get more ahead of the clubhead which can lead to a decrease in loft at impact. So, this is just a start so we can find out what the problem may be. Confirm your swing speed and any other information you may have and we will try to figure this out.
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