The Clubhead And The Shaft
Here’s a great way to look at any golf club when you are either analyzing your own game or buying new clubs. Always think of the shaft and the head as two separate independent entities when hitting a golf ball. Each has a job to do. The shafts job is to bring the clubhead into impact the same way every single time with your given swing. The head’s job is to impact the golf ball and send it on its way with the desired trajectory, direction and best distance.
Use MPF Shaft Playability Ratings to find the right shaft for you.
At impact, the clubhead can actually be considered a free wheeling object. It reacts on its own mass and dimensional qualities. For example, on an off center toe hit the clubhead rotates slightly open and about its own center of gravity. It does not rotate around the shaft. The clubheads mass moving at a certain swing speed imparts the energy at impact to move the ball forward. This is what makes the design parameters of the head such as center of gravity location, weight and moment of inertia so important regarding playability.
The golf shaft is bending and twisting during the swing because it is basically a flexible hollow rod. As the golfer swings the club there is a point where the wrists release coming into impact. When this occurs the clubhead is traveling faster than any point along the shaft. This causes the shaft to bend in a forward direction with the clubhead ahead of the shaft as it approaches impact. This forward bending causes the clubhead loft at impact to be increased and the clubhead face angle at impact to be closed slightly. Also, because the clubhead’s center of gravity is not located in line with the axis of the shaft, centrifugal force acting on the shaft causes it to also bend downward thus flattening the lie angle. Oddly enough all this shaft bending action in multiple directions actually causes the clubs length to be shortened.
This is why a club that played just ok can play so much better if the proper golf shaft is fitted to the golfer. Finding the correct combination of clubhead and shaft is very rewarding. Take a look in the shaft section of the GolfWorks catalog and you will be able to find a number of choices in shafts that fit your swing by using the MPF Shaft Playability Ratings. Hundreds of shafts are listed, so simply use the 5 simple steps in the catalog to guide you. Any manufacturer’s clubheads can be selected by playability using the Maltby Playability Factor for Irons guide which is listed on this website. The Maltby Playability Factor for Irons book is also available for the enthusiast who really wants to get into all the playability differences of many of the most popular irons and learn why these differences exist.
So, always think of the shaft and the clubhead as two separate entities in hitting a golf ball. If you look at it this way it will make it much easier to learn how to fit shafts, find the best shaft for you and also select the proper clubhead for your game.
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Recent Comments
swingforever, I would stay away from the X100 SL shafts. If you want the S300 Dynamic SL's to feel stiffer in the longer irons, I would simply tip them an additional amount. So, your 7 through wedges could remain as you now have them and then start tipping 1/2" more on the 6 and 5 irons. Then, tip an extra 3/4" on the 4 iron and 3 iron if you have one. Of course, I am shooting from the hip once again, but from the information you gave me and a little reading between the lines, this might be the answer.
DG S300 SL shafts. Hi Ralph, I have a question, I had a set of OEM shafts DG S300 SL with a D2 swingweight. The shafts were absolutely amazing from 7iron to PW but seemed to get weaker in the longer clubs. I'm not sure if I should order these same shafts when I order my maltby MMB's and I am fearful of going to a X100 SL because I don't think I'm that strong of a player/swinger. I have tried both the Rifle flighted 6.0 and Project X 6.0 and think these also maybe a bit on the stiff side for me. I am thinking of gettng the shafts hard stepped once in the DG SL S300 shafts in my new set. Just wanted to know what you or anyone else thought. I can hit my 8 iron between 140 - 150 yds (not sure if the 150 yardage posts are accurage at my club) and my average drive is about 260 - 265 yds if this helps and my goal is to keep the ball flight lower as I hit it very hight but in a lightweight shaft. Sincerely, Gareth
Ralph, I tipped an Aldila NV 65 stiff .75 inches to get it to play a half a flex stiffer. It is now much less prone to hook. I was wondering how much a 3/4 inch tipping would lower the overall torque rating of the shaft. It was 3.5 degrees to begin with. Scott
5b2m, actually, the shaft manufacturers can design the shaft to be any torque they want. As you noted, some shafts vary the torque by flex and others do not. However, I am happy to see that you actually look at that stuff in evaluating your shaft picks.
Ralph, How come most manufacturers list the torque ratings as the same number for all flexes? For example, Aldila lists 3.5 degrees for all of its nv 65 shafts. Your MPF shafts do not have the same torque for all flexes and some Grafalloy shafts have different torque ratings when going from regular to stiff. Isn't it impossible to have an extra stiff shaft that has the same exact torque rating as a regular flex shaft? Scott
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