Difference a shaft can make

[cdog]

Hi,

Just a quick question. Do a shaft make much of a difference to ball flight? My current clubs have regular shafts but I have a very high ball flight. I got my irons Titleist DCI Os 822 when I was 14 but now I swing the club a good bit faster I think a stiffer shaft would help. I am looking at a set of Titleist AP1s as I like the look of the head as it is not too clumpy but I do not think I would to play with the AP2's. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Dan2501]

Depends on who you ask. If you look at the prominent online golf coaches, Mark Crossfield would tell you that shaft-flex does nothing, whereas Rick Shiels is a big believer in shaft having an impact on all sorts of things, especially for guys that swing the club quickly. Your best bet would be to get down to your local pro, or Titleist fitting centre, and see what they think, and get a setup that suits you.

 

[Alex1975]

Shaft flex, total weight, profile (where the stiffness is in the shaft, butt/tip) will all make a difference but the biggest difference will be made by you and your swing. Hitting it lower or higher with the way you create launch and spin will always have a much larger effect than shaft. Shaft is a tweak.

 

[One Planer]

Shaft flex, total weight, profile (where the stiffness is in the shaft, butt/tip) will all make a difference but the biggest difference will be made by you and your swing. Hitting it lower or higher with the way you create launch and spin will always have a much larger effect than shaft. Shaft is a tweak.

That Graphite Design Tour AD I had off you made a difference to my driving

I heard a figure banded about on here a while back that a shaft will only alter spin rates by circa 500RPM, unless the current shaft is completely the wrong fit.

 

[cdog]

Thanks guys!

Think I will speak to my local pro. Hopefully we can give mean idea what would suit me best. There is just so much information out there now about shafts its crazy. Again thank you for your input.

 

[gdc]

Shaft flex, total weight, profile (where the stiffness is in the shaft, butt/tip) will all make a difference but the biggest difference will be made by you and your swing. Hitting it lower or higher with the way you create launch and spin will always have a much larger effect than shaft. Shaft is a tweak.

This.

I had an iron fitting at the end of last year. My swing speed bordered between stiff/extra stiff yet I was using regular.
I tried various shaft options and the analysis came out virtually the same with them all (with the exception of a couple).
Result was I kept my reg shafts.

 

[Ethan]

Of course the shaft makes a difference, but the diference depends on what your swing is like and how close to your limits the shaft is. Crossfield did not show that flex doesn't make a difference. He showed that it doesn't make much of a difference for a hard hitting player to switch between shafts all within his spec. If you gave Rory McIlroy a set of Nike clubs with regular flex irons, he would still knock it round in a low number because he can adjust to suit the club, but if you give the average 15 handicapper a set of X100 shafts, he will struggle badly.

Shaft switching is not the answer to fundamental swing issues, nor will it convert unsuitable clubs into suitable ones, but it can help make changes.

Current thinking on shafts is that weight and flex are probably the most important factors, in that order. Too heavy and you won't get the club back to the ball, too light and you might find it difficult to control. Flex mostly affects control. The combination of a lightweight but pretty stiff shaft, say a 50g shaft in X flex in a driver with decent loft, is becoming popular.

The DCI is a rather old iron, and you will probably find that most modern replacements are stronger in loft, so you will ,lower your ball flight and hit it further right away. The AP1 is a good club, and you can get AP1/2 hybrid sets, say AP2 up to 7 iron, AP1 above etc.

 

[Alex1975]

Of course the shaft makes a difference, but the diference depends on what your swing is like and how close to your limits the shaft is. Crossfield did not show that flex doesn't make a difference. He showed that it doesn't make much of a difference for a hard hitting player to switch between shafts all within his spec. If you gave Rory McIlroy a set of Nike clubs with regular flex irons, he would still knock it round in a low number because he can adjust to suit the club, but if you give the average 15 handicapper a set of X100 shafts, he will struggle badly.

Shaft switching is not the answer to fundamental swing issues, nor will it convert unsuitable clubs into suitable ones, but it can help make changes.

Current thinking on shafts is that weight and flex are probably the most important factors, in that order. Too heavy and you won't get the club back to the ball, too light and you might find it difficult to control. Flex mostly affects control. The combination of a lightweight but pretty stiff shaft, say a 50g shaft in X flex in a driver with decent loft, is becoming popular.

The DCI is a rather old iron, and you will probably find that most modern replacements are stronger in loft, so you will ,lower your ball flight and hit it further right away. The AP1 is a good club, and you can get AP1/2 hybrid sets, say AP2 up to 7 iron, AP1 above etc.

Spent some time at Golf Principles last week and played with some really random shaft/head combos. What they really wanted me to buy were a set of PXi steel shafts in 6.5... I swing at maybe 97 mph driver so maybe 82 mph 6 iron but they recon I yank it so much from 90* to impact that it would be good. That shaft is so so so smooth I think anyone could play it, felt like a regular to me. I also hit a X Hot 2 driver with a 48 gram X flex shaft in it. I want to say it was one of the hand made PX Graphite's but the page wont load so I cant check. A crazy feeling to have a shaft so light and stiff but smooth. Absolutely no clue where the head was, I would have to swing weight the hell out of it to get any feel but an interesting experience.

 

[USER1999]

just come out of a full iron custom fit, and using my repeatable swing(yeah, right), the shafts made quite a difference to the numbers on the launch monitor. It took quite a while to find the best fit, that I was comfortable hitting. I could make almost any shaft work, but that's not really ideal. I wanted a shaft that worked for me, not the other way around. Certainly the c tapers gave a lower flight, and carried well too, especially combined with a low launch, low spin head.

Whether they will play well, I have no idea. The fitter was happy with the numbers though, and the dispersion was tighter.