Does the shaft make any difference???

[NorfolkShaun]

Thoughts on this please.

There are quite a lot of differing thoughts on Youtube and the internet etc. about golf shafts making a lot to no difference.

I have spoken to a couple of local pros about it. One describes it as the engine of the club and 'incredibly important' to know your numbers and get the correct shaft. (runs a shop and range)

To a different pro who suggested, 'just look at the results'. If you hit clubs ok they must be fine and there will be little difference. (gives my lessons and has no shop)

I have gone through a lot of swing changes since I was ever fitted for a club over 5 years ago and have increased my distances by around a club with all my clubs.

Thing is I now cannot help but think I should go for a fitting, however I hit my clubs well, though I do sometime feel a little loss of control (not much).

Would a shaft / club fitting help?

Or am I kidding myself and I should look at the results. Which are generally good and pocket the cash and stop listening to the marking guff.

After all, i'm an amature handicap golfer, and by nature my swing is never 100% the same each time.

 

[Fish]

To me the shaft is the engine.

 

[tsped83]

This shaft is the engine tosh is just that, tosh. The golfer is the engine if people insist on that analogy.

 

[hovis]

shaft mostly definitely makes a difference but not as nearly as much as people think. a shaft cant make a slice a fade or a hook into a draw.

i forgot my golf clubs a few weeks back and used one of the hire sets. the shaft was very soft (almost like an elastic band) although it felt dreadful i still found as many fairways as i usually do

people will insist that they dont like a particular shaft because it makes the ball "balloon". this doesn't happen.

one of the fitters at our place hates dynamic gold s300 shafts with passion. he said he hates everything about them. his twin brother Baught some dg stickers off ebay and placed them on his preferred kbs shafts. he hit two balls and said "swap this shaft, its crap"

https://youtu.be/ZVZ3PCgxTlw
worth a watch

 

[One Planer]

This shaft is the engine tosh is just that, tosh. The golfer is the engine if people insist on that analogy.

Agree. Engine is the person swinging the club, the shaft is the gear box.

 

[User101]

A bad swing will have far more influence than a badly fitted shaft. However, look at my topic about modern day drivers from the weekend, has a different shaft in a different head given me a huge gain in carry, I don't know.

I went for a fitting last week and I have never used stiff shafted irons in the past, fitter recommended KBS tour stiff shafts for me, so what do I know.

 

[the_coach]

the more anyone sprays the strike pattern all over the face the less a shaft will be of a whole bunch of assistance - but even generally some shafts will still help better than others

shafts re -spin rate tend with a center strike to affect the rpm's by around 500- 600 rpm max

it's the golfer that provides the forces & torques with the swing motion which the shaft then helps to get out to the club head with the best club head to ball speed efficiency at impact - shaft not 'the engine'

one of the biggest plusses for a shaft that works with a particular swing motion is providing 'feel' plus having a shaft profile that again works with a particular swing motion to more reliably place the cg of the club head 'behind' the ball

my take is everyone should be looking to get a fitting preferably by a specialist fitter even better if that also happens to be a teaching pro - but it really has to be on a launch monitor to be able to get proper data

folks should approach that fitting looking to swing whatever club with their 'stock' swing & not looking to swing straight out of their shoes searching for maximum distance

- it's a ways more important to look to get the best all-round launch conditions - so strike pattern/launch angle/AoA/dynamic loft/spin rate plus/ball speed etc. & being able to get the cg behind the ball with control of face angle & path
that's a ways more important than just looking as the greatest distance travelled

 

[User101]

Brilliant again coach. As for feel of a shaft, changing from my TM R11s to my Titleist 915, I can actually feel the clubhead on my titleist as I swing, I couldn't feel anything of the TM.

 

[jim8flog]

To me absolutely.

A couple of years ago I had 3 identical 6 iron heads and 6 different shafts. Trying out different options I took these out on the course to try out in 'real time'. Although one or two played very similarly side by side there was a lot of variation between one and another fairly different shafts eg a NS pro 850 and TT Dynamic Gold. Made the choice of shaft to fit in my irons a fairly obvious choice.

When I went for a fitting the guy was recommending a shaft solely based upon the numbers. I had already discounted that shaft based upon 'real time' usage.

 

[USER1999]

To me, the most important aspect of the shaft is the weight. Get this right, and i can play equally badly with anything.

Too light, for me, equals no feel, and no control.

 

[patricks148]

i believe it can. A guy i play with one is off +1 and had the same driver for 15 years that up until this year no other driver could get near distance wise. he switched to a lighter lower spinning shaft and he hits in 15 yards further into the wind. he has a great swing and hits it a country mile and is not a big guy and 55.

 

[Curls]

Depends.

If you're already using something well-suited, then changing will only give you a minor gain (though there is a school of thought that says that every incremental gain you can aquire you should do because they'll all add up).

I had a hire set once with a soft regular shaft, it felt like the head was attached to a rope. I hated it.

For a long time I played the Ping regular shaft in a G15 and got on well with it, until I tried the regular shaft in a Titleist which played stiffer. I felt like I could get into it more, like I knew when the release was better and could get behind it. This added real yards, this season I was in places I hadn't seen previously on my home course.

I recently bought a stiff shaft to see if the progression could be continued. While I did feel like I could launch it, it doesn't really offer me much more than my current driver except the launch is lower. This is one range session on a cold day with frozen range balls, so I'm not quite putting it up for sale yet!

 

[Deleted member 23270]

shaft mostly definitely makes a difference but not as nearly as much as people think. a shaft cant make a slice a fade or a hook into a draw.

Everything I've read suggests the shaft can change the shape. If it doesn't what is the point of being fitted?

 

[Robster59]

When I went for a fitting at Callaway I tried several shafts all with the same head. All were measured on the trackman and we reviewed the results afterwards. To be honest, before I saw the results I knew what shaft it would be as it felt great and gave me better results. It was the UST Recoil graphite. No I had no plans to buy graphite when I went there but the results convinced me and I've been very happy with them ever since.
So in my opinion, shafts do make a difference.

 

[HankMarvin]

i believe it can. A guy i play with one is off +1 and had the same driver for 15 years that up until this year no other driver could get near distance wise. he switched to a lighter lower spinning shaft and he hits in 15 yards further into the wind. he has a great swing and hits it a country mile and is not a big guy and 55.

Are you speaking about Robert ?

 

[hovis]

Everything I've read suggests the shaft can change the shape. If it doesn't what is the point of being fitted?

if you've read it then please explain how a shaft can change shape?. to change the shape of the shot then the shaft has to be present the club face in a more open or closed position than normal. that is what is known as torque. whilst the clubhead can twist the shaft on the downswing you are talking micro millimetres. not enough to change your draw into a fade.

shafts do matter but like i said its more fine tuning than game changing

 

[NorfolkShaun]

shaft mostly definitely makes a difference but not as nearly as much as people think. a shaft cant make a slice a fade or a hook into a draw.

i forgot my golf clubs a few weeks back and used one of the hire sets. the shaft was very soft (almost like an elastic band) although it felt dreadful i still found as many fairways as i usually do

people will insist that they dont like a particular shaft because it makes the ball "balloon". this doesn't happen.

one of the fitters at our place hates dynamic gold s300 shafts with passion. he said he hates everything about them. his twin brother Baught some dg stickers off ebay and placed them on his preferred kbs shafts. he hit two balls and said "swap this shaft, its crap"

https://youtu.be/ZVZ3PCgxTlw
worth a watch

Thank you, that is a good video and I have seen it before.

Mark is very much on the side of strike and loft and not so much the shaft more the complete package not just one part makes the difference, one think that he does mention is how important the feel is. Maybe that's what it comes down to with a shaft, feel and confidence.

A gent I regularly play with has just changed his shaft and he is by quite inconsistent but he has gone from regular to stiff and it does appear this has improved his accuracy.

That said he can still hook slice top and sky his driver perfectly

 

[Deleted member 23270]

if you've read it then please explain how a shaft can change shape?. to change the shape of the shot then the shaft has to be present the club face in a more open or closed position than normal. that is what is known as torque. whilst the clubhead can twist the shaft on the downswing you are talking micro millimetres. not enough to change your draw into a fade.

shafts do matter but like i said its more fine tuning than game changing

You said in your original post that a shaft can't change a slice into a fade or a hook into a draw. Well actually it can.

 

[hovis]

You said in your original post that a shaft can't change a slice into a fade or a hook into a draw. Well actually it can.

please explain how..... your saying that shaft can control face angle at impact to that extent? even shaft manufacturers say 6/7 degree is the absolute maximum you can get out of a shaft. and even that amount requires a special individual with the worst shaft possible

 

[patricks148]

Are you speaking about Robert ?

yes