Driver shafts - real or made for?

[Piece]

My friend had a fitting at a well known place in Surrey where he was fitted for a new driver from the market leader. The fitting and driver wasn't that cheap as we all know with drivers. Turns out that the shaft that came with the driver he bought is the cheaper/poorer/inferior 'made for' variant. No hologram sticker or etching. So, you pay north of £400 notes and what you get is a cheap shaft. This cheap shaft may say the name of good shaft manufacturer but name is used under licence only. If you want the real deal, then you may have to fork out separately, just like he has had to do to improve performance.

I know this is probably not fresh news to some of you (I was aware in 2011 or so), but I wonder how many of us are aware of what we are really buying? It may say Adila RIP, say, on your driver shaft, but is it the REAL one? Of course if the results are good with the cheaper shaft, then all OK, but you would kinda like to know exactly what you are buying, wouldn't you? Don't want to buy a top-spec Audi to find a Daewoo engine badged as Audi under the hood!

Thoughts?

 

[Alex1975]

Often the made for are a similar/the same bend profile but with much less carbon and much more resin. So not the same weight or feel. Its a bad thing really.

As a point of interest on this subject, the best quality OEM shafts are Mitsubishi as they are the only shaft manufacture in the world that make the carbon and make the pre preg.

 

[USER1999]

Often the made for shaft is designed to fit a wide range of average golfers. It is not necessarily poorer, just different. The alledged real deal is often made for a narrower demografic, and is more expensive due to this.
If your mate hits his new driver well, why does he need a more expensive shaft? May be because of the pose value of getting 'the real deal'. Most manufacturers offer enough shaft options that some thing will fit.

 

[SugarPenguin]

I believe the stock driver shafts arent built to the same specs as the equivalent shaft if you were to buy it individually. I think more recently though they are a lot more similar.

However if your friend has been fitted I don't see what the problem is.

 

[Piece]

Often the made for shaft is designed to fit a wide range of average golfers. It is not necessarily poorer, just different. The alledged real deal is often made for a narrower demografic, and is more expensive due to this.
If your mate hits his new driver well, why does he need a more expensive shaft? May be because of the pose value of getting 'the real deal'. Most manufacturers offer enough shaft options that some thing will fit.

He always been an excellent driver of the ball. He wasn't happy with the flight and feel even during the fitting. He went back and discovered for himself about the 'made for' shaft. He swapped it for the real shaft and he is now much happier.

 

[TheDoctor]

More fool him, especially if he wasn't happy with how it felt during the fitting but he still went ahead and bought a new driver. If it didn't feel right to me I wouldn't have bought it, or arranged a further session to try on a different day to make sure it was the club and not my swing

Often the made for shaft is designed to fit a wide range of average golfers. It is not necessarily poorer, just different. The alledged real deal is often made for a narrower demografic, and is more expensive due to this.
If your mate hits his new driver well, why does he need a more expensive shaft? May be because of the pose value of getting 'the real deal'. Most manufacturers offer enough shaft options that some thing will fit.

This ^

Club manufacturers will work to get a shaft that works for the majority of people who are likely to buy them, but also offer alternatives, some free and some with a charge, for those people who want something different

Often the made for are a similar/the same bend profile but with much less carbon and much more resin. So not the same weight or feel. Its a bad thing really.

As a point of interest on this subject, the best quality OEM shafts are Mitsubishi as they are the only shaft manufacture in the world that make the carbon and make the pre preg.

Fact (links)? Or your personal opinion?

Having seen videos from another shaft manufacturer on another forum I will have to disagree, especially when you see people hand-rolling their own one-off custom shaft to their personal specifications and designing the colour-scheme

 

[Foxholer]

Often the made for shaft is designed to fit a wide range of average golfers. It is not necessarily poorer, just different. The alledged real deal is often made for a narrower demografic, and is more expensive due to this....

I believe the stock driver shafts arent built to the same specs as the equivalent shaft if you were to buy it individually. I think more recently though they are a lot more similar. ...

It's important to note the difference between 'made for' shafts - which are often lower quality than 'real' ones, as they are generally made for a price point - and 'stock' shafts, which may be either 'made-for' or 'real'!

Different brands have different approaches to the shafts used!

How important that is depends on the user!

...he is now much happier.

That's all that matters!

As a point of interest on this subject, the best quality OEM shafts are Mitsubishi as they are the only shaft manufacture in the world that make the carbon and make the pre preg.

H'mm! Not sure that those 2 attributes directly relate to 'quality' - though it's certainly an argument a Marketing Department could use!

 

[Hosel Fade]

Thats the case with basically every drivers stock options though or am I missing something? Are you talking about Callaway HQ or one of the external places?

 

[Alex1975]

Fact (links)? Or your personal opinion?

Having seen videos from another shaft manufacturer on another forum I will have to disagree, especially when you see people hand-rolling their own one-off custom shaft to their personal specifications and designing the colour-scheme

I said OEM.....


Sorry, RE the Mitsubishi thing, I was in mid flow and had to run out the door. It is a fact that Mitsubishi are the only shafts where the carbon and the pre peg are made by the same manufacture. Does this make them better quality... well it for sure gives them a better idea of what they are working with and what works well together. To give an idea, I have some pretty boutique, high grade shafts with the likes of 40 ton thread and the like and its believed that the Mitsubishi shafts that you find as standard kit in lots of drivers now stand up to the boutique stuff and the high end Matrix stuff. We are talking about quality of production, amount of carbon to resin, construction.

I am not going to search google for you, this is the kind of information you pick up over time and from people in the know but if you want to educate yourself rather than troll then devoted golfer.tv is a great place to start. Its not for the casual golfer though.

https://www.youtube.com/user/DevotedGolfer

 

[TheDoctor]

I guess the Project X LZ Handcrafted shafts are just run of the mill shafts then?

I will have a look at that channel, but having heard and exchanged conversations with Don Brown who is pretty much responsible for the manufacture and design process of graphite shafts for True Temper I have a different view but it
appears that is considered trolling so I guess I am out of here

 

[hovis]

https://youtu.be/t_xAQ3mjHiI

i have tried this for myself with a "made for titleist ahina shaft" and a genuine ahina. the same happened as in this video.

 

[Alex1975]

I guess the Project X LZ Handcrafted shafts are just run of the mill shafts then?

I will have a look at that channel, but having heard and exchanged conversations with Don Brown who is pretty much responsible for the manufacture and design process of graphite shafts for True Temper I have a different view but it
appears that is considered trolling so I guess I am out of here

You are a lost puppy aren't you.... A little too susceptible to advertising and in the wrong thread. Check your attitude, this is not an important topic... I am talking about shafts that are found in OEM equipment. No one is giving away hand made hazadus shafts as an OEM option. As I clearly state, Misubishi shafts are thought to be the highest quality OEM shafts (so shafts that are commonly found in your local big box retailer and an OEM product) for the reasons I have given.

Educate yourself....


VERY few people make carbon fibre and its random company's like Olivetti and Misubishi.... Interestingly the steel shaft company(who make very few graphites and non of the components but do make a lot of noise) True Temper are not one of them....

 

[TheDoctor]

Susceptible to advertising.....whatever

As for that devoted golfer channel, he could at least sound interested in what he is talking about, I almost nodded off watching some of the golf shaft videos

And nowhere did I hear any mention about Mitsubishi OEM shafts being comparable to your boutique ones

 

[BristolMike]

I spoke to Don Brown as well and he confirmed the only difference between the made for Hzrdus and the real deal shaft is where they are made. The made for are made with the same materials and to the same tolerances. The real deal shafts are all hand crafted, the made for are mass produced.

Some made for shafts are obviously better than others.

 

[tsped83]

You are a lost puppy aren't you.... A little too susceptible to advertising and in the wrong thread. Check your attitude, this is not an important topic... I am talking about shafts that are found in OEM equipment. No one is giving away hand made hazadus shafts as an OEM option. As I clearly state, Misubishi shafts are thought to be the highest quality OEM shafts (so shafts that are commonly found in your local big box retailer and an OEM product) for the reasons I have given.

Educate yourself....


VERY few people make carbon fibre and its random company's like Olivetti and Misubishi.... Interestingly the steel shaft company(who make very few graphites and non of the components but do make a lot of noise) True Temper are not one of them....

Get off your high horse fella, the guy was offering a different opinion.

 

[Alex1975]

He really wasn't....

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

As I clearly state, Misubishi shafts are thought to be the highest quality OEM shafts (so shafts that are commonly found in your local big box retailer and an OEM product) for the reasons I have given.

The keyword word here is "thought". There are dozens of companies out there making really top end shafts.

 

[TheDoctor]

Get off your high horse fella, the guy was offering a different opinion.

Don't waste your breath, I asked for facts to back up his 'it is believed' and 'thought' and all I got was I am trolling

I just wonder what Mitsubishi do when a bad batch of carbon is produced considering the costs involved to produce it relative to the cost the final product is sold for? Do they scrap it and take the production cost hit or do they use it and hope nobody notices...?

 

[Foxholer]

...
VERY few people make carbon fibre and its random company's like Olivetti and Misubishi.... Interestingly the steel shaft company(who make very few graphites and non of the components but do make a lot of noise) True Temper are not one of them....

Your whole argument that the manufacturer of raw materials is more likely to make higher quality applications/products of those raw materials is actually spurious!

The equivalent for steel shafts - or even club head manufacturers - is that manufacturers of steel would make the best steel shafts - clearly not the case! And that - by extension - in order to make the best quality shafts (or heads!) a company would have to be a manufacturer of the raw materials! That's simply totally wrong!

Oh! And True Temper own Project X - who DO make both steel and graphite shafts - though they don't make the steel, nor the graphite/epoxy! They also own Grafalloy btw!

 

[GreggerKBR]

It's a disgrace isn't it.
£430 for ONE GOLF CLUB!!! and then you find it's main component is a cheap knock-off.
The world we live in makes me a little sad sometimes.