Irons Shaft Strength

[Crazyface]

So after my purchase of a new driver with a ladies graphite shaft, I thought, maybe I'm using the wrong strength shaft in my irons (Stiff). So I popped down the range with the some of the wife's clubs (Cleveland with ladies graphite shaft) to try against my own. To cut a, possible very long story short, my conclusion was no real difference. Same sort of length and same sort of dispersion. So then this begs the question, does it really matter with strength shaft you use? I would say not. Not for irons anyway.

 

[patricks148]

So after my purchase of a new driver with a ladies graphite shaft, I thought, maybe I'm using the wrong strength shaft in my irons (Stiff). So I popped down the range with the some of the wife's clubs (Cleveland with ladies graphite shaft) to try against my own. To cut a, possible very long story short, my conclusion was no real difference. Same sort of length and same sort of dispersion. So then this begs the question, does it really matter with strength shaft you use? I would say not. Not for irons anyway.

prob doesn't if you have a ladies swing speed and tempo

 

[jim8flog]

If you only hit a 6 iron 50 yards with either the ladies or your own it does not matter

 

[jim8flog]

PS

Graphite shafted clubs will usually be half to one inch longer than the same iron with a steel shaft.

 

[Andy]

PS

Graphite shafted clubs will usually be half to one inch longer than the same iron with a steel shaft.

Mine weren't when I had them

 

[Orikoru]

PS

Graphite shafted clubs will usually be half to one inch longer than the same iron with a steel shaft.

Surely a ladies graphite shaft wouldn't be longer than the equivalent men's steel one.

 

[slicer79]

Maybe not strength but I presume weight of shaft is a big factor

 

[jim8flog]

Surely a ladies graphite shaft wouldn't be longer than the equivalent men's steel one.

depends on the arm length of either sex if correctly fitted.

 

[Orikoru]

depends on the arm length of either sex if correctly fitted.

I don't get the impression that OP is someone who gets fitted.

 

[jim8flog]

I don't get the impression that OP is someone who gets fitted.

Yep

He once gave me a couple of clubs and although the same make and model two different shafts.

 

[Ye Olde Boomer]

I match shafts on my driver and my fairway woods.
I match shafts on my irons and wedges.
By the time shafts and grips are reconciled, it's like buying the same set of clubs twice, cost-wise.

And frankly, I think the whole thing is in my head.

 

[Ethan]

A player with good timing and a smooth swing will not see a huge difference between the "right" flex and a much softer one. I saw Michael Campbell attempt to show the benefit of fitting by using a ladies driver and hit a series of beautiful shots until he deliberately did an exaggerated slap with his right hand.

 

[Swinglowandslow]

Hmm - Is there a widely held view then , that shaft flex and weight do not make much or hardly any difference in irons..?
All those chaps being fitted are wasting their money?
That there is no difference in clubhead speed?
I haven't gone into it personally but I am seriously thinking of going to an independent fitter for the purpose of getting the best from my irons.
Has anyone done that and found a worthwhile difference, especially in distance?

 

[Lump]

I use x-Stiff shafts in everything. I’ve used my female playing partners driver multiple times and nutted it 5yrds behind my fitted all singing special shafted driver. Makes a mockery of fittings really.

 

[Duckster]

won’t it also depend on the manufacturer?
I’ve been told by a few different pros / fitters that there’s no set standard of “stiffness”, so one companies stiff flex might be another companies regular.
If you like the swing of it, who cares?

 

[Imurg]

It's not just the stiffness overall but also where in the shaft the stiffness is....that sounds so wrong....

Is the shaft butt stiff, tip stiff or mid stiff?
Butt soft, tip soft or mid soft...
It really is time manufacturers stopped just putting S, R or whatever on a shaft because, at the end of the day, it doesn't mean much and only leads to confusion

 

[jim8flog]

When it comes to steel shafts for irons a few years ago I did some testing in the real world and not on a machine.

I had 3 identical TaylorMade Tour 6 iron heads over a period of a few days I put different shafts in each head all regular flex and tried them out over quite a few holes.

In simple terms my observations were that there was no real difference in height of a shot (I naturally hit very high) the lighter the shaft the harder it was to control dispersion (on a sliding scale) and the difference in distance was marginal. It did make me switch out the shafts in the full set for a slightly lighter shaft. (TTDG to TTDGSL)

 

[Swinglowandslow]

When it comes to steel shafts for irons a few years ago I did some testing in the real world and not on a machine.

I had 3 identical TaylorMade Tour 6 iron heads over a period of a few days I put different shafts in each head all regular flex and tried them out over quite a few holes.

In simple terms my observations were that there was no real difference in height of a shot (I naturally hit very high) the lighter the shaft the harder it was to control dispersion (on a sliding scale) and the difference in distance was marginal. It did make me switch out the shafts in the full set for a slightly lighter shaft. (TTDG to TTDGSL)

Strange that, Jim. If I understand your post, the lighter the shaft the worse the dispersion, yet you went to lighter shafts!.??
You didn't gain useful distance, so may I ask why you changed??

 

[jim8flog]

Strange that, Jim. If I understand your post, the lighter the shaft the worse the dispersion, yet you went to lighter shafts!.??
You didn't gain useful distance, so may I ask why you changed??

TTDGSL were not that light compared to others I was trying eg Nippon NSpro

I changed simply because out all the shafts I tried these produced the most consistent result for me. In an older set I had used TTDGLite so probably a bit mentally biased at the time.

Funny thing is that with my current set which I was fitted for the fitter recommended I switch to a heavier shaft.

Going back to some old comparison advice I found on the web the lack of increased distance for me could be simply that I am putting even more height on the ball with increased spin but as said this was real world testing and not based upon machine obtained stats. On that post the person said they noticed increased accuracy with the SL but reduced distance.

 

[Crazyface]

Ooop s I forgot about this...been a bit busy, My swing speed is approx 95mph, and this apparently should point to, just about, in the stiff shaft range, or on the outer edge of regular but certainly not ladies swishy shaft. But as Orik mentioned, the ladies shaft would have been shorter and I was getting the same distance comparing say 7i to 7i. Well it looked like it. I'm now not convinced about shaft strength in the irons making much difference at all.