Shaft Discussion - Hot Shafts? More?

In iron shafts... I love my new Black Golds. They feel better than the Project X's and I get a nice trajectory with them. They also look great.

The Aldila Proto in my hybrids are also great feeling. They keep my shots from ballooning and have a nice feel.

In my woods I have those UST Proforce Gold 65 and wonder if I should switch to the V2... I like the cheap shafts I have in there, but is there a reason I should consider an upgrade?

I switched to v2 65g from stiff fujukara's in my hibore last summer and instantly noticed a lot more stability and a lot more pop. I definitely think they are worth the money. I just recently added a v2 shaft to my 3 wood as well and couldn't be happier. I really love the trajectory with the v2's vs. the stock fuji's as well. In my opinion, you won't miss the extra money you will spend on the upgrade once you see the overall better performance.

From my own experience I would say it is also another thing to set yourself appart from other golfers!

You just know that somebody is really into golf if he does not play stock equipment.

Of course it is a prestige thing too! You cannot just say "Oh, I play the Mizuno MP-32" but "I play the Mizuno MP-32 with ProjectX shafts..."

That was a little bit of a soul-strip, but it is true..

P.s: Besides what you want others to think about you, you also should play like this! I don't like people with expansive/customized products when they play bad, me including!

For me its a cost benefit issue, I am really not convinced that the newest shafts are enough better to justify their sometimes stratospheric prices. It seems to be driven more by early adopter behavior, like all those poor sods who purchased HD DVD players and now everything is going to be Blu Ray and probably price drop 25 percent. Is your shaft introduced two years ago, now selling for 65 to 100 dollars really inferior to the 200 dollar plus shaft introduced this year? What percentage of improvement is needed to justify that big a price difference? I am amazed that the attitude reflected by golfers in their chioces in irons, very slow to adopt new shafts, is so dramatically different in woods.

i really want to try a set of nippons. they sound a lot better for me than my dg s300's..

Haven't hit many graphite shafts, but my favorite steel shaft is the TT Dynamic Gold. It is nice and heavy, and keeps the trajectory perfect. However, the best steel shafts I ever played were the shafts in my 1972 Ben Hogan Apex blades (I think they were called Hogan Apex 3, bun not sure).

In drivers and woods:

I still think that UST Proforce are the beez neez. Its a hard one to comment on, but i have also used the Adila NV and they are great. In irons, i haven't ever used anything but Dynamic Golds.

For woods I get a lot of questions/requests for the UST V2, the entire Matrix OZIK line, Aldila's NV and Hybrex Helix Tour (although these shafts are manufactured close by in Tempe, AZ so that helps when they have a good presence at demo days). With irons I would say the Rifle Project X leads here as well as the rest of the Rifle line. I have only received a few questions on the True Temper Black Gold or Tour Concept shafts.

Most of my customers are repairing a broken shaft or looking for advice on what shaft to order with their new driver. More and more golfers are getting educated on the benefits of being fitted properly but I see that the majority of the population is unaware of this benefit. I see it often in this forum and others, countless threads are started with the question, "What shaft should I be using?" It's not always an easy question to answer and will usually have to go through a fitting with the launch monitor.

Aside from proper fitting I get asked 1 out of 3 times about spining, FLO or PUREing.

For me it's a tie between UST and Aldila

Interestingly enough better players are looking for a particular feel, regardless of performance often times. They expect a shaft to feel and react a certain way. They are also looking to squeeze out that last bit of distance in their drivers. With fairway wood, hybrids and irons a premium is placed on control and consistency.

With mid to high handicap players they are often looking for a swing correction. They want a shaft to minimize their out of bounds or fix a slice. As much as it's talked about online not many people discuss things like the frequency, torque, profile, etc when in person. I attribute a lot of this to what I mentioned above about the majority of golfers I see just not aware of this information.

I'm really liking my new SK Fiber shafts; especially the Tour Trac 80. Almost wish I would have put one in my driver.

For me, it's the Accra series from UST for both Drivers and Fairway Woods. I have one and it's a dynamite shaft. It's heavy and allows me to feel the club all throughout the swing. I played baseball and this particular shaft reminds me of swinging a bat. Additionally, I have not lost any distance since replacing the original shaft. In fact, I've gained distance. Considering I have a 400CC driver, it just shows the shaft is more important.

For irons, it's the Project X. Just a better overall feeling and great height.

I believe every golfer craves additional club head speed. However, lighter shafts don't work for me. It feels as though I'm swinging a wiffle ball bat and have less control. Additionally, not all flexes are the same. What is a "stiff" in one brand is not necessarily, universal. From experience, many stores don't take the time to actually ensure that the flex is actually correct.

The most important thing in looking for a shaft is that it allows me to play the way I want. We look for balls to perform a certain way. We should look for shafts to perform a certain way, too. Just my two cents.

Eric, to me the hot shafts right now are:

Irons

Project X
Nippon 950, 1050, 1150

Woods (esp. Drivers)

Matrix Ozik Xcon
Matrix Ozik Code
Matrix Ozik TP
Fujikura X07
Fujikura Z08
House of Forged Patriot
Graman UL Limeys

and indeference to a site "down the dial" anything Tour issue where the shaft is covered in green paint :)

I went to Golf Galaxy yesterday and used the Launch Monitor as I was trying out the new Hi-Bore XLS. After getting a good launch angle for the head the staff switched me to the FT-5 system that you can switch out shafts quickly. I hit 10 different shafts and all stayed very consistent for me with a 2800 spin rate and hitting the ball an average of 250 yards, when they put the new EPIC shaft in from Grafalloy my spin rate dropped to 2200 and I was averaging 270 yards. I was sold. I had to put it in my bag.

Do you ever wonder if they juiced the monitor to trick you into the most expensive shaft?

How much did the Epic run you? I am just joking (mostly)... in all seriousness, the Epic was pretty sweet eh?

The EPIC is $175 if you buy it in the store but I had Cleveland custom build the club so they only charged me a $100 up fee. After I traded in my HiBore and HiBore XL it ended up only cost me $300 for the HiBore XLS.

And the shaft was sweet. If it's good enough Vijay it's good enough for me! lol

No offence Analog but you are playing MP32 Irons with Project X shafts and you are a 25 handicap. You are more than welcome to play clubs of such caliber but you might want to look at selling the MP32's and look for a game improvement iron. From your posting I understand that looks are very important to you when it comes to what's in your bag but if you can't use the equipment you have to it's normal standard of play than you should down grade to something that suits your game better. And you can't tell me that you hit the MP32's awesome because if you did you wouldn't have an index of 25. Even just something that is a little more forgiving might give you lower scores.. and that is what the game of golf is about... not how you look.

On topic: I do not notice any difference between the UST V2 shaft and the Proforce 65 Gold. Same thing goes for other brands as well. People need to realize that the wheel is not being reinvented, it is just being painted differently. You could buy low kick / mid kick / high kick / or whatever else you want in a good quality $40 or $50 shaft. People paying anything more than that are not getting better technology, they are merely getting the "new thing" and a different paint job.

Hi Dave39, you're right an wrong at the same time...

My old irons were the Cleveland TA5 which is a game improvement iron and I monitored all my scores for a long time. By that I can tell you that my scores slightly dropped since I switched to the MP-32s. Of course my score could be even better with something in between those two ironsets but how do you know? I demoed the Callaway X-20 and the Titleist 735CM and didn't like them compared to the MP-32. By getting fitted the fitter told me to go for the ProjectX shafts instead of the Rifle shafts I wanted first. Also the stiffness of the shaft wasn't my ego's decision. Then of course I like to play blades because they look a lot nicer than cavity backs. I just spoke out what everyone in this forum is about when it hits the topic equipment. Everybody likes to have nice equipment and to look good, including me! I also said, that you look pretty stupid if you try to play serious equipment without having the ability to it.

Well Analog, I am not going to jump on your back and ride you out about having clubs that are above your level of play but I firmly believe that you can still look good (actually you will look even better) if you use irons that are more suited to your handicap level and produce lower scores for you. As long as you are enjoying your clubs and the game though than who am I to even question you. Cheers!