Chapped shafts

[DavidFehertysBike]

The paint on my graphite shafted clubs have been wearing away where the shaft meets the edge of my golf bag. All of my woods and hybrids have a little rubbed away but its particulary bad with my Voodoo shafted 909 hybrid Club. Theres nothing but a big read spot there, now. Im assuming this inst a problem. Or is it?

[PiKapp23]

From Frank Thomas' website FranklyGolf.com - I remember reading this very issue a while back. Here is what Frank had to say (he basically invented the graphite shaft):

Graphite Shafts Damaged By Golf Bag

Frank
It is a pleasure to read your Q&A; each week, I am some what of a new
golfer, 6 years into it, and a Snowbird from Central NY and NO I don't miss the snow.
Started golfing down here, lessons, practice and I only buy top end
equipment. I have got my USGA HCP Index to 14.4 which at 69 and 6 years into the game ain't too bad. I feel my game is getting better as my understanding grows.
I have the top end graphite shafted clubs, but my older bag has individual tube dividers originally purchased to protect the grips and shafts of my older steel set.
I put my new clubs with graphite shafts into the old bag with the club tubes but after a while upon examination each graphite shaft and a nice worn circle where it had rubbed against the top of the tube.
With your expertise (the developer) in graphite shafts, what can I use if
anything to remove these rings? AND will this affect the properties of
the shaft, thus having a influence on my play?
Some of the rubbing has removed what I believe is the top layer of the
finish.
I await your answer.
I also had my library up north attempt to buy your book "Just Hit It",
they claim it was unavailable to them...
Many Thanks for the putting lesson I just down loaded!
--Zack

Zack,
Thank you for the kind comments and I am pleased you are enjoying the Q&As; each week. If you get your friends to sign up at www.franklygolf.com/signup.html then they too will get the weekly Q&A; alert. The free Putting Guide can be requested by clicking here.
Congratulations on your progress over the last 6 years and now that you are addicted don’t get discouraged by playing the wrong set of tees. Keep practicing and a lesson every year is a good thing. Remember the magic is in you not your equipment.
Your new set of graphite shafted irons were not meant to be carried in individual plastic tubes as these are inclined to abrade the shaft slightly as you have discovered.
So the first thing is to remove the tubes from your bag and make sure that the top section of the ‘tubeless’ bag has a soft lined surface which is graphite friendly. Most bags today are like this but check it out anyway.
Now check the shafts where you see the “circle” indicating some wear on the shafts. This should only have penetrated the surface coating of the shaft and not into the actual structural part of the shaft as it has just come to your attention. Check to see if this is the case.
If the wear marks are only through the coating itself and NOT into the shaft body itself, then the shaft is still in very good shape – it may not look good but from a structural point of view you don’t have to worry about performance.
What I suggest you do is get some clear durable urethane spray paint coating, with the same finish as your present shafts (i.e. Satin, Matt or Gloss). Clean that section of the shafts with some alcohol on a clean cloth to remove any dirt and grease, then spray a light coating of the urethane around the worn section of the shaft and let it dry overnight...you should be ready to go the next day. This may not be a perfect finish but it will do two things; a) the shafts will look a little better and, b) you will have an extra layer of protection from future wear.
Zack, I am sorry that you have become addicted to our game because you will now need a fix often and will do almost anything to get it. I am going to need your support to help save our game and when you get my book “ Just Hit It” you will find in the last chapter some thing we can all do to make the game more enjoyable.
Good golfing
Frank

[DavidFehertysBike]

Thanks for the article. Im glad to hear its probably not causing any structural damage. I cant really afford a new golf bag right now so the coating seems like a good idea. Would a piece of clear packing tape (for example) work as well? Or is that some kind of rules violation?

[Drive For Show Putt For Dough]

Here's what I did. Just take some tape the same color as your shaft and tape it around the place where that paint is wearing away.

[Chief Broom]

Every club in my bag except for my putter and LW has a graphite shaft and I started getting major bag burn on those shafts. I tried using clear packing tape (about 2.5" across), but a hole would wear through that almost immediately. What I've found is that using standard black electrical tape holds up well (I did it once about 2 months ago and haven't had to do it since). It also has the benefit of blending in well with the shafts, but all my shafts also happen to be black. I can't say if this is a rules violation or not, but I will continue to do it because I spent way too much on my clubs to damage them through normal use.