Trend to lighter driver shafts?

[sportsnut]

Evening,

severe rain and thunder in the northeast again!! what else is new. anyway more to the point I am curious about the trend to light driver shafts for those of you that have them. are you satisfied with them? any regreds? looking at driver with a lighter shaft.

thanks, Frank

[WUTiger]

A club manufacturer's rep suggested that lighter shafts may be a "year away" from being useful for medium to high-speed swingers. Possible problem: soft tips.

Lighter shafts means thinner walls and softer tips, and he worries that faster swingers will have control problems. A 250-yd. drive into the first cut may be better than 270 yds. into the treeline.

On a positive note, I'm interested in seeing the relationship between total club weight, shaft weight, swingweight, and shaft-butt weighting.

[glock35ipsc]

I have an Aurthur Extreme Xcaliber Tour SL in my driver, raw shaft weight was just 48g before trimming to length (44").  I forgot to weigh it after cutting to playing length , but I am guessing around 46g or so after trimming.  Compared to the 60g Habanero that was in my Diablo Edge, this thing feels like a feather!  Total weight of my Diablo was 322g. this driver with the light shaft swing weighted to D4 is 292g.

Haven't played it enough yet to tell if it's going to stay in this head or not.  The difference between the Diablo and this one is like swinging a driver with the head cover on, then swinging it with the head cover off. There are times I feel like I'm going to wing it right over the top of the ball, but then make good middle of the face contact.  Ball flight is good, distance is about the same, and directional control is good.  Time will tell if I get any more distance or better control out of it.  I'm liking it so far, but it definitely has a totally different feel to it.

[Mordan]

I've recently changed from a Cleveland Launcher 2009 10.5* with the 50g R flex Fujikura Flightspeed Gold shaft to a Titleist 910 D2 9.5* with the 64g S flex Diamana Kai'li shaft in it.

My main reason for changing was the increase in weight. I'd sometimes end up "throwing" the Cleveland Launcher at the ball with a really wristy action because of a lack of feel/feedback with the very light club. When I got it right it would go a mile but I'll take the consistency over the occasional boomer.

The change in flex may also play a small part but I hit the Titleist with the same shaft in an R flex for a while too and there was very little difference in performance for me.

[LongballPro]

Originally Posted by WUTiger

A club manufacturer's rep suggested that lighter shafts may be a "year away" from being useful for medium to high-speed swingers. Possible problem: soft tips.

Lighter shafts means thinner walls and softer tips, and he worries that faster swingers will have control problems. A 250-yd. drive into the first cut may be better than 270 yds. into the treeline.

On a positive note, I'm interested in seeing the relationship between total club weight, shaft weight, swingweight, and shaft-butt weighting.

I think he is right on with this. I play a TM R9 Supertri with a 73g Fubuki shaft and love it. I have great control over the club with an average swing speed very close to the Tour average. My brother has a titleist 909 with a 60g voodoo shaft and I have no idea which way it's going