Choosing the right iron shafts. Any advice?

[poolman88]

How important is it to consider the type of shafts in a set of irons? Can anyone tell me what i should be taking into account when trying out different set-ups at my local shop? What about the weight is that also something that needs to be considered, or do I just go by how i want my ball flight to be a certain way?

I've heard of people gaining and/or losing some yards when they get fitted to the correct shaft in a driver, so I'm guessing thats true in irons as well? Any advice and tips would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance. 

[billchao]

My best advice would be to get fit by a qualified clubfitter. There are some general rules but not everyone reacts to different shaft properties the same way, so you really should get fit to find out what works best for you.

[WUTiger]

8 hours ago, billchao said:

My best advice would be to get fit by a qualified clubfitter.

The shaft is half the golf club, so getting right type helps the clubheads work for you.

General advice: the softest flex which you can control. This is one you can use on your so-so days, not just on the occasional round when you're really swinging well.

The fitter likely will have you hit maybe your current 5i and 8i to get some baseline data. This would give the fitter a good idea of how well your current shaft works for you. Then, he could start making adjustments from there.

Two important things in the iron fitting are the lie angle (how upright or flat the hosel positions the shaft), and shaft length. Getting these two factors fine-tuned greatly increases the likelihood of solid contact hits.

Also, I suggest that amateurs with above-10 handicaps try to find their shaft band. Your band would contain shafts with similar characteristics that seem to fit your swing.

In my case, I tend to do well on fittings with the KBS Tour 90, the C-Taper Light, the NS Pro 950, and the Ping AWT 2.0 shafts (all in R-flex). These all weigh about 100 grams, and have a mid-high launch.

[arturo28mx]

My Titleist AP2 came with Dynamic Gold S300 shafts. 130 gram shafts. For me they were too heavy to swing comfortably. And the feeling off the face was harsh. Changed shafts to XP95 R300. 95 gram shafts. now my AP2s are magnificent. Yes shafts are very important. Get fitted. 

Edited August 26, 2017 by arturo28mx

[billchao]

5 minutes ago, arturo28mx said:

My Titleist AP2 came with Dynamic Gold S300 shafts. 130 gram shafts. For me they were too heavy to swing comfortably. And the feeling off the face was harsh. Changed shafts to XP95 R300. 95 gram shafts. now my AP2s are magnificent. Yes shafts are very important. Get fitted. 

Yea and I'm the complete opposite. Back when most sets came with Dynamic Gold S300s, I could hit most irons reasonably well. My Apex CF16s came with XP95s and I had some consistency issues with them. I went for a fitting and found out that the XP95 was much too light for me, ended up reshafting my set with KBS Tours. Fitting matters.

[Typhoon92]

Yes, a good clubfitter.  Way too much to consider with irons...lie, weight, flex etc...

I like the feel of a heavier iron but reality is it could wear me down by the end of the round.  Didn't know if it would but it fueled my interest in lighter steel shafts.  I did a lot of research on how different shafts felt before i was fit.  I kept it to just a couple companies.  Nippon seemed to have the best feeling shafts and in a variety of weights.

When I got fit for my Pings it was basically the Modus 105, ctaper lite or the ping cfs and I went with the Nippon.  Even though it's a light shaft, the swingweight is still a D2 and I've never given heavier shafts another thought.  I even reshafted my wedges with the wedge version of the 105 to keep the same feel throughout the set.  I hit a lot of full shots with my wedges and I had a big distance gap with my iron shafts and the 125 gram wedge shafts they came with.

Great job by my fitter.

[MarvChamp]

53 minutes ago, Typhoon92 said:

I did a lot of research on how different shafts felt before i was fit.  I kept it to just a couple companies.  Nippon seemed to have the best feeling shafts and in a variety of weights.

Yes to Nippon. Their shafts are, my fitter said, very consistent when he was "puring" the shafts in my MX-200's. I went with a little lighter even than Typhoon92.   I have graphite in my other iron sets, but I studied their characteristics, weight, etc. before buying. Best of luck with your search and have fun with it! -Marv

[WUTiger]

2 hours ago, Typhoon92 said:

Even though it's a light shaft, the swingweight is still a D2 and I've never given heavier shafts another thought.

I got my X20 Tours reshafted from PX 5.0 (115 grams) to NS Pro 8950 (97 grams). The clubsmith forgot that the new shafts were 18 grams lighter, which decreased the swingweight by 2 points. The clubs swing about D0 now, which is a bit light.

IF you get a reshaft, be aware that a big change in weight will influence your new swingweight.