I now have a cobra bio cell driver with a seemingly really heavy xstiff shaft of 66g. A light shaft and with a heavy head does not promote this. Light clubs would have high speed, heavy clubs would have low speed, but the kinetic energy of the club would be the same in each case. For the driver test, they hit seven drives each with a 50, 60, and 70 gram shaft, all using the same. A lightweight, plastic, juvenile club does even more poorly than does the weighted, training club. If you hit a 7iron about 150 yards, then a regular flex shaft would be recommended. Steel golf shafts are traditionally heavier than graphite shafts and the key benefit, according to the u.
Each player went through two different testing sessions one with a driver, one with an iron. Im well aware that a 75 to 85 gram shaft is a better fit when wanting to play the driver 44. Lights right for many pros, but heavy shafts still work. Get the right shaft to hit your driver straight and long bombing and gouging. I am now playing the lighted driver shaft i have ever played at 65g and iron shafts at 110g.
I knew that the 9 would be a good match for me with the nvs shaft which is higher launching. Although those using heavy driver shafts remain in the minority, if a player is struggling with a lightweight shaft in the driver, its not a bad idea to swap it. Sergio is an interesting player to bring up though, because while he does use a heavy shaft 90g, considered heavy for a driver by todays standards, he plays his drivers at 43 now a standard 3 wood length, so hes effectively using the heavier shaft to maintain the swingweight as a 5565g shaft would be unusable at the length he prefers. We started testing with 65 gram driver shafts, and with these his club path was about 10 to 12 degrees to the left. Advantage and disadvantage of light flywheel and heavy flywheel the weight and size of the flywheel depend upon the nature of variation of torque required. Steel golf shafts are traditionally heavier than graphite shafts and the key benefit. Driver swing speed went from 116 to 118 to over 120 consistently and i dont feel like i have to smash my irons to get them to fly the distances that i am expecting.
Why you should be playing heavier equipment golfwrx. While it varies from golfer to golfer, its generally believed that light and heavy iron shafts have the following differences. When i was a young man and playing competitively my driver was steel and wood with a 5 gr. Shafts arent the first thing most club golfers think of when trotting off to buy a new driver or set of irons. Because the spin is so high when you hit it with a weaker flex, the wind will magnify the spin and decrease your distance and accuracy.
Russ ryden developed a machine that determines ei value with a 3 point bending test. Driver dave hits a regular shafted steel driver 240 yards. The next newsletters topic will be the driver shaft. Well, other than one being heavier than the other, since the 55 gram shaft is lighter, one can create more clubhead speed and pick up more yardage i think there is some relationship like 10 grams gets you 6 yards, but i could be wrong. Graphite has become the standard in metal woods for a while now and we wanted to explore the subject of weight. It is why the wheelhouse for driver shaft weights on the pga tour is in the mid 60gram range, with some players having tried shafts as light as 43 grams. Accuracy, feel explain why some pga tour players have gone to. Shaft may be too stiff in the butt section s flex when should be an r or shaft is too heavy. That enables them to be swung at great speed, but to little avail, if the weight falls below a certain amount.
A heavier shaft can help you execute a long, slow takeaway more conducive to a wellstruck golf shot. Get the right shaft to hit your driver straight and long true fit. Importance of shaft weight in fitting dlance golfd. The first thing that you notice is that this driver is heavy in your hands no surprise there, but yet swingweights very nicely because the few. Current driver is d5 and it would be nice if it was closer to e. Before you decide which shaft you need, understand how to read shaft specifications and how they relate to the golf swing. Choose a shaft with a swing speed rating of 70 to 80 mph in. I was on a monitor and the fitter said i hit the ball high with a lot of spin and tended to pull it. The unitized parallel tip shaft was introduced by true temper is the early 70s. In our driver testing, we saw very clearly that light weight worked well for some golfers but not for others. Then, he used a graphite driver and hits it about 250 because of the increased clubhead speed. Today, much older and with several physical problems i use a 45 gr.
Golfers with very fast speeds and tempo should play heavier shafts. For this test, we had golfers test drivers with shafts weighing 55. I have always been a fan of heavier shafts until recently. According to golfweek, steel shafts weigh up to 125 g and extraheavy shafts weigh up to 9 g. I have seen fair number of driver shafts with labels implying light weights, but i have only seen one shaft that was labeled with a number that actually was the weight of the raw 46.
Golf iron shaft test heavyweight shaft vs lightweight shaft with launch monitor results. But there seems to be no weight in the club head to balance it. When we looked at distance consistency, the results were a perfect bell curve. In general, golfers with slower swing speed and tempo can and should play a lighter shaft. Then, this past weekend, i did a driver fitting with a player. Used to also have slightly heavy shafts in my irons. Longer clubs are very easy to fall into that outside in swing path as well. Thus each golfer must take a look at his or her natural swing tendencies before selecting the shaft flex best for their overall game. The easiest way is to just replace the broken shaft with the same type. The problem with bombing off the tee and gouging from the rough is that for us average golfers, it only works percent of the time, according to a study done by golf digest and trackman. In the case of a heavy flywheel, it is hard to change the rotational speed of the engine.
What is its optimum mass and stiffness for greatest distance. Swinging with a weak shaft flex can hurt you in both windy and wet conditions. Shaft is too short, butt section andor tip section is too stiff, or shaft is too light. But at the end of the day, the majority of golfers with swing speeds of 100 mph and lower are going to do far more harm for their game by choosing a shaft that is a little too stiff rather than a shaft that ends up being a little too flexible. Choosing the proper golf shaft for your swing is essential to reaching your potential on the golf course. Graphite iron shafts can be beefed up with an overall weight equal to steel, but consistency from shaft to shaft has long been a question mark. It also has a wight in the bottom of the head that you can change to make it heavier or lighter. The thing that was the most interesting to me was that changing from a 90 gram steel shaft to a gram shaft made the club feel so much heavier, but adding weight under the grip made it feel not as heavy. Driver shaft length is shorter better than standard length.
You cant get more consistent or more accurate simply by getting a heavier, stiffer shaft. Later in the session, he started suggesting a shorter shaft. Tiger woods is also back to using a heavier shaft in his nike driver. Im wondering if there is any data to show that a slightly heavier shaft in the driver leads to straighter shots i know, i know, lots more variables to consider, but in general. What happens when golf shafts are not right for your swing. Golfers can gain distance through a proper shaft weight fitting, but it might be at the expense of dispersion, or vice versa.
Light flywheel vs heavy flywheel effect of flywheel size. You need to be aware of the type of shaft material you are measuring with and make sure that it matches the clubs you would use when out on the course. I am rarely draw or fade it but i lost 20 yds total and am at 210230. But we also know that getting 20 more yards off the tee can drop up to 3 strokes off your game. Typically the rule of thumb is that a golfer with a slower swing speed will benefit from using a lighter shaft, and you would add weight as swing speed increases. Not having to swing a too heavy shaft with more effort. The light vs heavy shaft debate ultimately boils down to personal preference.
Pluggedin golf does shaft weight matter more than shaft flex. Having read the above comments on penick and his advocation of using a heavy practice club and swing it daily through the winter, and having just read his little red book for the first time in which he talks at length about practicing the feel of the swing very, very slowly the slow motion drill, i have formed the opinion what the great man was advocating was to swing. Get yourself fitted by a professional or try as many shafts as you possibly can to get a feel for what suits you. Getting the correct weight of your shaft is an important factor to consider as well. I will eventually switch to a 65 or 75 gram driver shaft for more club head speed. So i put the 57 gram shaft in my 3 wood and 5 wood and could not hit these clubs at all. Over half of our testers posted their best dispersion range distance between farthest right and farthest left shots and average distance to target with the 85 gram shaft. The truth about golf shafts that every golfer should know. In our iron test, we routinely saw a 10 or 20 gram change in shaft. In my case its usually playing with a driver with a length too long making it harder to square up and turn over.
Can also be caused by a shaft that is too light or swing weight is to light. I was curious about the various pros and cons of light and heavy shafts. It is possible to have two drivers, one standard and the other on the light side like the dst that have the same swing weight yet different overall static weights. Many golfers believe they can add yards to their drive by making their driver golf club longer and lighter. But, the thing is, even if a shaft is heavier, it may not feel like it if the swing weight isnt any higher. Nippon recently introduced a new extraheavy steel shaft with raw weights in the 2 to 9gram range, although it will dip into the high 120s after trimming. Just for fun, lets theoretically make a very heavy driver note. Shaft is too long, butt section and or tip section is too flexible, or shaft is too heavy.
The shaft is marked in inches and precisely weighted. So the real answer is to hit your driver long and straight. This video discusses the differences between heavy and light weight golf shafts. The major golf club manufacturers offer a variety of shaft options for use with their clubs. Opt for a heavier shaft if you have a tendency to overswing or try to kill the ball. What difference would i expect from a heavier shaft. A lot of golf talk is always about stiff vs regular but maybe the bigger. Because of the weight, steel shafts are traditionally shorter than graphite shafts, making them easier to control. Driver shafts typically weigh 5560 grams for men and 4550 grams for ladies. What kind of players need a light shaft, what kind need a heavier one. Ive been using a fugitive 95 gram shaft in my driver, i like it but am i. More than 25 players had driver shafts of 75 grams or more at the.
I have a knockoff club head that is weighted like a hybrid the shaft is regular flex,light, and is really whippy. Iron shafts can be as light as 55 grams in graphite, and grams in steel. A golf shaft that is too weak will flex excessively throughout the golf swing, creating an inconsistent release point. Explaining the effect of wrong shaft flex in golf clubs. The right weight can mean an extra club in distance. Parallel vs constant weight iron shafts there are two types of iron shafts, factory trimmed sets and parallel shafts. According to learnaboutgolf, the introduction of graphite shafts on drivers added. Basically the shaft is placed horizontally on supports while a load is placed vertically at a central point.
It is possible for all golfers to play lightweight shafts in search of more distance as long as the clubfitter understands how head weight can mask the feeling of the. So many long and light drivers these days so back to the question why many average golfers struggle with making good square contact with the driver. Take a look at heavier graphite shafts hireko custom golf clubs. The thought of a 40g driver shaft makes me think 80% of drives are going to miss the fairway from too little total weight. Add weight to your driver golf club for more distance pga. Switching to an ultralight driver shaft may boost swing speeds, but for a select group of players on tour, going heavier has been produced the best results. A light shaft may lead you to overswing, causing you to rush your backswing and throw off your timing. When the weight is dropped on the shaft, the deflection is noted and the process is repeated 36 times. Get the right shaft to hit your driver straight and long. What to do when a golf iron shaft is too light, soft or.
Maybe you find the shafts in your clubs too stiff or too weak. True temper project x pxv 39 driver shaft by russ ryden, a golf digest americas 100 best clubfitter fit2score, dallas fort worth, texas. However, this makes the club harder to control, so one gets less consistent contact. Driver and fairway wood shaft weight game improvement. One of my drivers was e4 sw and you could feel that it was heavier in the swing. The common sense counterpoint to the idea that light equals long is that heavy shafts lead to straighter shots. My driver has a 83 gram shaft which is heavy and my irons are dynamic gold regular and i believe they are about 122 grams. Although those using heavy driver shafts remain in the minority, if a player is struggling with a lightweight shaft in the driver, its not a bad idea to swap it out for a heavier version. The most popular graphite driver shafts are in the 65g range, although the. Stiff driver with a ahina shaft and hitting the heck out of it. Which shaft weight gives the most consistently centred strike often using a shorter driver shaft can help with this, the most clubball speed and which gives the best dispersion. I had a rocketballz driver that i averaged 230250 stiff flex stock shaft.
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