A Guide to KBS Golf Shafts

How much priority do you place on having the right shaft for your golf game?

A golf shaft isn’t just designed to add more distance. The right shaft helps control ball flight and improve shot dispersion and ball striking capabilities.

Getting the right golf shaft for your game comes down to being fitted correctly. Golfers come in different shapes, sizes, and playing abilities, meaning there is no “one size fits all” option for shafts.

KBS Golf Shafts has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years and perfectly understands the need to create flexible solutions that work throughout a golfer’s bag.

Join us as we delve deeper into the KBS Shafts story. We’ll help you understand:

• KBS Golf Shaft’s Background
• The KBS Iron Shafts Range
• KBS Wedge Shafts
• KBS Wood Shafts/Hybrid Shafts
• KBS Putter Shafts
• Unlocking The Key To Success With KBS Shafts Through Custom Fitting

KBS Golf’s Background

KBS golf shafts are the relative “new kids on the block” compared to some of their competition. They were formed in 2008 by Kim Braly, a highly experienced shaft designer and engineer who was the brains behind the highly successful Rifle and Project X shafts.

Braly believed there was a better way to make high-performing shafts. He sought feedback from the tour professionals he had worked closely with to understand what they were looking for in a shaft that would improve their play.

The shafts he created would have to perform to the highest standards, as they would bear his name—Kim Braly Signature, KBS.

Success has been swift in both the men’s and women’s professional ranks. Players like Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and Adam Scott have all claimed major victories with KBS shafts in their irons.

2023 was a hugely successful year, with KBS claiming over 40 victories worldwide and another major championship, with Celine Boutier claiming her first major at the Evian Championship.

Today, over 300 professionals worldwide trust KBS golf shafts in their clubs.

The KBS Iron Shafts Range

KBS offers the broadest range of iron shafts in the marketplace.

KBS offers the broadest range of iron shafts in the marketplace, presenting the opportunity to custom fit their shafts for any player profile.

KBS Tour

Starting with the shaft options for better players, KBS offers three models, which include the shaft that started it all - the KBS Tour.

The KBS Tour comes in five different flexes, including a regular plus and a stiff plus option, giving fitters more flexibility for golfers who fit between regular and stiff and stiff and extra stiff.

The KBS Tour shaft features a consistent step pattern. Its balance point is closer to the grip end with a softer tip section to provide more feel at impact.

The KBS Tour has been joined in recent years by the Tour FLT (flighted) shaft, which provides higher launch in the longer irons and lower in the shorter irons to provide consistency throughout the set.

KBS offers the Tour V model, which has a lighter entry weight option compared to the standard Tour model and features a stiffer tip section to keep shot dispersion tight

To complete the KBS Tour range, there is the Tour Lite model, which provides the highest launch and spin characteristics. Each of the four shaft models available in the Tour Lite range is 15 grams lighter than the equivalent in the standard Tour model.

C-Taper/C-Taper Lite

Players with faster swing speeds can look at the KBS C-Taper range. The C-Taper is stiffest at the tip, which helps promote high-level stability to maintain clubhead control. It also has the lowest launching and spinning shaft, which can benefit players with higher swing speeds who don’t want a higher, spinnier trajectory, especially in their shorter irons.

The KBS C-Taper range has proven popular for customised fitting. KBS has taken that popularity and added a C-Taper Lite version offering a medium trajectory via a lighter weight compared to the standard C-Taper, opening up the range to a broader set of golfers.

$-Taper/$-Taper Lite

Sitting between the C-Taper and the Tour lies the KBS $-Taper range. The $-Taper offers the same low-spin characteristics as the C-Taper but with the medium trajectory profile of the Tour model.

The $-Taper range is also offered with half flexes between the regular and stiff and the stiff and extra stiff models. With other manufacturers offering standard regular, stiff, and extra stiff models if a golfer’s swing speed fell somewhere in the middle between the flexes, the fitter would be talking to the golfer about the best compromise for shaft selections. The softer flex would provide more distance, but accuracy could be compromised and vice versa. KBS’s half flexes in the $-Taper range ensures there is no compromise, and the fitter can offer a shaft ideally suited to the golfer’s swing speed.

KBS also offers a Lite version of the $-Taper, which provides a higher launch and spin without compromising the shaft’s versatility and shot-making capabilities.

KBS Tour Graphite Iron Shaft

For long enough, the assumption was that graphite-shafted irons were most suited to golfers who didn’t generate a lot of clubhead speed in their iron play, such as senior golfers or lady golfers.

Now, there is a new wave of graphite shafts built for golf irons that are designed and technology-suited to golfers with the fastest swing speeds. KBS is at the forefront of creating high-performance graphite shafts for irons encapsulated in its Tour Graphite Iron shaft (TGI).

In creating the TGI shaft, KBS has a shaft that even tour players have been convinced into thinking that the shaft is a steel shaft, given how good the characteristics are.

KBS offers the Tour Graphite Iron shaft in eight weight options, covering golfers with the slowest swing speeds and players with tour average swing speeds.

The TGI shaft is designed for low launch and low spin, similar to the C-Taper steel shaft, but players will have to take into account the lighter weights that come with the use of graphite. KBS believes the answer lies in the eight weights available, ranging from 50 to 110 grams.

 

 

KBS Players Graphite Iron Shafts

This golf shaft is highly popular among LPGA stars and would be a good fit for many male golfers who can benefit from the mid-launch, mid-spin profile in the PGI shaft.

The KBS PGI Golf Shaft is designed using a similar principle to the TGI—it is designed to feel as much like a steel shaft as possible. It is available in six different weight options, ranging from 50 to 100 grams.

KBS Max Graphite

The KBS Max graphite provides the highest launch and spin characteristics and is aimed at players with lower swing speeds.

The Max Graphite starts at an ultralight weight of 45 grams and goes to a maximum of 85 grams. The weighting options replace the traditional regular and stiff options. KBS believes that it is more important to match a golfer to the correct shaft by knowing their existing swing speed, which is obtained during a fitting session.

KBS Wedge Shafts

Keeping a consistent feeling running from your irons to wedges is vital to getting the most from your scoring clubs.

KBS understands this perfectly and has created a series of high-performing wedge shafts that can blend with your irons’ shaft choice.

To add an extra layer of customisation, KBS offers two finishes, chrome and black gloss. The black gloss option is excellent if you want to make your wedges look a little cooler.

All wedge shafts are available in various weights and flexes, making it easier to dial precisely what’s best suited to each golfer.

 

 

610 Wedge

Designed specifically for wedges, the KBS 610 Wedge shaft helps players looking for a lower penetrating ball flight and maximum flexibility of shots around the green.

This golf shaft option could be a strong contender if you play on more exposed layouts like links courses.

Hi-Rev 2.0

Designed to blend with the standard Tour shafts, the Hi-Rev 2.0 features a more extended tip section to create more spin and feel on shots. The Hi-Rev 2.0’s lengthened tip section also promotes a higher spin profile, aiding stopping power on the green.

In testing, the more active tip section of the Hi-Rev 2.0 produced 400-500 rpm more spin than any other wedge shaft in the KBS wedge lineup.

KBS Wedge

Designed to blend perfectly with the KBS Tour range of shafts, the KBS Wedge shaft has a stiffer tip section to control spin and trajectory and maintain the feel of the KBS Tour iron shaft.

KBS Wood Shafts/Hybrid Shafts

KBS launched its graphite shaft range for woods and hybrids a few years after its iron range. The design principle driving the graphite shaft range was maintaining the same familiar feeling garnered in the steel shaft range.

The KBS TD range is unique in that it does away with a traditional regular, stiff, extra-stiff system in favour of a weighting system that can be consistently matched from driver through to fairway woods.

KBS’s solution is a five-category system based on weight. Once the ideal driver weight is dialled in, the three-wood shaft should be 10 grams heavier, and subsequent fairway woods should be 20 grams heavier.

Category 1 is reserved for the lightest shafts, starting at 40 grams for the driver shaft, promoting the highest launch and spin. Category 5 offers the heaviest driver shaft at 60 grams and provides a lower launch lower spin profile.

KBS also has the Max HL shaft available. Suitable for a wide variety of golfers who are looking to maximise their launch, spin and trajectory with the driver, the Max HL presents three lightweight shaft options that can be dialled into each golfer’s swing speed.

The KBS Player’s Graphite Hybrid shaft compliments the matching Player’s Graphite Iron shaft. The hybrid shaft helps golfers of all abilities get maximum control from their hybrids, which range in weight from 45 to 105 grams.

The wrap technology created for the hybrid shaft helps eliminate variables and increase consistency and shot control, creating tight shot dispersions similar to those seen in the KBS iron shaft range.

 

KBS Putter Shafts

Why would you consider using a graphite shaft in your putter? Graphite shafts can offer exceptional tolerances for twisting, helping increase your putter’s moment of inertia and making you a more consistent putter.

KBS recognises graphite’s potential and has created the CT-Tour graphite putter shaft, which offers excellent resistance to twisting, similar to the CT-Taper iron shaft.

KBS launched the Graphite Putter Shaft (GPS) in the spring of 2023 and chalked up a win immediately on the DP World Tour. The GPS is a premium graphite shaft that inherits the same exceptional feel and stability found in KBS’s iron and KBS's wood shaft options and helps golfers create more consistent contact with the ball to improve consistency with the putter.

Unlocking the Key To Success With KBS Shafts - Custom-Fitting

Golf Club Custom fitting is the most effective way to guarantee success when making changes to your golf clubs.

Several factors play a critical role in being fitted for the right shaft. Matching the correct shaft weight and flex to your swing speed can provide some extra distance and help improve shot dispersion.

Golf shafts that offer different launch characteristics can ensure you have optimised trajectory and spin for your shots.

Another critical factor is ensuring your golf shafts are cut to the correct length. We all come in different shapes and sizes, so why should we use the same shaft length seen on clubs bought off the shelf?

Golf shafts that aren’t the correct length lead us to make compensations in our set-up, which can cause inaccurate and inconsistent shots as well as the prospect of picking up injuries because of the compensations we make to poorly fitted clubs.

KBS golf shafts are so successful from a fitting perspective because of the wide range of shafts they produce with differing weights, flexes, and kick points. This means that KBS will have a shaft suitable for any golfer, regardless of their playing abilities.

When you come for a custom-fitting session with us, we’ll initially get you to hit shots with your own clubs, allowing us to capture a variety of data points using GC Quad technology. This will help us build an accurate picture of your game and make recommendations, such as which shaft would best suit your needs.

Through Kim Braley’s vision, KBS Golf shafts have quickly become the shaft of choice for many golfers, from tour professionals to high-handicap golfers.

KBS is a through-the-bag shaft provider that offers a wide range of high-performing steel and graphite shafts. These golf shafts provide a consistent feel from driver to lob wedge and can be fitted to any golfer’s requirements.

KBS’s unique approach of eliminating traditional flex standards to focus on weighting systems perfectly matches custom fitting, where clubhead speed is accurately captured during the fitting process.

Where KBS does use flex ratings, it has created additional opportunities to dial in the right shaft during a fitting session by creating “half flexes” where a golfer’s swing speeds can’t be adequately fitted into a stiff flex or extra stiff flex. 

KBS shafts can easily be fitted to the current products available from TaylorMade, Mizuno, Callaway, Titleist or Cobra, adding another layer of flexibility during a cutstom-fitting session.

If you are in the market to change your golf clubs or irons and want to sample the performance of KBS shafts, you can book a custom fitting session through our website or by calling us directly.

You can also view our entire range of KBS golf shafts on the Nine by Nine Golf website, where you can explore the full range of customisable options and order directly from Nine by Nine Golf.