How To Choose The Right Golf Shaft For Your Swing

Do you have the right golf shaft fitted to your golf clubs?

Seems like a straightforward question.

However, many golfers are using clubs with the wrong shafts fitted, hindering their ability to improve. One top instructor who works with some of the best junior golfers in America, Joey Wuertemberger, believes that only 20% of amateur golfers play with the correct shafts in their clubs.

Considering that there are roughly 66 million golfers worldwide, if only 20% use the correct shafts in their clubs, 52.8 million golfers are hampering their chances of shooting better scores considerably.

This article focuses on helping you understand the importance of a golf shaft in your game.

To that, we’ll help you understand:

• The Impact of Playing The Wrong Golf Shaft
• Unravelling Shaft Flexes
• Weight and Material: Graphite vs. Steel
• Length and Torque: Small Details, Big Impact
• Joining the 20%, How Custom Fitting Helps You Improve

The Impact of Playing The Wrong Golf Shaft

Before we discuss shaft flexes and materials, let’s consider the inherent dangers of using the wrong shafts in your clubs.

The golf shaft is often referred to as the “engine of the golf club.” It stores and releases energy based on your golf swing. If the shaft doesn’t fit your swing, it isn’t going to transfer the energy efficiently into impact, leading to:

• A loss of distance
• Inconsistent ball-striking
• Loss of accuracy.

Unravelling Shaft Flexes

Most golfers will be familiar with the terminology around shaft flexes. If you look in your golf bag, you’ll likely see that your shafts are regular, stiff, or even extra stiff.

The most common mistake when it comes to choosing the wrong shaft flex is for golfers to choose a shaft flex that is too strong for them.

Ego dictates that you can’t turn up for your regular Saturday morning four-ball game with a new golf driver that is a regular flex when your friends are all using stiff flex shafts; how can you live with the shame?

Playing with a golf shaft that is too stiff will deliver golf shots that leak to the right (for right-handed golfers). The reason for this is that you are not generating enough club head speed to allow the shaft to unload effectively, leaving the club face open at impact.

If the shaft is too weak, you can overpower it, leading to erratic shots that can hook (right-handed golfer) as the shaft unloads too quickly, causing the clubface to shut down through impact.

Putting ego aside, if we are looking to play better golf consistently and improve the performance of our golf clubs, we need to be honest in our assessment of the correct shaft flex to use.

Deciphering shaft flex is closely linked to the clubhead speed we generate in our swings. The easiest way to get an accurate picture of how much clubhead speed we generate comes via launch monitors.

Most shaft manufacturers offer four or five shaft flexes in steel and graphite, graded against clubhead speed benchmarks.

If we use golf driver swing speeds as an example, we’ll see the following:

• Swing speed below 85 mph - R2 flex, ladies flex, senior flex, light flex.
• Swing speeds between 85 - 95 mph - regular flex.
• Swing speeds between 95 - 110 mph - stiff flex.
• Swing speeds above 110 mph - extra stiff.

Weight and Material: Graphite vs. Steel

Graphite is lighter than steel, so it lends itself to clubs like the driver, where we seek more clubhead speed.

Today’s graphite shafts are very sophisticated in terms of their construction and their suitability for custom fitting.

Shafts are constructed using sheets or flags of carbon composite material and resins, which are layered to create different playing characteristics. For shafts like Mitsubishi Chemical’s Tensei 1K Pro series, a different carbon composite is used in the grip end to give it more stability compared to the rest of the shaft.

The Fujikura Ventus Blue is a great example of the different weights available in graphite shafts. It is available from 50 grams to 90 grams, helping to ensure that there is a Ventus Blue shaft available for every type of golfer.

More attention has been turned to creating consistency between the driver and fairway woods, allowing golfers to experience similar performance levels and feel in the longest clubs in their golf bags. This is aided by the variety of weight options available now that can cover both driver and fairway woods.

Graphite shafts were never considered in irons unless in sets designed for ladies or seniors who traditionally sat at the lower end of the spectrum when it came to generating club head speed.

Graphite shafts in irons were also suitable for golfers who had sustained hand or wrist injuries since graphite was better at absorbing vibrations created by the club head making contact with the ground after impact with the ball.

However, as research and design have improved, more graphite shafts are available for golfers of all playing abilities. To achieve this, engineers have been able to combine steel and carbon composite elements to create incredibly stable shafts designed to enhance iron play.

This technology is evident in models such as Fujikura’s MCI shaft and Mitsubishi Chemical’s MMT shaft, which are available in various weights and flexes.

When it comes to steel, it’s hard to look past classics such as True Temper’s Dynamic Gold and Project X models. We’ve established that steel is heavier than graphite; however, that doesn’t mean to say that steel shafts offer any less flexibility for golfers.

KBS joins Dynamic Gold and Project X in offering different weights to suit various golfers’ swing speeds. These manufacturers also offer stepless shafts, which help transfer energy and absorb vibrations more effectively than the traditional stepped steel shaft design.

Length and Torque: Small Details, Big Impact

Shaft length plays an important role in the consistency of strikes and the accuracy of shots.

Longer shafts can help generate more clubhead speed; however, the crossover point needs to be considered when added length sacrifices strike consistency and accuracy.

Today, golf’s governing bodies have capped the shaft length of a driver at 46 inches. However, some golfers like Will Zalatoris, Brooks Koepka, and Cam Smith play drivers with less than 45 inches shafts.

Switching to a shorter shaft doesn’t necessarily shorten your drives. A shorter driver shaft can help golfers find the middle of the clubface more easily, where they can generate maximum ball speeds with no loss of distance.

Shorter shafts can also help golfers hit more fairways, giving them more confidence in their driving game.

One instance where golf shafts need to be altered is for the relative height of the golfer.

Taller golfers will need to play longer shafts throughout their set to avoid making any compensations in their setup for shafts that are too short. The opposite is true for shorter golfers, who may benefit from shorter shafts.

Any lengthening or shortening of golf shafts alters their weight and stiffness, so any changes need to be made by a professional fitter who can monitor these two areas to ensure the shaft performs precisely as required.

Torque

Shaft torque refers to how much a shaft might twist under the forces of a golf swing and is measured from the grip end down to the tip. A shaft with low torque will be around 2.5 degrees, with a maximum of 5 degrees of torque.

Shafts with lower torque ratings are better suited to players with faster swing speeds. The lower torque rating means the shaft is most resilient to twisting, providing more stability to offset the higher loading and stress during the swing. More stability means better control for those faster-swinging players.

Bend Profile

Bend profiles break the shaft down into three areas, the grip or butt end, mid-section, and tip section.

Shaft profiles can be engineered to help deliver launch and spin characteristics that can help improve distance.

Shafts that are stiff or ultra-stiff in the tip section help golfers with high swing speeds or quick transitions in their swing. The tip profile is designed to keep the shaft as stable as possible, allowing these players a better chance of not launching or spinning the ball too high, which will rob them of distance.

Players with slower swing speeds or who are smoother in their transitions need a little more “kick” in the lower to mid section of the shaft, which will help them generate more spin and a better launch that’s better suited to their swing speeds.

Joining the 20%, How Custom Fitting Helps You Improve

We now have a better understanding of how golf shafts operate during a golf swing, which leads to the question of how you can ensure you get the right shafts fitted for your needs.

The answer is simple—custom fitting.

Working with a qualified fitter and a launch monitor will quickly establish the baseline numbers you generate with your existing golf clubs.

Honing in on how well your existing shafts are working, the fitter will pay close attention to:

• Launch and spin rates
• Strike location and consistency
• Shot dispersion
• Club head speed

Assessing this data will start to indicate where improvements can be made.

Choosing from a variety of shafts in different weights and flexes makes finding the correct shaft for your needs that much easier.

Trialing different weights and flexes, the fitter can see where improvements are being made through the launch monitor data. The process leads to a shaft recommendation, where the benefits can easily be explained, and you can see the improvements for yourself.

Finding the correct shaft isn’t just about getting the correct weight, flex, and profile. A professional fitter will also ensure that shafts are cut to the proper length to ensure they are fitted precisely to your requirements.

Golf shafts are described as a golf club’s engine because they transfer the energy the swing creates into the golf ball at impact.

It is estimated that only 20% of golfers use the right shafts in their clubs, meaning everybody else is overlooking opportunities to play and score better on the golf course.

Getting the right golf shaft isn’t just about creating more clubhead speed to gain more distance. Having the correct shafts in your clubs will help improve your accuracy and ball striking.

It sounds like a big claim, but manufacturers employ materials and technologies that create stable shafts and profiles that help us get the correct launch and spin conditions.

A variety of weights and flexes also help fit the correct shaft, making honing the right shaft easier than ever.

At Nine By Nine Golf, our experienced fitters work with every level of golfer to fit them into the correct shafts, which will produce positive results.

We carry the broadest range of shafts from premium brands such as Graphite Design, Fujikura, Mitsubishi Chemicals, KBS, True Temper, and Project X. For each brand, we stock all weight and flex options to accommodate the variety of players who visit us.

Using premium launch monitor technology as a starting point, we capture the key data needed to help us understand your game. From there, we can start trialing different combinations and measuring the results for improvement.

By the end of the fitting, you’ll clearly understand what shafts will work best for you and will see improvements in distance, accuracy, and ball striking.

Our website allows you to book a custom fitting session for any game department. When you come for your custom fitting, you’ll get to try our range of custom shafts, from driver to wedges, as we find your perfect match.

You can also browse our full range of custom-fitting shafts and order directly from our website.

We’d be happy to assist if you have any additional questions about the benefits of custom-fitted shafts or the custom-fitting process.