New shafts?

Due to some recent swing changes, I’m wondering if I need to change the shafts in my driver and 3 wood. My bad shot has become a nasty snap hook, especially with the 3 wood.

I have a stiff flex shaft in my driver (Cleveland Launcher) and a firm flex shaft in my 3 wood (Callaway Big Bertha), both are stock shafts. Do you think it’s worth changing shafts and if you do what would you suggest as a replacement. My previous driver had a UST proforce shaft which loaded up beautifully although it had a tendency to balloon slightly. I've looked at the proforce v2 and also the adila NV but I'm not knowledgable enough to make an informed decision.

My club distances would be: 8 iron 160+ yards and driver 270+ yards and I play with a small draw. I’ve never been in a launch monitor so I have no idea what my actual swing and ball speeds would be.

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Cleveland Launcher 460 - Aldila NV 65 x-stiff
Callaway Big Bertha 3W - Aldila NV 75 x-stiff
TaylorMade Rescue Dual TP (16°, 19°) stiff
Mizuno MP-32 2-PW Rifle Flighted 6.0
Titleist Vokey Wedges 52°, 56°, 60°
Scotty Cameron Circa 62 #3 35/330

get on a launch monitor if you can. youll be glad you did. i was sorry i waited so long.

This is what I did to figure out which shaft I wanted, and my club distances look very similar to yours.

1) swing speed tested: you can get this done quite easily at retail outlets, custom club maker and pro shops (if they have the equipment).

2) Refer to Wishon (this helped to educate me):
a) definitions of your swing type {release: tempo: transition}:
http://www.wishongolf.com/glossary/#transition
(my swing type is a {3:3:3})
b) shaft fitting methodology:
http://www.wishongolf.com/tech_talk/...shaft_fitting/

3) Find out what shafts people are using in your SS category. I personally wanted a very rigid shaft, so I looked at what the Long Drive guys were using and investigated those shafts.

I ended up picking the Accuflex Assassin II WC x-stiff for my Ashton X-1 3wood. This is a very tight shaft, by that I mean that it does not feel "whippy" when I waggle it back and forth (I personally hate this feeling).

When I purchased my SMT DB455 it came with an Aggressive nRAGE x-stiff shaft. This is also a great shaft, but it feels a little bit more whippy than the Assassin and I will probably switch to this shaft eventually (maybe in a few years).

Hope this can help,
Charles

Cheers Charles, that's a great post thanks mate

I've found a range near me who have a full testing setup (they're one of the major centres in the south of the UK) where I can try everything out so your advice is very timely. Hopefully I'll be able to go this weekend and try out a few.

It's also nice to hear from someone who has x-stiff shafts. It seems to be that many golfers regard them as a vanity and that unless you play on the tour, only braggarts play them! Surely at a time when more players are becoming athletes (stronger/faster/fitter) the number of stiffer shafts will be on the increase.

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Cleveland Launcher 460 - Aldila NV 65 x-stiff
Callaway Big Bertha 3W - Aldila NV 75 x-stiff
TaylorMade Rescue Dual TP (16°, 19°) stiff
Mizuno MP-32 2-PW Rifle Flighted 6.0
Titleist Vokey Wedges 52°, 56°, 60°
Scotty Cameron Circa 62 #3 35/330

One thing to remember is that the labels - regular, stiff, x-stiff - have almost no meaning when comparing shafts from different manufacturers (and sometimes within a particular brand), and have even less meaning in an OEM club (LowPost would probably agree). If you want to know more read up on the term "shaft profiling" (google or http://www.wishongolf.com/etechrepor...ndex.html#art3 ). This analyzes the stiffness of a shaft over its entire length at specific points.

When I was deciding on a shaft I seemed to be inbetween stiff and x-stiff, and I decided to error on the side of too stiff. I could always get it pulled and switch to the stiff later and not take too much of a bath ($$).

By the way, thank you for almost implying that I am an athlete, but an accurate parethesis for me would have been (stronger/faster/FATTER). I weigh about 300lbs, but I kill the ball. Thanks again.

Later,
Charles

PS - I did a launch monitor session early in this season, and I got very little out of it because we only tested my current driver which was too soft a shaft and the 10.5° loft was too high for me (current driver an 8°). So I hope you get to try out a number of different shafts and clubheads at your range session.

Charles, I found the same thing - that Assassin WC felt very stiff (I played an X in an Ashton MS5 std).

I've heard the same report coming back from the nRAGE - that it feels kinda loose (and certainly feels loose next to the WC). I play an nRAGE 78 X in one driver, and play an AccuFLEX Evolution R in another driver. I like the feel of both, and the Evo is the lower torque driver... go figure.

As for you, bloodredsun, your 'stiff' and 'firm' OEM stock shafts are playing more like 'regular' and 'senior', respectively. Yes, really. Jody at AccuFLEX really knows his shafts.

I think you could slip into an Evolution R easily, and may want to try the S flex (yes, it's a pricey shaft, but it's hella good). Or for less money, that Assassin is a tight shaft. With your distances, you definitely should be looking at an X flex, no matter who you go with.

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True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

LowPost - Thanks. I don't have any fancy equipment to test shafts and I only used my "feel" of the shafts. Do you have a frequency analyzer in your shop? If so have you actually tested them?

Bloodredsun - keep us posted on your progress and results.

Cheers boys I'll do my best to keep you updated.

One point about the stock shafts; the Driver shaft is actually a Fujikura so might not be that bad, but I agree that there's no way that the 3 wood shaft is even remotely stiff. It's like playing with a piece of liqourice!

As for price, hopefully it won't be a problem as long as I can placate the wife with a handbag/pair of shoes of equal value

I've got an FA, yes, but no torque arm (yet). I've gotta double check that my ClubScout 3 can do it first (although I can't figure out why not).

I need to rely on gear, as I don't feel much in my swing at all. My brother in law, however, is a crazy feel player, and can detect the smallest difference. Hell, he had me do a shaft swap on some irons for him, and for one reason or another, I managed to put the 5 iron shaft in the 6 iron head and vice versa. He noticed it within 30 seconds of holding the 5 iron. Needless to say, I've got a little work to do.

__________________
True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

LowPost - the clubscout III should have come with it, at least according to this site.
http://www.csfa.com/clubsct3.html

Bloodredsun - What is the loft of your driver and 3w?

Oops - I guess I've got a CS2. And from the looks of things, I'd need to upgrade to a CS3 (I see a second button - probably for converting Freq to Torque).

Why not upgrade even further to CS4 then you can use it for spining shafts as well.

I've got a soon-to-be-overhauled NF4 for spining. And a nice CS clamp for FLOing.

Final update

The various shafts (and flex) tested were:

UST Proforce 65 (S,X) V2 65 (S,X)
Aldila NV(S,X), NVS (S)
Grafalloy Blue (S,X)

Basically it boiled down to the V2 and the NV. I used to have the Proforce in my old driver so knew what it could do, great distance but a tendency to balloon which was surprising as it is very tip stiff. The Blue just didn’t feel right - difficult to describe why. I tested the NVS just because it was there and it did exactly what I thought it would do - shot the ball into the air like a pitching wedge.


I preferred the look of the V2 and the incredibly low torque gave great feel but the ball flight was just a little too high with a tendency to balloon. The NV felt almost as good but it only comes in that hideous green so it looked pretty ugly. However the ball flight was a peach, giving a boring trajectory that went for miles.

So I plumped for the 65 X-stiff in my 9.5° driver and the 75 X-stiff in my 15° 3 wood.

Cheers all for the comments.

__________________
Cleveland Launcher 460 - Aldila NV 65 x-stiff
Callaway Big Bertha 3W - Aldila NV 75 x-stiff
TaylorMade Rescue Dual TP (16°, 19°) stiff
Mizuno MP-32 2-PW Rifle Flighted 6.0
Titleist Vokey Wedges 52°, 56°, 60°
Scotty Cameron Circa 62 #3 35/330

Looks like some pretty good choices. I don't have any personal experience with any of the shafts, but the specs look pretty good.

I looked at the NV online and you are right that is a pretty ugly green.

Enjoy your shafts.
Charles