Graphite or Steel Shafts?

Ok, I'm talking about golf clubs again. I was at the golf store today, looking at some drivers, and noticed that some have steel shafts and others have graphite shafts. Now, the graphites feel nice, because they're so light, but my old 3-wood is a steel shaft, and that feels good too, only i wish it was lighter. So I was wondering what are the differences a graphite shaft makes from a steel shaft. Does it mean that with a graphite shaft that it is lighter, I will have a faster swing speed and thus get more distance? Thanks.

Typically with graphite vs. steel it is a battle of distance vs. accuracy. Steels are generally more accurate while graphites provide more swing speed. You need to find your preference

Well.....heres a can of worms.......

As Bonzi says, its basically a choice of greater accuracy or greater distance. Graphite shafts provide greater distance because they are usually half the weight of steel (hence greater clubhead speed for the same effort swing) and because they are usually half an inch to an inch longer than steel to keep the swingweight the same (longer swing arc).

Steel are more accurate because they are zero torque (no graphite shaft yet made can come close for control) the extra weight also helps keep the shaft from twisting.

To be fair if you get a nicely weighted graphite shaft that you have to load up well you can get good accuracy out of it as well as distance, just as if you get a nice light steel shaft (True Temper TX for example) you can boost your distance.

Basically, I dont think I have seen a tour player use a steel shafted driver this millenium so go for graphite in the driver, I play steel in the fairway woods just because i like the feel of it for fairway woods. Try a few graphite shafts first, top makes are Grafalloy, Graphite Design, Aldila and UST.

Good luck,

D,

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In the Taylor Made Bag:

Titleist 905T 8.5 Degree

Callaway Steelhead 3 Wood

Callaway Steelhead 5 Wood

Callaway X-16 3-PW

MacGregor Tourney 52 Degree

Cobra Phil Rodgers 59 Degree Rusty

Odyssey DFX 2-Ball

Callaway Tour iX

The Aldila NV shaft (the green one) is probably the best graphite shaft on the market. I love it so much. Whatever driver i get next i will get the NV in it!

Don't forget Harrison and Accuflex for shaft choices!

Don't forget that Tiger had a steel shafted driver until recently. How much more distance do you really need? Are you really expecting to drive a Par 4? I'd take accuracy (80 percent driving accuracy minus 30 yards vs 60 percent accuracy plus 30 yards) I hate hitting out and/or over trees and the rough!

The Accuflex Evolution and VS339 are great shafts.

And Fujikura makes great shafts, too.

MAke sure you are fitted with the new adila shaft. Some drivers dont even work with the shaft yet some retailers are puttign em in. I was going to go with the adila shaft but it wasnt going to work for me. However, I have heard rave reviews on it.

This is the crux of the problem with any driver.

Some clubheads seem to matchup really well with their shafts, and others don't. (Wilson Fatboys fall into the former, and any stock TaylorMade driver falls into the latter, IMO).

I'm actually a believer that if you find a driver combo that works for you, buy two. You never know when the first one will break.

For driver and fairway woods, graphite is the choice today. However, not just any old graphite shaft. Many off the shelf low cost clubs have VERY bad graphite (or perhaps they are just fibreglass) shafts. Here in Canada, an economical choice has been the Harrison Boron Gold shaft at about C$60 for the shaft. Add a good knock-off head, grip and you are over C$100. For not much more than this, you can find an almost new Taylormade or ??? on the Net. (I bought my R510 from www.3balls.com )


BUT, be careful, especially on eBay. A friend just got a complete set of Taylormade woods that were given to him by a relative that works in Hong Kong. These looked like Taylormades in every respect, but because I own these clubs, something looked wrong. This showed up more in the headcovers which were clearly not the real thing. The shafts were also not factory shafts. No telling if the heads were any good or if they were actually Titanium.

For irons, senior players often go for graphite - less stress on wrists and forearm and perhaps easier to hit. I am almost ready for them!

Good Luck!

There are a lot of eastern companies putting out ripoff clubs.

You have to be very careful, because to the untrained eye, they look almost like the OEM they're trying to imitate. However, they do NOT perform anywhere near the actual OEM.

There's quite a few sellers on eBay from China, etc, that sell these clubs. They DON'T take paypal... that's bad sign #1. Sometimes the item's they're selling show obvious flaws (like no dot over the 'i' in Titleist), otherwise, you have to know what the heads look like.

If in doubt, call the OEM.

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True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com

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.

I had my My Swing analyzed and the speed with a 5 iron is about 75. I hit it about 155 or 160. I have a slight inside out path with about a 3 degree closed club face at impact. Tempo is about normal at (I think 1.5 sec.) Am looking at building a set of irons. Either Snake eyes Python, or Dynagolf HC irons with 3 and 4 iron as hybrids. Problem, 9 million different shaft brands out there, different tips, different weight, different kick points etc. I do not mind spending 15 or $20 per shaft if they will help. Problem is, which shaft?

if you are going with steel go with a true temper or rifle

It largely depends on what you're going to do to these shafts. Pure them to some degree? Or just cut and glue?

If you're going to pure them (spine/flo/deflection), then you can buy whatever shaft you like.

If you're just going to cut and glue, Mercury makes great shafts. But you do have to tip trim them (ie cut some off the tip to get the correct flex - you get progressively longer cuts as you move towards wedges).

True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts with Sensicore are fabulous - but again, you have to tip trim them.

The great part about Rifle shafts (as long as you are NOT BUYING BLANKS) is that they're usually sold as a set for irons (8 shafts) already frequency matched - you just stick 'em in and butt trim to length.

As a note - you will butt trim all your clubs to length, generally speaking.

You'll find most players are playing True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts.

If you like your clubs lighter, you might try Dynamic Gold lite, or Dynalites from True Temper.

The caveat: Make sure that you buy the right tipped shafts for your heads.

Shafts (and hence, heads), come in either A) Parallel or Taper tip, and most irons are a .370 diameter. But make sure you double check, and buy the appropriate shafts.

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

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.