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To most people, the shaft is just the long thin bit of the club that connects the grip to the clubhead. Apart from deciding which flex they would like when they bought the club, few of us seem to realise the importance the shaft plays in getting the head from the top of the backswing to the impact zone and the resulting trajectory of the ball.
It has only been fairly recently that manufacturers have begun to realise that pairing their latest high-tech titanium/carbon whiz-bang clubheads with average shafts defeats the technological marvels that their clubs have become. It’s still true that many clubs are bought and sold with only the barest nod to whether the shaft is suitable.
The truth is that while the clubhead does act pretty much independently to the shaft at impact, unless you have the correct shaft for your swing you will be fighting for the correct ball flight rather than letting the shaft do the work for you.
Shafts really need to be matched to the swing. Two players with the same speed swing may require two completely different shafts. But how is this true, surely a shaft is just a shaft? The fact is that how shafts react are completely dependent on the specific swing moves, so players with similar swing speeds but different moves require a shaft with different properties. Okay, there may be the minor matter of stiffness or flex but what other properties are there?
Firstly there are also the fairly basic issues of weight and length. Then there is also torque, tip stiffness, bend point, composition, shaft frequency, and spine-alignment. So just a couple of things then!
Before you get lost in the confusion of all these terms, they all become pretty simple when you realise that they are just measuring different factors of the club, either obvious attributes like weight and length to factors than otherwise would be termed "feel".
So, before discussing what shaft is suitable for you, we should have a look at these factors.
Flex: Everyone is familiar with shaft flex. All of us know that flex is simply how much a shaft bends when you swing it. The shaft bends back as you start your down swing, loading up with stored energy that is released as the club straightens at the impact zone. The amount of flex you need will depend on how fast you swing the club and also how smoothly. Playing with a shaft that is too stiff will rob you of distance if you do not swing hard enough to load up the club. Similarly, releasing too early will also rob you of distance as the shaft will have recovered long before impact. Playing with a shaft that is too soft will exaggerate your swing imperfections, with slight fades becoming big slices and pulls turning into snap hooks. So getting the right flex in a shaft is vitally important, but the trouble comes when you realise that there is no standard level of bend for each category so one manufacturers regular flex could be another’s stiff.
Weight: While the shaft is not the heaviest component of a club, it is pretty much the only way to alter the overall weight of a club and is one of the most important aspects in matching a club to a golfer. A lighter club can be swung faster than a heavier club. That seems pretty reasonable so why doesn't everybody play with the lightest possible shafts in their clubs? That's because there is a trade off between speed and control. The lighter shaft may be easier to swing faster, but the heavier shaft is easier to swing more accurately. So using a shaft that is too light would result in more off-centre hits, negating any gains from the increased swing speed. Typically this means that player with higher swing speeds should choose a shaft with a weight of 70g or over. The flip side of this is that using a shaft that is too heavy will rob you of swing speed.
Length: A longer shaft equals higher clubhead speed which equals more distance, approximately 8 yards more per inch. As with the weight though, this increase in speed comes with a penalty of the longer shaft being more difficult to control. So it's a trade between distance and accuracy.
Torque: How much does the shaft twist around its vertical axis when you swing it. Torque is mainly a feel issue. As the clubhead is on one side of the club, a shaft is exposed to a twisting force when swung as the inertia of the clubhead pulls on one side. A high torque shaft will give good feedback and absorb vibrations well but have a tendency to open the club face. A low torque shaft will resist this turning force, offering better consistency of shot, but feel stiff and board-like. This was more of a problem when graphite shafts were first manufactured in the 1970’s as the higher torque made for inconsistent results. This stigma of inconsistency has dogged graphite shafts ever since. Modern shafts now offer pretty much ideal torque levels, the right blend of feedback and absorption of vibration and still offer consistency.
Tip stiffness and bend point: These are two descriptions of the same thing, how the shaft actually bends when force is applied to it. A shaft that is equally stiff along its entire length would bend in the centre when a force is applied to it. A shaft that is a little stiffer at one end than the other would have a bend point closer to the softer end. But what does that mean to a golfer? Well a shaft that has a soft tip has a low bend point and this helps lift the ball in the air by adding dynamic loft. Players who hit the ball too high should look for a tip stiff shaft which does not add so much loft, which produces a lower and more boring trajectory. It should be noted that a shaft can only add a maximum of about 3° of loft and only when a golf swing has a late release.
Composition: What's the club made from. It's not just a simple question of steel or graphite anymore, but how the shaft is formed. This is more of an issue with graphite shafts where manufactures use up to 20 layers of carbon fibre in varying orientations to ensure top performance, with different orientations offering different properties. Shaft composition is now such that they are made to better fit players swing characteristics. Such as ultra light steel shafts that have the weight of graphite but the feel and delivery of steel, and graphite shafts for better player irons. One interesting point is that in some ways, composition no longer matters. Two shafts with precisely the same numbers (flex, weight, length etc) but made from different materials will give you exactly the same performance. How it feels may well be different, but how far and straight you hit the ball will be the same.
Frequency: This is a method of precisely measuring and defining the flex of the golf shaft through electronic calibration. When a shaft is pulled and then released, it will oscillate up and down, with the frequency of the oscillation determined by the stiffness and length of the shaft. A stiffer or shorter shaft will oscillate faster while a softer or longer club will oscillate slower. A normal set of irons will have the 3 iron oscillate the slowest and the wedges oscillate the fastest, with the clubs progressively increasing from the long irons to the short. Where frequency matched irons differ from normal irons is that the frequency will increase by a consistent amount, whereas normal irons will have varying amounts of difference between each club. While the benefits to us mortal golfers may be marginal, pros are increasingly using this technology to ensure consistency across their clubs.
Spine Alignment: All shafts have some degree of ‘spine’. No shaft is made completely round or straight. This means that shafts do not bend in the same direction when force is applied such as when swinging. Aligning the spine makes the shaft behave as if it were symmetrical and round, improving the likelihood of on-centre hits and giving better and more consistent results. Like frequency matching, this measurement of the variability of shafts is not a distinctive shaft option that you would request like weight or flex but it is still a very important aspect in building the ideal set.
So after looking at all these different properties of a golf shaft, where does that leave the average player? Thankfully, the most important ones are the ones that you would expect, namely weight, length and flex. That being said, I would be tempted to add bend point to this list. The benefit of a softer tipped shaft with a lower bend point is quite noticeable for slower swingers so if you struggle to get the ball in the air this really is a must. Likewise, a faster swinging player with a late release who has trouble with the ball ballooning and a too high a trajectory would benefit from a tip stiff shaft.
The other properties are either issues from when graphite shafts where first produced (torque, composition) or ones that concern single figure handicappers than your weekend hacker(frequency matching and spine alignment).
While commentating at the recent Ryder Cup, Nick Faldo mentioned that when he replaced a club in his set he would always use the shaft from his old club in his new one, as replacement shafts could not be guaranteed to be completely the same. He contrasted this with the modern tour pro, who can change individual irons at a whim without too much fuss, due to the increased knowledge of about shafts, the better standard of manufacture and the application of such technologies as frequency matching and spine alignment which take the guess work out of getting the right feel in a set of clubs.
Much of shaft preference still relies on feel but with the relentless march of technology, expect to see these factors move from the tour pro and club fitters workshops into more mainstream equipment.
----------
Thanks go to LowPost42 for his helpful comments.
© Martin Anderson
It has only been fairly recently that manufacturers have begun to realise that pairing their latest high-tech titanium/carbon whiz-bang clubheads with average shafts defeats the technological marvels that their clubs have become. It’s still true that many clubs are bought and sold with only the barest nod to whether the shaft is suitable.
The truth is that while the clubhead does act pretty much independently to the shaft at impact, unless you have the correct shaft for your swing you will be fighting for the correct ball flight rather than letting the shaft do the work for you.
Shafts really need to be matched to the swing. Two players with the same speed swing may require two completely different shafts. But how is this true, surely a shaft is just a shaft? The fact is that how shafts react are completely dependent on the specific swing moves, so players with similar swing speeds but different moves require a shaft with different properties. Okay, there may be the minor matter of stiffness or flex but what other properties are there?
Firstly there are also the fairly basic issues of weight and length. Then there is also torque, tip stiffness, bend point, composition, shaft frequency, and spine-alignment. So just a couple of things then!
Before you get lost in the confusion of all these terms, they all become pretty simple when you realise that they are just measuring different factors of the club, either obvious attributes like weight and length to factors than otherwise would be termed "feel".
So, before discussing what shaft is suitable for you, we should have a look at these factors.
Flex: Everyone is familiar with shaft flex. All of us know that flex is simply how much a shaft bends when you swing it. The shaft bends back as you start your down swing, loading up with stored energy that is released as the club straightens at the impact zone. The amount of flex you need will depend on how fast you swing the club and also how smoothly. Playing with a shaft that is too stiff will rob you of distance if you do not swing hard enough to load up the club. Similarly, releasing too early will also rob you of distance as the shaft will have recovered long before impact. Playing with a shaft that is too soft will exaggerate your swing imperfections, with slight fades becoming big slices and pulls turning into snap hooks. So getting the right flex in a shaft is vitally important, but the trouble comes when you realise that there is no standard level of bend for each category so one manufacturers regular flex could be another’s stiff.
Weight: While the shaft is not the heaviest component of a club, it is pretty much the only way to alter the overall weight of a club and is one of the most important aspects in matching a club to a golfer. A lighter club can be swung faster than a heavier club. That seems pretty reasonable so why doesn't everybody play with the lightest possible shafts in their clubs? That's because there is a trade off between speed and control. The lighter shaft may be easier to swing faster, but the heavier shaft is easier to swing more accurately. So using a shaft that is too light would result in more off-centre hits, negating any gains from the increased swing speed. Typically this means that player with higher swing speeds should choose a shaft with a weight of 70g or over. The flip side of this is that using a shaft that is too heavy will rob you of swing speed.
Length: A longer shaft equals higher clubhead speed which equals more distance, approximately 8 yards more per inch. As with the weight though, this increase in speed comes with a penalty of the longer shaft being more difficult to control. So it's a trade between distance and accuracy.
Torque: How much does the shaft twist around its vertical axis when you swing it. Torque is mainly a feel issue. As the clubhead is on one side of the club, a shaft is exposed to a twisting force when swung as the inertia of the clubhead pulls on one side. A high torque shaft will give good feedback and absorb vibrations well but have a tendency to open the club face. A low torque shaft will resist this turning force, offering better consistency of shot, but feel stiff and board-like. This was more of a problem when graphite shafts were first manufactured in the 1970’s as the higher torque made for inconsistent results. This stigma of inconsistency has dogged graphite shafts ever since. Modern shafts now offer pretty much ideal torque levels, the right blend of feedback and absorption of vibration and still offer consistency.
Tip stiffness and bend point: These are two descriptions of the same thing, how the shaft actually bends when force is applied to it. A shaft that is equally stiff along its entire length would bend in the centre when a force is applied to it. A shaft that is a little stiffer at one end than the other would have a bend point closer to the softer end. But what does that mean to a golfer? Well a shaft that has a soft tip has a low bend point and this helps lift the ball in the air by adding dynamic loft. Players who hit the ball too high should look for a tip stiff shaft which does not add so much loft, which produces a lower and more boring trajectory. It should be noted that a shaft can only add a maximum of about 3° of loft and only when a golf swing has a late release.
Composition: What's the club made from. It's not just a simple question of steel or graphite anymore, but how the shaft is formed. This is more of an issue with graphite shafts where manufactures use up to 20 layers of carbon fibre in varying orientations to ensure top performance, with different orientations offering different properties. Shaft composition is now such that they are made to better fit players swing characteristics. Such as ultra light steel shafts that have the weight of graphite but the feel and delivery of steel, and graphite shafts for better player irons. One interesting point is that in some ways, composition no longer matters. Two shafts with precisely the same numbers (flex, weight, length etc) but made from different materials will give you exactly the same performance. How it feels may well be different, but how far and straight you hit the ball will be the same.
Frequency: This is a method of precisely measuring and defining the flex of the golf shaft through electronic calibration. When a shaft is pulled and then released, it will oscillate up and down, with the frequency of the oscillation determined by the stiffness and length of the shaft. A stiffer or shorter shaft will oscillate faster while a softer or longer club will oscillate slower. A normal set of irons will have the 3 iron oscillate the slowest and the wedges oscillate the fastest, with the clubs progressively increasing from the long irons to the short. Where frequency matched irons differ from normal irons is that the frequency will increase by a consistent amount, whereas normal irons will have varying amounts of difference between each club. While the benefits to us mortal golfers may be marginal, pros are increasingly using this technology to ensure consistency across their clubs.
Spine Alignment: All shafts have some degree of ‘spine’. No shaft is made completely round or straight. This means that shafts do not bend in the same direction when force is applied such as when swinging. Aligning the spine makes the shaft behave as if it were symmetrical and round, improving the likelihood of on-centre hits and giving better and more consistent results. Like frequency matching, this measurement of the variability of shafts is not a distinctive shaft option that you would request like weight or flex but it is still a very important aspect in building the ideal set.
So after looking at all these different properties of a golf shaft, where does that leave the average player? Thankfully, the most important ones are the ones that you would expect, namely weight, length and flex. That being said, I would be tempted to add bend point to this list. The benefit of a softer tipped shaft with a lower bend point is quite noticeable for slower swingers so if you struggle to get the ball in the air this really is a must. Likewise, a faster swinging player with a late release who has trouble with the ball ballooning and a too high a trajectory would benefit from a tip stiff shaft.
The other properties are either issues from when graphite shafts where first produced (torque, composition) or ones that concern single figure handicappers than your weekend hacker(frequency matching and spine alignment).
While commentating at the recent Ryder Cup, Nick Faldo mentioned that when he replaced a club in his set he would always use the shaft from his old club in his new one, as replacement shafts could not be guaranteed to be completely the same. He contrasted this with the modern tour pro, who can change individual irons at a whim without too much fuss, due to the increased knowledge of about shafts, the better standard of manufacture and the application of such technologies as frequency matching and spine alignment which take the guess work out of getting the right feel in a set of clubs.
Much of shaft preference still relies on feel but with the relentless march of technology, expect to see these factors move from the tour pro and club fitters workshops into more mainstream equipment.
----------
Thanks go to LowPost42 for his helpful comments.
© Martin Anderson
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