Graphite Designs Tour AD Fairway Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

Golfers who first experience a fairway with a premium driver shaft universally have a jaw dropping experience. First at the performance then at the cost of the fairway club. There is sticker shock when they are told the shaft itself cost more than a retail fairway metal. Yet, when you see a tour player hitting a fairway you should realize, the shaft he is using is the same quality as his driver shaft. Heavier and perhaps stiffer, but it is an ultra-premium driver shaft.

The problem with the stock fairway shafts is there simply is not enough money at $250 to $300, the typical retail price of a fairway, to supply a decent shaft. In the price range we have come to expect at retail for a fairway, the manufacturer has a limited range of shaft options.  What gets delivered is a high launch design. That shaft will have a soft tip zone to help get the ball airborne. However at that price point it will also come with high torque. When you  watch your slightly off center ball strikes snap hook or block into the trees realize this, it’s not you, it’s the shaft. I have put a great many golfers into $550 to $600 fairways. Not all can or will make that level of investment into a fairway. Those that do have a rapid understanding of what shaft quality means.

Graphite Designs has joined Mitsubishi in offering a high quality fairway specific shaft at an approachable price. The Graphite Design Tour AD F-Series Fairway shaft has a MAP price of $250. That is 35% less than the price of a Tour AD driver shaft. The Tour AD FWY is painted to closely match this year’s Tour AD TP driver shaft. It is made with 40t carbon-fiber while the TP uses 50t material. Weights range from 72 to 95 grams. Let’s look at the measurements. 

KBS $-Taper Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

Before the KBS $-Taper became available to the public, it had two tour wins. Cameron Smith at the Zurich Classic and Si Woo Kim at the Players. The release to club builders was delayed as KBS tried to new label application process. Eventually, they gave up and cut it loose with the current label process.

This shaft used a different step design from prior KBS shafts. The steps are longer, almost to the point of being hard to see. The discussion of the $-Taper starts at the 8:45 mark in this video shot at the 2017 PGA Merchandise show. Kim describes his objective for this shaft, a variation of the KBS tour that reduces spin. As soon as I finish writing this review I will put tips on the review samples to test the shaft. 

As I measured the $-Taper I had an expectation of what I expected to see, that was not the case.

Do not assume you will react to this profile exactly as I did. We are all different and react to shafts and heads uniquely. I must play the 110 gram R flex because I cannot effectively swing a heavier shaft. However, 10 yards is something I need at my age and getting it without adding to roll out is something I will gladly put in my bag. Find a fitter that has added he KBS $-Taper to his fitting cart and test them yourself.

ACCRA Tour Z RPG Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The 2017 ACCRA Tour Z RPG has a unique profile. A number of recent shaft designs have featured what I refer to as super soft mid sections. Soft mid shafts are the most popular and most widely used shafts by most golfers. A few years ago a number of super soft midsection shafts came to the market. I found them to be great fits for golfers with neutral to negative angle of attacks. The Tour Z RPG sits in a middle ground between the traditional soft mid and the super soft mid designs. And in this video shot at the 2017 PGA merchandise show, Gawain Robertson explains the shaft at the 3:25 mark. 

Project X Rifle Tapered Iron Shaft

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The Project X Rifle Golf Shaft was one of the first shafts I studied when I took up club making. I attended a weekend course on its history and how to build matched sets of iron with the parallel shaft. Much of that history is explained in my earlier article about the Project X Rifle Shaft. Parallel shafts have a tip diameter of .370 inches. A set is made by incrementally cutting the shaft tips. Today however, the majority of the iron heads have .355 tapered hosels. That means the club maker must secure the club head and ream the hosel to .370. With forged heads it does not take much effort providing you have a good drill press and a hosel clamp fixture. With cast heads it is much more difficult. The hardness of the cast hosel requires a mill with horse power and in many cases a cooling system to keep from burning the ream. In other words, if you tried this once on a hard casting you probably will refuse to do it again.

True Temper provides a solution. Tapered Project X Rifle shafts with precut tip. The Rifle shaft system gave the club maker the ability to fine tune stiffness by altering the length of the tip cut as he pleased. That can not be done with taper tip shafts. To remedy that problem, the taper Rifle shafts are offered in 10 different lengths for each stiffness. The club maker can hit mid flex targets by selecting shafts from that array of pre trimmed tips. 

Mitsubishi Chemical C6 Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The C6 Blue is available only to customer builders, distributed exclusively through SwingScience. This is not unlike the shafts made exclusively for the head companies. To the best of my knowledge this is a new distribution channel for Mitsubishi Chemical. The many Club Builders that get their shafts and heads through SwingScience now have access to a unique shaft with premium specs at a price that will not elicit a gag reflex from their customers. The emphasis in here is on “unique”, there was not a good match to be found in my knowledge base. Lets take a look at the EI profiles. 

Graphite Design Tour AD IZ Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The review samples of the Graphite Design Tour AD IZ just arrived. I am going out of the country for a few weeks and I wanted to hand off the most common of the 14 weights and flexes over to the testing staff before I left. I measured the 60 and 70 gram versions only and will add to this review when I return.

Tour AD IZ, like the Tour AD TP, utilizes TORAYCA ® T1100G carbon-fiber pre-preg with NANOALLOY ® technology in the tip section of the shaft. Also like the TP, it is made with 50 ton ultra-premium, high modulus, aerospace quality carbon fiber materials. Let’s take a look at the measurements of the 60 and 70 gram models that have been measured.

Matrix DEUS, DEUS Tour and DEUS Tour B Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

Matrix DEUS

Matrix DEUS Tour

Matrix DEUS Tour B

The Matrix DEUS line is new in 2017. It joins a large array of shafts available from Matrix. In this review I cover the DEUS, DEUS Tour and DEUS Tour B. The Matrix website does not give much information about these shafts other than spin ratings. It was discussed with Tom Deshill at the 2017 PGA merchandise show. He did mention the DEUS line was targeted at a lower price range than most previous Matrix shafts.

Lets take a close look at the specs. 

Mitsubishi Tensei Pro Orange Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The Pro Orange is the third shaft in the Tensei product line. As noted on the Mitsubishi Chemical website “this is the first of it’s kind bend profile for MCA GOLF.”  Many of Mitsubishi’s designs are variations of previous themes. The Tensei Pro Orange is unique. I keep inserting the word Pro in my description of this shaft. The Tensei Orange, a shaft sold to the club companies is not the same. The difference between the two can be seen on the Mitsubishi website. The torque and the bend profiles are quite different.

The Tensei Pro Blue and The Tensei Pro White have been reviewed earlier. The three shafts are an evolution in multi material construction from Mitsubishi. Most interesting is the Carbon Fiber Dupont Kevlar “CK” material woven into the butt section of the shaft. You can plainly see it’s effect on hoop strength in the following chart. 

True Temper Dynamic Gold 120 Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

True Temper responded to the trend for lighter iron shafts with a redesign of the Dynamic Gold. The Dynamic Gold 120 is about 10 grams lighter than the classic tour staple Dynamic Gold. It is offered in two versions, the S400 at 118 grams and the X100 at 120 grams. I see very little difference between the classic Dynamic Gold and this new version the Dynamic Gold 120. 

Mitsubishi Tensei CK Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The past focus of Golf Shaft Reviews had been aftermarket shafts. With this review I am creating a new category, OEM shafts. The typical market price of an aftermarket driver shaft ranges from $300 to $1000. Those shafts are not supplied in off the rack drivers. In the not to distant past we would see the notation “Made For” or “Engineered For” on these shafts. That notation came to be recognized by the golfer for what it was. Several years ago it disappeared and the labeling of the OEM ‘Made For” shaft became much more subtle. A reasonable person understands that he is not going to get a $400 ultra premium shaft in a $400 driver. Unfortunately, many of the clerks in the retail side of the golf business are unaware of the subtle changes in graphics now used to label aftermarket and OEM shafts.

This is not a condemnation of the shafts made for the club companies that are installed in off the rack drivers. A great many golfers play a lot of good golf with these shafts. And generally the quality of all shaft has improved over that last several years. The difference is in the materials used. Those differences are most easily seen in the measurements torque and hoop deformation. In my experience those two properties affect dispersion. It is not difficult to produce bargain shafts with the same linear stiffness properties of some of the premium shafts. It is impossible to reproduce the matrix of stiffness, weight, torque and hoop strength that comes with exotic materials and high density prepreg that is used in premium shafts.

The Tensei Pro Blue, Tensei Pro White and Tensei Pro Orange have been reviewed earlier. They feature a long section of Carbon Fiber Dupont Kevlar “CK” material woven into the butt section of the shaft and Boron reinforced tips. The notation Boron Tip is printed on the tip of the shaft. The Boron material is not included in the tip of the non “Pro” version of the shafts. Let’s take a look at other subtle graphics and what the profiles of the Tensei driver shafts you will find in off the rack clubs. 

Project X EvenFlow Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The Project X EvenFlow, introduced in late 2017 is made in San Diego where the Project X HZRDUS shafts are made. It adds a unique pair of profiles to the Project X HZRDUS shafts that have released over the last few years. It has a softer midsection than the HZRDUS Black, It has a firmer butt section than the HZRDUS Red. It has a firmer mid section than the HZRDUS Yellow. The profile is a popular design and it has a great many close matches from just about every manufacturer in the golf shaft business. 

True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

As with the Dynamic Gold 120, True Temper has again responded to the trend for lighter iron shafts with a redesign of the Dynamic Gold. The Dynamic Gold 105 is around 105 grams uncut. When cut it will be in the 100 gram range. The R and S are ever so slightly lighter. In my experience, 105 grams is the fitting sweet spot for the recreational golfer. It is good to see the more companies developing products in this range.

Mitsubishi Diamana Thump Hybrid Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

I cannot recall how long the Diamana Thump Hybrid has been in my bag.  I am playing the original 95 gram Thump that was made with a .350 tip. For many years I has been available as an unlisted special order shaft to Mitsubishi Dealers. I have ordered and installed them for many of my fitting clients. At last, the Diamana Thump has been reissued with a .370 tip and new graphics. There are three models, 90S, 90X and 100X.

I have long described the Thump Hybrid as a steel shaft made out of carbon fiber. It sits in the same weight range as mid weight steel. And it is every bit as stiff, if not stiffer than steel in the weight range. The low torque that is an inherent property of steel is built into the Thump. If the $200+ price of a Thump, or other high performance carbon fiber hybrid shafts, is not in your budget then go with steel. However, there are a few reasons you would choose carbon fiber over steel. 

The .370 tip fits most all current generation hybrids. No longer will you have to shim the .355 tips of the older design. If you have used the earlier generation you will find the tips to ever so slightly firmer in the new design. Torque is slightly lower as well. It is time to put some new hot face hybrids in my bag.

TrueTemper AMT Iron Shafts

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

AMT stands for Ascending Mass Technology. It is not a new concept. Ping has had ascending weight shafts for many years. The True Temper AMT is one of the stock shafts offered by Titleist in 2018. Several shafts I worked with and played, the Nippon 999’s and the Aerotech Players Spec were ascending. The TrueTemper AMT White is a relabeled Dynamic Gold AMT Tour Issue that I reviewed in 2016. See that review for a discussion of Ascending Mass shafts.

The AMT Red and the AMT Black are new, lighter weight shafts You can see in the chart below how they differ from the AMT White. 

Graphite Design Chichibu Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The Graphite Designs Chichibu is an ultralite driver shaft. Uncut weights range from 41 to 46 grams. It is designed for driver swing speeds in the 65 to 85 mph range. This video was shot in January 2018 at the PGA Merchandise show. Bill McPherson and I discuss the Chichibu and other 2018 shafts from Graphite Designs.

Most of Graphite Design’s shafts have models in the 40 gram range. Making light weight shafts is not something new for Graphite Designs. The Chichibu weighs in below the typical Graphite Design Tour AD DI 4 models. 

ACCRA Tour Z RPG 400 Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

ACCRA added a new profile to the Tour Z RPG in 2018. The Tour Z RPG is a lower launch version of the Tour Z RPG 300 reviewed last year. This video, shot at ACCRA day at the PGA merchandise has Ken Thompson of ACCRA explaining the RPG shafts to the club fitters gathered there.

ACCRA has moved some of their manufacturing to a Japanese foundry. The Tour Z RPG is a made in Japan product. It uses high modulus materials with the lowest resin content of any ACCRA shaft. A new material with a quad weave runs the entire length of the shaft. The 4 Tour Z RPG 400 shafts have consistent bend profiles. Fitters can work to find your proper weight and flex knowing each of these shaft have exactly the same bend properties. The radial consistency was 99.3% with a 0.5% standard deviation. They are round. 

Shamida / Oban CT-100 Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The OBAN / Shimada CT-100 is a lower weight version of the CT-115 released last year. They give the club builder the ability to fine tune set stiffness in a constant weight, taper tip design. Iron shafts have traditionally been parallel or taper tip. I wrote an article, Parallel vs Constant Weight Irons Shafts, explaining the differences several years ago. The CT-100, like the CT-115, is a set of 12 constant weight shafts from which the club builder selects a group of shafts to build to an exact the stiffness range. This combines the best aspects of constant weigh taper sets with the tunable stiffness of parallel iron sets. This overcomes the tip stiffness compression inherent in parallel iron sets. If you did not understand that statement, read the technical article.

The discussion about the CT-100 starts at the 9:30 mark on this video shot at the 2018 PGA Merchandise show.

Lets take a closer look at the OBAN CT-100. 

Dynamic Gold Wedge Golf Shafts – True Temper

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The introduction of the Dynamic Gold 115 Wedge shaft is yet another event recognizing the trend toward lighter clubs and shafts. The Dynamic Gold Wedge shaft is 130 grams, the Dynamic Gold 115 sheds 12% of the traditional weight. It is time to refresh the 2014 article about Dynamic Gold wedges, putting the Dynamic Gold 115 into perspective with the other TrueTemper wedge shafts. 

Mitsubishi Diamana Thump Iron Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

This is the second release of a Diamana Thump Iron Shaft. The first release, in 2010, was eventually discontinued. At $160 per shaft, or $1280 per set of shafts, there was little interest. I am surprised to see the shaft again being offered. Perhaps PXG’s success at selling uber expensive irons demonstrated there is a market for ultra premium irons.

What exactly do you get at $160 per shaft? Much like an exotic sports car you get light weight strength. I am seeing equivalent steel stiffness with 10 to 15 grams less weigh. I am not referring the the R,S,X denoted on shafts. Those letters are meaningless ways to compare shafts outside of their own particular model. I am referring to area under the EI curve, the only functional method I have seen to rate shaft stiffness. I have to get into the 125 gram range in steel to see a stiffness match to the 2018 Mitsubishi Chemical Thump 105 gram iron shafts. These are truly exotic iron shafts at a truly exotic price. Unless you are comfortable with the stiffness found in something like a 125 gram KBS tour this is not a shaft you can load. But if you are, you have to see what happens when your clubs weigh loses 15 grams. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.

Mitsubishi OTi Taper Iron Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

Mitsubishi Rayon has expanded the braided OTi iron shaft into a constant weight tapered shafts. This is explained in greater detail in the review of the OTi Parallel shaft The OTi shafts starts with a new form of prepreg they call Tow. The carbon fibers are arranged in bundles, the way a steel cable is made. The bundles are impregnated with resin and then woven into a braid. That braid bundle is then slipped over the mandrel. You might think at this point no spine. There is a common misconception that spine is caused by sheet overlap or welds. My experience is that it is the result of roundness or more specifically lack roundness of the shaft. In carbon fiber, that is mostly caused by outer wall sanding. The redial consistency numbers show below the measurement charts rates this important quality consideration.