Stock Shafts

swing flaws and performance of a club are 2 diff. things.

sometimes its limited availibility of shaft options. lets take the nike ignite driver as an example, some people need a low kick shaft to help them get the ball up, so the fujikura ignite is fine for them, but others need a high kick tip stiff shaft, so the fujikura is the worst thing for them and an aldila nv is better.

the problem is not all companies have these shaft options, and if they do, they can be hard to get or costly. taylormade has ther m.a.s. 2 shaft, which is a good shaft for some, but horrible for others. there is no one shaft fits all.

It's apples to oranges. Take this example, for instance, a GS 300 Lexus is essentially a Toyota Camry, with better components. The Lexus is a high performance car and the Toyota isn't. The same with a 580xd stock shaft and a 580xd NV. The NV is designed to launch a ball a certain way and the stock shaft really has no specs other than being graphite. If the engineers at TaylorMade could custom fit shafts for different launches then maybe they would not suck so bad, but until then, I am a stock shaft hater.

My beef is the consisency and FEEL of stock shafts S**K.

One example - my TaylorMade R5 stock MAS2 shaft wobbled like a dashboard hula dancer when you look at it in the spining machine. Swap to a spined aftermarket higher quality shaft, and my launch monitor numbers were dramatically better, and my dispersion patterns were much tighter!

Also - I just like the feel of certain other shafts, and most manufacturers don't giv eyou enough choices. AS others have mentioned - you also NEED various performance specs to optimize your launch conditions.

IMO - I wish ALL manufacturers would simply sell heads only. This would make my life so much easier.

All golf manufactures want to put as much of it's equipment on the floor as they can. They could careless about the quality, which is why you never see an NV shaft in secondary sports stores like Academy, Sports Authority (Oshmann's), etc...

Why do you think somebody will sell a used driver on eBay for a tad more with an exotic shaft than somebody who sells a used driver with a stock shaft??? It's simple the exotic shaft makes all the difference.

STOCK STAFTS SUCK

Actually the Lexus equivalent to the Toyota Camry is the ES 330 not the GS300. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

I was doing some thinking, and greats like Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan didn't have the access to technology like we have today. Yet, they adjusted themselves to the hickory shafts they had, no matter what flex or kickpoint or weight it had. If you gave them a stock shaft from today, they would go and practice with it, tune into it's playing characteristics, and still be just as good. So, I'm a firm believer in player over equipment.

But nice looking exotic shafts are pretty :birthday:

I was doing some thinking, and greats like Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan didn't have the access to technology like we have today. Yet, they adjusted themselves to the hickory shafts they had, no matter what flex or kickpoint or weight it had. If you gave them a stock shaft from today, they would go and practice with it, tune into it's playing characteristics, and still be just as good. So, I'm a firm believer in player over equipment.

 

But nice looking exotic shafts are pretty :birthday:

This is the very arguement a buddy of mine has (he's a clubmaker) when you talk about spine aligning/PUREing a club. :birthday:

I was doing some thinking, and greats like Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan didn't have the access to technology like we have today. Yet, they adjusted themselves to the hickory shafts they had, no matter what flex or kickpoint or weight it had. If you gave them a stock shaft from today, they would go and practice with it, tune into it's playing characteristics, and still be just as good. So, I'm a firm believer in player over equipment.

 

But nice looking exotic shafts are pretty :birthday:

While that is true, it's also true that Byron Nelson said that once he found a golf ball outta his bag that would fly the way he liked he'd use that exact same ball until he wore the dimples off of it or lost it. The reason being no two balls had the same flight characteristics during that era, nor were 2 shafts. If you dont think Jones or Hogan didn't reshaft there clubs with one's that were the most consistent for them, your crazy. And Hogan wasn't really very good with hickory. Jones and Hagen were for sure, but Hogan needed the consistency of steel shafts before he became the Hogan we all know from the history books. Snead used the same driver head for so long the soleplate was as thin as a razorblade when he finally cracked it. Snead said he cried when the head finally shattered on him, because it was the only one he'd found that was perfect for his swing.

The problem with most stock shafts isn't that they're not any good, but the quality control on them is horrible. I will always take a club to the range and give it a go with whatever shaft it comes with to try it out. I've found some good ones that I've kept and some that were just horrid. For instance, when I bought my Cally steelhead driver couple years back it came with the stock graphite in Stiff flex. I couldn't hit anything but a smothered hook with anything resembling a normal swing. I reshafted with a $45 harrison shaft in the exact same flex and it immediately turned that club into one of the best drivers I've ever had.

The guy who did the reshaft said the stock "Stiff" flex frequencied to a soft Senior flex. So should I have retooled my swing that I've grooved to a scratch handicap because Cally doesn't know what a stiff flex is supposed to play like? Or should I have taken the driver back and tried out the other 2 left handed drivers in the whole damn store, hoping that one actually played to what it was supposed too.

I will certainly agree that alot of people on this board and "the other board" go nuts (some completely psycho) with shafts and ho'ing trying to find the holy grail combo only to find it then get something else a month later. But replacing a stock shaft that doesn't fit your swing with an aftermarket that does makes plenty of sense.

The stock OEM shafts actually are suitable for most golfers who buy retail equipment. This website gets a lot of opinions from low-handicap golfers who use tour spec. equipment. I thoroughly enjoy learning from the GolfWRX. ho's because it gives me a completely different outlook on equipment. These guys are very knowledgable, but are not the majority of the real golf world. The majority of golfers struggle to break 100 and really don't benefit from putting high cost shafts in their clubs. There is a reason other than saving money, that the OEM's put the weaker shafts in their retail clubs. Mainly because they are suitable for the majority of the weekend warriors that are buying them. I personally think the guys with 100 mph swingspeeds (including myself) should ease up on the comments regarding stock shafts, which again fit the majority of the golfing public.

I don't doubt they changed shafts many times, but they surely didn't have the technology we have today to do it. So, I might be wrong, and I could be somewhat right.

I don't hate stock shafts but it also doesn't mean I'm using them. For me, it's about club performance and what I'm trying to get a club to do. Sometimes, the stock shaft does work for me. Other times I just can't get it to do what I need. It depends on the club, the shaft, and my objectives.

It also gives me confidence...:birthday: which, imho, is very important

it also allows me focus more on my swing rather than worry about things like "...well, maybe this shaft is too weak..." or "...maybe it's not a good fit with this head..." or even "...maybe I could be getting more distance..."

And I agree with PingShack22, that most golfers are probably okay with stock stuff, but I have learned a great deal from the Ho's on this website and I think I'm better off.

My new Callaway BB454 has a Graphite Design YS6+ shaft, which I never would have considered until I read a lot of great things about it here on this site. It is a great shaft, and my confidence has increased greatly.

Regards,

Tyler

Have you ever picked up a V-Steel and shook the club around to test the stiffness of the shaft??? This thing is almost like a wet noodle. Exotic shafts give me more confidence and I just like them better. I'm a true believer in the equipment over the player, but that's my opinion. I know a good player could go to Wal-Mart and pick up a 460 cc driver and knock it to kingdom come, good for him. I suck as a player and I need all the technical equipment advantage available. It's personal preference.