Closest shaft to Oban CT-115, S flex steel shafts?

Going to build a back-up set this winter. Picked up a beautiful set of Nike Vapor Pro heads recently, and deciding on what shafts to use. I was fitted for Oban CT-115, s flex for my main set and absolutely love that shaft. Smooth and soft with the perfect flight and spin (for me). But these cost $75 a pop, and trying to find a lower cost, yet close alternative.

Any wisdom from the community here on which shafts come close in feel and performance?

Over the past few years I have played the following shafts - TI X100, TI S400, Steelfiber i110, i95, C Taper Lite 110 S, C Taper Lite 115 X, C Taper 120 S, Nippon Modus 120, PX 6.0, PX 5.5

I have a good friend who has the CT-115's in stiff in his 716 CB's, and having hit them a number of times I can't say anything I've tried has felt like the Oban. Digging deep into the memory banks I would say the KBS Tour V had a similar feel when I demoed that shaft. That would give you a similar weight and profile.

Thanks. Really appreciate it.

Was told by a pro at my course that the Nippon Pro Modus 120 S would come close. Have never played that shaft. Any thoughts on comparison between those and the Oban?

There’s nothing that’s going to perform just like those Oban shafts... Nippon 1150 May be closest. CTL same weight but too but stiff. Modus too tip stiff. XP115 won’t be bad but won’t feel anything close.

Thanks. Really appreciate it.

 

Was told by a pro at my course that the Nippon Pro Modus 120 S would come close. Have never played that shaft. Any thoughts on comparison between those and the Oban?

Nippon 120 S I absolutely despised. I don't hit the heaviest ball on the planet but that shaft produced the absolute weakest floating iron shots I've ever seen come off the face of my clubs. The Oban CT-115's feel very tight compared to the Modus. By tight I don't mean stiff, rather I mean controlled in terms of flex. You can definitely feel the Oban load and the kick through impact is lovely. To me the Modus felt like a wet noodle.

Thanks everyone. Guess I'm shelling out the $s for the Obans...

It's just an adjusted version of the NS Pro 1050 plain and simple. The 1050 is different from the 950 no matter how many people want to disagree with that. It's heavier, it flights it lower, it is stouter by a little. The modus 120 and KBS Tour are more similar to the NS Pro 1050 than people want to recognize. The XP 115 is also a cousin into this genre without a doubt. I will say that the tip ends of the Modus 120, KBS, and XP 115 are more stiff at the very tip of the shaft than that of the 1050, but other than that, there is not that much difference. The Oban shafts have some confusing way of explaining how their steel shafts work if you read their website. But when it comes down to it, they are going to be a good feeling semi-light weight to light weight version of what has existed for a while now. Mid to mid/high flight with good spin characteristics. The XP 115's I liked a lot, but can feel pretty stiff overall when you swing them on grass a few times, and the Modus 120 has just a little too much weight loaded into the tip section for some causing some weird issues with timing and it happened to me as well. A hosel rocket out of nowhere.

Have 3 sets of modus currently and tried all cept 125.....dont care for em afterall, to me them and kbs tour are similar and yes when swung correctly they feel awesome......for some reason i have a hard time making consistent swings and down thru impact or late in transition their is something weird about them......

950, 1050, and 1150 for me are better shafts although too light....

My ballflight doesnt change a great deal regardless of shaft I play so doesnt matter much if its high or low launch shaft....

Obans seem interesting though....touch light but love their wood shafts

Going to build a back-up set this winter. Picked up a beautiful set of Nike Vapor Pro heads recently, and deciding on what shafts to use. I was fitted for Oban CT-115, s flex for my main set and absolutely love that shaft. Smooth and soft with the perfect flight and spin (for me). But these cost $75 a pop, and trying to find a lower cost, yet close alternative.

 

Any wisdom from the community here on which shafts come close in feel and performance?

You probably going to want to stay with a Shimada shaft. I'm currently building two test clubs with Shimada Tour Lites. One a Titleist 660 and one a Ping Eye 2. It felt great and performed very well in a fitting at HotStix a couple of weeks ago. The Tour Mid is a 115 gram shaft.

There’s nothing that’s going to perform just like those Oban shafts... Nippon 1150 May be closest. CTL same weight but too but stiff. Modus too tip stiff. XP115 won’t be bad but won’t feel anything close.

This thread is kinda old, but I concur with this post. I got fitted into the Oban CT 115 at ClubChamp and wanted to get something similar (and cheaper), and I hit the Nippon 1150 pretty much exactly the same. Possibly better. They feel very similar. Still a custom shaft, but easier to find and a few hundred cheaper at the very least. I was hitting them with a JPX 900 Tour (I really wanted the MP-18 SC, but I hit the JPX so much better that I couldn't rationalize anything else) in stiff. I hit the Modus 120 probably 6-8 yards farther (6 iron) than both but very inconsistently.

Tagging onto old thread in case someone is searching about Obans later. I use Oban CT-115 stiff. Still the best iron shaft I have found - and, I have sought cheaper options (have not tried 1150, however). I was fit by Joe Kwok to the Obans. I asked him of a cheaper alternative for me should I want to shaft some other irons down the road - he recommended PX5.5. I have used PX 5.5 extensively in the past - I would say Joe is right in that the performance I get out of PX 5.5 is nearly the same; however, the Obans feel so much better in my opinion.

Tagging onto old thread in someone is searching about Obans later. I use Oban CT-115 stiff. Still the best iron shaft I have found - and, I have sought cheaper options (have not tried 1150, however). I was fit by Joe Kwok to the Obans. I asked him of a cheaper alternative for me should I want to shaft some other irons down the road - he recommended PX5.5. I have used PX 5.5 extensively in the past - I would say Joe is right in that the performance I get out of PX 5.5 is nearly the same; however, the Obans feel so much better in my opinion.

Which PX are you referring to? Rifle? Flighted? LZ? I have read that the Oban are a flighted set.

Straight PX 5.5. Not flighted. Not the old Rifle. I think x100 AMT is in the same genre.

Have 3 sets of modus currently and tried all cept 125.....dont care for em afterall, to me them and kbs tour are similar and yes when swung correctly they feel awesome......for some reason i have a hard time making consistent swings and down thru impact or late in transition their is something weird about them......

 

950, 1050, and 1150 for me are better shafts although too light....

 

My ballflight doesnt change a great deal regardless of shaft I play so doesnt matter much if its high or low launch shaft....

 

Obans seem interesting though....touch light but love their wood shafts

Agree with this also. My experiments with Modus 120 stiff and 105 stiff didn't prove to be very noteworthy. I can't really describe it perfectly either, but just didn't get along with either like I do with the NS Pro models. This is why you can't go by some shaft rating scale with numbers on it. Because on paper the NS 1050 and Modus 105 are very similar as are the Modus 120 (except for the very tip end). The Modus 105 in stiff flex to me was too much feel in the handle and I had to swing pretty hard to get them to work. The Modus 120 felt great, but I just couldn't get consistent with them. I have played the 1150 tour, which I like better than either Modus lines I tried, but they kind of resembled the Modus 105 in that I had to go after them a little too much to get them to work right. These are the main reasons I landed on the NS Pro 1050, I get more distance, feel and control over the other lines. The Oban's I'm sure are quite nice and have great tolerances. They have the CT-115, and the CT-100, both of which are lighter weight than the number indicates. Here is the link: https://www.obanshafts.com/irons/oban-steel/

Hmm, strange how Club Champion seems to be fitting so many people into the most expensive steel shaft on the rack... are they really that much better?

I went through a fitting recently, also matched up to the Oban CT-115 X, but searching for alternatives. Funny enough, I matched up with a NS Pro 1150GH X for my driving iron option (looking to stash a T-MB or P790 in the bag to sub for a 5 wood, better flight and roll out for me). They do not appear the same at all when looking at the EI profiles. You would think Modus 120, maybe KBS Tour, more closely Project X / X LZ as others listed. But results were good, so can't argue that.

I tried Modus 120 at GG, did not feel good to me. DG 120 felt nice, but sprayed. DG X100 SS felt nice. I didn't have time to through PX into mix, but I think I liked them last time?

Not sure this helped at all, basically I'm in the same boat, looking for a good alternative that wont cost me $600+ on top of the rack price to get a high performing set up.

FYI my current gamers are Hogan apex 50 with hard stepped DG R200. Love the feel, but definitely flight too high with too much spin for me. Fitted with that set 10 yrs ago.

Hmm, strange how Club Champion seems to be fitting so many people into the most expensive steel shaft on the rack... are they really that much better?

 

I went through a fitting recently, also matched up to the Oban CT-115 X, but searching for alternatives. Funny enough, I matched up with a NS Pro 1150GH X for my driving iron option (looking to stash a T-MB or P790 in the bag to sub for a 5 wood, better flight and roll out for me). They do not appear the same at all when looking at the EI profiles. You would think Modus 120, maybe KBS Tour, more closely Project X / X LZ as others listed. But results were good, so can't argue that.

 

I tried Modus 120 at GG, did not feel good to me. DG 120 felt nice, but sprayed. DG X100 SS felt nice. I didn't have time to through PX into mix, but I think I liked them last time?

 

Not sure this helped at all, basically I'm in the same boat, looking for a good alternative that wont cost me $600+ on top of the rack price to get a high performing set up.

 

FYI my current gamers are Hogan apex 50 with hard stepped DG R200. Love the feel, but definitely flight too high with too much spin for me. Fitted with that set 10 yrs ago.

I played and really liked the Modus 120. Earlier in the year swapped for DG105 to try and get a bit more club head speed and had decent results but didn't have the feel of the 120s (I don't think anything does with the butt as soft as it is). Found a set of 1150 GH tour stiff on eBay for cheap and I'm going to try them in the 7i and PW this Friday. I was also fit for Oban CT115 in a recent iron fitting. Practice swings with the 1150 feel really nice. We will see how they perform.

There’s nothing that’s going to perform just like those Oban shafts... Nippon 1150 May be closest. CTL same weight but too but stiff. Modus too tip stiff. XP115 won’t be bad but won’t feel anything close.

 

This thread is kinda old, but I concur with this post. I got fitted into the Oban CT 115 at ClubChamp and wanted to get something similar (and cheaper), and I hit the Nippon 1150 pretty much exactly the same. Possibly better. They feel very similar. Still a custom shaft, but easier to find and a few hundred cheaper at the very least. I was hitting them with a JPX 900 Tour (I really wanted the MP-18 SC, but I hit the JPX so much better that I couldn't rationalize anything else) in stiff. I hit the Modus 120 probably 6-8 yards farther (6 iron) than both but very inconsistently.

Giving the 1150GH in stiff a try in a couple clubs this Friday. Will report back on how they fit for me.

I got to hit these. Wow they feel great. Dispersion was awesome at 1st then I started to spray them a bit. Would like to still have a set in some irons

Bump!

I too was fit into these. I thought my left miss was from my swing (currently play modus 120X SSx1). The Oban CT115X basically took the left side out of play for me. The NS PRO 1150X was somewhere between the two. The trackman numbers were very consistent though, path, speed, dynamic loft, etc were actually very consistent. The Obans just consistently came in with a smaller FTP value, resulting in a much less curve. If anything the miss was one hung out to the right. Still trying to chew on the cost vs the NS Pro 1150X though!

I was also fit into the Oban Ct115 Shaft.

My fitting was also with CLub Champion.

It would be interesting to see how many people end up getting fit into these by CC. I had no preference and gave them no price limits. My testing was essentially blind as I didn’t ask what Shaft I was hitting.

I will say. These really did seem to feel the best and according to CC, performed the best.

The inner conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe they are finding a way to push these without us knowing.

I was skeptical as well, but the numbers were pretty compelling. I know Joe Kwok who is very well known as being top notch also fits folks into them.

Yep- every person who walks into a CC is fit only into Accra Graphite shafts and Oban steel. Because that’s all they fit people into, the stores are growing faster than any other clubfitter. Forum conspiracy theorists just need to stop already.

Yep- every person who walks into a CC is fit only into Accra Graphite shafts and Oban steel. Because that's all they fit people into, the stores are growing faster than any other clubfitter. Forum conspiracy theorists just need to stop already.

Might be on to something. I was just fit into the Oban CT-115 for my irons by CC. We tried the new Accra shafts that were getting all the hype but the Paderson Launch TP won out for me in the driver, fairway woods and hybrid.

Wow. This is funny.

I had a fitting last week at Club Champion and Oban CT100 worked best for me. Lol.

Was searching to find alternatives and stumbled onto this thread.

Can anyone comment how the Nippons have worked out for them in comparison to the Obans?

Thanks

As I posted above, I came from Modus 120x, was fit into the oban CT115x and the nippon 1150X was second runner up. I ended up buying both iron shafts to try out

The obans are really unique, much stiffer in the handle but still very smooth and easy to load. Nice linear kick, extremely stable, yet still launch high. I can hit towering iron with no issue. The nippon 1150x feels like rebar compared to the other two, definitely more effort to load but also more stable than the modus. The modus feel so great because they have a soft handle which just didnt work for me since I load the shaft pretty hard

I just got quoted $1700 for a set of 6 AP2s by club champion with Oban CT115S in them. They did perform the best for sure, but if I had known how expensive they were during the fit I would have kept hitting the KBS $ taper (which was the 2nd best).

I found the $-taper to be so similar on my hitting, I got them for my backup/fun set. Anyone else have that feeling?

I was told by my fitter that deals with Shimada shaft that the Oban steel shaft are basically these shafts at a much higher cost. Do note, Ks n9 and ks 3001 are very similar.

https://www.tourspecgolf.com/shimada-k-s-3001-steel-shaft-5-pw.html

https://www.tourspecgolf.com/shimada-k-s-nine9-shaft-set.html

Well...since Shimada produces the Oban shafts to my knowledge, it`s not surprising that there are Shimada models in the line performing similarly to the Oban shafts. I would honestly never pay that much money for a steel shaft. While the Obans feel nice and are high end quality, there is no way to justify the cost for a steel shaft. I would also go and find a similar model in the Shimada line.

Regards,

Michael

Someone posted on here the shimada shafts vs Obans and the step patterns aren't even close.