Senior (A) Shafts

[Baldy]

I put my own clubs together and have decided to try a senior shaft in a new driver I am building, in hopes that it will help some distance wise. Has anyone else made the transition to A shafts and if so what has been your experience?

 

Baldy

[rony]

Not in the driver yet but went to the Soft R Regular with my new Ping G 10 Irons and Hybrid. Very positive results and shot a 79 the first time out with the new Pings. I'm 66 and still have a pretty good swing speed and I'm not sure if the Soft R would cause me to lose accuracy with the Driver. It didn't on the Irons and my tempo is pretty consistent with both Irons and Woods/Hybrid so who knows; maybe I'll try it. The Fitter I use wants to put me back on the Vector, and says he will show me that I can get up to an additional 15 yards if I replace my current Stiff shaft.

[sdrem]

If your swing speed with the driver is between 70-80, the senior flex should help you get more carry distance. Shaft will be more flexible, more spin, probably higher launch angle.
The Ping soft regular is essentially their version of senior flex. If you are swinging over 80 you might have control issues with the senior flex.

Steve

[Baldy]

My swing speed with left hand only ( right shoulder just recently totally replaced--can't swing with right hand for about four more months) measured 93 mph today, so in theory you might be right. But in theory, I ought to be longer on the course. However, I have been playing with R shafts and I am "the shorty" more often than not in my regular foursome. We all score about the same. One guy drives it about 50 yards farther. The other two guys are nearer my distance. It is very frustrating because I am pretty straight and have a pretty good short game and I know I could usually beat all the other guys if I could hit the driver 15-20 yards farther. Going to the A shaft on this one club is really just an experiment, but I am willing to try most anything at this point. I'm running out of heartbeats. Let me know your thoughts.

Baldy

[teespoon]

Great swingspeed number!
I am 68 and doubt I have that much speed. My G5 was a little whippy with the Soft R but a fine fairway finder. Hits better for me with R shaft. Irons are Cushin lite steel. Fine and accurate.

[rony]

[quote name='sdrem' post='863258' date='Jan 14 2008, 12:06 PM']If your swing speed with the driver is between 70-80, the senior flex should help you get more carry distance. Shaft will be more flexible, more spin, probably higher launch angle.
The Ping soft regular is essentially their version of senior flex. If you are swinging over 80 you might have control issues with the senior flex.

Steve[/quote]


When I was fitted for the irons, my swing speed was 92. He was reading me swing speed at impact and full swing speed. I'm not sure I understand what all that means, and I don't know if swing speed with irons is the same as swing speed with Driver. At any rate, I guess the only way to find out if the "Old Bones" can pick up a few more yards on the Driver is; to get back on that Vector and let him have a look.

[sdrem]

Your driver swing speed should be the highest of any club, and progressively become less as each club gets shorter.

[Swingtheclub]

my only shaft change was when I went away from my dynamic s tipped 3/4 of and inch to S300

I use NV65's in my woods

Eventhough I have not considered softer shafts I have considered experimenting with lighter.

[unixgolf]

Had my ping eye2+ reshafted in soft-R AWT and could not be happier. I'm 51 and fatigue was my issue, but on my first round this year!

Well I picked up where I left off distance and precision wise. I recently added a BB454 Ti driver in light flex and it is straight and very long.

[toledo]

One manufacturers R flex can be anothers S flex or A flex. The only way to do a shaft comparison is frequency measurements. Your R flex may be on the stiff side. Go to

MYostrich.com and find the wood shaft web page to find shaft comparisons. This may help you find the right shaft. I highly recommend the Sk Fiber Pure Energy shafts. I have a similar swing speed and use the PE R flex.

[unixgolf]

Had a club maker built my 3+ and 4w and here are the CPM, on a tee my 4w is about 200-210 and I'm quite pleased.

 

Driver = OEM BB ti 454 ?

3+ = 44'' 227:CPM D2:SW (In rotation in the bag, I've been hitting both my 4w and driver quite solid lately)

4w = 43'' 231:CPM D2:SW

 

Shafts :: Aldila Gamer A-flex (butt trim only) profile is predictable.

[JoeF]

My swing speed was measured at 92. In my driver I was fitted for a shaft and what works bet for me is an Accra T50 shaft in M2 (senior) but have it tipped to M3 (regular) And have it at 44.5"

One other thing I did recently was to do the Bridgestone challenge. I was playing the B330 for a few years. Did the test (using my driver) and I was spinning the ball at a whopping 4100RPM. They had me switch to a E6+ and it drastically lowered my spin rate and gave me about 15 more yards with the same launch angle (16*) and ball speed. Not to mention they are a bit cheaper ;)

[aussiemizunoboy]

I tried some Cobra Bafflers at a demo day in R flex of which i normally play and found the shafts a bit on the stiff side. I have since purchased a 23 & 26 with the proto by you in A flex and cannot be not be happier. Suits my slow swing to a tee.

Also have picked up a Cobra driver with a m speed lite flex aldila in 12 deg off fleabay so hopefully will suit also.

[fillphil]

In theory, the thing that helps you hit a longer drive is swingspeed and to get that higher swing speed you need to find the lightest shaft in a flex you can control. I've experimented with several senior flex shafts from diff mfgs and found big variations. The best I found for myself was the TM(Fuji) Superfast in the M flex. It's 50 grams, one inch longer than most driver clublengths (46). TM"s Burner head is lighter and even the grip is lighter than normal (43 grams). I changed the shaft for a Fujikura 586 for comparison and the Fuji was so whippy I had to tip it 1 inch to gain some control. Go figure- same mfg w/ almost identical specs. Your situation is no different that anyone of us considering a shaft change. You going to have to experiment but for slower SWs it's the only thing you can do. Go light-Go longer.

[Viper]

Some very good points made in this thread. It was good to see 'regular golfers' appreciating the vital importance of the shaft. Most golfers wrongly concentrate on heads rather than shafts.

 

To add my two penneth worth (or two cents) I would make two points:

 

1. There is no universal grading system between shafts: Ladies, Regular, Stiff, X, XX, XXX mean different things to different shaft manufacturers. So, any shaft grade can only be easily compared with other models of that particular shaft.

 

2. Although CPM (cycles per minute) is now effectively obsolete most golfers still refer to stiffness in terms of CPM I will now do so. Whilst CPM can be used to roughly match a player to his / swing speed it tends to be misleading: I personally use two totally different CPM ranges depending on where the shaft flexes. Unless I need to drive a ball low into a head wind I prefer a shaft which provides me with a really good launch angle, allowing me to drop one and a half degrees on driver head loft angle and thereby reduce backspin. I thus generally opt for med. - high launch shafts, that is shafts which flex a lot closer to the head than most shafts do. So, for general use I will opt for a UST V2 LD-2. ('X' grade) On the other hand if I wish to drive the ball a little lower then I will use a shaft with a lower CPM but one which bends more towards the grip. For that sort of task I will use a much cheaper but equal quality shaft - SK F/BER Lite Revolution 1. ('S' grade). The 'S' grade shaft is harder work to get the ball airborn even though technically it falls within a softer shaft category.

 

Although I use relatively powerful shafts for a 'Senior' (actually for Long Drive competitions I fall into the older 'Super Senior' category) the above principles hold good on all softer shaft ranges.

 

My advice to all golfers is to elect for med. - high launch shafts unless they are extremely powerful golfers who encounter problems with too much ball height due to massive back spin resulting from extraordinary power. Regular golfers with too much height need to adjust technique rather than shafts.

 

Just an opinion.

[NiftyNiblick]

I've tried exotic shafts, but none surpass the dirt cheap Harrison Star Plus for my game. You'll get looked at funny when you ask to have far more expensive shafts removed, but honestly, the Star Plusses play just right for me and I have to assume many other seniors.

[redhawkgolf]

I have used A shafts for several years. My swing speed is about 75 to 80. I hit the ball higher than I would like. At a demo day last spring a pro told me an A shaft will cause me to hit the ball higher, and even with my slow swing I would be better of with the Reg. shaft.

[StuartRS]

I also depends on how you load a shaft. I am 31 and generate between 95-100mph swing speed, but with a very slow swing (hit the centre of the club more often)

 

I got fitted on a true temper shaft lab for loading of the shaft a couple of years ago and the results came back that I could use an A flex upwards. The fitter said it was up to me.

 

Obviously now with launch monitors it is now easy to see what works and what doesn't, But yet every time I try a driver, the employee always tells me that I need a firm/stiff because of the swingspeed. Stupidly I have followed their advice too much and again I want/need to purchase a new driver because I now cannot properly load the one I have!!!!!!!

 

The best driver shaft I have owned (so far) is a Aldila NV-F 55 Reg for a Cobra F speed. I am very tempted to try one in the Mizuno MP-600 head I have.

[teespoon]

I have found, that building golf sets such as the iron Pak sets from Maltby, has allowed me to learn much about regular tipping and hard and soft stepping, all of which has helped me immensely in my own Senior iron game. There is not much of a distance game at 68, but control and a relaxed swing with MORE club, makes up for a lot of my age deficit..! Never too old to learn..especially in the game of Golf!

[maskedman]

Not in the driver yet but went to the Soft R Regular with my new Ping G 10 Irons and Hybrid. Very positive results and shot a 79 the first time out with the new Pings. I'm 66 and still have a pretty good swing speed and I'm not sure if the Soft R would cause me to lose accuracy with the Driver. It didn't on the Irons and my tempo is pretty consistent with both Irons and Woods/Hybrid so who knows; maybe I'll try it. The Fitter I use wants to put me back on the Vector, and says he will show me that I can get up to an additional 15 yards if I replace my current Stiff shaft. :rolleyes:

I'm curious about the AWT Soft Regular steel shafts for my G10 irons (I assume that is what you're referring to and not the graphite TFC shaft in soft R). The Ping website lists the specifications of the graphite TFC129 stiff as torque=2.6° / weight=86g while the AWT Soft R (Steel) specs are torque=2.1° / weight=96g. From these numbers, is it correct to say that the graphite TFC129 stiff is softer than the steel AWT Soft R? If that is the case, I might be interested in looking at the AWT Soft R myself (currently have the AWT R, which feels stout at times).

[DaveMac]

The Ping website lists the specifications of the graphite TFC129 stiff as torque=2.6° / weight=86g while the AWT Soft R (Steel) specs are torque=2.1° / weight=96g. From these numbers, is it correct to say that the graphite TFC129 stiff is softer than the steel AWT Soft R?

 

This is defiantly not the case. Torque and weight are not sufficient parameters of a shaft to establish its performance.

 

The TFC 129i Stiff is a stronger shaft than the AWT R. The AWT Soft R is quite a bit softer than the AWT R making it easier to load than the AWT R (feel softer). I had a set earlier this year and personally did not like the shaft. This might have been due to the fact I had asked for a D2 swing weight because this seemed to make the AWT Soft R feel loose and unbalanced.

 

Ping graphite iron shafts play reasonably stout for each given flex, the reduction in weight helps maximise clubhead speed. I would say the TFC 129i SoftR is a little firmer in flex than the AWT Soft R. You should try out the TFC129i both in SoftR and R, I think you would like them. It is also possible just to reshaft the longer clubs in the set as this is were the maximum benefit is gained (will save you a little money)

[Sean2]

I play a regular flex, but they are +1 inch so they are very comparable to a soft flex.

[Bobbers]

I'm actually in the process of doing that, going from R to A flex in all my clubs, as we speak. Tried a few clubs late last season that had senior shafts versus the regular I've played since forever. Matches my slower swing tempo (and slower swing speed although I'm loathe to admit it...) very nicely. I find more of my shots going straight (a telltale sign is when you find your shots staying out to the right). Biggest surprise, however, is in terms of what an "A" shaft really is, and believe me, they're all over the map in terms of shaft frequency. Thus, I picked up a used frequency meter and have been checking the frequency of the shafts I'm installing to insure that I'm actually getting a more flexible shaft.

Bobbers

[TimV]

Reviving this thread and hoping for an answer...

So are the Ping AWT steel shafts that are marked SR a Soft Regular? I'm hoping so as I just pulled the trigger on a set.

[disco111]

Here's a different viewpoint to ponder. Try going backwards with a driver selection. Pick up a Ping TISI TEC "R' graphite 9 or 10 degrees. They are readily available on ebay and fairly cheap, at least cheaper than a lot of the new shafts replacements. You may be pleasantly surprised............

[scomac2002]

Reviving this thread and hoping for an answer...

So are the Ping AWT steel shafts that are marked SR a Soft Regular? I'm hoping so as I just pulled the trigger on a set.

 

That's an affirmative!

[TimV]

Hit them today and like them a lot.

[Eidolon]

Yes Tim, they are soft stepped Regular. A little more flex, a softer tip. Ball goes higher, less effort to obtain desired distance. Glad you found them!

[HoganApexBlades]

I have a set of '63 Turfriders with "A" Senior shafts in them. I've never taken them out for a round. I think I'll try them on my "65th" birthday!