Fujikura Member Trip and VeloCore Fitting Experience Live at Fujikura HQ! Follow Along Here!

[knudson81]

Final fit. Gaming the old Motore Speeder VC 6.2 Tour Spec!

[knudson81]

Starting off with Ventus TR Red, really liking it!

[knudson81]

Going to try and bring the spin down a little with TR Blue 6x.

[knudson81]

Going with Ventus TR Red 6x set standard on a Cobra LTD head!

 

[Fujikura Golf]

3 minutes ago, knudson81 said:

Going with Ventus TR Red 6x set standard on a Cobra LTD head!

 

 

OG Motore was good...but can't compete with VeloCore in VENTUS

[getair23]

You guys seeing better dispersion or distance gains?  7 yard pick up for one of you is no joke, well done.

[Carolina Golfer 2]

Love all the fitting stories.   
 

Chri’s numbers, ball speeds and spin and carry sre all similar to me.  I see the numbers with the Blue were a bit better than red.  Also read the comments abut the feel of the kick. 
 

If he doesn’t mind saying a bit about his swing profile.  CHS,  Smooth or fast tempo, quick transition? 
 

Great day today guys. Enjoyed following  along 

[hammergolf]

11 hours ago, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

Are any of the members non typical WRX swing speeds.  Meaning like 75 mph vs 95 mph 7 iron 😬

 

im interested in now the Axiom works for them if so.  

I am. I’m in MMT 70R in my irons. Axiom is just better in every aspect. It has a more stable feel, tighter dispersion, higher launch, and higher spin. Which is EXACTLY what I need. The Axiom feels different from any of the other graphite shafts I’ve played previously. They feel much more stable and maybe a touch stiffer than my current shafts, however, I ball speed, carry distance, launch, and spin with TIGHTER patterns. I’ve played them all, Steelfiber, Recoil, and now MMT. Hands down Axiom is better. I’m waiting to receive mine and install them. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

[eric61]

Hey everybody -- checking in at the end of an absolutely awesome day. I have lots to share, but I'll separate it into multiple posts. 

 

Just wanted to start by thanking all 24 employees at Fujikura's U.S. operation here in Carlsbad. Spencer, Eric, Marshall and Kelsi were super generous with their time and knowledge. Andrew Hoang was just terrific in our fittings for Axiom iron shafts and Ventus driver shafts. 

 

One particular highlight for me was the tour Spencer gave us of the behind-the-scenes stuff -- showing us how a shaft is made in-house, from raw materials (thanks Kevin, who showed us how shafts are rolled and admitted the Axiom 125s are the toughest to make) to the paint job to shipping the shafts out. 

 

Check out what Andres Garcia, their paint and graphics guy, made up while he was showing us how the graphics are done:

 

 

It's no joke how busy they keep you on these trips! Hard to post much during the middle of it all. Thanks to @knudson81 for the live updates today.

 

I'll have more on the Axiom and Ventus fittings in another post!

[hammergolf]

On 5/31/2023 at 8:09 PM, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

Love all the fitting stories.   
 

Chri’s numbers, ball speeds and spin and carry sre all similar to me.  I see the numbers with the Blue were a bit better than red.  Also read the comments abut the feel of the kick. 
 

If he doesn’t mind saying a bit about his swing profile.  CHS,  Smooth or fast tempo, quick transition? 
 

Great day today guys. Enjoyed following  along 

I’m definitely on the quick side and transition. This fit was totally eye opening for me. I ended up in the Ventus Blue TR 5 R. I picked up 4.3 mph in ball speed, and almost 10yds of carry but kept my launch and spin numbers similar to my gamer, which for me has been very good. Andrew, our fitter and great guy after 3 swings said he was going to have his work cut out for him to beat my current gamer. He started me in a Red TR5 R. It was solid and an improvement but I could not feel the club kicking through impact. Then he gave the Blue TR 5R. First swing was an instant jump in speed and carry, second swing the same even though it was a slight heel strike, third swing was and I knew that was it. I didn’t even hit any more because all the numbers were right, and the feel was perfect. Im sure I could have hit more and shown an even bigger gain in speed and carry but it literally was three swings and done. In a nut shell, that’s what Velocore does. It allows you to swing the club faster without sacrificing control while maintaining a smooth and stable feel. 

Edited June 3, 2023 by hammergolf

[Puppetmaster]

Before I get into the specifics, I just wanted to say again how awesome this was in terms of the experience, education, and the chance to sit around and dialog about shaft design, fittings, and everything else golf related. So much learning - from the design/prototyping process to the actual production to the fitting and everything else in between and beyond. My head is still exploding and I don't even know where to start with the recap.   

[Puppetmaster]

4 hours ago, knudson81 said:

Going with Ventus TR Red 6x set standard on a Cobra LTD head!

 

 

I guess since my numbers are up I'll respond to this one real quick. Been playing with the Cobra King LTD head and Speeder VC 6.2 Tour Spec in X for...  forever. I have been fit into the GD DI, BB, and Fubuki K in the past, but chose the Speeder because it just worked on the course. I like the consistency and tightness of the profile, and I was hitting it really solid, even with suboptimal distance numbers.  

 

Based on today's numbers, my SS was in the 108-110 range, I think, but ballspeed only in the high 140s and spin in the low 2000s. Just wasn't catching it in the middle for various reasons. I have a smooth transition, not a hard loader. The Ventus Red 6X gave just enough extra launch and spin, and even with the stiff butt, was easy to load without having to jump on it. Perhaps most impressive to me was the gain in ballspeed into the mid 150s without any extra effort and with much better dispersion. I know part of that was coming out of bend profile that wasn't 100% suited for me, but even then the Red wasn't one that I would have picked on my own for a driver. The Blue could have worked, and I had some high speed numbers with it, but the consistency and dispersion wasn't as tight.

 

I'll get to the try the Red on the course tomorrow so I'll report back on that after the round.  

 

[eric61]

On the Axiom iron shaft fitting and product discussion: 

 

Andrew let us hit everything, just to get a sense of the full product lineup even though we'd already settled on 105X for me. I was swinging 87-88 mph with my 7 iron during today's fitting, and my normal miss -- right (I'm a lefty), smothered with too little spin, too low -- was in full effect as I was hitting my i230 with DG 105 S300 to get started.

 

The first thing I noticed is that the 75S is more stout than you'd think, and the 125X is more playable than you'd think. The way they've managed to separate weight and flex is really impressive. 

 

The next thing: Axioms for me launched pretty high with relatively high spin. (And not just the 105X that Andrew fitted me into -- I found this to be true in the full range.) They didn't have an i230 fitting head, but I was hitting a P790 -- Andrew measured my i230 at 34 degrees of loft and the P790 was at 31. The P790 with the Axiom 105X was going 9 yards further, as you'd expect given the loft and head design differences, but it was actually almost identical in terms of peak height and landing angle, and it was spinning only a couple hundred RPMs less than my i230s. 

 

I'm not really looking for more distance -- my home course is 6,700 yards from the back tees, so I really just need control. And what I found in the Axiom 105X was significantly tighter dispersion. 

 

My swing speed would usually indicate I'm more of an S than an X. But Andrew noticed I looked like I was losing the club head a bit in transition with the 105S, and the 105X really tightened things up quite a lot for me. 

 

The other thing I liked about them is the profile. They are stout handle, softer mid, stout tip shafts. We were kicking around comparisons to steel shafts in terms of profile, and didn't really settle on one. I will tell you for me, personally, in terms of feel, the closest thing I've hit might be the Modus 115 in that Axiom is very smooth with a bit of a mid-kick -- but it's not a perfect comparison, and I felt the kick a little higher in the Axiom than in the Modus 115. I'm not somebody who's hit every steel shaft out there, so I'm reaching a bit here to try to find a useful comparison.

 

About parallel vs. taper tip ... We did discuss that with Spencer, and he was open about the way Fujikura sees Axiom: as a product primarily sold through authorized Fujikura dealers after fittings. With just three shafts (long irons, mid irons, short irons), they're reducing the number of products that custom fitters have to have on their walls. 

 

I know that's not going to satisfy the tinkerers here with their own basement build shops. I get it. But I get Fujikura's perspective on this too and am sharing what they told us.

 

There was no direct indication of whether more weights, taper tip versions, etc., are coming in the future -- it sounds like they aren't ruling anything out but the market will dictate it, and they think their current options cover a huge portion of the market.

 

One more note: They have a staff bag with some Axiom shafts already installed in heads -- lots of random stuff, some new to the market, some older. The only lefty option in that bin was a T100 with an Axiom 125X. I hit it a bunch and holy crap, I loved it. I'll get to hit it again at the range before we play a round tomorrow morning and am looking forward to it! 

[Puppetmaster]

On the Axioms, I was the one coming from the KBS Tour V 110s, which are the S flex, but y'all knew that, and the final decision was the Axiom 105 in S flex, hardstepped once. 

 

The Tour V, much like my driver post above, did not spin enough, even though to my eye, they still launched decently high. Andrew, who is a fantastic fitter btw, wanted me to get more spin and a steeper descent angle. The Axiom 105 did just that, with a tight dispersion, were easier to load and had the right amount of feel (yes, subjective) for my swing. I think Fujikura is pretty darn close to that holy grail of both stability and feel with the Axiom (and Ventus). The hardstep was to give me more of the firmer feel I wanted, without needing to go into the 105X, which was too much work for me given my transition characteristics. 

 

Also, I hit a few draws and cuts for giggles after the fitting with the 105S and was able to do that, at least, to the best of my limited ability.  

 

One more note - I tried the 75S and 125X too, I think all of us did. The 75 did not feel like a 75 gram, felt much more stable than the weight would suggest. The 125X was stout but didn't feel like a pipe. Definitely felt all of the 125 grams, but again, they've done a nice job of leaving enough feel in it even though it's stiff, heavy shaft. 

 

[eric61]

On 5/31/2023 at 4:25 PM, knudson81 said:

Afternoon driver shaft fittings!

The Ventus TR Blue 6S was the winner for me.

 

I was swinging the driver like crap. I just didn’t have it today. And maybe in a way that was a good thing: Andrew’s focus was largely on managing my miss into a consistently better portion of the face — which he did achieve, and it got me nearly 5 mph more ball speed.
 

I also think the TR Blue profile just suits me well. We tried the TR Red as well, but I just struggle with timing with the more stout handle. I’ve been fitted into a TR Black before, but my sense today is that the TR Blue just suits my swing and tempo best, and I can always adjust loft if necessary.

 

They’re letting us take these out on the course tomorrow — will report back on how it performs!

 

UPDATE: After playing my round with Andrew the next day and some conversations about what I was seeing and feeling, we decide to go with the 6X rather than the 6S. I’m pumped to get it in and start playing with it!

Edited June 3, 2023 by eric61

[hammergolf]

        Hello everyone, just got back to the hotel room and wanted to give you all a summary of our day and reviews on the shafts and fitting process. I warn you all, that this will be a bit of a long road, but I don’t want to leave anything out. First and foremost, thank you again to everyone at Fujikura for making us all feel at home. Spencer, Eric, Marshall, Kelsi, and Andrew were all incredible! The phrase is used too much, but these people and this company just get it. They are all dedicated to make the best product possible to help all golfers play their best golf. Fujikura are first class in every thing they do. 
       We started our morning with a bit of breakfast, and then had a brief dialogue with Spencer previewing our day and telling us he wanted us to ask questions. From there, we broke into two groups, @Puppetmaster@knudson81 and myself took a tour of the operation and R&D while @eric61and @CactusGolf were fitted for Axiom shafts. Let me say this, I was in the golf retail business for almost 30 years. I’ve been fortunate during that time to have visited most of the OEMS. This morning was eye opening for me. The level of testing, prototyping, and building they do in R&D with the help of the ENSO system is nothing like I’ve seen before. It amazed me to see how much data and how many data points they collect using ENSO. They obviously have advantages as proven by the results on pro tours weekly. However, the levels that they go to in design, build, and testing is unreal. They even designed their own machines for testing equipment. They even built a machine that I’ve never seen before that tests torque in 3 separate sections of a shaft. Who knew there was more than one section of a shaft that torqued??? In my opinion, this is where Fujikura stands out. They are able to take data from ENSO and build profiles that work for all golfers based how they deliver the club. We also saw how they can custom etch, paint, and silkscreen shafts and got to see some really cool samples that one offs. That was really cool seeing the capabilities they have.

        After the tour it was @Puppetmasterand myself’s time to get fitted into Axiom. We were both very excited to hit it after the product knowledge session we had. A little bit about myself. I’ve had an interesting story in my golfing life. I was a good player when I was younger and played in college. At my best I was a +3. Played really good golf for about 15 years after college and then hurt my shoulder. Played with it hurting for a couple years scraping it around. I finally stopped playing for about 3 years due to the pain, and frankly not being able to play at the level I did before injury. It sucked not being able to play and do the thing I enjoy most. I went through a tough time and gained 150lbs. Well, now my shoulder has healed and I’ve lost over 30 pounds in last 60 days, I’m starting over. I’ve lost a ton of strength and speed, but I’ve dedicated myself to losing the weight, getting stronger, and getting my game back to what it once was. Hopefully for all of you who have lost speed and distance can relate to the game that I am playing now. I’m still fortunate that I haven’t forgot how to hit it straight or how to wedge it and putt it. Even though now I hit 7 iron where I used to hit 9 iron I’ve still kept my handicap hovering between a 3 and 4.

        I’ve played graphite shafts in my irons for almost 15 years. Previous football, and powerlifting gave me a bad left wrist, so the vibration dampening of graphite has been a life.. er wrist saver. I’ve played Steelfiber, Recoil, and now MMT. So I was excited about Axiom. I’m the other guy on the spectrum, I want to hit it higher and spin it more. I’m able to take spin off or hit a knockdown if it’s a windy situation. So going in I was hoping to increase my launch and spin. Andrew started me in the 75R. It was good, definitely a more stout feel than my MMT and kind of reminded me of Steelfiber in that to me it played a little more stiff than the indicated flex. That being said, it did increase my launch and spin, but it felt too stiff compared to my MMT. So he gave me the 75 R2 and right away it felt right. Launch went up even higher and spin went up considerably. My launch angle went up almost 3 degrees and spin went up around 900rpm. This is EXACTLY what I was wanting. However, I didn’t feel whippy or like I couldn’t control it. In fact, it was even more stable than my MMT but gave me more speed, more launch, and higher decent angle without any sacrifice in carry distance with an even tighter shot pattern. There is no doubt, Fujikura are onto something with using Velocore in the Axiom shafts. After about 6 swings there was no need to hit anymore. Although I’m a short hitter now, I am very repetitive and consistent so after a few swings it’s easy to tell. I didn’t hit any of the other weight shafts, but when I was watching @Puppetmastergetting fit, he was able to hit all there different weight shafts. I will say this, guys don’t sleep on the 105 shaft. It’s scary how well that shaft performs for the higher speed guys. What Fujikura has done with the Axiom line is to make specific shafts for players with specific deliveries. 
      After our Axiom fittings and lunch Marshall from Tour operations spoke with us. It is unreal the lengths Fujikura go to help players using their products AND those who may not be currently using them. They actually take driving stats from every player at every Tour event. The statistical data they keep is on a whole other level. They hired a guy from NASA to break down each player’s driving data by, pattern, ball speed, spin, launch, miss direction, and efficiency. It’s no wonder that they are in the position they are with usage on pro tours. He even told some great stories how they used ENSO to help players improve by measuring how they deliver the club and putting them in the profile that will correct that issue. After that, @eric61 and @CactusGolf had their driver fitting. Myself and @Puppetmasterthen went through the entire product line with Spencer. The thing that impressed me about the product line is that each shaft is built for a specific delivery. From Ventus, to Speeder, to Motore, to Pro, to Vista Pro, they are all engineered for a specific delivery. The one thing that sticks out me is to not prejudge what shaft you think you need or should fit into. I had never thought much about butt stiffness, or how it works in unison with the tip stiffness. I know everyone says it, but GET FIT. I’ve done thousands of fittings over my time in the business, and I knew when a shaft worked, but today, I LEARNED WHY THEY WORK. 

       Then it was out turn to get our driver fittings. I went first this time. Now, going into this, I just knew that Ventus Red 5R was going to be the shaft for me. Boy was I wrong. I’ll say this, the driver I have in the bag is the best I’ve ever had. I just hit the damn thing straight. After 3 swings, our fitter, Andrew said man I don’t know if I’m going to be able to beat that. So he put in a Ventus Red 5R and gave it to me. It was a slight improvement over mine, but not much. It felt ok, but I couldn’t get a feel for it. Yes it went straight, but wasn’t what Andrew wanted to see. So he gave me the Red TR 5R, and I thought to myself wow, he went even stiffer. Surprisingly it was actually better for than the standard Red, but still wasn’t the improvement Andrew wanted. Sooooo he put me in the Blue TR 5R. In my head I’m thinking, man he went even stiffer, (cause I was thinking about tip stiffness and not butt stiffness) Well, first shot, right away I could feel the shaft kicking at the bottom… BOOM 4mph more ball speed, 10 yards more carry, AND even tighter dispersion. Which is super impressive given my normal pattern is pretty straight anyways. Second swing, even better, and on the third swing, I just gave him the club and said, I’m done. That’s the one. For me, to gain another 10 yds without sacrificing launch, spin, or dispersion is an absolute homerun! I could have probably gained even more speed since the shaft just felt perfect and I could go after it even more knowing it was going straight! When you consider I was in a pretty damn good fit in my gamer that is awesome! I’m pumped and can’t wait to hit on the course tomorrow morning and report back. One thing is for certain. I will play better golf with Axiom graphite shafts in my irons and Ventus shafts in my woods. My shafts can’t get to me fast enough. Gaining at least 10yds carry on my driver and increasing my launch, spin, and decent angle has me very excited about this next chapter of getting my game and body back to the level it was at before my injury. If any of you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. I know not all of us are 120mph guys. I’m more than happy to help. Once again, thank you so much to everyone at Fujikura and at Golfwrx for making this possible. Words can’t express how excited I am at the upcoming changes to my equipment and my game.

         

[eric61]

Oh, one quick note! It’s pronounced Vee-loCore, not Vell-oCore. 
 

Did everybody else know that? Maybe I’m the only one who wasn’t sure. But just in case!

[hammergolf]

3 minutes ago, eric61 said:

Oh, one quick note! It’s pronounced Vee-loCore, not Vell-oCore. 
 

Did everybody else know that? Maybe I’m the only one who wasn’t sure. But just in case!

They should pronounce it Freakin Awesome…..

[GolfTurkey]

Sounds like an awesome experience for everyone involved, and I would like to see the "shafts don't matter" proponents to explain the results that people saw.

[SwingBlues]

1 hour ago, hammergolf said:

        Hello everyone, just got back to the hotel room and wanted to give you all a summary of our day and reviews on the shafts and fitting process. I warn you all, that this will be a bit of a long road, but I don’t want to leave anything out. First and foremost, thank you again to everyone at Fujikura for making us all feel at home. Spencer, Eric, Marshall, Kelsi, and Andrew were all incredible! The phrase is used too much, but these people and this company just get it. They are all dedicated to make the best product possible to help all golfers play their best golf. Fujikura are first class in every thing they do. 
       We started our morning with a bit of breakfast, and then had a brief dialogue with Spencer previewing our day and telling us he wanted us to ask questions. From there, we broke into two groups, @Puppetmaster@knudson81 and myself took a tour of the operation and R&D while @eric61and @CactusGolf were fitted for Axiom shafts. Let me say this, I was in the golf retail business for almost 30 years. I’ve been fortunate during that time to have visited most of the OEMS. This morning was eye opening for me. The level of testing, prototyping, and building they do in R&D with the help of the ENSO system is nothing like I’ve seen before. It amazed me to see how much data and how many data points they collect using ENSO. They obviously have advantages as proven by the results on pro tours weekly. However, the levels that they go to in design, build, and testing is unreal. They even designed their own machines for testing equipment. They even built a machine that I’ve never seen before that tests torque in 3 separate sections of a shaft. Who knew there was more than one section of a shaft that torqued??? In my opinion, this is where Fujikura stands out. They are able to take data from ENSO and build profiles that work for all golfers based how they deliver the club. We also saw how they can custom etch, paint, and silkscreen shafts and got to see some really cool samples that one offs. That was really cool seeing the capabilities they have.

        After the tour it was @Puppetmasterand myself’s time to get fitted into Axiom. We were both very excited to hit it after the product knowledge session we had. A little bit about myself. I’ve had an interesting story in my golfing life. I was a good player when I was younger and played in college. At my best I was a +3. Played really good golf for about 15 years after college and then hurt my shoulder. Played with it hurting for a couple years scraping it around. I finally stopped playing for about 3 years due to the pain, and frankly not being able to play at the level I did before injury. It sucked not being able to play and do the thing I enjoy most. I went through a tough time and gained 150lbs. Well, now my shoulder has healed and I’ve lost over 30 pounds in last 60 days, I’m starting over. I’ve lost a ton of strength and speed, but I’ve dedicated myself to losing the weight, getting stronger, and getting my game back to what it once was. Hopefully for all of you who have lost speed and distance can relate to the game that I am playing now. I’m still fortunate that I haven’t forgot how to hit it straight or how to wedge it and putt it. Even though now I hit 7 iron where I used to hit 9 iron I’ve still kept my handicap hovering between a 3 and 4.

        I’ve played graphite shafts in my irons for almost 15 years. Previous football, and powerlifting gave me a bad left wrist, so the vibration dampening of graphite has been a life.. er wrist saver. I’ve played Steelfiber, Recoil, and now MMT. So I was excited about Axiom. I’m the other guy on the spectrum, I want to hit it higher and spin it more. I’m able to take spin off or hit a knockdown if it’s a windy situation. So going in I was hoping to increase my launch and spin. Andrew started me in the 75R. It was good, definitely a more stout feel than my MMT and kind of reminded me of Steelfiber in that to me it played a little more stiff than the indicated flex. That being said, it did increase my launch and spin, but it felt too stiff compared to my MMT. So he gave me the 75 R2 and right away it felt right. Launch went up even higher and spin went up considerably. My launch angle went up almost 3 degrees and spin went up around 900rpm. This is EXACTLY what I was wanting. However, I didn’t feel whippy or like I couldn’t control it. In fact, it was even more stable than my MMT but gave me more speed, more launch, and higher decent angle without any sacrifice in carry distance with an even tighter shot pattern. There is no doubt, Fujikura are onto something with using Velocore in the Axiom shafts. After about 6 swings there was no need to hit anymore. Although I’m a short hitter now, I am very repetitive and consistent so after a few swings it’s easy to tell. I didn’t hit any of the other weight shafts, but when I was watching @Puppetmastergetting fit, he was able to hit all there different weight shafts. I will say this, guys don’t sleep on the 105 shaft. It’s scary how well that shaft performs for the higher speed guys. What Fujikura has done with the Axiom line is to make specific shafts for players with specific deliveries. 
      After our Axiom fittings and lunch Marshall from Tour operations spoke with us. It is unreal the lengths Fujikura go to help players using their products AND those who may not be currently using them. They actually take driving stats from every player at every Tour event. The statistical data they keep is on a whole other level. They hired a guy from NASA to break down each player’s driving data by, pattern, ball speed, spin, launch, miss direction, and efficiency. It’s no wonder that they are in the position they are with usage on pro tours. He even told some great stories how they used ENSO to help players improve by measuring how they deliver the club and putting them in the profile that will correct that issue. After that, @eric61 and @CactusGolf had their driver fitting. Myself and @Puppetmasterthen went through the entire product line with Spencer. The thing that impressed me about the product line is that each shaft is built for a specific delivery. From Ventus, to Speeder, to Motore, to Pro, to Vista Pro, they are all engineered for a specific delivery. The one thing that sticks out me is to not prejudge what shaft you think you need or should fit into. I had never thought much about butt stiffness, or how it works in unison with the tip stiffness. I know everyone says it, but GET FIT. I’ve done thousands of fittings over my time in the business, and I knew when a shaft worked, but today, I LEARNED WHY THEY WORK. 

       Then it was out turn to get our driver fittings. I went first this time. Now, going into this, I just knew that Ventus Red 5R was going to be the shaft for me. Boy was I wrong. I’ll say this, the driver I have in the bag is the best I’ve ever had. I just hit the damn thing straight. After 3 swings, our fitter, Andrew said man I don’t know if I’m going to be able to beat that. So he put in a Ventus Red 5R and gave it to me. It was a slight improvement over mine, but not much. It felt ok, but I couldn’t get a feel for it. Yes it went straight, but wasn’t what Andrew wanted to see. So he gave me the Red TR 5R, and I thought to myself wow, he went even stiffer. Surprisingly it was actually better for than the standard Red, but still wasn’t the improvement Andrew wanted. Sooooo he put me in the Blue TR 5R. In my head I’m thinking, man he went even stiffer, (cause I was thinking about tip stiffness and not butt stiffness) Well, first shot, right away I could feel the shaft kicking at the bottom… BOOM 4mph more ball speed, 10 yards more carry, AND even tighter dispersion. Which is super impressive given my normal pattern is pretty straight anyways. Second swing, even better, and on the third swing, I just gave him the club and said, I’m done. That’s the one. For me, to gain another 10 yds without sacrificing launch, spin, or dispersion is an absolute homerun! I could have probably gained even more speed since the shaft just felt perfect and I could go after it even more knowing it was going straight! When you consider I was in a pretty damn good fit in my gamer that is awesome! I’m pumped and can’t wait to hit on the course tomorrow morning and report back. One thing is for certain. I will play better golf with Axiom graphite shafts in my irons and Ventus shafts in my woods. My shafts can’t get to me fast enough. Gaining at least 10yds carry on my driver and increasing my launch, spin, and decent angle has me very excited about this next chapter of getting my game and body back to the level it was at before my injury. If any of you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. I know not all of us are 120mph guys. I’m more than happy to help. Once again, thank you so much to everyone at Fujikura and at Golfwrx for making this possible. Words can’t express how excited I am at the upcoming changes to my equipment and my game.

         

 

👍 GR8 writeup, thank you

 

ENSO fitting > regular fitting? Is this what you are seeing here then?

Edited June 1, 2023 by SwingBlues

[eric61]

One question I asked Spencer is about swing weighting the Axiom shafts … something I was curious about because I know I’m far from the only one who has had trouble with Steelfibers coming in super light and might have some hang-ups about graphite iron shafts because of it.

 

He said they were designed with that in mind, and they’ve had no trouble at all hitting heavier swing weights. I think he said the builds they’ve done are coming out to D3-D4 before even adding tip weight. 
 

That’s what I saw with what I hit during fitting (the P790 with the 105X that I mentioned earlier was D4), and also what I noticed with the pre-built clubs they had in the staff bag.

 

Bottom line — based on what I saw and heard today, there should be no issues achieving reasonable swing weights with these Axioms at all. 

[GolfTurkey]

1 hour ago, eric61 said:

One question I asked Spencer is about swing weighting the Axiom shafts … something I was curious about because I know I’m far from the only one who has had trouble with Steelfibers coming in super light and might have some hang-ups about graphite iron shafts because of it.

 

He said they were designed with that in mind, and they’ve had no trouble at all hitting heavier swing weights. I think he said the builds they’ve done are coming out to D3-D4 before even adding tip weight. 
 

That’s what I saw with what I hit during fitting (the P790 with the 105X that I mentioned earlier was D4), and also what I noticed with the pre-built clubs they had in the staff bag.

 

Bottom line — based on what I saw and heard today, there should be no issues achieving reasonable swing weights with these Axioms at all. 

 

That's good to hear, I need graphite because of my elbows but went back to steel because the funky SW of the SF's gave me a massive case of the hooks.

[Carolina Golfer 2]

7 hours ago, hammergolf said:

        Hello everyone, just got back to the hotel room and wanted to give you all a summary of our day and reviews on the shafts and fitting process. I warn you all, that this will be a bit of a long road, but I don’t want to leave anything out. First and foremost, thank you again to everyone at Fujikura for making us all feel at home. Spencer, Eric, Marshall, Kelsi, and Andrew were all incredible! The phrase is used too much, but these people and this company just get it. They are all dedicated to make the best product possible to help all golfers play their best golf. Fujikura are first class in every thing they do. 
       We started our morning with a bit of breakfast, and then had a brief dialogue with Spencer previewing our day and telling us he wanted us to ask questions. From there, we broke into two groups, @Puppetmaster@knudson81 and myself took a tour of the operation and R&D while @eric61and @CactusGolf were fitted for Axiom shafts. Let me say this, I was in the golf retail business for almost 30 years. I’ve been fortunate during that time to have visited most of the OEMS. This morning was eye opening for me. The level of testing, prototyping, and building they do in R&D with the help of the ENSO system is nothing like I’ve seen before. It amazed me to see how much data and how many data points they collect using ENSO. They obviously have advantages as proven by the results on pro tours weekly. However, the levels that they go to in design, build, and testing is unreal. They even designed their own machines for testing equipment. They even built a machine that I’ve never seen before that tests torque in 3 separate sections of a shaft. Who knew there was more than one section of a shaft that torqued??? In my opinion, this is where Fujikura stands out. They are able to take data from ENSO and build profiles that work for all golfers based how they deliver the club. We also saw how they can custom etch, paint, and silkscreen shafts and got to see some really cool samples that one offs. That was really cool seeing the capabilities they have.

        After the tour it was @Puppetmasterand myself’s time to get fitted into Axiom. We were both very excited to hit it after the product knowledge session we had. A little bit about myself. I’ve had an interesting story in my golfing life. I was a good player when I was younger and played in college. At my best I was a +3. Played really good golf for about 15 years after college and then hurt my shoulder. Played with it hurting for a couple years scraping it around. I finally stopped playing for about 3 years due to the pain, and frankly not being able to play at the level I did before injury. It sucked not being able to play and do the thing I enjoy most. I went through a tough time and gained 150lbs. Well, now my shoulder has healed and I’ve lost over 30 pounds in last 60 days, I’m starting over. I’ve lost a ton of strength and speed, but I’ve dedicated myself to losing the weight, getting stronger, and getting my game back to what it once was. Hopefully for all of you who have lost speed and distance can relate to the game that I am playing now. I’m still fortunate that I haven’t forgot how to hit it straight or how to wedge it and putt it. Even though now I hit 7 iron where I used to hit 9 iron I’ve still kept my handicap hovering between a 3 and 4.

        I’ve played graphite shafts in my irons for almost 15 years. Previous football, and powerlifting gave me a bad left wrist, so the vibration dampening of graphite has been a life.. er wrist saver. I’ve played Steelfiber, Recoil, and now MMT. So I was excited about Axiom. I’m the other guy on the spectrum, I want to hit it higher and spin it more. I’m able to take spin off or hit a knockdown if it’s a windy situation. So going in I was hoping to increase my launch and spin. Andrew started me in the 75R. It was good, definitely a more stout feel than my MMT and kind of reminded me of Steelfiber in that to me it played a little more stiff than the indicated flex. That being said, it did increase my launch and spin, but it felt too stiff compared to my MMT. So he gave me the 75 R2 and right away it felt right. Launch went up even higher and spin went up considerably. My launch angle went up almost 3 degrees and spin went up around 900rpm. This is EXACTLY what I was wanting. However, I didn’t feel whippy or like I couldn’t control it. In fact, it was even more stable than my MMT but gave me more speed, more launch, and higher decent angle without any sacrifice in carry distance with an even tighter shot pattern. There is no doubt, Fujikura are onto something with using Velocore in the Axiom shafts. After about 6 swings there was no need to hit anymore. Although I’m a short hitter now, I am very repetitive and consistent so after a few swings it’s easy to tell. I didn’t hit any of the other weight shafts, but when I was watching @Puppetmastergetting fit, he was able to hit all there different weight shafts. I will say this, guys don’t sleep on the 105 shaft. It’s scary how well that shaft performs for the higher speed guys. What Fujikura has done with the Axiom line is to make specific shafts for players with specific deliveries. 
      After our Axiom fittings and lunch Marshall from Tour operations spoke with us. It is unreal the lengths Fujikura go to help players using their products AND those who may not be currently using them. They actually take driving stats from every player at every Tour event. The statistical data they keep is on a whole other level. They hired a guy from NASA to break down each player’s driving data by, pattern, ball speed, spin, launch, miss direction, and efficiency. It’s no wonder that they are in the position they are with usage on pro tours. He even told some great stories how they used ENSO to help players improve by measuring how they deliver the club and putting them in the profile that will correct that issue. After that, @eric61 and @CactusGolf had their driver fitting. Myself and @Puppetmasterthen went through the entire product line with Spencer. The thing that impressed me about the product line is that each shaft is built for a specific delivery. From Ventus, to Speeder, to Motore, to Pro, to Vista Pro, they are all engineered for a specific delivery. The one thing that sticks out me is to not prejudge what shaft you think you need or should fit into. I had never thought much about butt stiffness, or how it works in unison with the tip stiffness. I know everyone says it, but GET FIT. I’ve done thousands of fittings over my time in the business, and I knew when a shaft worked, but today, I LEARNED WHY THEY WORK. 

       Then it was out turn to get our driver fittings. I went first this time. Now, going into this, I just knew that Ventus Red 5R was going to be the shaft for me. Boy was I wrong. I’ll say this, the driver I have in the bag is the best I’ve ever had. I just hit the damn thing straight. After 3 swings, our fitter, Andrew said man I don’t know if I’m going to be able to beat that. So he put in a Ventus Red 5R and gave it to me. It was a slight improvement over mine, but not much. It felt ok, but I couldn’t get a feel for it. Yes it went straight, but wasn’t what Andrew wanted to see. So he gave me the Red TR 5R, and I thought to myself wow, he went even stiffer. Surprisingly it was actually better for than the standard Red, but still wasn’t the improvement Andrew wanted. Sooooo he put me in the Blue TR 5R. In my head I’m thinking, man he went even stiffer, (cause I was thinking about tip stiffness and not butt stiffness) Well, first shot, right away I could feel the shaft kicking at the bottom… BOOM 4mph more ball speed, 10 yards more carry, AND even tighter dispersion. Which is super impressive given my normal pattern is pretty straight anyways. Second swing, even better, and on the third swing, I just gave him the club and said, I’m done. That’s the one. For me, to gain another 10 yds without sacrificing launch, spin, or dispersion is an absolute homerun! I could have probably gained even more speed since the shaft just felt perfect and I could go after it even more knowing it was going straight! When you consider I was in a pretty damn good fit in my gamer that is awesome! I’m pumped and can’t wait to hit on the course tomorrow morning and report back. One thing is for certain. I will play better golf with Axiom graphite shafts in my irons and Ventus shafts in my woods. My shafts can’t get to me fast enough. Gaining at least 10yds carry on my driver and increasing my launch, spin, and decent angle has me very excited about this next chapter of getting my game and body back to the level it was at before my injury. If any of you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. I know not all of us are 120mph guys. I’m more than happy to help. Once again, thank you so much to everyone at Fujikura and at Golfwrx for making this possible. Words can’t express how excited I am at the upcoming changes to my equipment and my game.

         

Man...What a great write up.  Thanks, I was particularly interested as mentioned before we seem to be very close in swing profile.   I have a Red TR in 5R and thought it would be perfect fo me, and I stayed away from the Blue.  Now you have me re thinking that.   But one thing this trip reinforces to all of us  #FittingMatters    As WRX'ers we so often think we can fit our selves well enough.   That is often rarely the case. 

[Carolina Golfer 2]

I know Q&A sessions might be over as you're on the course today....and have fun by the way.

 

But one thing I'd love to find out.   Are they able to say if Titleist will be offering the Axiom as premium offering in it's new T Series.  I know Titleist is known for waiting on new shafts to see if they feel they are a good fit for their heads.   But having a T Series fitting this month, I'm kinda hoping they would be an option.

 

[Puppetmaster]

35 minutes ago, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

I know Q&A sessions might be over as you're on the course today....and have fun by the way.

 

But one thing I'd love to find out.   Are they able to say if Titleist will be offering the Axiom as premium offering in it's new T Series.  I know Titleist is known for waiting on new shafts to see if they feel they are a good fit for their heads.   But having a T Series fitting this month, I'm kinda hoping they would be an option.

 

 

Not yet, but it's still early.

 

There was a demo T100S with Axiom 105S that I tried and it was a very tasty combo. Almost as good as the King Tour with Axiom... 

 

[knudson81]

Getting ready to tee it up!

 

[dfeldss]

Did they throw the shafts you guys had fitted into your clubs overnight? Sounds like an awesome experience!

[jas904]

Where are you guys playing today?

[Fujikura Golf]

36 minutes ago, dfeldss said:

Did they throw the shafts you guys had fitted into your clubs overnight? Sounds like an awesome experience!

They have VENTUS driver shafts to play with today (that they were fit into yesterday), but unfortunately we did not have time to build their iron sets with AXIOM. They will get sets of those sent to the dealer nearest their home to build ASAP!

 

10 minutes ago, jas904 said:

Where are you guys playing today?

Shadowridge CC in Vista, CA. Our "home course" 🙂

[eric61]

Just wrapped up another awesome day with the Fujikura and GolfWRX folks at Shadowridge — now I’m posting from my Uber to the airport headed home.

 

The whole experience was just first class. The Fujikura folks were great. And I think it’s also important to note that they didn’t ask us for anything — they just wanted us to share our honest thoughts and experiences, good and bad.

 

Andrew, who did our fittings yesterday, was in my group today, and he was very nice to answer a bunch of questions I had.

 

We went back and forth between the Axiom 105X and the 125X for me today, because I was just really comfortable with the T100 7 iron with the 125X and seemed to hit it well every time I swung it. It had nothing to do with flex — I’m around 87-88 mph with a 7 iron, hit it 170ish; I’m not by any means a guy who needs a super stiff shaft. It was the weight that was syncing well with my swing.

 

Ultimately after talking it over with Andrew and Spencer we decided on 105X and just getting them built to a heavier swing weight. Spencer rightly pointed out that the 4 and 5 irons would be bears with the 125X just in terms of overall weight.

 

I had the 105X in a P790 demo head out on the course today too, and was really impressed with the flight and spin. It wasn’t ballooning by any means, but the ball was stopping on greens fast. I had into a slightly uphill slope on a green that sucked back 2 feet, and one onto a more severe downhill slope that still stopped pretty fast.

 

I asked them why a set of something like the 4 and 5 iron in the 105X and 6-wedge in 125X wouldn’t work, and they said generally speaking, 20 grams would be too big of a jump in terms of keeping a consistent feel. If we were talking about jumping from 95 to 105 or something, maybe a different story, but they thought 105 to 125 would be too big a jump, which makes sense to me.

 

I think the Axiom shafts are going to pair really well with player’s distance type irons, where they’ll allow you to get the ball speed and forgiveness those iron heads offer while gaining the height and spin to make them really playable. Lower-spin guys in players’ irons will also love them.

 

The other thing I’ll say, for folks who haven’t hit graphite iron shafts before, is that they really take the sting out of impact. This is the first time in a while where I’ve had absolutely no wrist pain after a round. And it doesn’t come at the cost of the iron heads’ feel. The T100 I mentioned was still buttery soft.

 

Driver was a different story for me today. On the front 9, I just absolutely couldn’t hit the thing … I’m just making excuses for myself, but I think having a video crew around us was spooking me a bit. It was embarrassing, to be honest. On the back 9, I switched from a G430 Max head to a G430 LST head and it was like a light went on and I started driving the ball really well. I had the Ventus TR Blue 6S in both heads today but was feeling a little too loose in the mid-section. Andrew said I should go with the 6X and it would tighten that feeling up a bit. 
 

I did think it was interesting how swing speed was NOT really the dominant factor in what flex I was fitted into. On paper, in every way, you’d think I’d be a stiff flex guy. But in terms of what suited me and my swing better in terms of feel, X was definitely better. Just something I wanted to note as a reminder of the limitations of those “swing speed recommendation” charts you see from time to time.

 

Fujikura is going to send us the driver shafts we were fitted into, and then send the Axiom iron shafts to whatever local authorized dealer we pick to have them built. 

 

I’m pumped for the TR Blue 6X, but REALLY excited for the Axiom 105X set-up. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by eric61