The Truth About Off-the-Rack vs. After Market Shafts
Or, Don't buy your new driver off the rack!
We have been saying this for years. Why? Even if you demo the driver in the store, get great results on THEIR launch monitor, and have a coupon code to save you some coin, you have not optimized your performance.
MyGolfSpy Shaft Research
The first thing you need to do is read this article in MyGolfSpy on what is really in driver shafts. This article was published in November, 2017, and could not be more relevant today. Chris actually interviewed me for this article and really did a thorough job uncovering every aspect of what goes on in the golf industry in terms of shaft quality, integrity and legitimacy.
Not All Clubs That Are Identical, Play Identical
This article and experience of Brandt Snedeker speaks volumes about having a professional fitter not only fit, but install the clubs to exact specifications.
Bottom line is that the shafts that come in the majority of OEM (Callway, TaylorMade, etc.) clubs, especially drivers, fairway woods and hybrids, are not the exact same shafts that we get as an authorized dealer for Fujikura and Mitsubishi Chemical-Golf Division, for example. When a customer asks me why certain stock shafts test stiffer or softer than what is designated on the shaft (S flex tests out as an X), we point out that club manufacturers rely on the shaft suppliers to give them shafts of consistent quality but that is not always the case. Hybrid shafts are notoriously light and play very soft (flexible) to the stated flex.
Shaft Profiles May Not Be the Same
For the reasons Chris points out in his article, we always use aftermarket, legitimate shafts and profile them extensively before using them in our build process. (See our blog on profiling shafts here). We have seen some instances where shafts that are designated by the OEM to be high launch may in fact launch mid to low. When we test the aftermarket shafts we use, we measure and determine 24 profile and shaft quality data points for our profiling system. We know for a fact how a shaft should perform based upon our profiling system and then validate that with live tests with our customers and testers.
Clubs Need to Be Assembled Properly
The "Secret Sauce" of building custom clubs is actually building them to meet the specs you received in your fitting with us or from our Fitting Wizard. We make sure that all of the important stuff (spine alignment, flex, length) are right on spec so your results will be what you expect. See our blog on our custom build process here.
Bottom Line...Custom Fit and Custom Built
The bottom line is to get a good aftermarket shaft in your clubs that will be built to your exact specifications. We offer several different price points so you do not always have to pay big bucks to get the performance you need.
So go through our Fitting Wizard and find out what we recommend in terms of shaft weight, flex, launch(trajectory), spin, swing weight, and length. If you have any questions, send us an email at [email protected] or go online and chat with one of us. Better Golf...Faster Starts Now!
See What We Recommend for YOUR Swing Here!
Dan Sueltz and Eric Touchet
