Stiffer shaft, straighter?

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I recently switched from R300 to S300 from Mizuno mp60 to mp32 after trying out my friend's clubs.
I hit it definitely higher and straighter. I was messing around on the driving range for a while with these new clubs, and then I switched back to my old club, i instantly hit a low pull/hook....

Does the shaft really matters that much? or is it all mental?
 

natep

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I doubt if a steel shaft would have enough difference between a R and S flex to cause an immediate change from great shots to pull hooks.

Graphite maybe.
 

Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
I recently switched from R300 to S300 from Mizuno mp60 to mp32 after trying out my friend's clubs.
I hit it definitely higher and straighter. I was messing around on the driving range for a while with these new clubs, and then I switched back to my old club, i instantly hit a low pull/hook....

Does the shaft really matters that much? or is it all mental?

Yes, it matters that much. No it isn't all mental; you could have made the R300's "work" but you never changed your swing to do it and i wouldn't recommend anyone going down in flex if it causes massive changes in your swing to make it work. Same for going too stiff as well.
 
You would be mistaken.

I also notice I'm slower on the back swing and i could feel where the club head is...weird stuff, i can almost feel my transition smoother..and not in a rush :confused::confused::confused:

My driver + 3wood are also stiff shafts. It's much easier to feel the swing now from stiff to stiff vs regular to stiff when I'm hitting on the driving range.
 
Would a too-flexible shaft always cause misses left or does it depend?

i think it can cause a lot of push right shots as well...

I always feel like I have to swing faster for the club face to catch up...or slow down for the club face to catch up....:mad:
 

natep

New
I have two sets that I rotate back and forth with. One has R and one S. They feel different, but they play about the same. But I definitely miss the R shafts to the right more often than the S shafts. High slight push fade.

Maybe it's because I've learned to adapt to the closing face but sometimes it doesnt close.
 
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I recently switched from R300 to S300 from Mizuno mp60 to mp32 after trying out my friend's clubs.
I hit it definitely higher and straighter. I was messing around on the driving range for a while with these new clubs, and then I switched back to my old club, i instantly hit a low pull/hook....

Does the shaft really matters that much? or is it all mental?

maybe because the s300 is heavier? Shaft is the most important (only) part of the club that can change overall weight.
 
Doesn't tip stiffness have more to do with shot dispersion than shaft flex? The flex often correlates with how one loads the shaft and optimizing the loading sequence. Tip stiff shafts like Dynamic Gold should have less dispersion than a softer tip shaft like a normal Rifle or graphite.
 
Great thread!

I switched about a year ago from Adams game improvement irons in a regular graphite shaft to the Adams A4 forged irons with the Javelin stiff graphite shafts. BIG difference. Slightly lower, more penetrating flight, with just a much better feel. I thought I would lose some distance, but I may have actually gained some. My accuracy is a bit better as well :) And to show the difference shafts can make, the set came with a 3 & 4 hybrid. I wanted a 5 hybrid as well, so I got an Adams A4 5 hybrid on line, but realized too late that it had a matrix shaft, not the Javelin. It is the only hybrid that no matter what I do, results in a dead pull. The other 2 hybrids are nearly always straight.
 
I doubt if a steel shaft would have enough difference between a R and S flex to cause an immediate change from great shots to pull hooks.

Graphite maybe.

According to studies from Professor Sasho MacKenzie, the more the shaft 'kicks forward', the more the clubface will effectively close. IIRC, it's something like for every 1 cm of forward shaft kick = 0.7* of closing of the face.

I was trying an experiment recently and took an X-stiff shaft in my 5-iron and tipped it 3 inches. I can actually hit it pretty well. Ball will not curve much. But I lose about 15 yards of distance.





3JACK
 
Iron shafts (especially steel) forward flex very litte because of the larger tip diameters, and more importantly, the clubhead's CoG is not very far behind the shaft's CoG.
 
Graphite shafts do not equal softer tips. In the same way graphite wood shafts are being built with tailored bend profiles, graphite iron shafts are now being produced on the same level. Below is the bend profile of an Aerotech Steelfiber 110grm stiff graphite shaft (black line) compared to a DG S300 (blue line). The two are very similar in the butt section, but the Steelfiber gets a good bit stiffer in the middle and tip sections.

STvDG.jpg


The same Steelfiber compared to the PX 6.0.

STvPX.jpg
 
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