shaft flex

[SCGolfer]

I know the answer to my question is get on a monitor and find out.....well I am working on that.

My question is about how accurate something I read could be....basically it asked what club you hit on a normal basis from 150 out. If that was a 5 or 6 iron you should hit a regular shaft driver...7 iron you should hit a stiff shaft driver and beyond that you should be playing an X shaft.

Based on what the launch monitor tells you about your swing and stuff how accurate could these assumptions be??


Jason

[SplooGe]

as a guideline might be close on the first part but I doubt the 7i 150. I play my 8i to 160 and cant hit the x flex 3w I have for the life of me.

[MCDavis]

IMHO that is strictly a rule of thumb type thing. I hit 7 iron from 150, but stiff flex drivers give me problems so I play regular flex...I play regular across the board, matter of fact, except for wedges.

Too many other variables in finding the right driver shaft to go strictly on the 150 yd. club.

[warbirdlover]

I have 105 ss with the driver and play stiff. I have much slower ss with irons so hit regular. I don't think you can group the two swings IMHO. Then you have the issue that the flex rating between shaft makers is not to any standard. One's stiff could be another's regular flex.

[SCGolfer]

MC, I am with you....I hit 7i 150-160. But have never been able to hit a stiff shaft driver.....I have seen some weird explanations but never anything that generic.


Jason

[Eracer]

Originally Posted by warbirdlover

I have 105 ss with the driver and play stiff. I have much slower ss with irons so hit regular. I don't think you can group the two swings IMHO. Then you have the issue that the flex rating between shaft makers is not to any standard. One's stiff could be another's regular flex.

Absolutely. Lyle and TMag can attest that it's frequency that matters. Too bad the shaft manufacturers won't let that precious little bit of info out. Taylor Made doesn't want everybody knowing that their "stiff" MAS2 shaft are equivalent to ProLaunch senior flex.

[BStone]

Originally Posted by Eracer

Absolutely. Lyle and TMag can attest that it's frequency that matters. Too bad the shaft manufacturers won't let that precious little bit of info out. Taylor Made doesn't want everybody knowing that their "stiff" MAS2 shaft are equivalent to ProLaunch senior flex.

Not only can shaft labels differ from company to company, but from shaft to shaft. Even premium shafts like Diamana and Speeder have a variance from one to another. I had a student who was rather advanced in age, and was swinging an R Flex driver that he hit very well when we measured it on a frequency analyzer, it came out to be a bit between a ladies' and senior flex. My driver shaft comes in at 278 cpm, which is a fairly stiff measurement for an S flex.

[MGP]

Originally Posted by Eracer

Too bad the shaft manufacturers won't let that precious little bit of info out. Taylor Made doesn't want everybody knowing that their "stiff" MAS2 shaft are equivalent to ProLaunch senior flex.

Nah, it's not that... they just wouldn't want people to see that their stock shafts vary ± 50 cps for a given flex!

I've been involved in manufacturing for about 25 years (electronics and some mechanical assemblies) and the hardest thing about quality is consistency. To have anything manufactured to tight tolerances always gets a lot more expensive the tighter your tolerances get.

All things considered, the golf equipment manufacturers all put out some pretty high quality stuff for the $$$ these days. Of course some is a lot better than others...

[Pullmeister]

Originally Posted by tmag

Not only can shaft labels differ from company to company, but from shaft to shaft. Even premium shafts like Diamana and Speeder have a variance from one to another. I had a student who was rather advanced in age, and was swinging an R Flex driver that he hit very well when we measured it on a frequency analyzer, it came out to be a bit between a ladies' and senior flex. My driver shaft comes in at 288 cpm, which is a fairly stiff measurement for an S flex.

Your driver plays at 288 Thats high even for an X flex. Although CPM #s mostly just measure butt stiffness I cant think of any shafts other than Long drive competitors shafts with that high a #.

[BStone]

Originally Posted by Pullmeister

Your driver plays at 288 Thats high even for an X flex. Although CPM #s mostly just measure butt stiffness I cant think of any shafts other than Long drive competitors shafts with that high a #.

Whoops, 278, thanks for catching that, damn keys are too close together on the keyboard.

[MCDavis]

Originally Posted by tmag

Whoops, 278, thanks for catching that, damn keys are too close together on the keyboard.

you sure it's not cause you've got fingers like a wookie??

[BStone]

Originally Posted by MCDavis

you sure it's not cause you've got fingers like a wookie??

Well, it's just like how that putt was going in until it hit the spike mark. You have to do whatever you can to keep your confidence up.

[LyleG]

Using a frequency machine to measure stiffness is a bit misleading in itself as unless you profile the whole shaft you really know nothing about how the shaft will play.

You can have 3 diamana shafts, one red board, one blue and one white. Sort them till you find 3 that frequency at 260 cpms. Do you really think that all three will play the same? The white will have a mid section that will be 50-70 cpms stiffer than the red, the blue will fall in the middle.

Measuring butt frequency is only useful when comparing the same make of shaft or shafts that are very, very similar in profile. The latter still being iffy at best.

I use my frequency machine a lot. Its main use is building iron sets to a certain slope. The other thing I use to for is to profile shafts. Taking 5-6 measurements along set intervals of a shaft. This gives you a far more useful tool than simply measuring butt frequency.

[ezra76]

Originally Posted by Eracer

Absolutely. Lyle and TMag can attest that it's frequency that matters. Too bad the shaft manufacturers won't let that precious little bit of info out. Taylor Made doesn't want everybody knowing that their "stiff" MAS2 shaft are equivalent to ProLaunch senior flex.

BS. I had the MAS 2 in my old R7. The stiff is most definitely stiffer than the Epic, V2 and NV in a stiff. I'd say it's about as stiff as a Speeder 757. No way a "senior". Anyone who says it was total crap most likely couldn't load it. Sorry but I hear a lot of TM bashing going on lately, they don't throw whippy crap in their player geared line.

[dave.]

My Rombax in the 425 TP with a stiff tip is beast.If thats a senior flex then I'm Al Pacino