Sandy
Well-Known Member
- Aug 29, 2006
- 907
- 0
I'm not sure anyone on here has reviewed one of these shafts yet, and seeing as it's you lot that are responsible for my current spate of shaft ho'ing, I thought I ought to post my experience of fitting my driver with this new shaft from Grafalloy.
Basically my problem was this: I moved to the 10.5* R5 Dual D with regular stock shaft after having a nightmare with a Cobra SZ460 (with Aldila NV stiff shaft) that was horrendous - could exaggerate the slightest slice into absolute horrors and just made the most eardrum splitting sound that made me feel totally self-conscious when using it. I hit a few shots with a friends R5 and it felt great, straightened my shots out, and so I bought one ASAP and traded in the Cobra. It's been working well for me, but the trajectory for me was incredibly high and I was convinced it was robbing me of significant distance, especially with the end of the ball flight and the total lack or roll on landing. I also experienced the dreaded hooks whenever I really tried to swing hard that a few others on here have experience of.
After the total success of sticking in the ProLaunch Blue into my 4w I decided that a new shaft may be the thing to try, so trawled the posts on here to see what people recommended and went down to Golfsmith looking to fit a V2 or a Grafalloy Proto Comp NT, the latter being the preferred choice after the reviews it got on here. On arriving the repairman suggested the Grafalloy would be a great fit, but he surprised me by saying that they had sent all their inventory of those back to the factory, as that shaft is being phased out. He did however suggest that the new ProLaunch was a great shaft and would have a similar effect to the NT. Obviously I'd already discounted getting a ProLaunch Blue in there as the last thing I wanted was a high-launch shaft. So I duly took his advice and had the Red fitted (standard length, R Flex), and finally got the chance to take it down to the range last night.
First impressions? WOW!
It basically did everything I needed it to! From my first half-dozen hits the ball flew off the face with the boring trajectory I wanted from it, still getting quite a height, but flattening out the overall arc of the flight to bring the landing down to a much flatter angle. Sadly it was too dark to see how the ball reacted on landing - but the fact it was flying out of the range of the floodlights is certainly encouraging! I certainly noticed a few hops and skips from the ball on landing though, which is a world away from the ball just stopping dead on landing with the old shaft.
Even more encouraging was the dispersion and length I was getting. The hooks were gone, and bad swings only seemed to add a gentle fade to the shape (they'd have been out of the side of the range with the Cobra!). Even contact low on the face saw the ball motoring out, giving me hope that on windy days teeing the ball lower will allow me to hit real low shots with good distance. With the old shaft my drives generally just dropped a few yards short of the 200 boards at this range, which equated to shots of 200 - 225 on the real course. Last night all bar a handfull of shots sailed over the 200yd boards, and one I took using a scuffed 'real' ball from my bag went way over the 200 board and disappeared from the range of the lights!
The feel of the club was great too. Basically it felt indentical to the ProLaunch blue in terms of stiffness (the slightly firmer feel of the Regular flex is perfect for me) and overall feel, but the ball just seemed to hammer off the clubface when it made contact and keep flying forever.
In summary then, an absolutey great choice of shaft, especially for people who love the ProLaunch but don't want the high flight that shaft can give on their driver, but also haven't got the swingspeed to fit a Grafalloy Blue to get the lower trajectory. Great value too at about $55. I'd be interested to see what the better players on here would make of it, but for higher handicappers who, like me, don't have a problem getting the ball in the air off their drivers it seems an ideal choice.
Basically my problem was this: I moved to the 10.5* R5 Dual D with regular stock shaft after having a nightmare with a Cobra SZ460 (with Aldila NV stiff shaft) that was horrendous - could exaggerate the slightest slice into absolute horrors and just made the most eardrum splitting sound that made me feel totally self-conscious when using it. I hit a few shots with a friends R5 and it felt great, straightened my shots out, and so I bought one ASAP and traded in the Cobra. It's been working well for me, but the trajectory for me was incredibly high and I was convinced it was robbing me of significant distance, especially with the end of the ball flight and the total lack or roll on landing. I also experienced the dreaded hooks whenever I really tried to swing hard that a few others on here have experience of.
After the total success of sticking in the ProLaunch Blue into my 4w I decided that a new shaft may be the thing to try, so trawled the posts on here to see what people recommended and went down to Golfsmith looking to fit a V2 or a Grafalloy Proto Comp NT, the latter being the preferred choice after the reviews it got on here. On arriving the repairman suggested the Grafalloy would be a great fit, but he surprised me by saying that they had sent all their inventory of those back to the factory, as that shaft is being phased out. He did however suggest that the new ProLaunch was a great shaft and would have a similar effect to the NT. Obviously I'd already discounted getting a ProLaunch Blue in there as the last thing I wanted was a high-launch shaft. So I duly took his advice and had the Red fitted (standard length, R Flex), and finally got the chance to take it down to the range last night.
First impressions? WOW!
It basically did everything I needed it to! From my first half-dozen hits the ball flew off the face with the boring trajectory I wanted from it, still getting quite a height, but flattening out the overall arc of the flight to bring the landing down to a much flatter angle. Sadly it was too dark to see how the ball reacted on landing - but the fact it was flying out of the range of the floodlights is certainly encouraging! I certainly noticed a few hops and skips from the ball on landing though, which is a world away from the ball just stopping dead on landing with the old shaft.
Even more encouraging was the dispersion and length I was getting. The hooks were gone, and bad swings only seemed to add a gentle fade to the shape (they'd have been out of the side of the range with the Cobra!). Even contact low on the face saw the ball motoring out, giving me hope that on windy days teeing the ball lower will allow me to hit real low shots with good distance. With the old shaft my drives generally just dropped a few yards short of the 200 boards at this range, which equated to shots of 200 - 225 on the real course. Last night all bar a handfull of shots sailed over the 200yd boards, and one I took using a scuffed 'real' ball from my bag went way over the 200 board and disappeared from the range of the lights!
The feel of the club was great too. Basically it felt indentical to the ProLaunch blue in terms of stiffness (the slightly firmer feel of the Regular flex is perfect for me) and overall feel, but the ball just seemed to hammer off the clubface when it made contact and keep flying forever.
In summary then, an absolutey great choice of shaft, especially for people who love the ProLaunch but don't want the high flight that shaft can give on their driver, but also haven't got the swingspeed to fit a Grafalloy Blue to get the lower trajectory. Great value too at about $55. I'd be interested to see what the better players on here would make of it, but for higher handicappers who, like me, don't have a problem getting the ball in the air off their drivers it seems an ideal choice.