- Aug 20, 2005
- 7,779
- 2,331
- Country
- United States
When I first saw the UST Frequency Filtered Putter Shaft (www.ustgolfshaft.com) in promotional ads, I knew that I wanted to try one out. Unfortunately, I have never found one in a golf store assembled into a putter to give it a test run. There were several times I put one into my shopping cart online when buying other products, but I could never pull the trigger. A $60 putter shaft is hard to justify if you have not had a chance to try it out in person. Last Friday, I finally received my opportunity to try it out in person while attending the PGA Merchandise show.
You know right away that you are looking at a different kind of animal and that is not going to be like any other putter shaft you have ever putted with before. For starters, your looking at a composite shaft with a steel tip section and a graphite butt section joined in the middle with some sort of conical device. The look may scare away some tradionalists, but it is not so outragious that you would be afraid to put it in your bag. When you first pick up a putter shafted with UST's shaft, you immediately notice a difference in club head feel. The UST shaft increases the swing weight over a similar putter with etiher a steel or graphite shaft. This is not a bad thing. OEM putter makers and component club head makers have been gradually increasing head weights in their putters to accomplish the same objective. This shaft will help that along a bit, and even with the increased swingweight, the putter feels well balanced in your hands. Fondling aside, the whole reason why your trying this shaft out is impact feel.
The UST rep let me putt a few with a steel shafted Bettinardi to get the feel of a steel shafted putter in my hands before I tried out the UST shafted club. The Bettinardi putter felt great. Its a high end milled putter and I figured there was going to be no way the Yes! Tracy II putter with the UST shaft in it was going to improve the feel I was getting with the Bettinardi. I was WRONG. I never realized how much vibration comes up a putter shaft until I putted with the UST shaft. It was kind of like back in college when the guys next door had a CD player compared to my tape deck. The CD player sounded really good but it did not seem that much better until I put a tape in the tape deck and listened to it again. There are a lot of garbage vibrations coming up the steel shaft that I never knew existed (just like all that garbage backround noise on a tape deck.) I tried several of the putters they had made up with the UST shaft and they were all the same as far as feel went. Just a small pure feedback vibration is transmitted back to your hands and the rest is filtered out. This is one awesome shaft.
According the UST the reps, there are a few companies out there who will put a UST shaft in their putters via a custom order or custom shop. From what I could gather, it is an option on Pings and Yes! putters from the factory/factory custom shop but most others will require you to reshaft it yourself or bring it to your local club maker.
UST currently offers 7 different tip configurations that fit most of the poplular putters being produced so you will likely find a match to your favorite putter head. Will the shaft help you make more putts? That is debatable. This shaft is all about feel. If a better feel helps you sink more putts, this shaft will help you. If you can putt well with a rock tied to a stick or a garden implement, you can probably get by without this shaft.
Now that I have had to opportunity to try the shaft, I am definitely going to get one at some point down the road. Right now I am going into a center shafted phase of my putter collecting and I want to settle down on a putter selection before I spend the money on this shaft. I would love to put this shaft in all of my putters, but it is just not financially feasible at this point in time.
If you are looking for the the ultimate feel in your putter shaft and do not mind the $60 price tag, I would highly recommend the UST Frequency Filtered Putter shaft.