DRIVER SHAFTS EXPLAINED – Fujikura, Mitsubishi, Oban, Autoflex, TPT Accra, LA Golf

“A well-fitted shaft can’t make a poorly engineered head perform amazingly well, but a poorly-fitted shaft can make an amazingly well-engineered head perform poorly for you.” – Dr Paul Wood, Ping

It’s the most misunderstood part of the golf club. Scott and Aaron from SGGT take a deep dive into what’s available in iron shafts, hat they do and how they might help your game. there’s never been a bigger choice of iron shafts and SGGT has the biggest selection available in its matrix.

SHAFTS BRANDS FEATURED
Oban Isawa
Oban Revenge
Oban Devotion
Oban Kiyoshi
Oban Airburst
Autoflex SF
Autoflex Dream 7
Graphite Design AD DI
Graphite Design AD VF Victory Force
Graphite Design AD XC Xtra Carry
Graphite Design CQ Conquest
TPT Power
TPT Nitro
Fujikura Ventus+ VeloCore Black, Blue, Red and the new White.
Fujikura Speeder NX Violet
Mitsubishi Diamana White, Blue and Red
Mitsubishi Tensei White, Blue, Orange Counter-balanced
Mitsubishi Vanquish
ACCRA iSeries
ACCRA GX Blue, Green, Red DyMatch
ACCRA TZ5, TZ6, TZ6ST
ACCRA Shogun Blue, Green, Red
LA Golf A Series high, mid, low

SGGT SHAFT PURING
All our shafts are “pured” using an SST Puring Machine that identifies the best alignment for the shaft for maximum efficiency.

SGGT is also known for its unique, detailed 4, 6, 8, PW iron fittings at our flagship Edinburgh and Chesterfield studios. Where as many fitters use only 7 iron to fit an iron set, SGGT goes through the bag to find you the best fit for your game.

Recently, a customer said he thought SGGT offered the “World’s Best Iron Fitting” at our flagship Edinburgh and Chesterfield studios. He challenged us to find anywhere else in the world that offered all this in iron fittings:

• Fitting across set 4, 6, 8 irons & PW. Not just a 7 iron.
• Completely brand independent so you’re guaranteed unbiased advice
• Largest heads/shaft selection in Europe. We have the biggest matrix.
• Premium balls – ProV1s etc instead of range balls.
• Your choice of grip – We’ll put your preferred grip on the clubs you’re testing.
• An opportunity to test off mats & grass, indoor & outdoor during the fitting. It’s the only way to see the true ball flight and test turf interaction. Plus you still get the benefits of our Trackman launch monitors.

We haven’t found anywhere else yet. So, is SGGT the “World’s Best Iron Fitting?”. We’d be genuinely curious to know so please do get in touch.

Please Note: There are regional service variations offered at our Netherlands studios. Please contact them for details.
If you’d like to experience an iron fitting on this level then contact our Edinburgh or Chesterfield studios – or book online at www.sggt.co.uk

SGGT has a number of great fitting features including
The biggest matrix selection of club heads, shafts and grips to ensure you get exactly what you want
Trackman launch monitors
Open bays so you can see the real ball flight
SST Shaft Puring to get the most out of your shaft
S3 shaft profiling
We’ll fit your preferred grip during fitting sessions
Iron fitting with 4/6/8/PW instead of just one club
Outdoor wedge testing including in bunker
Premium balls
Matt and grass testing

DRIVERS & WOODS – FULL RANGE including
Titleist GT1, GT2, GT3, GT4 Series drivers GT280 Mini Driver
TaylorMade Qi35 Qi10 Core, Max, Maxlite and LS
Ping G440, G430 MAX, LST SFT and 10K
Cobra DS Adapt, Darkspeed
Callaway Elyte, Ai-Smoke, Paradym, Max D, Triple Diamond
Srixon ZXi Driver
Mini-Driver, Fairways and Hybrids

IRONS AND WEDGES – FULL RANGE including
Titleist T100, T150, T200, T350, 620, 722
Taylormade P7CB, P790, P770, Qi irons
Ping G430, G730, i230, i530, i59, Blueprint T
Callaway Elyte, Standard, X, HL (high launch) and Max Fast. Paradym Ai Smoke, Apex
Srixon ZXi7, ZXi5, ZXi4 Z-Forged II, ZX4 MkII, ZX5 MkII, Zx7 MkII
Mizuno JPX925 Hot Metal, JPX 923, Pro 245, 243, 241

SGGT custom fitting service creates golf clubs that are personalised to you and your swing only. Using our own proprietary fitting system we can combine heads and shafts from all the leading brands to create the ultimate combination in one of our two tour fitting studios. The Lyle Studio covers the woods and the long game and the Hogan Studio fits irons and wedges. All orders are built in our own in-house workshop. You can also trade in your old golf clubs for new ones. For more information choose the fitting you require below and book online.

Whether you’re a high, mid or low handicap golfer SGGT can help. We offer a tour level fitting experience for all levels of golfer from an average golfer looking for improved performance through to the club champion or elite professional looking for precision in their equipment.

BOOK YOUR FITTING NOW

SGGT
100 Swanston Rd,
Edinburgh
EH10 7BB
0131 202 9055

[Music] Hello and welcome back to SGGT. Today myself, James and Aaron are going to talk about driver shafts, common misconceptions and who they may suit. James, talk to me. Driver shafts, what’s the difference with them all? There’s different weights, there’s different bend profiles, there’s different flexes. They they do weird and wonderful things. Okay. Um, depending on a golfer’s um, path, attack angle, you can have two guys who have got the same club head speed, maybe play off the same handicap. If one swings left and one swings right, they can’t use the same thing. If one hits up on it, one sort of squeezes down a little bit more. Same sort of thing. We need the shaft to do a slightly different job. So, having so many different profiles in the studio, it’s really freeing as a fitter cuz you can go and do whatever you want. It’s so, so easy. It’s great fun. So here in the LO studio, you can see in the background, guys, all the options. So loads of bits in there, loads of different options ultimately. We’ll start by talking through some brands. You were off the other week, Aaron and I done iron shafts. So we’ll do something similar. We’ll have a run through. We’ll talk about who they might suit, what different brands have on offer, and we can go from there. All right with that. Perfect. Right. Where do we begin? We’ll start with open the right ones. Yeah, I’ll take open. What’s the range? Talk talk to me about So you’ve got Asawa. Okay. Uh two models in Asawa. You got red and gold. Okay. Red one. So the way open word is they’ve got kind of active tip section shafts. Open red. Asawa red is is one of those. So someone’s wanting to get the ball up in the air a little bit more. Um Isawa Red is a really good option. It’s been around forever. Ah good. Um gold a little bit firmer but loads of different weight profiles. Okay. So if you’ve got someone with a bit of speed but kind of not all that strong, it’s really quite a good option to put in there. Um, going from that, you’ve got revenge again and still an active tip shaft. Still going to try and encourage the ball up, but slightly uh slightly firmer where it needs to be. And who would that benefit? Um, someone who’s a bit more aggressive than an Asawa Red. Okay. But still wants to get the ball up and going a bit more. And then Devotion. Next one. Devotion. You can split that up into two. You’ve got obviously you’ve got the counterbalance one. Um, but the lighter devotions really quite different. They’re quite soft. Okay. But as you get into the open, the devotion six and devotion seven, they’re for your really quite aggressive hitters. Okay. If someone struggles with a bit of a left miss, that devotion is a great option just to put in and and just try and stabilize that. Okay. Um different weight classifications as well. You got 55, 65, 75 as well for the bombers. 75 is is is a 85 as well. There’s an 85. Yeah. Um up into six flex as well. I got six flex. So they don’t stiff in or stiff again. Stiff again. I think you could build my house with something weaker than that. Um Yeah. And then you’ve got Kyoshi range. Kyoshi. You got your different colors. So we we do a little bit. We do white and purple. Yeah. Used to do gold. Um there’s there comes a point we have to draw the line somewhere. Kyoshi purple’s really interesting. Almost like for the guys that know SH from years ago. It’s very Fujikura speeder. That kind of profile. Um, looks cool as well. And what’s this one on the left? What’s the air burst, James? So, uh, we’ve got air burst. There’s three there’s three of them. So, there’s an air, there’s an Airburst Cobalt, an Airburst Burgundy, and an Airburst Carbon. Okay. Uh, sorry, Airburst AK even. Uh, that’s um Obin’s kind of premium shaft line. Okay. Um, the big big difference between super premium, super premium. Um the big big difference with these guys is the the amount of good material that’s then used or the amount of premium material I should say. Okay. Um so one of the things that that Obin are really passionate about is like us as fitters that are kind of using these things every day. Um Ralph who’s Obin’s president wants everyone to have a kind of fair chance of trying all these different ranges. It’s maybe not going to be one that is going to be used all the time, but when we have them in their sort of entirety in the studio, you can just go and test stuff like that. can see how they feel. Certainly not for everyone, is it? No, no, not not for everyone. It’s one of those, like you say, if you don’t don’t hit it, you don’t know. Yeah. When we’re on premium, we might as well go to Autoflex. Talk to me. Autoflex is pretty interesting. It’s one bit of fun. It’s one It’s one we’ve done really quite a lot of. Um, so we do autoflex in driver, in fairway, in utility. We’ve got that in in like an iron as well. Um, we’ve got sort of two lines from Autoflex, the original SF and we also do Dream 7 as well. Okay. um really lightweight, feel really soft to give it the universal waggle test. They don’t play, they don’t certainly don’t play like that. Um they’re really suited to like a golfer who’s got a very smooth transition. Yeah. So, kind of regardless of kind of club head speed, um if you’ve got that smoother golfer, autoflex loads really effectively. You almost need to go into the shaft that feels too flexes too soft for you to make it kind of come into its own. Yeah, you got guys like Adam Scott and Louisen testing it. Both flushers, both really really smooth. So, it’s it’s that kind of player that really really benefits. Okay, I might as well work along this wall. Graphic design, plenty of options. Yeah, graphic design. They’ve been around forever as well. Uh DI is what Tiger made famous. Yeah, SP then took that mantle. Tiger still uses a VF. Okay. Which is what still? Um really firm. Yeah, really firm. So, really stable. um stiff handle, stiff mid, stiff tip. It’s for an aggressive hitter. Again, it’s kind of if you wanted to miss that left hand side, Tiger is trying to always play that left to right with his driver. That’s his goal there. Okay. XC XC extra carry, I think, is their their moniker for that. Um a little bit softer on the handle and then stiff in the mid, stiff in the tip. And it’s it’s it’s good if someone wants to feel something in the handle but really wants that ball flight to come out a little bit lower. CQ, that’s your higher spinning option. Goes kind of goes other way. So CQ is like stronger up in the handle than a little bit more active down the tip section section. Okay. Right. Next brand. TPT. James, interesting one. You seem to like it. Ah, TPT is good. TPT is Talk me through it. What’s good about TPD? What’s the technology? How does it work? So TPT the chat is they’re made from like one continuous strand of fiber. So it’s a a different manufacturing process. What would typically happen? Sorry if that’s if they’re one continuous strand. What would other brands be? What So what what other brands would do? You typically you you’d have all your material we’ll call it just laid out on laid out on the table. They’re put on in different directions. So you can you can chop and change you can chop and change where you want to make a shaft, you know, stiffer and softer and things like that. Okay. And that’s then wrapped around a thing called a mandrel. Um, so effectively a a sort of thin metal tube. You then put your shaft effectively in the oven. You bake your shaft. Then then you got a golf shaft. So it’s all it’s all it’s all then cured. But in putting those different layers on in different angles that’s going to create a hard edge. You could call it the spine of the shaft. Yeah. Um, TPT don’t have that. So TPT is made from like one continuous strand of fiber. So there isn’t a hard edge now. Like we’re really quite lucky here that we do all the building and we’ve got a we’ve got an SST pure machine. We do an awful lot of puring. Um and when TPT kind of first came out with that really bold claim that like we don’t have a hard edge obviously we have to test these things e. So whatever way we put the shaft in into SST we then get it back out that same way and we test it over multiple things and you just found that it didn’t need to move. So TPT is one of the only ones that we don’t need to pure. Yeah. Okay. Two ranges in TPT as well, isn’t it? Yeah. So we have a power and we have a nitro. Okay. Um nitro is a little bit lighter uh than uh than power. And we go anywhere from one called 14 low all the way to 21 high. Okay. So the higher the number, the softer the shaft. Okay. Um and the weight gets lighter as the numbers go up as well. Is that right? Yes. Simple to fit as well. That’s kind of that does what it says on the tin. Okay, next one. Loads of tour presents. Ventus Fujakura. Talk me through it. So, we’re on to Ventus Plus now. Yep. What does that mean, James? So, it’s it’s the it’s the new Velcore Plus material. Okay. Um it’s it’s it’s updated. Um so, the original three profiles, the black, the blue, and the red, really, really popular and are still really popular on on tour. Uh and it was just time for it was time for a refresh. Okay. So, Ventus was around 7 years old. Um, and we’ve got some new material. It’s it’s been been sort of updated and we have a new black, blue, and red profile. And we have all of them. White being added now as well. White been added now as well. Yeah. White tried that new one. It’s only just went in. We had a go of it. White’s interesting. And so, like Ventus White, it’s a little bit lighter. So, you get them in a in a kind of in a in a sort of 40 g shaft. Okay. So, if we’ve got that golfer that was maybe a wee bit away from getting into like a Ventus Blue or or kind of Ventus Red, now we’ve got that kind of gateway in. Okay. Really quite interesting. Very, very stable. It is actually. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Right. Mitsubishi when we’re up there. Sorry, I’m going to stay with Fujikura. There’s a new speeder line as well that we’ve added. NX Violet. NX Violet. It looks the part. Looks cool. Who’s playing that, Aaron? Um, so the design with this one is they’ve kind of built it as your kind of higher MOI driver head. Okay. Um, from a torque profile standpoint, um, loads of different weights. It goes 40 through 70. Okay. In 10 g increments. Uh, and you’ve got a regular, a stiff regular, a stiff an X. Um, is there TX in that? There’s loads of things to cover. There’s there’s not there’s not TX in that, but um yeah, there’s loads of stuff in there and it takes up quite a big part of the wall, but it’s really quite a nice feeling shaft. Looks amazing as well, isn’t it? Looks sick. Right, Matsubishi. Loads of stuff on tour here. So, we’ve got Tensai. And we’ve got Diama. Who wants what? I’ll go Diama. Come on then. Hit me with it. So, Diama has been around for 20 sort of 20 plus years now. and really really popular. Back with a vengeance. Yeah, exactly. There’s three there’s three profiles. Uh so we’ve got a white, a blue, and a red. Uh the white is a bit more it’s a we bit beefier. So it’s a kind of stronger shaft overall. A little bit stronger in the but the midan and the tip section. The blue is a little bit we bit smoother generally if you want to get the ball up in the air a little bit more than a white. That’s what blue is going to do. Softer in the middle is um and then Diama red board. And this is the kind of this is the latest one. Um it’s been a kind of phased launch with all this. So red boards, it’s a little bit more active in the tip section. That’s one that’s definitely going to get the ball up in the air a little bit more and really interesting to play with. Loads of flexes as well. We have again that takes up an even bigger wall space, but you’ve got again you’ve got regular, you’ve got 43 to 83, 43R to 83 TX. There is a TX in that. And that’s again, not a lot of golfers require that, but being able to test it and being able to see what that golf ball does. Yeah. On the back of that is is really quite interesting. If you’re that golfer who needs something a whole lot stronger, Yeah. we have everything covered, haven’t we? We’ve got loads. Tensai. Tensai. Interesting range here. You’ve got Tensai white, which is really again for your quite aggressive hitters. Feels a bit firmer than the white board. Whiteboard feels a bit smoother, but still that low launching shaft. Okay. blue, more of your active tip. Again, it’s it’s kind of bit more of your higher mid to higher launching. Okay. And then you have orange, which is really interesting. It’s a counterbalanced option. Um, so a bit heavier in the handle and then you can play a head that’s maybe a touch heavier or you can play the shaft a little bit longer without affecting swing weight all that much. Interesting. They’ve been interesting. Yeah. Vanquish done really pretty well. Vanquish. You like a Vanquish? Yeah, Vanquish is good. So, it’s a kind of softer profile shaft overall. Um, again, we go into like lighter weights with these guys. So, the same sort of thing if a golfer is maybe maybe has like a little bit less club head speed or maybe just needing something a little bit lighter. That’s when Vanquish really starts to come good. Right. Okay. So again for that like smoother profile of golfer it can just give them give that golfer a bit more kind of similar similar to the conversation we had about autoflex is it’s just going to help a little bit more at that just encourage things a bit more. Yeah I right last one we talk about Acura. So Acra we do quite well with really well and I think from a club fitting standpoint I think all club fitters do well with Acra and it’s purely because it is just designed for club fers. You’re never going to see it in a retail environment. The options are endless and there’s something you could fit with Acura shafts alone and there would be something for everyone. Yeah. And it’s the range starts at Ieries. Who’s playing that, James? So I um again definitely gets the gets that ball up in the air. If we’ve got a golfer who’s maybe a little bit a little bit of a slicer, you know, struggle with that right hand side of the the golf course, um I is actually really really stiff in the handle, but really really active in the tip section and it doesn’t feel like it’s a soft shaft. Yeah. So if we need to get a shaft that’s going to have more left in it, that’s then when Acra I really Yeah, definitely. And then you move into GX. So three different colors. Yeah. You’ve got 100, 200, 300 or what’s easier is just blue, green, red. Yeah. Yeah. Um they’ve actually changed. Never used to be blue, green, and red. Was it? N I think blue’s blue was blue to start with. Um the low launching one was yellow and the middle one was red. All right. They’ve moved about over the years. But yeah, as they’ve progressed through really good in terms of weight, though, and then flex through the weights. Yeah. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing a 40 or 50 or a 60 g shaft, they’re all the same flex as long as you play an M2 or M3 or M4. Whereas typically with other brands, as the weight goes up, the flex would change. So if Acra you need a shaft to be a certain flex, you’re able to play the shaft in that flex at a desired weight rather than having to like a TPT. The weight and the flex change whereas Acra doesn’t. You pick where you need to be. Um, and then we’ve got TZ. How does that work, James? TZ is really interesting. So there are two, but like one subsection. So, we get TZ5, TZ6, and there’s a TZ6 ST. So, five is your sort of lower launching shaft um or lower launching on on paper. Certainly, it’s a little bit stronger profile overall. TZ6, again, designed to get that ball up in the air a little bit faster. But then TZ6 ST, I really enjoy fitting with this fitting this guy. Uh ST, it’s stable tip. Um so, it’s an up in the air type shaft. Um, but it’s it’s really it’s really quite strong and stable in the tip section, so it doesn’t feel wobbly, but it definitely has that help in getting that ball up in the air. Okay, that’s interesting. Shogun, Aaron, Shogun, new one, new mut line. How does it work? Same story in terms of the color way as GX. You’ve got a blue, you’ve got a green, you’ve got a red. Okay. Um, blue higher launching one that comes in a kind of 42 M0 42 M2. Mhm. H and they’re really quite good if someone still wants that stability but just needs something that’s going to get it up. Um I did one in a tailor made a couple of weeks ago and it was unreal. Right. Okay. Really good. Um kind of miss was a little bit healy. Still wanted the kick. Um but when that stables up again it’s is sorry when that straightens up again it’s really quite stable. A brilliant. Uh green kind of mid launching low to mid I’d call Shogun green. It’s not it’s not something that’s going to give you a bit of extra spin. And then red again is your more aggressive one. So last one guys, LA Golf Bryson, how do the driver shafts work? Uh there’s a couple of different lines. Um so A series is the is the kind of bread and butter. Um really quite straightforward as well, isn’t it? I really really simple. So they do a high, a mid, and a low. Okay. And they they kind of do what they say in the tin. Yeah. Um, so weights covered from sort of 40 grams. We we go up to we got up to like 60 grams in that one. Um, really really interesting shafts. Uh, we also then have uh the the new gold series shafts as well. Okay. Um, so they come in kind of 55 g and 65 g. It’s like a 65 mid. You know, three is a regular, four is a stiff, five is an X. Uh, they’re just they’re just new in, so they’ve been in for maybe maybe like a week or so. Not a huge amount of testing done on those so far, but more more testing required. Like they feel they feel very very good. Okay. Um and really really pretty interesting. Okay. What’s the pink one? The pink one. The Paige Spirinack version. Who’s she James? A golf a golfer. A golf influencer. Very good golfer as well. Very very good golfer. Yeah. So I think that covers rough a lot of the range that we have. There’s there’s certainly plenty of other things. I think that runs you through the majority and it’s we do driver fitting. There’s also guys and girls that come in that have a driver that they’ve already got that we can look to reshaft as well and try to enhance performance. And it’s I think when you talk about driver shaft, if the head’s wrong, you can put whatever shaft you want is still going to be wrong. You’re just making a bit. So I think when a lot of time when we do shaft only fitting you need to address is the head right as well because there’s quite a lot of golfers came in the last year that they look to get a driver reshafted because they’re struggling with it and it’s maybe not necessarily the shaft that’s the issue. If someone kind of on that point if if you’ve got a head that’s launching it too high or launching it too low a shaft’s only going to do so much. The easiest way to influence that is is just loft loft. Shaft is going to do way more left and right certainly than it than it ever will up and down. But loft, if we need to get that ball up in the air a whole lot more, while shaft is still helping, it’s going to have more of that lateral shift than it ever will vertical. Yeah. So, who benefits for coming in for a driver fitting? Everybody. Everyone. Absolutely everybody. Yeah. I think there’s a gain for everybody to be had. Yeah. And you know what? See, when you come in for a fitting, if there isn’t a gain to be had, I think the first ones to hold their hands up and say, “Don’t waste your money. Yeah, there’s no point in buying something for the sake of buying something, but at least having all the options, you’re able to leave no stone unturned and you go away with the driver you came in with, you know, it is there’s a peace of mind factor for that and it’s it’s have a go at it. So, I think that’s that’s a good overview of driver shafts and what we have and who they might suit, you could talk for hours about it, but without trying them, I think with driver shafts, there’s a lot of guys send emails in asking about trying a certain shaft. And a lot of the time when that guy comes in to try the certain shaft, he ends up with something different. Yeah. And I think the internet may tell you that this shaft or that shaft is going to work best for you, but without actually trying it, I don’t think you’re ever going to know. You just have to hit balls, don’t you? You have to hit balls. We had a long conversation about iron shafts. And obviously, there’s a video on that. With driver shafts is a little bit more nuanced. They’re a little bit longer. There’s there’s more you’re looking at in terms of kind of butt, mid, tip, and what they’re going to do. It’s just more nuance to to go through. But I would say that’s it. And as I kind of wrap this video up here, for anybody looking to come in for a driver fitting or a shaft fitting, it’s head over to the website at sgt.co.uk and come in and try them all for yourself. And the guys will quickly narrow it down. You’ll not have to hit every shaft, but we can point in the right direction and make sure you’re you’re trying what’s right for you to try and optimize your driving. Um, for more content, please like and subscribe our YouTube channel. Um, there’s videos coming out weekly just now, and it’d be great to see you again in the future. Thanks. [Music]