Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2023 - 12

GOLF GEAR
Selecting Your Shaft
Don't overlook shaft performance
when purchasing your next golf clubs.
A
question to golfers: At what point in your endeavor to become
a better player did you start thinking about the shafts in your
golf clubs? When they morphed from wood to steel? Steel to graphite?
Or did their bright, shiny colors grab your attention? Whenever
it was, it likely wasn't as soon as you should have-because the role
they play in your game is too important to overlook.
Today's golf club shafts are made with various weights, lengths,
flexes, kick points and torque, and can cost a lot of money. Because
they can influence a golf swing so dramatically, a primer is necessary
to wade through it all-and 2nd
Swing master club fitter Larry Bobka is
the perfect guide.
According to Bobka, in the world of
golf club shafts, graphite dominates in
drivers, fairway woods and hybrids, and
for irons, the best players in the world
use steel shafts.
" A graphite shaft is so good for a
driver because graphite has a very fast
recovery rate. It's lively, " Bobka says.
" It's got this wonderful kick to it and
really helps make the ball jump off the
face of the clubhead.
" But that's not necessarily what you
* BY JOSEPH OBERLE *
because if you've got a very quick tempo, you better have an awfully
stable shaft. "
New clubs generally are built with a high-end shaft, but oftentimes
they don't fit the golfer. " Most manufacturers spend an inordinate
amount of time pairing up the golf shaft and clubhead, "
Bobka says. " Far too many people play shafts that are too stiff for
their golf swing. " So, a good fitter will help determine your desired
" That shaft
fine-tunes what's
going to happen in
your golf shot. "
-Larry Bobka
want for an iron. Irons are really about
being specific distance clubs, not pure
distant clubs. And steel has a slower recovery rate, meaning it's
more uniform. It stays more stable through a golf swing. "
For most golfers, the primary consideration in shaft fitting is
flex. Shafts generally come in extra stiff, stiff, regular, R2, A and
women's, although not all designations are treated the same by
each manufacturer. Then you must match the shaft with the correct
clubhead, as not all perform the same together. And while
some players may scour the internet for all the numbers and latest
tech info to match their swings, Bobka recommends a fitting to
determine the flex required.
" Many times, people come in thinking they need something
softer, and they end up leaving with something stiffer because they
create more speed than they think, " says Bobka, who designed
Firestick shafts for Wilson and helped start UST as their VP of
technical services. " Then you have to look at the timing of their
swing. Is it slow power? Is it nice and easy? Do they take the club
back pretty quickly and then accelerate and create a bunch of
lag? [An important consideration], especially with better players,
12
MINNESOTAGOLFER Summer 2023
ball flight and match you with clubs to achieve it.
" The head is 90 percent of your ball flight. That means that the
loft of that golf club, the spin of that golf
club, the spin of that head, really show
you exactly what somebody is going to
need, " he says. " The shaft fine-tunes the
performance of that head. I can try you in
a lighter shaft, heavier shaft, a shaft with
different torque characteristics that make
it more stable for you. That shaft finetunes
what's going to happen in your golf
shot. "
Of course, a shaft search can become
extreme. Technology can have us swinging
for the stars and-in the case of the
very light and fast AutoFlex Driver Shaft
with KHT (Korean Hidden Technology)
listed at $790-reaching for our pocketbook.
" A
higher price shaft does not always ensure better performance, "
Bobka cautions.
Still, don't forget your wedges before your shafts budget is blown.
The right shaft will make a difference in performance there, as well.
" I'm a huge fan of going to a heavier shaft for wedges, " Bobka
says. " Say someone is playing 105-gram iron shaft in their wedges,
I'd like to go to a standard-weight steel of 120 or 130 grams because
you're not making fall swings, you normally don't go full speed. If I
am producing shorter shots, I want a heavier club with more feel to
become more consistent. "
Weight, flex, torque, kick point, load, lag and price are all things
to consider when buying shafts for your clubs. And you thought it
was complicated. So, you better start thinking about club shafts.
And you better get a fitter to sort it all out.
" That's what we do in fitting for golf shafts; you have to take a
look at the player, " Bobka says. " And it's not about gender, it's not
about age-it's about what that player can produce and finding the
best club shaft/combination for that player. "
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http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2023

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