Regular or stiff shaft for my driver

Think of your golf club as a lever, the longer the lever the more power you can generate with less effort. This is all well and good but that will mean that you tend to lose some accuracy.

A shorter shaft will be a little stiffer, again think of the lever analogy, but it can actually lead to increased distance as well as accuracy. Shorter clubs are easier to use so you will hit more shots out of the middle which means longer straighter drives. This question touches on a whole new aspect of shaft-fitting that your custom-fitter will be thinking about, shaft weight.

I told you that this was a complex issue, we are really just touching the surface too. The weight of your shaft can have obvious effects like clubhead speed usually the lighter the shaft the faster you can swing it , but it can also have an effect on something called torque. Torque is how much a shaft resists twisting during the golf swing. This feature has a huge role to play in how easy it is to deliver the clubface square through impact and therefore how accurate it will be.

Rory is one of the finest drivers of a golf ball in the modern game, he hits it far and he hits it straight. Trust me, this thing can keep bridges up it is so stiff! Rory uses a shaft-length of When it comes to shaft-length, you should use the longest shaft that you can control consistently. This will give you the best balance between distance off the tee and accuracy.

This stumped the techs as the shafts were exactly the same across all clubs. Tiger knows his equipment better than you know yourself! For almost all of his career he has used Mitsubishi Rayon shafts.

Shaft weight is about feel for many. Personally, I play a heavier shaft in my driver because I love the feel of it, in my irons I have a lighter shaft because they are generally heavier clubs and I like the feel that that gives me. As you try more clubs and set-ups, you will start to learn what you like and it will help you make your choice. No, not necessarily. Whilst this is a heavier object to strike the ball with and that should make it go further, you have to balance your swing speed with this weight.

For many golfers a lighter shaft will allow them to generate higher clubhead speeds. Like everything in this article, your swing is unique and none of these rules are hard and fast. Get fitted and learn what you need specifically. By trying different products and combinations you will find something that gives you the best performance. The more you learn about golf shafts the more complicated it can seem, thankfully there are people out there that are real experts on this and are here to help you.

Custom fitting is now available to all golfers and you should take advantage of it when buying new gear. When it comes to what club set-up is best for you, it really is quite simple, whatever the data says is best is best. Hi, I am Matthew, a mid handicap golfer who likes to play as much as possible. I love trying out new gear and this blog is where you can find all the gear I have tested over the years! Most golfers that I have spoken to who prefer regular flex shafts say it is because of how it feels when you swing it.

Once you have determined which shaft feels better, analyze the data and see which gave you the best performance. If you are swinging a driver in the vicinity of 90 mph , you should be looking for a regular flex shaft. Any speeds lower than this may want to consider a senior or ladies flex. Those of you who grip it and rip it like Bryson DeChambeau may want to use a stiff flex shaft.

They are best suited to golfers swinging a driver at between mph and mph. If you are ballooning your hybrid shots, it could mean that you need to try a stiffer flex to achieve a more controlled launch, for a stable ball flight. If you are frequently pushing your shots, you are not able to get your face square at impact, and instead, the face is open. That is usually a result of a shaft that is too stiff for your game. As a result, you should consider more flex to help you get the ball square at impact.

If you are not a solid ball striker you will lose distance with a stiff shaft. An extra bit of flex will help you generate more clubhead speed to increase the friction between the face and ball at impact. This will lead to increased carry and more consistent distance. Graphite shafts tend to be lighter than their steel counterparts, which is problematic for faster swinging players. The lighter construction can onset duck hooks and slices. If you are one of the golfers that need all the help you can get when it comes to clubhead and ball speed, then the graphite shafts are for you.

According to J. D Chi of Golf Week, shafts are available in five variations of flex. Extra stiff, stiff, regular flex, senior flex, ladies flex. Extra stiff shafts best suit the fastest swinging golfers in the game. These are players with swing speeds in excess of mph.

Stiff shafts work for faster swinging players who are not in the league of world long drive sensation, Kyle Berkshire.

While regular shafts are for the average swinging golfer who rips a driver between 90 mph to mph. Finally, the slower swinging golfers have more flexible options available to them, in the form of senior and ladies flex. The best way to determine your swing speed is to visit your coach, or local golf retailer, and hit a few shots using their launch monitor equipment. Premium launch monitors used by these establishments can give you a breakdown of your swing speed, ball speed, clubhead speed among other data points.

You could also opt to use a personal launch monitor and there are a growing number of actually good ones to choose from like the Garmin G If you want to get the most out of each of your clubs I would recommend considering different flex on your clubs.

This will depend on how you perform with each hybrid. It is worth getting custom-fitted to see what flex delivers the best performance on each club in your bag.

If your golf shaft is too stiff you will likely slice the ball consistently. The clubhead will struggle to unload at a square angle, and instead strike the ball with an open face. You will enjoy more distance with a stiff shaft if you have a fast swing speed and can keep the ball in play. If you are hitting your driver yards, then you need a senior golf shaft. If you hit your driver yards, the regular is going to be a better choice. The one problem with using distance as the only determining factor is that if you are currently playing with the wrong golf shaft than your distances may not be accurate.

You can also take into consideration how far you hit your irons as well. Some seniors find that when they play a regular steel shaft, they can only hit it , and then switching to senior graphite allows them to hit the ball The only real way to know precisely the shaft that you need for your golf game is to go for a custom fitting.

Not every golfer needs to spend the money on a custom fitting. Although they are sometimes very helpful, custom fittings are best for the player who is genuinely undecided about a senior or a regular shaft. If you know you are well within the range of senior or regular shaft, then the custom fitting will likely not be quite as helpful. During a custom fitting, you will be put on a launch monitor. The launch monitor will give very specific data related to ball speed, launch, distance, and spin as well.

This data will be compiled in a computer system that will provide you with results as to what shaft will work best for your golf swing.

For many golfers, this is going to end up being a stock shaft like the one they already have in their club, and for others, the shaft that the computer system chooses will be a very specific and sometimes costly upgrade. Golfers naturally tend to swing their driver a bit faster than the other golf clubs in their bag.

The driver is most often lighter in weight, and it is a bit longer as well. When players step up to hit a driver, they know it is a power shot, and they will often swing with quite a bit of speed. When it comes to the irons, golfers will try and establish some better tempo and rhythm, and this will very likely cause them to lose a bit of their clubhead speed.

This is not a bad thing, but it could affect the golf shaft that you should be using in your golf clubs. If you are a senior golfer that has very low swing speeds than the senior shaft will need to be in all of your golf clubs.

However, if you are a senior golfer that still likes to get some speed and can hit the driver a long way, you may want to consider a regular shaft in the driver and senior in the irons. Irons are a little harder to launch and to hit consistently than the driver can be. If you have just started transitioning into the senior shaft in your clubs, it is usually ok to keep regular in the driver for a little longer.

One club that golfers forget about when it comes to the shaft is the wedge. Most wedges come with a standard steel wedge flex. If you play a regular or a senior shaft, you should consider the shaft that you are getting in your wedge. The wedge flex shaft tends to be a bit more like a stiff steel shaft. Golfers that need a senior shaft in their clubs will struggle with the wedge flex. If a golf shaft is too stiff for a player, there could be a decrease in distance and accuracy as well.

The most common miss with a shaft that is too stiff is a slice. If you have tried everything to learn how to fix your slice, it could just be that the equipment you are using does not fit you properly. If your golf shaft is too stiff for your swing, you may also struggle with launching the golf ball. Although you want your driver to roll a long way, it needs to fly a long way first.