TPT Red Fairway Shaft Review

The TPT Red Fairway is not a new shaft, it was introduced in 2020. I discussed TPT’s manufacturing process in the review of the TPT Red Driver shafts many years ago. This short review covers measurement of shafts sent to me by TPT engineering to be included in my database.

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Russ

Mitsubishi Kai’li Red FW Shaft Review

Mitsubishi Kai’li Red Fairway Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Builder
The Highlands Performance Golf Center, Carrollton Texas 
Golf Digest Certified America’s 100 Best Club Fitter

The Kai’li Red FW is a close profile match the the Mitsubishi Thump F shaft that has been in my bag for years.

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Russ

Graphite Designs AD Fairway Shaft Review

Graphite Designs Tour AD Fairway Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

GDADFW_imageGolfers who first experience a fairway with a premium driver shaft universally have a jaw dropping experience. First at the performance then at the cost of the fairway club. There is sticker shock when they are told the shaft itself cost more than a retail fairway metal. Yet, when you see a tour player hitting a fairway you should realize, the shaft he is using is the same quality as his driver shaft. Heavier and perhaps stiffer, but it is an ultra-premium driver shaft.

The problem with the stock fairway shafts is there simply is not enough money at $250 to $300, the typical retail price of a fairway, to supply a decent shaft. In the price range we have come to expect at retail for a fairway, the manufacturer has a limited range of shaft options.  What gets delivered is a high launch design. That shaft will have a soft tip zone to help get the ball airborne. However at that price point it will also come with high torque. When you  watch your slightly off center ball strikes snap hook or block into the trees realize this, it’s not you, it’s the shaft. I have put a great many golfers into $550 to $600 fairways. Not all can or will make that level of investment into a fairway. Those that do have a rapid understanding of what shaft quality means.

Graphite Designs has joined Mitsubishi in offering a high quality fairway specific shaft at an approachable price. The Graphite Design Tour AD F-Series Fairway shaft has a MAP price of $250. That is 35% less than the price of a Tour AD driver shaft. The Tour AD FWY is painted to closely match this year’s Tour AD TP driver shaft. It is made with 40t carbon-fiber while the TP uses 50t material. Weights range from 72 to 95 grams. Let’s look at the measurements. 

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Russ

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

Paderson Kinetixx Fairway Shaft Review

Paderson Kinetixx Fairway Golf Shafts

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

Paderson makes a full line of filament wound carbon fiber shafts. They tension Kevlar ribbon during winding, a unique construction in the golf shaft business. To most of us, Kevlar is a material we associate with bullet proof vests, but as you will see in this Wikipedia article, it has a wide range of use. Many of them sports related. It is a high strength, low weight fiber. Paderson is not the only company to use Kevlar in golf shaft construction, but I am told they are to only company that can tension it during application to the mandrel, owning the patent for the process.

Most carbon fiber shafts are made by rolling sheets of material over a mandrel. Paderson ‘spins’ a weave of carbon fiber ribbon over the mandrel. This gives them the unique ability to tension the fiber during the weaving process.There is an in depth discussion of their technology and manufacturing process on their website. All but a few of Paderson’s shafts are filament wound. They are one of a very few companies that have this manufacturing technology. This video copied from their site illustrates the process.

Paderson offers a range of tension wound Kevlar fairway shaft weights and profiles. A great matrix of designs for a fitter to work with. The catalog price of $150 puts in at the low end of the range for premium shafts. Lets take a look at the measurements of this very wide range of products.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

Mitsubishi Diamana Thump Fairway Review

Mitsubishi Diamana Thump Fairway

By Russ Ryden, A Golf Digest America’s 100 Best Clubfitter
Fit2Score, Dallas Fort Worth, Texas


The Diamana Thump name has been used before in a line of iron shafts and in a hybrid shaft. The irons have been discontinued. The Diamana Thump Hybrid is still available, now a special order item. It is my all time favorite Hybrid shaft and has been in my bag for a very, very long time. When I saw the name thump applied to a fairway shaft I had high expectations, and the measurements of this shaft met them. Mitsubishi discontinued the Fubuki AX Fairway shaft in 2014. It occupied a unique niche, a fairway only shaft, 43″ long uncut, at $250 MSRP, with all the unique qualities of the premium Mitsubishi $400 driver shafts. The Diamana Thump Fairway once again fills this niche. At $250 it puts delivers premium quality at a more approachable price point.

As I worked my way through the measurement of this shaft I left torque for last. Everything looked very good, would the torque be low enough to compete with the premium Diamana’s I have been using in custom fitted fairways. The answer, yes. Tip zone torques of 2.3 in the 70 and 80 gram versions put it into that special class of shafts that can comfortably control the extra weight of a fairway and maintain club head alignment during a preimpact brush with the turf.

Fairway_Diamana_Thump_EiTb
Radial quality of the review samples was 99.6% with a 0.4% standard deviation. Translation: shafts don’t get any rounder, don’t bother with alignment and use this shaft without reservation in a rotating hosel fairway head. Look again at those torque numbers. This is a high launch design, something most of us want in our fairways. The typical shaft that delivers high launch is also high torque. If the stock shaft in your fairway has a tendency to create hooks when you lean on it, you should consider replacing it with the Diamana Thump Fairway. Replacing your stock fairway shaft with the Diamana Thump will create a club you can trust.Fairway_Diamana_MyFavorites

I have built countless numbers of custom fit fairway metals with the Diamama Red and the KuroKage Proto TiNi driver shafts. They launch high, with adequate spin to deliver drop and stop shots. The Diamama Thump Fairway, at about 60% of the price, has a very similar design. It is a bit stiffer in the butt section which for those with an abrupt transition is a good thing. The profile of these shaft from high mid to tip is hard to tell apart. And they all sit in the same torque range. The Thump Fairway and the KuroKage Tour Proto TiNi have much the same hoop strength.

Here is feedback from my first sale, “Went away to Atlanta for a golf weekend with the new Thump shaft in my 3 wood. I was embarrassed hitting it consistently 250 yards in the fairway and 10 yards past my partners’ driver tee shots. Didn’t bother pulling out my driver the last 36 holes. Too bad it can’t help my putting!”  Robert V.