Author Archives: Russ

Graphite Design Series G Golf Shaft Review

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GRAPHITE DESIGN SERIES G

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

GraphiteDesign_2013_G_Image

The Graphite Design G Series of shafts was introduced in 2011. A large bundle of them arrived recently for review.  The measurements got my attention.  I would put this shaft into the same design group that I see with the Mitsubishi Diamana Blue, the Miyazaki JDL and the Matrix Ozik Xcon.  A soft mid in relation to the tip and butt.  This fit is generally suitable for the golfer with a quick, aggressive transition.  We can see this by looking at the average EI and GJ profiles of the Graphite Design G Series.

The technical discussion and measurements are available only to registered readers

The key to the radial quality and respectable torque numbers of this shaft may be due to the attention paid to fiber orientation in this shaft.  I lifted this illustration from the Graphite Design website.

GraphiteDesign_2013_G_XDirectional

There are 6 different fiber orientations used in this shaft.  The bias plies are at different angles and sandwiched in between the tip to butt, linear fiber plies.  Not all plies extend the full length of the shaft, But from a measurement perspective, the layup works.  With radial quality numbers like these, this shaft, even in the light weight models, is suitable for the rotating hosels in todays current generation of driver and fairway designs.  Looks like were are going to have to take some of these to the range and see what they feel like, stay tuned.

 

When I entered the golf club fitting business about 15 years ago, there was no standard rating system for golf shaft stiffness. Nor was there a consistent, objective way to compare different models.

Shaft engineers define stiffness through an incremental flex profile down the length of the shaft. This proprietary detail is rarely shared publicly. To bridge this gap, I developed an accurate 3-point EI bend profile measuring instrument. It is now utilized for shaft design and quality control by several major shaft companies. Marketing discussions of golf shaft properties now shows EI profiles to golfers. We offer a demythologizing approach to understanding golf shafts with clearer more precise language of golf shaft technology. The data we provide is uniform across brands. All measurements are taken on the same instruments with the same processes.

AI has opened a new era in what we can present. Our first step is giving our subscribers a page where you can compare three shafts in the database to each other. The ability to compare shafts has been requested often and we now make it available. This page will develop over the next few months. We welcome your comments and feedback to guide this process.

The Golfer+ subscripton grants access to this page. It is in development and currently is limited to driver shafts. Golfer subscribers can upgrade, advanced subscribers have this page included in their subscriptions.

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