Aerotech hls Hybrid Golf Shaft Review

Aerotech hls Hybrid Golf Shaft Review

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

This measurements for this review were done a long time ago. For some reason they never got published. The AeroTech SteelFiber his hybrid shafts, like most AeroTech products are still in production, unchanged over 5+ years. For a custom club fitter this is a very good thing. The fitter that invests time learning them and money for fitters gets a return on these investments. To his everlasting credit, Chris Hilleray does not often change his models. The old saying, “if it works don’t fix it” comes to mind. Tour acceptance has proven the AeroTech SteelFiber works.

In a recent video Chris Hilleray, president of AeroTech explains the construction of the SteelFiber Golf Shaft. If you do not know the story of how the SteelFiber is made, he tells it better than I can.

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Russ

ACCRA FX Driver Shaft Review

ACCRA FX Driver Shaft

By Woody Lashen Pete’s Golf, Mineola, New York

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ACCRA introduced the FX product line in 2015. There are 4 versions, FX1, FX2, FX3 and FX4. The FX line of shafts replaces the Dymatch line for Accra.  Quality has always been excellent in Accra shafts and it moves to the top of the class with the FX line. The FX 200,300 and 400 are made in Japan in a small boutique manufacturing plant.  This divers line allows us to fit many different players in to the FX series.   Accra’s concept was to have one family of shafts but with 4 different profiles. With the FX 100 being the highest launching shaft, FX 200 mid launch, FX300 low launch and the FX 400 lowest.  (Note the 400 only comes in X flex).  Along with each profile there is Fairway woods and hybrid shafts designed to play the same as the driver shaft.  This is rare in the shaft industry; most shafts are designed for drivers only.  Accra found that on Tour it was rare for a player to use the same shaft in there fairway or hybrid as in there driver so they designed a shaft line that would allow the Fairway and hybrid shafts to feel and play the same as the driver.  They had great success with this technology in the Dymatch series and the FX picks up with they left off, but even better quality.

ACCRA FS1 EiGjTbThe ACCRA FX1 series is a high launch design. That can is seen in the tip to butt rations as well as in the calculated butt loaded deflection graphic show above. They are not as stiff as the FX2, 3 or 4 models, by design. Roundness, or radial consistency averaged 99.0% with a 0.6% standard deviation. Balance is neutral.

The 100 series fits best for slow to medium speeds and tempos.  With 3 weight options for the driver it covers a lot of players.

ACCRA FS234 EiTbMadeInJapanThe ACCRA FX2, FX3 and FX4 bear the notation Made in Japan. They follow the ACCRA CS1 as premier examples of how attention to detail will create shafts that are consistent and orderly progressions from weight to weigh and flex to flex. A golf club fitters dream set of shafts. Roundness of the review samples averaged 99.5% consistency with a 0,2% standard deviation. By design, they launch lower than the FX1 series.

As speed and tempo rise the 200 and 300 come more in to play or those needing medium launch.  The 400 is only for the rare player with high speed and tempo, however that player will really enjoy its stability.

Woody Lashen co-owner of Pete’s Golf talks with Gawain Robertson co-owner of Accra Golf shafts talk about the FX series shafts.

 

Graphite Design Tour AD M9003 Golf Shaft Review

Graphite Design Tour AD M9003 Driver Shaft

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

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The Graphite Design Tour AD M9003 released in mid 2015. It is an unusual addition in that it is only available in 4 models, 60 and 70 S and X. With a $550 MSRP, this is not a shaft for any but the strongest fastest golfers. Graphite design is not recommending it for anyone south of a 105 mph driver swing. That excludes me. It is made with high modulus 55 ton, Nanoalloy prepreg from Toray. Translation, the material in this shaft is as good as it gets.
Radial consistency is 98.9% with a 0.2% standard deviation. Like all Graphite Design Tour AD shafts, it is round and will play exactly the same in any orientation.

The closest match to this shaft from Graphite Design is the Tour AD BB, a shaft that was released around 2011. The Tour AD BB is one of Graphite Design’s popular shafts on the professional tours and gets a lot of play on the LPGA. The profiles are similar until we get to the tip.

The technical discussion and measurements are available only to registered readers

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Russ

Grafalloy Prolaunch SuperCharged Golf Shaft Review

Grafalloy Prolaunch Supercharged Drive Shafts

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

GrafalloyBlueRedSuperImages

The Grafalloy Prolaunch Blue and Red Supercharged drive shafts are 2015 additions to the ProLaunch product line. They are $60 shafts with radial quality of 98.3% with a standard deviation of 0.6%. If you have not been reading this site and looking the radial quality numbers I will translate this for you, one word, impressive. Shaft to shaft consistency of the review sample profiles was equally impressive. I did not think a $60 shaft would get my attention. I was wrong.

If the $300 to $500 high end works of shaft art technology are not in your budget, try the Grafalloy Prolaunch Supercharged in your driver. You are going to give up some hoop stiffness and might experience some ovalizing. If that is a problem you can always get a similar design in the Project X LZ for around $350. The SuperCharged Prolaunch has a similar design to the handcrafted Project X LZ shaft, an active midsection. Does this design work for you? If you are not close to a fitter that can let you test the Project X LZ you can try a low cost test on your own with the ProLaunch Supercharged shafts.

The Blue is a higher launch design, the Red a lower launch.  To my eyes they are much the same profile. The Red is heavier and stiffer. The bend point is higher. Those two properties are going to lower launch. This is not really complicated stuff to understand. Stiffer is lower for any particular golfer. Find the stiffness you feel you can load. Then, going a little softer or stiffer will move the launch up or down.
ProLaunchSCEiGjTb

Look at the balance in this chart. These shaft are counterweighted to restore club balance when using the current generation of heavy driver heads. This is not seen at this price point.

This profile, a softer active midsection is gaining traction with the shaft companies. With this set of profiles, this particular pattern got my attention. Soft midsections are among the most popular shafts in the business. Exaggerated soft is a design I am beginning to see from a lot of shaft companies. it looks like one needs to go in my bag.

Fuikura SIX Driver Shaft Review

Fujikura SIX DRIVER SHAFTS

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

FujiSix_ImageThe Fujikura SIX is an update and new release of a past Fujikura design. I did not know the original shaft so I cannot comment on the similarity. This short video will give you the history of the design.

As mentioned in the video, it is a classic design. A slightly soft mid in relation to tip and butt. As you noticed in the video, the term soft causes most in the shaft business to flinch. Perhaps some day I will learn to say stiff tip stiff butt rather than soft mid. I start most fittings with a soft mid shaft, it fits most players so it is no wonder this shaft was once popular on tour.

The technical discussion and measurements are available only to registered readers