Mitsubishi Diamana PD – 5th Gen White – 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

The Mitsubishi Diamana PD is the fifth generation of the Diamana White Board design. The White Board profiles change very little from generation. The materials improve, the quality improves and there are subtle design changes.

Mitsubishi Tensei Pro White 1K Driver 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

The woven Kevlar® material use by Mitsubishi Tensei Pro driver shafts have been available since 2016. They feature a Carbon Fiber/DuPont™ Kevlar® (CK) weave in the butt-section of the shaft. I have seen many shafts over the years with a woven material placed in the butt of shafts. This is as an indication that shaft manufactures recognize the thin walls near the but of the shaft deform and oval under load. The ovaling of the shaft in this area can contribute to shot dispersion. The woven Kevlar® material use by Mitsubishi is the only material I have measured to date where I can see a measurable effect. Hoop deformation significantly dips in this section of the shaft. Reduced hoop deformation in the 1K weave is the same as the CK weave. Mitsubishi tells us the 1K material transmits more feel.

Hoop deformation has a significant effect on the EI profile of the golf shaft.  Hoop deformation is manifested in the thin wall, butt section of the shaft. Mitsubishi engineering integrated the woven material hoop rigidity into the Tensei Pro designs, preserving the archetypical White, Blue and Red Board profiles of the Diamana family. 

Mitsubishi Diamana TB Series Driver 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

The venerable Diamana Blue Board is now in its 5th generation, The 2021 Diamana TB series. Rather the reading me talk about what is new, just watch this video from Mitsubishi Chemical. 

The Diamana Blue defines the most popular shaft archetype, a soft mid profile. This archetype is available from virtually every driver shaft company. Many brands produce exact copies and many other produce variations of the archetype. The EI profiles of the Diamana TB Series are not much different than the 4th generation BF series. What is noticeably different are manufacturing tolerances. Mitsubishi Chemical is vertically integrated. They make their own fiber, resin and prepreg. That gives them full control over design and manufacturing. The TB series is available in 21 versions from 40 to 80 grams and in flex designations from R2 to TX. I validated what they claim, there is very little variance in Butt diameter and balance through the matrix of shafts. That makes life easy for the fitting technician.

Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei AV Blue Driver 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

The Tensei AV is the successor to the Tensei CK. There were two versions of the Mitsubishi Tensei golf shaft, now there are three. My understanding is that the AV series will replace the CK series. The Tensei CK, like the Tensei Pro CK has a Carbon Fiber/DuPont™ Kevlar® (CK) weave just below the grip. This material dramatically reduces hoop deformation in the critical section of the what were wall thickness is thin. The Pro CK version has three times the length of this woven material as the OEM, CK version. Measurements and hitting experience shot a dramatic shot dispersion from stabilizing this section of the shaft with the long woven section of the Pro version. The shot dispersion effect from the 4″ section in the OEM version is not as dramatic.

The Tensei AV changes this. The woven section is the same length as we see in the Tensei Pro. The woven material is different. This video was cut out of a longer interview. The second camera was out of focus, but the explanation of the AV technology was to good to ignore.

Mitsubishi Tensei Pro Red Golf Shaft Review

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

The last profile added to the Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei Pro family of driver shafts is the Tensei Pro Red. Like the other Tensei Pro driver shafts it has a carbon Fiber Kevlar woven material place just below the hands. As you can see in the chart, this material substantially  increases hoop strength in this area of the shaft. Hoop deformation in carbon fiber golf shafts is a function of wall thickness. The wall thickness in the butt end of a golf shaft is thin. Therefore the shaft deforms more. This has classical be called ovaling. Ovaling is thought to create dispersion. I have seen various materials use in this area to stabilize driver shafts. I have never seen as dramatic an effect on hoop deformation as I see in the Tensei Pros. Take note, the OEM shafts have only 4″ of this material which is little more than cosmetics. The Tensei Pro models have 11+” and the hoop deformation profiles are dramatically lower in this area.