UST Mamiya V2 ProForce Driver Shaft Review

UST V2 ProForce & ProForce HL Driver 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

I have limited access to UST shafts as they do not provide review samples. This review is of the shafts available as a custom shaft selection from TaylorMade. The Proforce shaft has an interesting history. A lunch meeting of UST management after a tour win in the 90’s reflected on how little attention the bland color of the shaft received. The engineer at the table picked up a jar of mustard and declared he would fix the problem, he would paint them mustard color. The tour rep was horrified with the idea. Over his objection, he was handed mustard colored shafts. Soon after, Jose Maria Olazabal won the 1999 Masters with the Proforce Gold golf shaft. As a result UST could not make them fast enough for the tour rep to hand out on tour. I have verified this story from three of the four that were at that lunch. It is a colorful (pun intended) story about the history of golf shaft marketing. It is now 24 years later and the ProForce shaft is still with us. It has gone through updates to deal with driver head design and shape. It remains a viable design imitated by many shaft companies.

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Russ

Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei AV Blue Driver Shaft Review

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.

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Russ

Nippon 123 Driver Fitting System Review

Nippon 123 Driver Fitting System 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

Most reviews here are focused on a single shaft model. The Nippon 123 system is three shafts brought to market as a fitting system. There are three profiles, each with an array of stiffness and weight. This is a fitting system that will soon be accompanied by documentation to guide the fitter using it. Mark Pekarek has been fitting over 35 years. Much of that time his company, Shaftology has been the distributor for Nippon shafts in the US. When I started with Nippon, Shaftology was the only source for Nippon shafts in America. Their distributors were regionally placed and had to demonstrate their golf competence as representative of the Nippon brand. Before you look at the data I recommend you watch this video shot at the 2019 PGA Merchandise show where the system was announced to the golf business.

This is the first time, to my knowledge, that a set of shafts has been designed and presented as a fitting system. Those of us with ample fitting experience have put together our own mix of fitting shafts. It takes years of experience and access to a comprehensive database of shaft properties to outfit a fitting cart for systematic fitting. As Mark said, the profiles in this system are different enough to make a difference to the average golfer. 

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Russ

Mitsubishi Tensei Pro Red Golf Shaft Review

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.

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Russ

Aldila XTorsion Golf Shaft Review

Aldila XTorsion Copper & XTorsion Green  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 Aldila Xtorsion driver shaft have a clearly visible woven material in the lower half of the shafts. Aldila calls the material, MAMBA, Multi-Axial Material Bias Angle technology. It is woven at a 45 degree angle which provides torsional stability to the lower half of the shaft where it is most important. This can be seen in the GJ or torsional profile of the shafts. The GJ profile tips downward from the mid section to the tip. I also see high and stable hoop strength resulting from the woven material. This is similar to the woven section of the Mitsubishi Tensei Pro shafts that is located just below the grip. When I look at the Xtorsion Copper EI profile I am reminded of the very popular EI profile of the Nippon Modus 120’s.

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Russ

KBS $-Taper Lite Golf Shaft Review

KBS $-Taper Lite Iron 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

Following the success of the KBS C-Taper Lite, KBS now offers a Lite version of the $-Taper. It comes in three weights, 95, 100 and 105. The profiles are nearly identical to the $-Taper. The three weights offered are less than the $-Taper 110 gram R. The $-Taper Lite weights, in my experience, are a perfect fit for the recreational golfer.

If you do not follow my YouTube Channel, Devoted Golfer, you may have missed this video. We shot the 2019 KBS presentation to golf club fitters at the PGA Merchandise show. It covers the entire product line. After the slide show, Kim Braly comes to the podium and talks about tour acceptance of 2018 KBS shafts and the new 2019 shafts.

As you can see in this table, the weighs of the $-Taper Lite extend the weight range of the $-Taper.   This is different than the C-Taper Lite and the C-Taper where there is an overlap with the C-Taper R and R+.

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Russ