LA Golf A Series Irons and Hybrid Golf Shaft Reviews

LA Golf A Series Irons & 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

The LA Golf A Series Iron Shafts are parallel tip designs, Three launch propensity designs. There are matching profile Hybrid shafts for each launch designation. We will look at all three launch designations in this review.

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Russ

Mitsubishi Diamana M+ Diamana S+ Diamana D+ Golf Shaft Review

Mitsubishi Diamana Limited Golf Shaft Review
Diamana M+  Diamana S+ Diamana D+

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

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Several years ago the lines between “Made For” shafts supplied in off the rack clubs and premium after market shafts blurred. Several shaft companies made the premium aftermarket shafts they promote on tour available to the golf club manufacturers. It is a marketing conundrum. The club companies are the largest customers by a HUGE number. The golf club companies, are not inclined to have their products compromised by inferior shafts. This year, 2016, we saw the price of some drivers increase as premium shafts became standard. For some shaft brands, the stock shaft product is the aftermarket shaft. For others like Mitsubishi, it is different graphics, but in the case of the Diamana Limited, a very close match with slightly different graphics.

The review samples were limited to one shaft of each model. That is not my typical sample matrix, but it was enough to compare to premium aftermarket Diamana shafts and understand the differences.

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Russ

If you are familiar with the loading, flighting and feel of the Diamana Red, Blue and White shafts you will know these shafts. You will find a complete range of designs and stiffness offered as standard in the Titleist 917 Drivers. A great shaft that will not detract in any way from the performance of a great driver head.

 

Graphite Design Tour AD DI Golf Shaft Review

GRAPHITE DESIGNS TOUR AD DI

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

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Having made significant changes to my EI instrument and software I measured these again. It has been such a successful design for such a long time, that I have come to regard it as a comparison standard. Adam Scott won the 2013 Masters playing this shaft in his driver. Tiger Woods and Stacy Lewis have used it on Tour. On any given week, there are 10 to 12 in play on the PGA tour over a great many years. There is nothing like PGA Tour success to draw attention to a driver golf shaft.

This video was shot in 2016. It is one of the first of this style shaft tests Mark and I have done.

This review was first published in 2013. It is the first of many shafts that have earned a place in my Golf Shaft Hall of Fame that must be brought up to the current standards. Let’s look at the revised measurements that incorporate hoop deformation into the profile. .

The technical discussion and measurements are available only to registered readers

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Russ

Golf Profession & Fit2Score Affiliate Data & Comments

Aldila Rogue Elite Golf Driver Shaft Review

Aldila Rogue Elite Shaft Review, Green, Blue & Orange

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

The Aldila Rogue Elite Golf Shaft is a fitting series only available through Aldila Authorized Club Guilders. They are much the same design and material as the Aldila Rogue shafts. The difference is that each of the three shafts was designed for a specific launch propensity. The Aldila Tru-Fit System is a matrix of 18 shafts, 2 weights, 3 flexes and 3 launch designs.

Aldila offers a precision fitting guide with the system discussing each zone of the shaft as follows:
Tip Section = Launch   Stiffer = Higher Launch  –  Softer = Lower Launch
Mid Section = Spin   Stiffer = Lower Spin  –  Softer = Higher Spin
Butt Section = Feel  Stiffer = Stiffer Feel –  Softer = Softer Feel

Below each image are the zone stiffness numbers provided by Aldila

rogue-elite-green-imageAldila Rogue Elite Green   –   Low Launch Tip 9 – Mid 9 – Butt 5

rogue-elite-blue-imageAldila Rogue Elite Blue   –   Mid Launch Tip 8 – Mid 5 – Butt 9

rogue-elite-orange-image Aldila Rogue Elite Orange   –   Mid Launch Tip 7 – Mid 7 – Butt 7

Lets take a look at the EI profiles of these shafts and see how the Fit2Score measurements align with the Aldila numbers. 

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Russ

This is a great way for a shaft company to participate in the golf gear market that now focuses on fitting. There is a lot of misunderstanding surrounding the intent and design of driver shafts. It is good to have a shaft manufacturer guide the fitter and provide a designed fitting matrix. Nice work Aldila, thank you.

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Fujikura Evolution Golf Shaft Review

Evolution of the Fujikura Speeder Evolution

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

The third generation of the Fujikura Speeder Evolution has been released. I have not yet been given access to the full set of the second and third generation shafts. The first generation Speeder Evolution had been reviewed earlier. This overview of the three generations is based on the S flex of the 569, 661 and 757. The Speeder Evolution II is the stock shaft in the 2017 Mizuno Driver and Fairway. I confirmed by measuring both pullouts from several Mizuno clubs and review samples from Fujikura that the shaft in the Mizuno’s is indeed the made in Japan Speeder Evolution II.

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Russ

 

Nippon Modus3 105 Review

Nippon Modus3 Tour 105

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 N.S Pro Modus3 Tour105 was released to the US public in August 2015. I had seen a set of these earlier in the year, labeled Prototype ST. The Modus3 Tour 105 is the same shaft that has been available on tour for several months. The word Prototype has been replaced with Modus3. I have been told it was put in play by a number of players. Lighter weight iron shafts are gaining broader acceptance in the tour community.

I am revisiting this review with a new look at the charts and numbers. As I prepared graphics for a speech to European club fitters I saw something in the charts that got my attention. A close look at the shafts confirmed what I saw in the graphics.

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Russ