When I entered the golf club fitting business about 15 years ago, there was not a standard rating system for golf shaft stiffness. Nor was there a way to compare golf shafts. This journal gives you a way to compare golf shafts with a uniform stiffness rating evaluation. Understanding the properties of a golf shaft which is your best fit leads to a better game.

Describing golf shaft properties is not a simple task. Shaft company marketing developed terms, “kick point”, “stiffness”, “launch” and “spin” to describe shaft properties. These terms developed into a mythological language for describing golf shafts. Shaft engineers and designers define golf shaft stiffness as a profile, the change of stiffness down the length of the shaft. Many years ago a tour of a shaft company R&D lab enlightened my understanding of golf shaft technology.

That lead to me designing and manufacturing a very accurate shaft stiffness measuring instrument. It is now used by several shaft companies. I have been writing about shaft properties for 10+ years. The term EI profile, is now part of the discussion some shaft companies are having with golfers.

If you want to understand golf shafts you have come to the right place. Here you can learn why some shafts work better for you than others. And more important, how to recognize the properties of shafts that make you a better golfer. Please share your comments about what you experience with the shafts reviewed.

A system which defines the distribution of flex down a golf shaft is how most shaft companies design golf shafts. But the information, for fear of giving that information to their competitors, is not shared with the public. It took a few years to refine my measurement instrument and many, many years to acquire and measure the popular golf shafts. This journal provides you with uniform measurements of thousands of golf shafts. If you are new here, the TECHNOLOGY MENU is a collection of articles that will guide your understand golf shaft design.

This journal is entirely supported by subscription. To insure my integrity, there are no ads on this site, that allows me to remain unbiased in the articles. If you believe as I do, that your golf shafts are essential to good golf, please subscribe. Acquiring shafts, measuring them and writing articles takes a great amount of time. Your subscription underwrites the time and resources needed to keep this journal going and growing.

This video is a detailed discussion about golf shafts stiffness and the history of how they were measured and marketed. It is one of many videos about golf equipment technology and golf club building on my youtube channel, Devoted Golfer.

It took years to understand shaft measurement and many more years to accumulate a meaningful database of shaft measurements. The magnitude of that accomplishment did not occur to me until a golf shaft company owner said it to me. Several golf shaft companies now use the EI measuring instrument I designed and manufactured. If you are a golf professional and would like access to more data there are two choices. Golf Professional subscribers get access to a larger set of data and individual profiles of all the shaft model weights and stiffness variations that were made available. Fit2Score Affiliates have access to the entire database through Excel. To hear a podcast interview I did about golf shafts with Tony Wright, a Fit2Score Software Affiliate, Click Here.

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UST Mamiya Proforce V2 Driver Shaft Review

UST Mamiya Proforce V2 Driver Shaft

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

The UST Mamiya ProForce has been with us for a very long time. It appears to have changed little over its time. I have told this story in an earlier review, but for those that miss it, I will repeat it.
During a lunch meeting of UST management after a tour win in the 90’s they reflected on how little attention the bland color of the shaft received in media. 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 26 years later and the ProForce shaft is still with us.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

Project X Cypher Driver Shafts Review

Project X Cypher Driver Shafts 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

The Project X Cypher is one of the many shafts recently reviewed that are available in the TaylorMade 2025 shaft catalog. It is a light weight driver shaft, 40 and 50 gram models.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

Graphite Design Raune Iron Shaft Review

Graphite Design Raune Iron 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

The recent review of parallel iron shafts prompted me to open the recent arrival of the box of the new Graphite Design iron shaft, Raune. I don’t fit many carbon fiber iron shafts simply because the decent ones are about double the price of steel. There is so many options in light weight steel, I rarely need to go to carbon fiber shafts. I have a few in play, one former tour pro with arthritic pain in his elbows. Another strong hard swinging pro that likes the lighter weight and over the top stiffness we can get with carbon fiber. The Raune comes in both parallel and taper tip models.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

UST Mamiya Recoil Dart ESX Iron Shaft Review

UST Mamiya Recoil Dart ESX Iron 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

The UST Mamiya Recoil Dart ESX is my first iron shaft review in 2025. Review samples came from a major brand that offers them as a small upcharge. An option well worth the investment if you are considering carbon fiber shafts in your irons. It has been a long time since I looked at UST Recoils. I had a relationship with UST when they introduced the idea that hoop deformation added to club head speed. Unfortunately at about that time I began documenting hoop deformation and could not see much difference between the recoil and other carbon fiber shafts. And certainly not any similarity to steel shafts. That is no longer the case. As you will see below, the hoop deformation profile of the recoil is unique.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

Fujikura Ventus White Velocore+ Driver Shaft Review

Fujikura Ventus 2VNT White VeloCore+ Driver Shafts 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

The Fujikura Ventus 2VNT White Velocore+ is a 2025 light weight driver shaft. The label of 4 on the shaft lead me to believe I would be looking at 40 gram shafts. That was not the case.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ