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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LA Golf Blue Series Drive Shaft Review

LA Golf Blue Series 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 LA Golf Blue Series is a late 2025 model. Its $149 price is a change for LA Golf and will be appealing to the recreational golfer not comfortable with the $300+ prices of high end graphite shafts.

And yet, at that price, the profile the quality of the shaft is first class. It is mid soft profile, the design of choice for the recreational golfer. My experience with the LA Golf Gold Series has been outstanding. The Gold Series has a full length layer of boron delivering uncommon stability. The profiles of the Gold and Blue were so similar it prompted a phone call to my friend at LA Golf. The Blue series is made on the same mandrel with less expensive materials. It could easily become available in more weights. If your looking to upgrade your OEM driver shaft with a more consistent shaft but are not willing to get into the $350 cost of premium aftermarket shafts you should try the LA Golf Blue Series.

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

KBS Players Graphite Driver Shaft Review

KBS Players Graphite Wood 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 Players Graphite Wood is a 2025 model released in late 2024. This review is late due. I did an interview with Kim in early 2025 where he described the shaft and designed for the recreational golfer. Certainly its $175 will be appealing to the recreational golfer not comfortable with the $300+ prices of high end graphite shafts.

And yet, at that price, the profile in not to far off from some of the Graphite Design Tour AD’s and Fuji Ventus models.

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

Graphite Designs Tour AD FI Driver Shaft Review

Graphite Designs Tour AD FI 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 Graphite Design Tour AD FI (Flight Intelligence) Driver Shaft released in September 2025. It incorporates some new technologies as well and the latest Torayca fabrics. As my understanding of these fabrics grows, I can see how they influence the properties. Looking at Graphite Design’s Bend Profile ratings, the FI is one of the higher rated shafts in the Mid section with a 3+. The GC is rated 3 and the VF is rated 4. A see high mid stiffness as an Archetype design. The FI is firmly a member of the midfirm archetype. The GC and VF less so. Over the last two years, when I recognized the midfirm archetype, I have fit numerous great ball strikers into the design. While I have come to recognize midsoft as forgiving, a midfirm shaft is unforgiving. Like an iron blade, it is workable for those that can shape shots at will.

The Graphite Design Tour AD FI is without a doubt a member of the midfirm archetype that is my go to design for low single digit and plus handicap players.

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

Nippon Modus3 110 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 Nippon Modus3 110 is the third Modus3 shaft from Nippon ending with a 0. First was the 120, then the 130, now the 110. The moniker is a rough approximation of the weight, but also an reference to a unique bend profile from Nippon. Those shafts ending with a 5 are the same profiles with the numbers, 105, 115 and 125 indicating weight. In the Modus3 110 family, the weights range from R at 103g, S at 109g and X at 114 grams. Weight directly correlates to stiffness as it does in all steel shaft

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

autoFlex Dream7 Shaft Review

Korean Hidden Technology autoFlex Dream7 Driver, Fairway and Hybrid Shafts

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

Korean Hidden Technology autoFlex Driver shafts came to the US market several years ago. I saw one in 2021. They cause a sensation with a $790 price point. They were very light weight and started a trend for light weight driver shafts. Ultimately most US golfers were not ready for light weight shafts at that price point.
The autoFlex Dream7 is a second generation autoFlex. It is lighter than the original model made with updated Japanese prepreg and 2nd generation Korean Hidden Technology. According to KHT the Dream7 has a new tip section to enhance impact performance.

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