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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Kai’li Dark Waves Golf Shaft Reviews

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 Kai’li Dark Waves series of shafts is included in the 2025 TaylorMade Custom Shaft Options catalog as a no upcharge shaft. The Kai’li name goes back to to my early days of shaft profiling. When it was used as part of the Diamana model family I recognized as a Blue Archetype. Over the years the name was reused in 2023 with White, Blue and Red models. I have limit access to the new Dark Wave Kai’li models from the TaylorMade shaft options catalog which will be expanded as missing models arrive. Rather than posting separate reviews for each model I will cover the White, CB, Fairway and Hybrid models is this overview.

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

Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Black 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 Tensei Pro 1K White is among my favorite fitting shafts. The carbon fiber weave below the butt adds hoop strength and the firm mid is a great fit for skilled swings. A new shaft in the Tensei 1k model gets my immediate attention. This shaft lacks the “Pro” designation in its name so I had some concern that is lacked the same carbon kevlar weave below the handle as i see in the Pro models. Comparing hoop deformation to the White Pro 1K I don’t see any difference between shafts of the same weight and stiffness. And that is great news in a no upcharge OEM shaft.

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

Project X Denali Red 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

The True Temper Sports Project X Denali Red is the third version of the Denali family of shafts. It is available with the earlier Blue and Black models as a driver shaft option by TaylorMade.

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

Nippon 750 GHneo 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 GHneo 750 is the third iron shaft in the GHneo family of shafts, Joining the 950 and the 850 models. As with most iron shafts, weight is correlated with stiffness. The Nippon GHneo is no exception.

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

Mitsubishi Diamana BB 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 been fitting with Mitsubishi Diamana Golf Shafts since I started my fitting business. The Blue Board Archetype is the most copied shaft profile in the business. The soft mid profile delivers forgiveness to the often erratic tempo of many recreational golfers. the last three generations of the Diamana have changed very little. The Diamana BB is a significant change.

This chart compares the torque of the last four generations of the Diamana Blue golf shafts. Mitsubishi tells us high modulus 46 ton fiber was used in the bias plies and 80 ton fiber is used in the butt section of the Diamana BB. It is evident that torque, as claimed, has been reduced. The torque of the BB is 0.4 degrees lower than earlier models.

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