VA Composites Raijin Golf Shaft Review

VA Composites Raijin Shaft Review

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

I was surprised by the announcement of a new shaft company VA Composites. A quick look at the website and I quickly recognized the VA in VA Composites are the initials of its founder, Victor Afable. I have know Victor for many years as one of the principles at Oban. Before you could become a distributor you got a personal visit from Victor. It was generally the better part of a day where he determined your competence as a fitter and club builder. If you passed you were accepted as a distributor. I tell this story because it gives some insight into a person that has a unique passion for golf shafts and ethical golf club fitting. Victor Afable has been in the shaft business over 30 years. His designs have had a lot of Tour success.

A box of Raijin review samples arrived quickly after I reached out. I was anxious to look at the profile Victor chose to launch his new company with.

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Russ

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

Aldila Rogue Elite Green – Low Launch Tip 9 – Mid 9 – Butt 5

Aldila Rogue Elite Blue – Mid Launch Tip 8 – Mid 5 – Butt 9

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

Mitsubishi Diamana BF Golf Shaft Review

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Mitsubishi Diamana BF-Series Fourth Generation Blue Board

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

Mitsubishi has released the fourth generation of the classic Blue Profile. Like the third generation B, it is made using the proprietary high density Mitsubishi prepreg, Dialed and Mitsubishi MR70 fiber. The fiber is 20% stronger and 10% heavier than conventional prepreg. New is Boron Fiber is added to the tip section of the Diamana BF. One might assume that is what the BF indicates. What exactly can we see in the shaft measurements between the Third Generation B series and the BF.

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Russ

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