Shimada Wedge Shaft Review

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Shimada Wedge 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 Shimada Tour Wedge and the Shimada Tour Wedge Black are not new shafts, they have been available for years. What is new in the US market is that they are available from Oban golf shaft dealers. There are two models, the NW-110 Tour and the HW-120 Tour Black. The model numbers are the gram weights of the shafts. Lets take a look at how these shafts made for the Asian market compare to the Oban CT Iron Shaft profiles.

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Russ

Oban CT-125 Golf Shaft Review

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Oban CT-125 Iron 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 Oban CT-125 is the last of the weights that will be made in this model. It joins the previously reviewed CT-100 and CT-115, completing the fitting matrix of the series. Each weight has 11 shafts from which the club builder can select a subset to build a set. The extended range allows for fine tuning stiffness by “soft stepping” or “hard stepping”. This is not exactly the correct term for this design, but it is a concept you may be familiar with. Building a set of 8 shafts from the 11 available allows for three steps in either the soft or hard direction. A smaller set of 6 or 7 irons adds more stiffness options. Most other constant weight shaft brands produce 8 or 9 shafts in a model matrix.

If you do not follow my YouTube Channel, Devoted Golfer, this was shot at the 2019 PGA Merchandise show. Ralph Reichart, owner of Oban talks about briefly about the extrusion process used by Shimada to make the CT series of iron shafts. 

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Russ

Oban AirBurst Cobolt Golf Shaft Review

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Oban AirBurst Cobolt Driver 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

When I looked at email this morning there was an announcement from Oban that the AirBurst shaft is now available. I called Ralph for review samples and he told me the protos I had measured last year were the final versions. Much to my delight I was not going to have to spend a half day measuring shafts for the knowledge base and this review. When the TaylorMade M3 arrived in January it went into my bag. Over the last few months I have played a number of 50 gram shafts. The AirBurst was in the bag last month and between storms and cold weather it got played for a few rounds.

Over the years I have learned that light weight driver shafts are not created equal. The lighter the shaft the thinner the walls. Thin wall driver shafts without premium material play like wet noodles. You can hit them straight by slowing down your swing and waiting for the head to show up. It is like a bunt. With a little practice, you can get the ball to go straight. They are actually a good training tool if you are out of sync and need to get your feel back. But should you go after the ball, there is no telling where the head is or how it will be positioned at impact.

Then there are the premium shafts made with high density thin ply prepreg. The thin sheets let the designer use enough bias plys to stabilize torque. With enough torque, the head will be aligned with your hands at impact. Then, the light weight shafts let those of us who’s swing speeds are age challenged get our speed back. Define the term “premium light weight shaft”? In dollars, the definition has become $700+. Add a head and we have an $1100 driver. For the record, I am currently alternating between two 50 gram shafts in this price range. And I have not missed any fairways over the past two months.

Ralph and Woody start the discussion about the Oban Airburst driver shafts at the 5:15 mark on this video shot at the 2018 PGA Merchandise show.

Lets take a closer look at the Oban Airburst.

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

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

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

Oban CT-100 Golf Shaft Review

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Shamida / Oban CT-100 Golf Shaft Review

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

The OBAN / Shimada CT-100 is a lower weight version of the CT-115 released last year. They give the club builder the ability to fine tune set stiffness in a constant weight, taper tip design. Iron shafts have traditionally been parallel or taper tip. I wrote an article, Parallel vs Constant Weight Irons Shafts, explaining the differences several years ago. The CT-100, like the CT-115, is a set of 12 constant weight shafts from which the club builder selects a group of shafts to build to an exact the stiffness range. This combines the best aspects of constant weigh taper sets with the tunable stiffness of parallel iron sets. This overcomes the tip stiffness compression inherent in parallel iron sets. If you did not understand that statement, read the technical article.

The discussion about the CT-100 starts at the 9:30 mark on this video shot at the 2018 PGA Merchandise show.

Lets take a closer look at the OBAN CT-100. 

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

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

Shimada Tour Iron Shaft Review

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Shimada Tour 3001 and Shimada Tour Lite

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

Shimada has new distribution in the USA, Oban. Oban has a little over 100 fitters in the US, all of which have been visited and evaluated by Oban management. My understanding is that the Shimada shafts will be available exclusively through the network of Oban fitters. Earlier this year I reviewed the Shimada 115g CT iron shaft. It will soon be joined by a lighter weight fitting set. The Tour 301 and Tour Lite are more conventional constant weight tapers.

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

As you have seen in the charts, Shimada manufacturing quality is second to none. It is good to finally have reliable distribution in the US. Shaft to shaft consistency in the four sets I measured is perfect. If you are looking for light weight iron shafts, set consistency sets steel apart from carbon fiber. You can be confident that sets made from either the mid 90 gram Shimada 3001 and the 106 gram Shimada Tour Lite will be consistent through the set.

- Golf Professional Charts & Notes -