Nippon 850 GHneo Iron Shaft Review

Leave a reply

Nippon 850 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

A companion to the Nippon 950 GHneo has just been released, the 850GHneo. New graphics on what is essentially the N.S Pro 850. When the 950GHneo was released I mentioned that almost every fitting cart still included the N.S.Pro 950 despite its long outdated graphics. That was not the case with the N.S Pro 850. It had never been been widely present in the club equipment fitting carts. I have been fitting Nippon steel for a long time. In fact I wrote an overview of the entire N.S Pro product line 9 years ago in the second year of this journal.

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

Project X Rifle Tapered Iron Shaft Review

Leave a reply

Project X Rifle Tapered Iron Shaft

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

The Project X Rifle Golf Shaft was one of the first shafts I studied when I took up club making. I attended a weekend course on its history and how to build matched sets of iron with the parallel shaft. Much of that history is explained in my earlier article about the Project X Rifle Shaft. Parallel shafts have a tip diameter of .370 inches. A set is made by incrementally cutting the shaft tips. Today however, the majority of the iron heads have .355 tapered hosels. That means the club maker must secure the club head and ream the hosel to .370. With forged heads it does not take much effort providing you have a good drill press and a hosel clamp fixture. With cast heads it is much more difficult. The hardness of the cast hosel requires a mill with horse power and in many cases a cooling system to keep from burning the ream. In other words, if you tried this once on a hard casting you probably will refuse to do it again.

True Temper provides a solution. Tapered Project X Rifle shafts with precut tip. The Rifle shaft system gave the club maker the ability to fine tune stiffness by altering the length of the tip cut as he pleased. That can not be done with taper tip shafts. To remedy that problem, the taper Rifle shafts are offered in 10 different lengths for each stiffness. The club maker can hit mid flex targets by selecting shafts from that array of pre trimmed tips. 

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

ACCRA Tour Z RPG Golf Shaft Review

2 Replies

ACCRA Tour Z RPG Golf Shaft Review

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

ACCRA Tour Z RPG imageThe 2017 ACCRA Tour Z RPG has a unique profile. A number of recent shaft designs have featured what I refer to as super soft mid sections. Soft mid shafts are the most popular and most widely used shafts by most golfers. A few years ago a number of super soft midsection shafts came to the market. I found them to be great fits for golfers with neutral to negative angle of attacks. The Tour Z RPG sits in a middle ground between the traditional soft mid and the super soft mid designs. And in this video shot at the 2017 PGA merchandise show, Gawain Robertson explains the shaft at the 3:25 mark. 

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

KBS $-Taper Golf Shaft Review

6 Replies

KBS $-Taper Golf Shaft Review

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

STaper Image

Before the KBS $-Taper became available to the public, it had two tour wins. Cameron Smith at the Zurich Classic and Si Woo Kim at the Players. The release to club builders was delayed as KBS tried to new label application process. Eventually, they gave up and cut it loose with the current label process.

This shaft used a different step design from prior KBS shafts. The steps are longer, almost to the point of being hard to see. The discussion of the $-Taper starts at the 8:45 mark in this video shot at the 2017 PGA Merchandise show. Kim describes his objective for this shaft, a variation of the KBS tour that reduces spin. As soon as I finish writing this review I will put tips on the review samples to test the shaft. 

As I measured the $-Taper I had an expectation of what I expected to see, that was not the case.

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

Do not assume you will react to this profile exactly as I did. We are all different and react to shafts and heads uniquely. I must play the 110 gram R flex because I cannot effectively swing a heavier shaft. However, 10 yards is something I need at my age and getting it without adding to roll out is something I will gladly put in my bag. Find a fitter that has added he KBS $-Taper to his fitting cart and test them yourself.

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

Graphite Designs AD Fairway Shaft Review

2 Replies

Graphite Designs Tour AD Fairway Golf Shaft Review

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

GDADFW_imageGolfers who first experience a fairway with a premium driver shaft universally have a jaw dropping experience. First at the performance then at the cost of the fairway club. There is sticker shock when they are told the shaft itself cost more than a retail fairway metal. Yet, when you see a tour player hitting a fairway you should realize, the shaft he is using is the same quality as his driver shaft. Heavier and perhaps stiffer, but it is an ultra-premium driver shaft.

The problem with the stock fairway shafts is there simply is not enough money at $250 to $300, the typical retail price of a fairway, to supply a decent shaft. In the price range we have come to expect at retail for a fairway, the manufacturer has a limited range of shaft options.  What gets delivered is a high launch design. That shaft will have a soft tip zone to help get the ball airborne. However at that price point it will also come with high torque. When you  watch your slightly off center ball strikes snap hook or block into the trees realize this, it’s not you, it’s the shaft. I have put a great many golfers into $550 to $600 fairways. Not all can or will make that level of investment into a fairway. Those that do have a rapid understanding of what shaft quality means.

Graphite Designs has joined Mitsubishi in offering a high quality fairway specific shaft at an approachable price. The Graphite Design Tour AD F-Series Fairway shaft has a MAP price of $250. That is 35% less than the price of a Tour AD driver shaft. The Tour AD FWY is painted to closely match this year’s Tour AD TP driver shaft. It is made with 40t carbon-fiber while the TP uses 50t material. Weights range from 72 to 95 grams. Let’s look at the measurements. 

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

Leave a reply

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 -