Aldila Rogue Silver 130 Golf Shaft Review

Aldila Rogue Silver 130 MSI 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

The Rogue Silver 130 is the latest version of a profile that goes back to some of my earliest measurements. The profile has had great tour success as the Aldila Tour Green. Lets take a look at the Silver 130 MSI profile and then compare it to earlier versions of this design.

This video was shot at the 2019 PGA Merchandise show outdoors on demo day were the grass grows and the wind blows. The second camera was out of focus, but the discussion of the Aldila products was to good to ignore. The Rogue 130 discussion starts at the 2:33 mark.

The technical discussion and measurements are available only to registered subscribers

AeroTech SteelFiber Players Spec Iron Golf Shaft Review

Aerotech SteelFiber Players Spec Iron Shafts –
Ascending Weight Taper Tips

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

PlayerSpec ImageAerotech Logo

Brandt Snedeker and Matt Kuchar brought AeroTech Steel Fiber golf shafts out of the closet. At one time they were known only to custom club builders. In 2014, they will be in some of the fitting carts.  The Players Spec AMI99 is a unique shaft, it is ascending weight. The shaft gets heavier as it gets shorter. Most taper sets maintain the same weight. The Player Spec shafts ascend from 94 gram 3 irons to 108 gram wedges. This creates swing weighed sets that come close to being MOI matched.

Aerotech SteelFibre shafts have a stainless wire wrapped over a filament wound graphite core, combining the properties of steel and graphite into the shaft. The review of the Aerotech constant weight SteelFiber shafts covers this technology. Because the shafts ae filament wound, they are virtually spineless, the radial consistency measurements often show shafts with perfect numbers.  

AeroTech Players Spec EiGjThe bend profile of the Player Spec is almost a perfect match to the Dynamic Gold R300. It is 25 grams lighter. Perhaps that is the attraction on the PGA Tour. Light weight irons shafts with similiar profiles to heavier weight steel. If your looking to shed some weight from your irons, and are attracted to the idea of having the shaft weight increase as your head weight increases, this is one of the very few shafts that offer this feature.

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I have check many sets of AeroTech Steel shaft for consistency. The result is always the same, they ascend consistently in stiffness from shaft to shaft in the set. This chart illustrates that and the table below it shows how the weight increases from shaft to shaft in the set.

I have known Chris Hilleray, the  owner of Aerotech for a long time. This video was shot at the 2012 PGA merchandise show in Orlando, Aerotech had just been discovered on the PGA Tour. Chris is a busy man these days and I have become a better producer of interviews.

Fujikura Motore Speeder Golf Shaft Review

FUJIKURA MOTORE SPEEDER DRIVER SHAFT

By Kirk James & Mark Vallier, A Golf Digest America’s 100 Best Clubfitter
MK Golf Technologies,San Antonio, Texas

Fujikura shafts continue to dominate the PGA Tour and Champions Tour with wins and number of shafts in play. The original Speeder earned the reputation as the “winningest shaft on tour” back in 2000, and Fujikura has not lost momentum since. The latest version of the Speeder – the Motore Speeder – continues the tradition of the original. The Motore Speeder comes in three “regular versions” (the VC .0, the VC .1, and the VC .2), and two “Tour Spec versions” (the VC .2TS and the VC .3TS). The VC .0 and VC .1 versions are offered in mid 50, 60 and 70 gram models. The VC .2, VC .2TS and VC .3TS versions are offered in mid 60 and 70 gram models. Generally speaking, as the numbers of the models increase, the launch and the spin of the shaft decrease. In other words, if all other variables are equal, the VC 5.0 will launch higher and spin more than the VC 5.1, and so on up through the line.

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This EI Bend Profile chart clearly shows the differences in the three versions of the “regular” Speeder shafts. It has been our experience fitting these shafts that the VC.0 model is very stable and somewhat stiff in the hands (ie, the butt of the shaft) but has a relatively soft and active tip. The EI bend profile clearly confirms these observations to be correct. The VC.1 model has shown through experience to be somewhat softer in the hands, but slightly stiffer in lower mid/tip of the shaft than the VC.0. Likewise, the VC.2 model through experience seems closer to the feel of the VC.0 in the butt of the shaft, but significantly stiffer than than either the VC.0 or VC.1 in the lower mid and tip sections of the shaft, producing a lower launch and usually lower spin.

Fujikura Fitting Advisor

DevotedGolfer.tv editor Russ Ryden got to talk to Pat McCoy, Director of Tour Operations for Fujikura Composites about the  the online fitting application developed by Fujikura to help the golfer find his fit from the many Fujikura shafts available. Pat has been fitting tour professionals for about 20 years.  His perspective on golf club fitting comes from years of experience fitting the best players with some of the best shafts in the business.

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Russ

This latest iteration of the venerable Speeder line of shafts from Fujikura is a very high quality, high performance line of shafts. The differences in each shaft in the Speeder line are clearly distinct and easily detected by most players and club fitters through testing. Almost any player can find a Speeder shaft that will work with their swing.  It is easy to see why the Motore Speeder continues to dominate the shaft counts on the major professional tours.

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Nippon N.S.Pro Regio Formula Driver Shaft Review

NIPPON N.S.PRO Regio Formula

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

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The Nippon N.S.Pro MODUS3 Tour 120 irons shaft has become one of Nippon’s best sellers.  The design is unique. And that design has now been used in a driver shaft. It is different enough that I cannot comment without testing it.  My first look was with a model that was too soft. Stay tuned, there will be more testing soon.

The closest Ei match is the Graphite Design TourAD DI and the Mitsubishi Series G Ultralight. The Modus Tour 120 profile was uniquely different and has become one of my favorite shafts for low single digit handicap players. When and where it fits, dispersion tightens. The graphic below may look a little bumpy.  These are single shafts profiles, not the averages typically seen in other reviews. The radial quality of this shaft is excellent, The consistency of the bend profile signatures are as good as it gets.

The technical discussion, measurements and testing results are available only to registered readers

Project X Driver Shaft Review

True Temper Project X & Project X PXv Driver Shafts

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

The Project X brand name came from Royal Precision. Royal Precision, an iron shaft only company, was acquired by True Temper in 2006. The Project X brand name was part of that purchase. Project X branded driver shafts appeared soon after that purchase.  They use the same stiffness designation as the Project X irons shafts, numbers, rather than letters.  The 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5 & 7.0 numbers designate stiffness.  The original numbering scheme was formula based and came from frequency and length.  The numbering system on the Project X driver shafts, like all other driver shaft stiffness designations I have seen are based on both weight and stiffness.  A heavier 6.0 shaft will also be a stiffer 6,0 shaft.

TTPX Composite Ei.fwI looked at four versions of the Project X driver shaft, the original Blue, the lighter weight Black, the newer, PXV Tour52 and the PXV.

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Russ