Tag: Aerotech

Aerotech Releases New TiFiber Shafts
Aerotech’s Golf’s president & mad scientist Chris Hilleary is up to his old tricks again, and this time his experience in composites and engineering wizardry has resulted in the new Aerotech TiFiber shaft. Last season, Aerotech Golf’s SteelFiber shafts delivered 20 wins on pro tours around the world as well as won the coveted CME Race for the Globe Trophy and 2016 Money Title on the LPGA Tour. I’ve been playing with and evangelizing the SteelFiber shafts in my irons & hybrids for over 6 years, and for me, there’s no going back to steel.

Why TiFiber?

While the original SteelFiber shafts are incredibly consistent and playable, in driver and wood lengths they became too heavy for most golfers to be comfortable with. By replacing steel fibers with much lighter titanium, Aerotech was able to adapt the benefits of their SteelFiber technology to full-length driver and fairway wood shafts.

What is TiFiber?

TiFiber shafts combine a high-modulus graphite core like you would find in almost all driver shafts with 47 miles of micro-thin titanium fiber lacing the entire shaft surface. 47 Miles! The addition of high-strength, lightweight titanium fiber increases stability while allowing the weight to be redistributed to optimize tip stiffness. As a result, TiFiber shafts are a great match for modern oversized titanium/composite driver heads.

TiFiber shafts are currently available in two models – the TiFiber Tour 70 and Pro 60.
1. TiFiber Tour 70 shafts feature a “Tour Stiff” tip section to optimize flight by reducing spin and lowering trajectory. The Tour 70 is available in F5 (Stiff) and F6 (X-Stiff) flex options.
2. The TiFiber Pro 60 has a slightly softer tip section and benefits players who need a bit more launch and spin but still want the added stability of titanium. The TiFiber Pro 60 is available in F4 (Regular) and F5 (Stiff) flexes.
Success on Tour

Players with SteelFiber shafts routinely rank high on the PGA Money List, Official World Golf Rankings and the FedEx Cup Season Points. Brandt Snedeker and Matt Kuchar have been in Aerotech’s corner for years. In 2013, Kuchar & Snedeker ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in FedEx Cup points and ended the season as #3 and #5 on the PGA Tour money list. Snedeker also won the FedEx Cup in 2012 using SteelFiber shafts.

While the adoption of SteelFiber continued to grow on the professional tours, the company was testing the TiFiber shaft on tour in 2017 and introduced them to the public at the 2018 PGA Show in Orlando. It’s only a matter of time before TiFiber also records its first win on tour.

Performance

I spent some time on the practice range with the Aerotech TiFiber Tour 70x shaft installed in my Ping G driver. I hit several shots with both the TiFiber shaft and the Ping Tour 80x shaft (custom option from Ping) to compare ball flight and launch monitor data. I used the cool new FlightScope MEVO launch monitor to capture club and ball flight data.

My initial testing has produced numbers that are very similar to the stock Ping shaft, but the little FlightScope MEVO is limited in the data it can gather. More on that in a minute. Both the stock Ping shaft and the TiFiber were giving me similar numbers for launch angle, swing speed, smash factor and spin rates. Carry distance was about 2 yards less with the TiFiber, which is consistent with the ball speeds which were roughly 1 MPH lower with the TiFiber. Shots hit with the TiFiber shaft stayed in the air a fraction of a second less and flew about 5 feet lower, which may help explain the carry distance number. I only got to hit about 8 or 10 drives with each shaft, but once I gather more data I think the results will be more clear.

What the numbers don’t tell me is what I’m perhaps most interested in with the TiFiber, and that is shot dispersion. The FlightScope MEVO being a palm-sized personal launch monitor priced at $500, it can’t compete with the big boys that cost $10,000+ and one of the areas where the MEVO is lacking is measuring shot dispersion. Since it doesn’t track the entire ball flight, it can’t tell me what the dispersion is from shot to shot.

I did notice a difference between the shafts, but without measurable data, it’s hard to be 100% sure. I felt that I was hitting the ball straighter with the TiFiber shaft, with a tighter dispersion from shot to shot. I’ll get more data and play a few rounds with the Aerotech shaft in the coming weeks and will know more. I believe the TiFiber shaft to be straighter based on my observations.

3/12/2018: I’ll update this post when I get more info about the accuracy of the Aerotech TiFiber shaft.

Where Can I Get One?

The best way to get your hands on one for your driver will be to schedule a fitting with a good club fitting specialist like Tour Spec Golf. Aerotech Golf shafts are also widely available as custom options with many club manufacturers such as PXG, Callaway, Titleist, TaylorMade, Ping, Cobra, Bridgestone Golf, Wilson, Cleveland Golf, Miura, Srixon and more.

For more information on Aerotech Golf and Aerotech shafts, call 888.733.8988 or visit aerotechgolfshafts.com. Also check out the Aerotech page on Facebook: facebook.com/aerotechgolf.
March 12, 2018
WITB – June 2017

My very first WITB post was written in September of 2015 before I left for the WAGT National Championship in Pennsylvania. Since then a lot has changed. In fact, nothing from that bag remains in play for me today, including the bag itself! All fourteen clubs have changed, I got a new staff bag from the WAGT and I’ve even switched golf balls.

I love to tinker with equipment, but being a low handicap golfer with a self-taught swing means that in order to play my best I need custom fit clubs. This makes testing new clubs a bit of a challenge. Variations in a shaft’s weight, kickpoint and flex can send shots way offline if not fit properly. I’ve worked hard with my amazing club builder to get every club in my bag set up perfectly for my game, and I can’t tell you how important it is for your game to have your clubs properly tuned and fitted by a competent club fitter.

Now – Let’s dive into my golf bag(s) and talk about my clubs, and how they’re set up as well as my favorite gadgets and gizmos that help me play golf.

My Golf Bags, Accessories & Favorite Gadgets

While I would prefer to walk, I play golf using a motorized cart most of the time since it is mandatory at many Florida golf courses, and most of my golf buddies are too lazy to walk with me at the courses that allow it. For that reason, I alternate between a custom 10.5″ Burton USA staff bag I got when I qualified to represent Team USA at the World Amateur Golfer’s Championship in 2015 and a new Sun Mountain 4.5 LS carry bag.

I’ve only had the Sun Mountain 4.5 LS carry bag for a few months, but I’m a big fan of the innovative design and efficient use of space. It’s the heaviest of Sun Mountain’s carry options, but also adapts well to life on a golf cart and holds everything I need to bring with me with ease. My Burton “Team USA” staff bag is huge and heavy, but I can pack it with everything I’ll need for tournament golf like some snacks, 32oz sports drinks, extra towels, rain gear and more. Despite the large size, I can shoehorn it nicely into my Club Glove Last Bag travel case and go anywhere in the world with it easily. So far I’ve logged over 20,000 miles of international travel on in without incident.

I like to have as much information as possible when playing, so I frequently combine the use of a GPS distance device with a laser rangefinder to get accurate yardage information and help plotting my way around the course. To that end, my distance measuring devices of choice are the SkyCaddie TOUCH and the Leupold GX-5i³ laser rangefinder. Both devices are one of the best available in each category, and function flawlessly. Adding Frogger Golf’s Latch-It rangefinder strap makes using the rangefinder that much easier, and the Latch-It ecosystem is my favorite new golf gadget in years. While I haven’t posted a round with it in a while, GAME GOLF is still a fun and easy way to track stats and help you improve. Since most of my clubs have changed, I plan to start using GAME GOLF again this summer to see how the newer clubs perform compared to the older ones.

Driver – Ping G LS-TEC 9°

Ping gave us one of the best drivers in the game a few years ago when they introduced the G30 and G30 LS-TEC drivers. I was fortunate to see amazing accuracy gains of 30% with it while still getting more distance over my old driver. Also fortunate for me, Ping later introduced the G LS-TEC driver that I now use. It is fitted with the Ping Tour 80 shaft in X-Flex, which is a custom option. They updated the head and made it sound a little different, but I haven’t gotten enough data to know if it’s really longer and straighter as they claim. Either way, I hit it great and recommend it for anyone that wants the best blend of distance with accuracy and forgiveness.

Fairway Woods – Tour Edge Exotics EX10 Beta

My recent struggle to find the perfect three-wood has been well documented, but when Tour Edge came out with the Exotics CB Pro f2 last year thought I had found my new fairway howitzer. It is a very high performance, versatile three wood that averages almost 260 yards and I couldn’t be happier with it. But – Tour Edge being one of the leading golf club companies when it comes to technology, they took some of the best design features from previous fairway wood designs and combined them using new a manufacturing process and created the Exotics EX10 and EX10 beta fairways. I immediately ordered the EX10 beta in 13 degrees with the new Project X HZRDUS Black shaft. I had my club fitter tweak it to my specs with a spine-alignment and swing weight adjustment, re-gripped it with my preferred Golf Pride MCC Plus4 grips and it is now ready for prime time. It’s very new and I’ve only played 18 holes with it so far, but the results have been impressive and I’ve already hit some tee shots with it to places I’ve never seen before. I can’t wait to try it out on the launch monitor.

Hybrids/Long Irons – Srixon Z H45 & U45

I got my Srixon Z H45 hybrid and Z U45 utility irons back in 2015 and from the first ball I knew I had something special in my hands. Even though it is marked with a number two, the Z H45 hybrid has 16 degrees of loft which makes it more of a one iron. As a result, it hits low, piercing bullets which makes it great for use off the tee, but not very versatile for approach shots. Depending on the course, this club may be swapped for a 50 degree gap wedge. It is fitted with an amazingly consistent Aerotech hls880 hybrid shaft.

I have two Srixon Z U45 long irons in the bag – The 20º and 23º models, which are my three iron and four iron. I absolutely love hitting these clubs. Forget about traditional long irons, these utilities are amazingly easy to hit while being more versatile and just as forgiving as a hybrid. My only regret is not replacing my old long irons with utilities like these much sooner.

Irons – Srixon Z745 (5-PW)

My irons are the 2015 model year Srixon Z745 cavity back forged irons. They replaced my Cleveland CG16 Tour Concept irons from 2010. The Srixon irons have a little less offset than the Cleveland irons which took a wee bit of adjustment for me, but I adapted to the new clubs quickly. I’ve been playing Aerotech Steelfiber shafts in my irons for over 5 years and I saw no reason to change with these clubs. I fitted them with the Steelfiber i110 constant weight shafts. There’s nothing like the feel you get from a forged iron with a graphite shaft, and with Aerotech you get that awesome graphite feel with the consistency and control of steel. I keep saying it over and over, but Aerotech really does make the best shafts in golf.

Wedges – Hopkins CJ1 (54 & 60)

When Greg Hopkins left Cleveland Golf in 2012, took one of Cleveland’s lead designers with him and formed Hopkins Golf, I became an instant fan. What Hopkins was doing essentially was selling a Cleveland look-alike wedge cast from soft 8620 steel direct to the customer that you could customize with various grind options and plenty of paint fill and stamping choices. I got a raw lob wedge with the channel grind and fell in love instantly. Sadly, Hopkins Golf seems to have shut down operations since mid 2016, so I took to the interwebs to find some and discovered a website that had the discontinued wedges I wanted in stock, so I ordered two for $60 each.

The other change I made in my wedges was going to a softer shaft. After consulting with my club fitter, we decided it would be best for me to switch from a Dynamic Gold X100 to the softer S400 that is so popular on tour. After a half-dozen rounds with the new wedges I’m glad I did and a little peeved that I didn’t so it years ago. At least now I have a three-wedge setup that works well for most situations. I still swap the 2 hybrid or 3 iron out for a SCOR 50º gap wedge on occasion if the course demands it, and will be replacing the SCOR 50º with a Hopkins 50º soon for a matching set.

Putter – Scotty Cameron Select Newport 2 Notchback Dual Balance

The most important club in my bag is the putter. It is also the club I struggle with the most, and as a result it becomes the club that changes most often. I have a bad habit of changing putters whenever I have a bad day on the greens, and these frequent putter changes only compound the problem by hurting consistency. I suppose that’s one of the drawbacks of being a golf blogger and having a couple dozen putters in the garage, all fighting for my attention.

When I really think about it, I’m being unnecessarily hard on myself because my putting statistics are very good compared to other players of my ability, but that’s the point – I’m trying to improve, not be average. Using a tool like GAME GOLF has shown me that I need to make more putts in the 5-15 foot scoring range. I think just sticking with one putter will help, so that’s my goal.

GAME GOLF Putting Stats

The putter I’ll be sticking with is a good one, even if the name is way too long and complicated – In my bag is the Scotty Cameron Select Newport 2 Notchback Dual Balance. It is like the standard Newport 2 Notchback but measures 38 inches long, has a 50 gram back-weight in the handle and features a larger head with an additional 50 grams of weight – hence the name Dual Balance. The idea with all the extra weight is to help slow down your stroke and eliminate the small muscles that tend to sabotage putting strokes. I love the heft and balance of this putter and if it’s a Scotty you know it rolls the ball well. My only gripe with Scotty Cameron is that they tend to have more loft (3.5º) than I like in a putter.

The Golf Ball

Last but certainly not least, since our last WITB post I have a new golf ball. In 2000 Titleist introduced the legendary Pro V1 golf ball and killed my beloved Titleist Tour Prestige and Tour Professional, effectively ending the wound golf ball era. In the coming years I struggled mightily adjusting to the new solid core golf balls. Eventually I found the Srixon Z-UR balls in 2005 and most recently played with the Srixon Z-Star & Z-Star XV until early 2016.

In early 2016 at the PGA Show in Orlando I met with the folks from Bridgestone to talk about their new B330 line and came away impressed. After a few rounds of testing the new B330, I switched. I ordered a case of the B330 balls with my logo, and an additional ten dozen without a logo so I’m set with enough golf balls to last me several years. The B33o is very similar to the Z-Star XV I used to play, but spins a bit more around the greens and flies a bit straighter in the wind. It’s very durable for a “tour” ball and I’ve been very happy with it so far.

June 13, 2017
The Search for the Perfect 3-Wood

My golf buddies are well aware of my struggle. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with my three wood for a long time. For whatever reason – and there have been many – I have had a terrible time trying to find the right combination of loft, club head and shaft to make a three wood that is good enough for me to count on. For me, a three wood has to be versatile. I need to hit it well off the tee and off the fairway. It has to be forgiving but workable, and the ball flight cannot be too high or too low. Because of my very specific needs for this club, (bordering on obsessive compulsive) it has taken me the better part of a decade to find the perfect three wood, but I think the search is finally over.

My first three wood was a Spalding Executive with a ladies flex steel shaft. I actually hit it further than my driver, as many beginners often do. Soon after titanium drivers took the market by storm, my old Taylor Made Original One 12 degree driver became my (strong) three wood. For the last decade I have relied on an Adams Golf RPM LP Tour Prototype three wood with 13 degrees of loft and a Fujikura Rombax shaft. I got the club from a player that was on the Senior PGA Tour back in 2005 (Now called PGA Tour Champions) and it has stayed in the bag for over 10 years. When the rest of my golf game went to crap, I could always count on my three wood to produce good shots for me.

I’ve tested and played with countless fairway woods in the ten years since I got my Adams RPM, and until this summer I wasn’t able to find a three wood that performed well enough to replace the “gamer” Adams. A few came very close, but ultimately were rejected. The first was the Ping Rapture. With 13 degrees of loft, a larger club head and 43.5 inch shaft, the Rapture is more of a “2-wood” or “fairway driver,” and while I hit it a mile, it wasn’t versatile enough. The next candidate was the new Tour Edge Exotics CB Pro F2. After testing various Exotics clubs in the past like the CB3 & CB4 Tour, XCG7, EX9 and E8, I was excited to try the flagship model CB Pro F2. This club has an amazing blend of technology packed into a compact but classic looking club head, but the stock Mitsubishi Rayon KURO KAGE Silver Tini Series shaft wasn’t quite right for me. Keeping that in mind, a search for the right shaft to pair with the CB Pro F2 was underway.

When I arrived at the 2016 PGA Demo Day in Orlando, I wandered by the Aerotech Golf booth and stopped in to see owner Chris Hilleary and catch up. I have been playing the amazing Aerotech Steelfiber graphite shafts in my irons for over 5 years and discovered that he had now developed a new Steelfiber fairway wood shaft. After hitting his demo club fitted with the new Steelfiber SS85 shaft, I knew I had found the perfect match for the Exotics CB Pro.

I immediately ordered an Aerotech Steelfiber SS85 shaft and when the CB Pro F2 three wood arrived. I dropped everything off with my club maker. When I got the finished club back, I went out to test it. The results were as expected, and very exciting. The face of the CB Pro F2 is very hot and the Steelfiber SS85 shaft produces a mid launch without ballooning. The shaft is amazingly consistent as usual for the Steelfiber line, and it never feels boardy or unplayable. Going from a three wood with 13 degrees of loft to one with 14.5 degrees will obviously affect the ball flight. One would expect that increasing loft would result in a corresponding drop-off in distance, but so far in early testing with Game Golf the CB Pro F2 is actually averaging 4 yards more from all lies (255 yards vs. 251 yards) than my old Adams RPM. This very likely has to do with the advance in technology and materials since 2005 when the Adams was released to market. The Adams is made of steel, while the Exotics has a steel body and a beta titanium cup face with a much higher “spring” effect, or coefficient of restitution.

It is still early as I’ve only had it in the bag for a month or so, but so far the Exotics CB Pro F2 (14.5 loft) fitted with an Aerotech Steelfiber SS85 shaft is a big winner. This three wood can hit all the shots and has just the right amount of forgiveness, power and control. It looks awesome, sounds solid and produces consistent shots from the tee or the fairway. I’ve finally found a fairway wood worthy of replacing my old gamer for good. The CB Pro F2 is so good in fact, that I’ll be looking into getting the 17.5 degree five wood to match it!

While the Exotics CB Pro F2 may not be for everyone, Tour Edge’s Exotics line has something for everyone and I consider them some of the best performing fairways on the market. Even if you prefer another company’s fairway woods, if you are looking for the consistency of steel and the power of graphite in moderately weighted fairway wood shafts, I highly suggest looking at Aerotech’s Steelfiber SS offerings in 65, 75, and 85 gram weights. They are an amazing compliment to their game-changing iron and hybrid shafts.

Thanks to Tour Edge and Aerotech, after almost a decade of searching for and trying hundreds of fairway woods, I think I have finally found the closest thing possible to the perfect three wood.

November 2, 2016
Miura HB3 & HB4 Hybrids

Katsuhiro Miura is a legend in the golf community. Golf equipment junkies and forged blade purists all over the world know him well, and his reputation for building some of the finest looking and performing clubs in the world is well deserved. As the Miura brand grows, they expanded from irons into wedges, woods and even hybrids. Having played with Miura’s unbelievable forged blades in the past, I was eager to try the HB3 and HB4 hybrids to see if they could live up to the lofty standards Miura has set for themselves.

Miura Golf is a boutique brand, so you won’t find their stuff in a big box store or pro shop. Instead, they’ve built a network of skilled club makers that will fit each golfer properly to take advantage of the clubs and play their best. After all, if you are willing to spend over $2000 on a set of irons, shouldn’t they be done right? In my case, the HB3 hybrid was built with an Aerotech hls880 hybrid shaft. In my opinion, Aerotech makes the best shafts in the world, so it is a perfect match for the Miura HB3 Hybrid.

The Miura HB3 hybrid has 20 degrees of loft, and the HB4 has 23. Meant to replace the three and four irons, these hybrids are designed to look and play much like the long irons they replace while adding height and forgiveness to your shots. Many hybrids are shaped like and play like woods, but Miura adopted a more iron-like profile and face design for greater accuracy and trajectory control.

For testing, I put the Miura HB3 in the hands of golfers who’s handicaps range from 0 to 18. The 18 handicap tester actually played with the hybrid for several months and it quickly became one of his favorite clubs. He loves the clean, classic good looks of the club. The black finish makes the HB3 look more compact and inspires confidence at address. The face is very hot. It feels like the ball really shoots off the face at impact, and the the dampened metal sound is perfectly tuned. The HB3 hybrid launches the ball with the high trajectory you would expect from a hybrid, but it doesn’t balloon in the air with too much spin. You get the high launch you want from a hybrid, and just enough spin to get longer carry and a softer landing than a long iron shot.

Some testers thought the Miura HB3 hybrid wasn’t as forgiving as some other hybrids. The lower handicap testers didn’t feel the same way, but they tend to hit the center of the club more frequently so that’s no surprise. Given that the HB3 is designed to look and play more like a long iron, it’s natural that it might not be quite as forgiving as other hybrids that are designed for forgiveness and distance.

Miura doesn’t have adjustable hosel technology yet, and while these features aren’t all that prevalent in hybrids yet, one tester thought it might be a nice addition. Since Miura is more of a boutique brand who’s clubs are built to order by professional clubfitters, I don’t think we’ll see a need for adjustable hosels with them.

Aesthetically speaking, the brass colored weight ports on the sole don’t appear to be anything more than cosmetic, but I could be wrong. While not adjustable by the player, it’s very likely the club maker can use the ports to adjust swing weight and CG (center of gravity) location for a player’s specific needs. I haven’t yet confirmed this detail with the manufacturer.

In the end, every single person that hit the Miura HB3 hybrid wanted to take it home with them. There are plenty of quality, high performance hybrid clubs on the market, but for those that want something a little different and the best quality available in custom built clubs, give the Miura HB3 and HB4 hybrids a try. Visit your local Miura authorized dealer for a fitting and more information.

September 13, 2016
WITB – November 2015

Back in September I posted my first “What’s In The Bag” segment that detailed the clubs I play with. WITB posts are pretty popular on other sites when they post pictures of PGA Tour players and their preferred equipment. It’s always interesting to see what the best players in the world play with, and the market for “tour van” or hard to find equipment – especially putters – is huge. Forget that most people couldn’t possibly hit the clubs that tour players use, they still want them for the exclusivity and cool factor. I’ll admit, I’m one of those people that love being unique and having things that nobody else has.

It’s for good reason that people are curious about the golf bags of PGA Tour players, but not many people care about what a lowly golf blogger plays with. It’s a shame too, because I think my fellow bloggers and golf media people are in a much better position to help others when it comes to getting the right equipment.

While the average touring pro is well paid to endorse a company’s golf clubs, golf writers and bloggers aren’t. That’s not to say we don’t get our share of sweetheart deals or eek out a tiny profit from online affiliate sales, but nobody I know that runs a golf blog is making much more than enough to keep the site going and pay for the occasional round of golf.

Golf writers and bloggers do however have access to and get to play with a ton of different clubs, and the ones that go in our golf bags as “gamers” have cut through the marketing hype and passed the test. Just like my buddy Tony from hookedongolfblog.com, in my golf bag on any given weekend sits a who’s who of golf manufacturers you may or may not have heard of. If we’re playing them, you can be pretty confident that they are a good buy.

Since the end of September all but 3 of the clubs in my bag have changed. No less than 6 different golf equipment companies are represented in my bag.

What’s in the bag?

Driver: Ping G30 LS-TEC (9° w/ Ping Tour 80x)
Fairway: Tour Edge Exotics E8 Tour (14° w/ Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana S+ 70x)
Hybrid: Srixon Z H45 (16° w/ Aerotech hls880 x-flex)
Utility Irons: Srixon Z U45 (20° & 23° w/ Aerotech Steelfiber i110cw x-flex)
Irons: Srixon Z745 5-PW (w/ Aerotech Steelfiber i110cw x-flex)
Wedges: Ben Hogan TK15 50° & 54° (w/ KBS Tour-V 120X)
Lob Wedge: Hopkins Golf CJ-1 60° (Custom channel grind w/ Dynamic Gold X-100)
Putter: Cure RX3F Putter
Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV

What’s New?

The clubs that didn’t change? My Tour Edge Exotics E8 Tour three wood, which gets a fresh new grip, my trusty Hopkins Golf CJ-1 60° wedge and the ugly-duckling-but-impossible-to-mis-hit Cure RX3F putter.

The biggest changes are the replacement of my aging Cleveland CG16 Tour Concept irons with the fantastic new Srixon Z745 irons. These irons are currently in play by most of Cleveland/Srixon’s tour staff including Graeme McDowell, Keegan Bradley, Russell Knox and many others. I also replaced the 3 and 4 irons with the Srixon ZU45 utility clubs which are much easier to hit, and the old Cleveland hybrid is replaced by a new Srixon ZH45 hybrid. All the new clubs get Aerotech Steelfiber shafts. The Srixon irons and utilities are made of forged 1020 steel and look as good as they perform.

I changed drivers this month also. I switched out the Ping G30 driver for the Ping G30 LS-TEC. There’s not much difference between the two as they look identical, but the LS-TEC spins a little less according to Ping.

I also have some new wedges in the bag. Gone (but not forgotten) are the SCOR 50° and 54° wedges I was so fond of. Fortunately they’ve been upgraded to Ben Hogan TK15 wedges. For those who aren’t familiar with SCOR and Ben Hogan, they are run by the same brilliant golf mind – Terry Koehler. SCOR Golf became Ben Hogan when he resurrected the iconic Ben Hogan brand from the ashes of golf equipment history. His amazing v-sole wedges live on in the Ban Hogan brand however. The new TK15 wedges perform the same as the older SCOR wedges and look fantastic in the new Hogan design. They are also a perfect match for the Hogan Fort Worth 15 irons, which players can customize to their liking. The Ben Hogan TK15 wedges are available from 48° to 63° and every loft in between. The HoganFit fitting process is designed to customize a set of wedges that will compliment your current irons and offer consistent distance gaps to help you score better inside 125 yards, where almost 65% of shots are taken.

Finally, new in my golf bag this month is the golf bag itself! My special WAGT “Team USA” golf bag recently arrived from Burton and it looks fantastic. The amazing Last Bag travel bag I got from Club Glove is going to be protecting my clubs while traveling. I’m one of the few fortunate souls to be proudly representing the US in the World Amateur Golfers Championship in December in Antalya, Turkey.

Antalya is one of the ten most frequented tourist destinations in the world, and is in the southwestern part of Turkey in a region called the Turkish Riviera. We’ll be at the all-inclusive Gloria Golf Resort competing over 54 holes in a team format with 40 other countries. I’ll be posting photos and updates on the event when we get there!

November 17, 2015
Aerotech Steelfiber Shafts

For decades, the material of choice for iron shafts has been steel. Compared to the hickory shafts of yesteryear and composite shafts of the present, steel shafts proved to be more consistent and stable. On professional golf tours around the world, steel shafts have been the overwhelming shaft of choice for irons for many years. There are several great steel shafts available for irons, like the new KBS C-taper shaft and the venerable Dynamic Gold shaft that has been around for what seems like forever. There have also been many advancements in composite shaft technology in the last decade. Graphite shafts are getting longer, lighter and more stable, but there hasn’t been a significant advancement in steel shaft design in a long time. Until now.

Earlier this year while watching coverage of the PGA Tour on television, I noticed tour players Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker playing iron shafts that weren’t like the rest. They appeared to be composite shafts, but after some research I found out they were Aerotech Steelfiber shafts. I reached out to Aerotech Golf for more information on the shafts and they agreed to send me a set of the very same constant weight, taper tip Steelfiber i95 shafts played by the PGA Tour pros. To help me test these shafts, I had them spine aligned and installed on a set of Cleveland CG16 Tour Concept iron heads by my club maker extraordinaire Glen Belden. He’s been building and fitting amateur golfers and touring pros since 1979. These iron heads are similar to the retail version but have a smaller head with less offset preferred by their tour players. They are also made of softer metal for better feel . In this case – 8620 with a raw satin finish.

Founded in 1991, Aerotech Sports was the first company to produce an NHL approved composite hockey stick. They made helmets, bike components, fishing rods and more until breaking into the golf industry in 1994 when they produced their first golf shaft. At first Aerotech operated as an OEM supplier, making shafts for companies like Cleveland, Adams, Fenwick, Zevo and Pure Spin. In 2002 they launched their own line of branded shafts, and in 2005 Aerotech Golf was born.

The Aerotech Steelfiber shaft is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Aerotech has managed to combine materials to create a shaft that has all the best properties of composite and steel shafts without any of the drawbacks. The innovative Steelfiber shaft is a high modulus graphite core wrapped with very thin steel fibers. Each steel fiber has a diameter of only 8 microns, or approximately 1⁄10th the diameter of a human hair. That means there is over 59 miles of steel fiber covering the entire surface of each shaft! This construction translates to a shaft that is very stable & consistent like steel, but is light weight and absorbs vibration like a graphite shaft.

I’ve played with heavy (130+ gram) Dynamic Gold X100 steel shafts in my irons for most of my golfing career, so I was a bit worried when switching to a 95 gram Steelfiber shaft. Before even hitting the first shot with my new irons, I knew that these shafts were going to be special. Just flexing these shafts with my hands, they felt stiffer than any graphite iron shaft I’ve ever tried. In my hands they felt as stiff as my old X100 shafts, even though they are 35 grams lighter, and after hitting a few hundred balls on the range my predictions were confirmed. This shaft is remarkable. After playing with these shafts in my irons for over 20 rounds, hundreds of range balls and several months in temperatures ranging from 50 to 95 degrees, I can say that the Aerotech Steelfiber shaft is a winner.

The first thing that stands out about this shaft is the vibration dampening. The Aerotech Steelfiber shaft does a great job at mitigating the shock and vibration of hitting the ground with an iron swing. As a result, they make your irons feel softer. My cast 8620 irons heads feel like butter on a solid strike, and on a cold day they eliminate that “stinger” you get if you hit the ball a few grooves low. The second thing I noticed was the stability and consistency of the Steelfiber shafts. It took me almost 72 holes to adjust to the shaft’s tendency to want to go straighter than my old shafts. I’m used to working the ball left or right with my irons, but these shafts hit it straighter than my old X100s and I had to make an adjustment and play less fade or draw. This sounds like a good problem to have for most golfers! The steel fibers woven around the shaft make them incredibly stable too. I’m able to hit knockdown shots, high shots and everything in between with no fear of losing control or ballooning the ball like a graphite shaft. Finally, the lighter weight of this shaft allows me to swing the club a bit faster, producing a little more distance. For me the gain wasn’t much, maybe a half club, but for others it will be more significant. Compared directly to the Dynamic Gold X100, the Steelfiber i95 tends to hit the ball slightly higher.

Aerotech offers the Steelfiber shafts in five weight classes: 70, 80, 95, 110 and 125 grams. On the lighter end of the spectrum, the i70 and i80 shafts will benefit players looking for more distance and/or a more stable composite shaft option for their irons. The i80 shaft is the most popular shaft in the Steelfiber line, and the one I would recommend for most golfers out there. The i95 shaft that I tested for this review is a great transition shaft for those wanting to move into a lighter weight iron shaft without going too light and substantially changing the feel of the club during the swing. The 95 gram weight allows the player to see some good improvement in distance while still maintaining accuracy and incredibly consistent distance control. The Aerotech Steelfiber i110 and i125 shafts are generally preferred by stronger players that are looking to maintain the overall effort it takes to swing their steel shafted irons, but want to benefit from the vibration dampening characteristics of a composite shaft. Aerotech Golf is able to maintain the playability of the 125 gram shaft by minimizing the wall thickness with the use of metal to increase weight instead of adding more graphite. Because graphite is 1/5th the weight of steel, it would take 5 times the amount of graphite material for the same weight increase, which increases wall thickness and gives the shaft a boardy feel.

As with many other golf products, the biggest measure of success for a company can be adoption on the PGA Tour. Aerotech shafts are used by several players on the PGA Tour without paying the players to use them. Most notable is Matt Kuchar. Using the Steelfiber i95 in his irons, Matt was #1 on the 2010 money list, scoring average, all around ranking and top ten finishes. He also finished second in the FedEx Cup standings. “When I switched to Aerotech Golf shafts, I was looking for a lighter weight iron shaft that could provide me with consistent ball flight and spot on distance control. Aerotech’s SteelFiber shafts fit the bill perfectly. The SteelFiber technology has allowed me to take advantage of all the benefits of a graphite shaft yet still maintain complete control over my golf ball.”

The only negative I can find about these shafts is that for a player like myself who is used to playing heavy clubs, the adjustment to light weight shafts can take some time. Despite my love for these shafts in my irons, I’m hesitant to install them in my wedges. I think I would have to go with the i125 to maintain the same weight and feel I prefer in a wedge. That being said, if you get these I highly recommend a skilled club maker installs them in order to get the gram weighting of your iron heads right, or they may be way too light on the swing-weight scale. This is often an issue when moving from a steel shaft to graphite in your irons.

Aerotech Golf really has something with the Steelfiber shaft. To me it’s the most significant advancement in iron shaft technology in my lifetime. The construction is unique and the performance of the Steelfiber shafts far exceeded my expectations. Any golfer who is looking to take advantage of the benefits of composite shafts without sacrificing the control and consistency of steel shafts needs to take a look at these. The Steelfiber line of shafts is also available for woods and hybrids, and they have a composite wood shaft called the Claymore that has taken the world of professional Long Driving by storm. The Steelfiber shafts are priced comparably to other premium steel shafts, and I believe they are a better value. Give them a try, I know you won’t be disappointed. Let us know what you think or what your experience with them is like by leaving a comment.

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January 19, 2012