Tag: Golf Shaft

  • Aldila Tour Green Shaft

    Aldila Tour GreenAldila has been making graphite golf shafts for as long as I can remember, and has been one of the industry leaders for decades. Aldila is actually an Italian word that means “the next life” or “above and beyond” depending on the context. As manufacturing processes and materials continue to improve, golf shafts have become more and more precise and consistent. As of this writing, Aldila was leading the shaft count on the PGA Tour for more than 30 straight events.

    The Aldila Rogue shaft is currently the most popular shaft on the tour, and while we didn’t get to test out the Rogue, we got our hands on its little brother – the Aldila Tour Green shaft for some play testing recently. The Tour Green shaft is a constant taper wood shaft that is designed to launch the ball on a mid-low trajectory with tight dispersion and a smooth, consistent release. Featuring their Micro Laminate Technology, the Aldila Tour Green will be more consistent from shaft to shaft than competitors.

    Testing the Aldila Tour Green

    We fitted the Tour Green in two clubs for testing. The first is an Adams Super LS driver (9.5 degrees) and the other is a TaylorMade SLDR Mini Driver with 14 degrees of loft. Our professional club builder Glen Belden fitted the shafts according to the manufacturer specifications and we saw a marked improvement in performance over the stock shafts in both test clubs.

    In the Adams driver, the stock Fujikura Kuro Kage 60X shaft simply wasn’t stiff enough or consistent enough for the strong swinger that it belongs to. The Aldila Tour Green 65X shaft was able to bring down spin rates and the launch angle, eliminating the ballooning ball flight that sometimes plagued the golfer with the stock shaft. The owner also had to dial the adjustable face to the open position to counteract the tendency for the shaft to release early and hit the ball left. Once we got the Tour Green in there however, we set the club face back to square and the owner’s tee shots because more controllable and consistent. The Tour Green 65X did its job by bringing the trajectory down and the release is more predictable, leading to increased accuracy.

    Aldila MLT TechnologyThe next test subject was my TaylorMade SLDR Mini driver (14 degrees), fitted with the stock Fujikura Speeder 57S shaft. Since I play a heavier extra-stiff shaft, the 57 stiff was obviously inadequate for my 110+ mph swing speeds. Like the Adams Driver, I found the stock shaft to be wildly inconsistent at producing a repeatable ball. This was mostly due to the Fuji shaft not being stiff enough, but also because most OEM shafts are not ready for prime time. (See my footnote about this later.) I fitted the Aldila Tour Green 75X to the SLDR Mini and instantly transformed it. The Tour Green shaft turned the SLDR Mini Driver into a strong 3 wood that launched the ball on a high trajectory with low spin. The ball carries forever with this club, and the Tour Green shaft makes sure that the ball won’t balloon too high or with too much spin. The heavier weight of the Tour Green 75 shaft is perfect for fairway woods.

    Conclusion

    There isn’t much to say about the Aldila Tour Green shaft other than it simply performs as advertised. It gives the golfer a lower launch and lower spin for stronger players, without feeling “boardy” or too heavy. The Tour Green also has a sister shaft called the Tour Blue that has a slightly softer tip section for a higher ball flight. Both shafts are available through national retailers and custom club fitters for around $249. If you want to upgrade to the latest tour-proven technology and breathe new life into that 2 year-old driver, spending $249 for a new shaft will probably be a better investment than plunking down $400+ on yet another new driver making promises it can’t keep.

    Footnote on OEM Shafts

    In my experience of testing dozens of clubs every year since the mid 90s, I’ve learned that most stock OEM shafts are garbage to be perfectly honest. While the brand names are familiar, the shafts are mass produced and along the line the quality control process is scrapped to cut costs. I don’t mean to pick on the big guys, but my club builder has several 50 gallon drums full of OEM shafts from Callaway & TaylorMade that were pulled from clubs to be replaced with shafts that are properly fit to the player. Most of the shafts that are pulled from these clubs show huge variations in stiffness, weight and frequency readings, which explains why Joe Golfer can hit his buddy’s identical driver great, but his performs awful. It’s hard to know if the club you buy will have a good shaft nowadays, but you can give yourself a better chance of success by staying away from the stock “off the shelf” shaft when buying a new driver or fairway wood. Instead, go to the local golf shop and get fitted for the right shaft by a qualified fitting specialist, then order the driver with that shaft as a custom option. It may cost a bit more, but you’ll be more likely to get the right fit and get the most out of your investment.

  • Aerotech Steelfiber Shafts

    Aerotech Steelfiber ShaftsFor 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.

    matt-kuchar-aerotechThe 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.

    Cleveland CG16 Tour Concept IronsAerotech 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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