John in SATX

As a walker of golf, I wear what feels good. I’ve found that Skechers Arch Fit golf shoes feel pretty good and required very little break-in. But now my favorite shoes for walking golf aren’t even golf shoes. They have grip, but no spikes, as being a walker, I prefer spikeless shoes. Right now my feet are enjoying the Under Armour HOVR Machina Off Road CH1’s. They’re fricken awesome. I feel like walking another 18 when I’m done with my round.

As far as premium sunglasses, I enjoy my Costa Jose’s with the blue reflection lenses on the outside, but amber lenses when looking through them. I guess I’m one of those weird guys who actually prefers polarized glasses for golf. For me, it helps me see things with “pop”, to include seeing the undulations in the greens better. For a cheaper brand, I’ve really become a fan of Shady Rays at www.shadyrays.com.

Picked up a box of each the regular Z-Star Divide and the Z-Star XV divide. Played about 3 holes with the Z-Star and the rest of the round with the XV divide. Verdict: played pretty much like the solid color Z-Stars I’m used to playing. One thing I noticed about playing the 1/2 yellow/white Z-Stars was it was much more difficult to “see” the spin, as compared to the Q-stars 1/2 yellow/red or yellow/orange I’ve given a try in the past. It may have been because it was an overcast day, but I just didn’t notice the “blinking” spin as with the more drastic color different Q-Stars. Definitely perform better than the Q-Stars, e.g. drop and stop on the greens. Definitely still see a well struck putt vs a “wobble” putt. Gonna be my gamer for the foreseeable future.

So TSCHOTT, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’d have to agree with other folks posting negative about the Steadfast shafts. I hate that I haven’t been back on to update my original posts that CNOSIL linked for you above. So here’s the gist. I saw the steadfast shaft review on TXG’s YouTube channel and it got my interest. I tinker building clubs for myself and some local gaggle buddies. I bought the driver shift stiff flex, and glued my own titleist head adapter, etc. For what it was worth, the shaft was pretty close to what they’d advertised it as. Although it wasn’t truly spineless as they said, it did take me awhile to locate shaft spine. It was also very low torque. To this date, it has performed flawlessly! I recently paid $100 for a new driver fitting, as my 917D2 is getting a bit old. The tech ran me through the gambit of shafts, and club heads from various makers, Titleist, Taylormade, Callaway, Ping, Cobra, and shafts up to $399 per shaft, as that was my budget. Nothing outperformed my 917D2 with this beast of a shaft. I say beast because I prefer a heavy club, and when the young man grabbed my driver to take some preliminary weight and measurements, he had to go ask another tech to verify his readings thinking the scale was out of calibration. I chuckled and told him “F2” and he said “exactly!” He called my club Thor’s Hammer from then on. I love it because I can swing for the fences and due to the very low torque, my ball goes where I want it to go. Aka, I can work it as needed. Now you’re probably saying, “dude, sounds too good to be true!” Well, I believe I did indeed find the unicorn of a shaft. I ordered it from Steadfast golf when they were located in Missouri. I don’t know if the owner got a divorce and lost half of his mind, but the Steadfast in Florida is completed garbage! Impressed with my driver shaft, a few months later I ordered the 3 wood shaft stiff flex. It arrived and literally had globs of hardened goo all the way down the entire shaft. I immediately emailed the company with pictures of the shaft. It appeared to be made by a local fair’s cotton candy maker and then glossed with a hardener. The lumps were so profuse they’d literally act as a speed brake on an aircraft. No clubhead control, complete junk. Not one response from the company other than that’s the “wrapping process”. My friend, I couldn’t get them to acknowledge my existence after that, I wanted to return it and get a refund. Nothing. I wouldn’t use this POS as a cane fishing pole. I don’t know what happened to quality from Missouri to Florida, but something went sideways with Steadfast. When it comes to this company, tell the money in your wallet to “Standfast”.

I’m 48 and switched to graphite irons about 3 years ago. I play the Mitsubishi AV AM2 Red stiff shafts. I love them. Get fitted for your swing. I also love that they don’t get rust spots if I forget to clean them after a damp round!

So it’s been a little over 3 months since I installed the stiff flex steadfast shaft on my driver. Again, I got it “raw”, and scuffed the tip before installing my titleist shaft adapter. I haven’t had one problem with the shaft at all. My playing partners admire my shot shaping ability with this shaft, as I’ve become quite accustomed to it now. I can really work the drives, straight, fade, or the new love of mine, the rolling draw. The one thing I’ve noticed is I can really “go for it”! Swinging without caution used to result in a wicked slice. Now I’m long and predictable, in control. I’ve realistically gained an additional 15-20 yards. I just ordered a 3 wood shaft today, and I noticed the company appears to have moved from Missouri to Florida. I’m hoping the fairway shaft performs as well as the driver, as my “going for it” goes from a knowing fade to an excessive slice. I’d like to be able to set up to the ball pretty much the same as I do my driver, and just change club face angle to shape shots vs worrying about how far forward the ball must be in my stance to determine desired shot shaping.

So I bought a box yesterday for today’s round with my gaggle. Never played a Srixon before, and was a little worried after reading the mygolfspy review of the previous Q Star Tours being out of round in shape. Additionally, I was worried about the potential for the two halves to split, or start to fall apart. As far as “looks” I couldn’t care less, I already play yellow balls as I have a hard time tracking my shots ever since I had lasik a few years ago. 20/15 vision, just can’t see a white ball against grey clouds anymore. I’ve been playing the Snell MTB-X or Pro V1’s, but I’ve found defects in the last two boxes of 2021 Pro V1’s I bought, so I figured these couldn’t be any worse than the Pro V1’s. Now I’m that weird guy that opens boxes in the store and inspects the product before purchase. Anyhow, as an 11 handicap, I expected today’s round to go “not so well”, as I usually stick to a ball and play it forsaking all others. I find folks that play “whatever they find” have unpredictable rounds. The ball is the one piece of equipment that is played from tee to hole, yet people drop shag balls and wonder why their consistency sucks. I’d been struggling with my putting lately, and figured these could maybe help. I was honestly shocked at how well they performed. Well I should say “it” performed, as I played the same ball the entire round! When I unboxed them yesterday, I took out my dial calipers to all 12. Not one of them was out of round, measuring across several axis on each ball. The ball I played today didn’t even have a blemish at the end of the round. Fortunately (but unfortunately), I didn’t find any sand today, so I wasn’t able to test durability out of the sand. Now for performance. It felt softer off all of my club faces, driver through putter. Corresponding with what I’ve read between compression ratios between the Q Star Tours and PV1 or MTB-x. I noticed about 10 more yards on my drives, 100mph swing, and about 0-3 more yards on my 7 iron. I noticed the ball had about the same flight trajectories as my norm. With the MTB-x and the PV1’s my 7 iron usually hits the green and releases maybe 10 feet. My lob wedge usually hits, checks and stops or spins back a few feet. With the QStar Tour Divides, my 7 iron hit and released 10-20 feet...when releasing like my norm, pretty cool, however the couple of holes that released 20 feet, I admittedly wasn’t too happy about. My lob wedge hit and released about 5 feet, although a couple stopped on a dime after the initial landing...really clean contact on those two. The putting was fantastic. I like a softer ball with a putter, something I miss with the PV1 and Snell. Also, with the color split, you get instant feedback with a poor putt. I know it’s only one round, and only time will tell, but I shot an 80 today and was pleasantly surprised with the performance. First round in a very long time without anything worse than a bogey. Yeah, the fishing bobber jokes were in full force on the practice green this morning, but the money getting passed to me this afternoon had gained my gaggle’s interest. I’ll try to post a follow-up after next Sunday’s round.

Update to my “raw” steadfast stiff driver shaft. I was finally able to get out and play a full round today. Unfortunately the weather in San Antonio hasn’t been “good” golf weather lately, either too wet, too windy, or too cold. Today was sunny with about 4mph winds, but only 49*F, so still on the chilly side. Had no issues with the titleist driver adapter I epoxied onto the shaft. It stayed put just fine. Distance wise, I’d say I played about average yardage, which being about 10-15 degrees cooler than what I normally play, maybe equals 5-10 yards longer than my previous Aldila Rip’d stiff. What I did notice was 9 of 14 fairways hit, and hit well, e.g. not far off from intended line. Of the 5 misses, 3 drew to the left and were two drivers lengths away from the fairway or less. 2 pushes to the right, straight right, no fade. The misses I could live with as they weren’t outside the trees lining the fairway. I did notice the shaft took my swingweight from about a D7 to an E0. I like a heavier swingweight, and what I found was my driver impacts wear very consistent around the center of the face. All in all, I’m pretty impressed with the shaft. I’ve reached out to the Steadfast company to see if they’d do a “raw” 3w shaft deal like their driver shaft. Unfortunately they haven’t replied.

Just received the Steadfast Raw driver shaft I’d ordered. Stiff flex. Being the “raw” shaft, it comes in its most basic state, no grip, no head adapter. I enjoy tweaking my clubs, and have no problem glueing the tips and gripping. I had read a lot online, but after watching a TXG YouTube video in steadfast and their low torque, it piqued my interest. Went to their website and found a hell of a deal for the raw shaft at $49! So here’s my assessment as an 11 handicap with moderate club building experience. 1. steadfast website mentions their shafts have “no spine”. While I found my steadfast shaft did have a spine, it was VERY difficult to pinpoint. I always align my shaft spines to minimize torque (face twist) on impact. 2. Noticed shaft was 1/2” longer than current 45” Aldila Rip’d I was playing. Used it as is as I was looking to go up 1/2” in length. Was surprised the shaft wasn’t longer requiring “butt” trimming as most other shafts do. Also, if looking for a 48”er, you’re not going to find it here. 3. There were a couple of defects I noticed on the shaft, one gouge within a 1/4” of the tip, and I the butt had a process “defect” all the way around the top 1/2” of the shaft near the butt. If trimming the butt, it have eliminated the defect. As it was, I just added a couple of layers of 1/2” grip tape around it to fill the void. As far as the tip, I scuffed it with some sand paper (as I always do before glueing) and installed the tip adapter with my 2 part epoxy and glass bead additive to give consistent spacing and adhesion. 4. If you’re looking for a “flashy” stick, this isn’t your shaft. Plain Jane and I even peeled the steadfast sticker off of the shaft. 5. Now for how it performs...like a dream come true!!! Took my titleist 917D driver to the range today to adjust the adapter setting for face angle. Hit over 100 drives. The harder I swung, the further the ball went. I had two pushes and 1 pull that neither drew or faded. The ball flies straight off from the delivery of the club head face. Most of my hits are near center. But had my share of heel and toe hits just to see the affects of mishits. I quite literally couldn’t mess up! Swing soft, straight, just not as far. Swing hard, and the 27 year old kid next to me looked at my 48yo self in awe like I was a beast! Looking forward to Sunday’s gaggle as my buddies will definitely inquire as to how I’m hitting so many fairways! Who cares about looks when $$$ is going into your wallet!?!?