EPIC battle of two shafts for one head! Who will win?

chershey · May 20, 2017

So I recently picked up a couple of shafts to test in my EPIC SZ driver and I've been hitting them both in my driver at the range all week to see which one performs better. Of course the range makes it very difficult to tell how far the balls are carrying or running out so I decided to play 9 holes on an empty course after work today and do a true test to find out which shaft will take the crown as the stick portion of the club I like to call my â€œBoomstick!â€

The two competitors are a tour issue Matrix Black Tie 70M4 X-Stiff shaft and a high end Graphite Design Tour AD TP7 Stiff shaft that was supposedly tipped 1 inch by Callaway. Both shafts play right at 45 inches.

From what I saw on the range, the Black Tie shaft launches lower than the Tour AD TP shaft but both shafts seem to be low spin. The Black Tie feels much stouter than the Tour AD TP. The TP shaft is one of best feeling shafts I've ever tried. That alone made me want that shaft to win the battle, but only the course can choose the winner.

Here's what I saw. First, I tested both shafts at 9 degrees in the EPIC SZ head. I was hitting 4 drives on every tee box (2 with each shaft). What I saw was higher launch from the TP shaft, which I liked, but the Black Tie seemed to be running out more and the distances overall were similar. Both were offering similar levels of forgiveness with my normal miss to the left (the dreaded hook).

On the 3^rd hole I decided to up the loft with the Black Tie shaft to 10 degrees and it was like a Eureka moment. All of a sudden the EPIC SZ with the Black Tie seemed to be ridiculously forgiving and was getting similar launch and spin to the TP shaft at 9 degrees. When I hit drives down the middle with both shafts the distances were similar, but I found that I was hitting a lot more fairways with the Black Tie shaft at 10 degrees. At one point, I decided to try the TP shaft at 10 degrees and it was a high spin disaster. I was testing distances using my Garmin GPS that allows you measure shots from a specific point.

Finally, I got to the 9^th and hole knew it was time to confirm whether the Black Tie was the correct shaft. The first drive was with the Black Tie and it was down the middle with a baby draw. The next shot was with the Tour AD TP and snap hooked left into the woods. Interesting. I hit the TP again on the 3^rd shot and faded it right in the woods trying to overcompensate for the hook. Not good! My final drive was to confirm once again with the Black Tie was working well and it was an identical ball flight to my first drive down the middle. Those were my best two drives of the day as they measured 305 and 309 on the GPS with a little wind helping.

So, I now feel like I can call a winner in this battle. The Matrix Black Tie 70M4 at 10 degrees, in the EPIC SZ, is a winner winner chicken dinner and will be in the bag for at least another week.

MDGolfHacker · May 20, 2017

Nice! I had the Matrix Black Tie stiff in a Callaway Razr Fit Extreme. It was just too stout for me and all I got out of it were fairly low drives. I gamed it for two years before getting rid of it. Glad it worked out for you!

MDGolfHacker