My Driver Saga - Don't Sleep On This Shaft

[Pupini]

First of all, thanks to everyone on this forum for the advice. Knowing that PGASS has a 90 return policy I purchased a Ping 410Max (Pro Stiff Shaft) two weeks ago because it was $100 off. At the same time, I scheduled a Driver fitting thinking that if I needed a shaft upgrade, I could still get it and I would be $100 ahead of the game since I already saved on the cost of the driver. I've never been fitted for a driver and it was an eye opening experience. Here's what I learned....

Before getting started, I told the club fitter that although I just bought a new club, but was open to anything -shaft upgrades, new driver, etc. I wanted him to keep an open mind so he could find the right driver for me. I also told him that I wasn't concerned as much about maximizing my distance on sweet spot hits, my focus was minimizing the damage on off-center hits or poor swings. I'm 5'4" with a swing speed between 108-113 and there are a lot of moving parts in my swing. Lots of leg action and sometimes poor hip rotation so my miss is often a push/block with a weak tail.

After warming up with a 7-iron, I took 10-15 swings with my 410 so we could determine a baseline. From there it was a fun exercise of trial and error trying different heads, shafts, combinations and fine tuning everything.

A few quick observations (from what I experienced during my fitting). All of today's high-end drivers are really good. The difference between club heads on well struck balls is minimal (a few yards). I hit the Ping 425 series, Titleist TSi3/TSi2, Sim 2, Callaway Epic series, Srixon, and the Cobra. 

I also tried a bunch of different shafts, Tensei Orange, Ventus Blue, Ventus Black, Mamiya Lin-Q Purple, and the KBS Tour Driven Red. Again, each of these shafts performed really well. I've read good reviews on this site about the Ventus and the Tensei, but the shaft that impressed me the most was the KBS Tour Driven. All shafts that I tried were X-stiff. Until now I've played a stiff shaft because I thought that my swing speed fell into the stiff category. The Tensei was good, but it didn't produce the low spin rates I was searching for on mishits. The Ventus Blue and the Lin-Q were both excellent. Good spin rates and overall distance. Very good and I would recommend both. The KBS was a clear winner. I had my three best hits of the entire session with that shaft and the Ping 425 LST.  If anyone is looking at a shaft upgrade, I would highly recommend putting the KBS in the mix.

In the end, I wound-up going with the Ping 425LST with the KBS Tour Driven Shaft XS. The combination of the two here spot on for me. The dispersion of my misses was reduced greatly because it kept my spin rate below 3000. My miss tends to be towards the toe and high on the face. There we some balls that I hit on toe that carried 260, rolled another 20 yards, and they were only 20 yards offline. Previous setups would have that ball 30 yards offline. It was very impressive to see how important finding right combination of head and driver are in results. While recommendations on shafts and club heads are great, nothing can replace a good fitting.

PGA SS used GC Quad for the fitting and the cost was $49. Not bad.

 

 

[cnosil]

The KBS shaft isn't on a lot of people's radar;  I just don't think KBS promotes it enough.  I have the shaft in my driver and I agree with you on it being a great shaft. 

[Pupini]

1 hour ago, cnosil said:

The KBS shaft isn't on a lot of people's radar;  I just don't think KBS promotes it enough.  I have the shaft in my driver and I agree with you on it being a great shaft. 

I wasn't familiar with it, but like I said, it was very impressive.

[03trdblack]

18 hours ago, cnosil said:

The KBS shaft isn't on a lot of people's radar;  I just don't think KBS promotes it enough.  I have the shaft in my driver and I agree with you on it being a great shaft. 

This but also that it's $350 and I haven't seen too many deals as far as upcharge costs with many manufacturers.

[cnosil]

This but also that it's $350 and I haven't seen too many deals as far as upcharge costs with many manufacturers.

You can find it for under $200 easily. I got mine for $91 on eBay since it was cut down fairly short but to the length I needed. .

[03trdblack]

6 hours ago, cnosil said:

You can find it for under $200 easily. I got mine for $91 on eBay since it was cut down fairly short but to the length I needed. .

$91 is a great price 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Dang and I just got a Tensei pro orange secondhand although I am still testing it out. When I go for another fitting, whenever that is, this will be on my list as I love the iron shafts. 

[PMookie]

On 3/10/2021 at 6:13 PM, cnosil said:

The KBS shaft isn't on a lot of people's radar;  I just don't think KBS promotes it enough.  I have the shaft in my driver and I agree with you on it being a great shaft. 

I’ve yet to see it “in the wild”.... I don’t know much about it.

[AcesAndHoles]

On 3/13/2021 at 1:23 AM, rbsiedsc said:

Dang and I just got a Tensei pro orange secondhand although I am still testing it out. When I go for another fitting, whenever that is, this will be on my list as I love the iron shafts. 

Check out the Hzrdus Smoke Black or Yellow if you get a chance. Cally Pre has them for as low as $70

[Pupini]

Thought I would give everyone a quick update. Picked-up my new Ping 425LST last week. First impression is that I made the right choice. I was able to play 18 holes and the results were eye opening. I hit 11 out of 14 fairways and my misses were 5-10 feet offline, not "other fairway" misses. I had swings that felt horrible and I expected to see the ball inline for the trees, but to my surprise, they held their line and wound-up in the rough, but playable. 

The result was my first sub-80 round in two years and I attribute it to more fairways hit and always having a playable ball of the tee.  I have another 18 scheduled for this weekend and I hope to see the same results.