Iron Shaft No Go

[GolfSpy_APH]

This may have been touched on in other threads, however as i was going through the BST locally here i saw a few deals on irons, but the shafts were ones I know I don't like or have had very bad performance with. So it seemed like a good conversation starter.

We often talk about shafts that work well for us. We hear a lot of Nippon, KBS and done DG users among others. However I want to know what shafts have you tried it tested that were just bad for?

Two in particular stuck out to me.

XP95s which i had in my Mizuno JPX EZ Forged. I really liked the irons, but could never get the consistent strikes I wanted. I then tested them in a Shop with other heads and had similar results. For me it's a hard no go for the XP95s.

The other are Aerotech Steelfibre. I will admit I have less experience with these, but the experience I did have was so bad I really don't even want to test them. It was in the epic irons as I recall steel fiber being stock option. I wish I was joking when I say I truly couldn't find the club face. 

I believe I'm pretty adaptable and can use most irons or shafts with some success, however these are hard passes.

 

[GolfSpy TCB]

32 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

This may have been touched on in other threads, however as i was going through the BST locally here i saw a few deals on irons, but the shafts were ones I know I don't like or have had very bad performance with. So it seemed like a good conversation starter.

We often talk about shafts that work well for us. We hear a lot of Nippon, KBS and done DG users among others. However I want to know what shafts have you tried it tested that were just bad for?

Two in particular stuck out to me.

XP95s which i had in my Mizuno JPX EZ Forged. I really liked the irons, but could never get the consistent strikes I wanted. I then tested them in a Shop with other heads and had similar results. For me it's a hard no go for the XP95s.

The other are Aerotech Steelfibre. I will admit I have less experience with these, but the experience I did have was so bad I really don't even want to test them. It was in the epic irons as I recall steel fiber being stock option. I wish I was joking when I say I truly couldn't find the club face. 

I believe I'm pretty adaptable and can use most irons or shafts with some success, however these are hard passes.

 

I played DG S300 most all my golfing life, until I was fit into my first set of irons early last year.  T200's with Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue Regulars.  I hit them ok, but I never felt like I got into a groove with them.  It wasn't until I was selected for the Nippon Tour115 shaft test that I realized how much they were impacting my game.  The Nippon Tour115 really brought those T200's to life for me.  I love the Tensei shafts in my woods... but something just wasn't working in the irons... maybe I needed a little more heft, or the profile of a steel shaft vs. a graphite shaft... but they just never worked for me. 

I did briefly test the MP20 HMB's with the Aerotech Steelfibre shafts prior to the T200's, and they were ok... nothing special for me.  I am now using the stock KBS Max 85 MT shafts in my Stealth Irons, and those seem to be a pretty good fit for me as well.  

I spend some effort finding the right Driver shaft for my swing - it makes sense that making the effort to match iron shaft profiles can make a difference... I have been guilty in the past in overlooking that key part of my bag, and just accepting what is installed in the head I want.  

I have two avenues I will be pursuing in 2023.  The first is getting fitted for one of the JPX 923 offerings, and will be taking the time to fully vet the shaft fitting during that process as well.  The other is related to the Otto-Phlex thread, and how that concept might work in an iron set for me.  But in the meantime, I have two iron sets with shafts I'm confident in... and a set of Mitsubishi Tensei shaft pulls that I'm not sure what to do with. 

[Blueberry_Squishie]

When I was a teenager, I played Dynamic Golds because that's what good players used (and playing around scratch, I was good). In my late 20s when I'd taken the game back up, I went for my first proper club fitting and the difference was amazing. I ended up in Dynamic gold SLs and I couldn't believe how much difference the mass of a shaft would matter. I'm not the strongest of guys so I have to be careful of mass so I don't have to put in huge effort to swing the club.

 

About 2 years ago I got fitted for my current irons. The fitter used the Mizuno Shaft Optimiser to narrow down shaft choice initially. I can't remember the specific shaft I tried first (I think it might have been in the Modus range), and it was counterbalanced. HATED IT! Hit two shots with it and handed it straight back to the fitter because it had the oddest feeling like you were swinging a club with no head. Luckily I loved the next recommendation of the $-Taper.

 

It's a bit odd that I hated the counterbalanced shaft in the irons but love the Hazrdus yellow in my driver.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Blueberry_Squishie