Putter Shafts...Are the Aftermarket Shafts Really That Much Better?

[Wheelieb]

So I recently switched my putter to a Ping Prime Tyne 4. It has the normal Ping shaft on it and is fine. It has worked well for me so far. I had a Cobra 3D supernova that had a KBS CT tour shaft in it but don't really notice a difference. I know you can get graphite putter shafts, but are those even worth it? I had toyed around with maybe switching my iron shafts to graphite shafts, but until my body tells me that I'm to broke to swing the steel shafts, I won't be switching. But are aftermarket Putter shafts really worth it? 

[cnosil]

39 minutes ago, Wheelieb said:

But are aftermarket Putter shafts really worth it? 

You need to define worth.   Are you going to measure by hole, round, tournament, season?   Opinions will range from putting stroke is easy and they are a waste of money to they ar the best thing ever.  
 

if you saved 1/2 a stroke per round is that worth it to you?  Would it be worth it if you were playing a 4 day tournament and saved half a stroke per round?   What if you told  Scottie Scheffler that it would save him 2 strokes in a tournament?  

How about if you got your lag putts a foot closer on average?  

these types of changes are probably more season based because a putter shaft probably won’t save you multiple strokes a round.  

putting is made up of 4 skills: aim, stroke, touch, and read.   The shaft won’t help with aim or read so will it improve stroke or touch?

These shafts probably work a little better with heavier heads to reduce shaft deflection.    Or do they do nothing because the putting stroke is too slow to have deflection?  
 

the shafts will influence feel so will the change in feel give you a better stroke and help you start the ball on a better line with better speed?   Will the improved feel help speed control?  
 

basically all questions becuase there isn’t a definitive answer.  you have to try the shaft and see if there are marginal improvements over the course of a season.  And even with that some will see improvements and others won’t   

 

[Headhammer]

This was the topic of discussion on last night's @McGolf livestream. Jim, has done a 180 on the value of aftermarket stability shafts, with the caveat they are going help fine tune your game to get those last few 3 putts out of your round, but maybe not warranted for someone shooting triple digits or casual golfer.

[StrokerAce]

agree with @cnosil here. worth is different to every human on the planet.

putting is such a "feel" part of the game. from the grip to the shaft to the headweight to the length... you swing the club so slowly that you can feel everything about it. 

I'm not sure if it's been proven (or even how you would) that a multi-material shaft is better. unlike swing speed with the driver where it has been proven that the faster you swing the club the farther you will hit the ball. how do you 'prove' you make more putts with a MM shaft? 

does it feel 'right' to you? does it feel better? if so then maybe it is worth it... 

[cnosil]

11 minutes ago, StrokerAce said:

how do you 'prove' you make more putts with a MM shaft? 

That is done by season(s) long analytics to measure your  performance.    Because of the distances we are dealing with for putting the improvement or lack of improvement would only be fractional.    I don’t personally believe that a sputter shaft alone will take you from a 34 putt per round player to a 30 putt per round player.   
 

the other way to measure is to use systems like Capto, Puttlab, and Quintic to assess if you have improved face angle at impact, rhythm, ball speed, etc.   this is also not a 10 stroke assessment and should be done over time.   The initial fitting should give some indication of potential improvement; unfortunately there really isn’t an easy way to evaluate the aftermarket putter shafts since they are glued and no fitter is going to have a putter with all the options.   

[Preeway]

I've kicked this question around over the years and all I could determine is that the different shafts allow for different balance and swing weights based on the weight of the shaft. You could also change swing weight and balance with lead tape or counter balance weights. Seems odd to me to spend hundreds of dollars extra on a putter shaft when torque isn't coming into play. Maybe someone could enlighten me on anything I might be missing.

[Bobbers]

1 hour ago, Wheelieb said:

So I recently switched my putter to a Ping Prime Tyne 4. It has the normal Ping shaft on it and is fine. It has worked well for me so far. I had a Cobra 3D supernova that had a KBS CT tour shaft in it but don't really notice a difference. I know you can get graphite putter shafts, but are those even worth it? I had toyed around with maybe switching my iron shafts to graphite shafts, but until my body tells me that I'm to broke to swing the steel shafts, I won't be switching. But are aftermarket Putter shafts really worth it? 

My experience with the graphite shafts was along the lines of "I had no idea how much flex my steel putter shaft really had!"

If you're a halfway decent putter versus someone who approaches every putt as "poke and hope" I think you'd be surprised at how much, for a reasonable price in most cases, variance is removed from your stroke. 

That's one person's opinion of course.

[cnosil]

5 minutes ago, Preeway said:

I've kicked this question around over the years and all I could determine is that the different shafts allow for different balance and swing weights based on the weight of the shaft. You could also change swing weight and balance with lead tape or counter balance weights. Seems odd to me to spend hundreds of dollars extra on a putter shaft when torque isn't coming into play. Maybe someone could enlighten me on anything I might be missing.

They aren’t really focused on different balance points or swing weight; stroke lab is a different story.  Swing weight doesn’t really mean much with putters. BGT shafts advertise they have the same balance point as steel.     It is more about the stiffness and feel.   With heavier heads; especially with the new broomstick resurgence, the shaft bends/twists in transition and the stiffness profile of the newer shafts is designed to reduce the shaft deflection and twist to improve face angle at impact and center contact.   The shaft does deflect when you lift the putter off the ground to make a stroke. There is also torque when the ball hits off center.   
 

all that said, I’d recommend  focusing on skill development before I swapped out a putter shaft,  but I am a putter guy so I’d switch the shaft just because I can.  No different than switching driver shafts.   

[cnosil]

3 minutes ago, Bobbers said:

My experience with the graphite shafts was along the lines of "I had no idea how much flex my steel putter shaft really had!"

If you're a halfway decent putter versus someone who approaches every putt as "poke and hope" I think you'd be surprised at how much, for a reasonable price in most cases, variance is removed from your stroke. 

That's one person's opinion of course.

How did you measure improvement and what was the measured improvement?  

[Preeway]

6 minutes ago, Bobbers said:

My experience with the graphite shafts was along the lines of "I had no idea how much flex my steel putter shaft really had!"

If you're a halfway decent putter versus someone who approaches every putt as "poke and hope" I think you'd be surprised at how much, for a reasonable price in most cases, variance is removed from your stroke. 

That's one person's opinion of course.

Color me skeptical but I’d have to see some hard data in person on shaft flex with a putter strike. Just seems hard to get much flex with such a short and gentle swing. 

[Wheelieb]

3 hours ago, cnosil said:

That is done by season(s) long analytics to measure your  performance.    Because of the distances we are dealing with for putting the improvement or lack of improvement would only be fractional.    I don’t personally believe that a sputter shaft alone will take you from a 34 putt per round player to a 30 putt per round player.   
 

the other way to measure is to use systems like Capto, Puttlab, and Quintic to assess if you have improved face angle at impact, rhythm, ball speed, etc.   this is also not a 10 stroke assessment and should be done over time.   The initial fitting should give some indication of potential improvement; unfortunately there really isn’t an easy way to evaluate the aftermarket putter shafts since they are glued and no fitter is going to have a putter with all the options.   

This is probably the answer I was looking for, but just didn't want to admit that. I know driver shafts are fairly easy to find and test, I also know putter shafts are the complete opposite of that. I just am not well versed in the putter shaft world where as driver and wood shafts I know a little something that I can have a long conversation about them. I will take that as a hit on myself for not doing more research on this stuff when doing my rabbit hole research I have done. 

[cnosil]

6 minutes ago, Wheelieb said:

I will take that as a hit on myself for not doing more research on this stuff when doing my rabbit hole research I have done. 

No reason to take a hit, kind of a new area to research and there are lots of rabbit holes.  

[Wheelieb]

7 minutes ago, cnosil said:

No reason to take a hit, kind of a new area to research and there are lots of rabbit holes.  

Yeah, true. But to me it is one thing I neglected to look for, so I feel that's a hit on me for not doing the due diligence in research that I probably should have.