AutoFlex Dream7 Driver Shafts - 2024 Forum Member Review

[BallsLeon]

2 hours ago, Jean D said:

Well... I have a whole lot of "unlearning" to do with this shaft!  It will remind you how bad your backswing or downswing is- real fast. It loads at a completely different point in the swing than my other shafts and the learning curve is pretty steep at the moment.  I'm sure I'll get used to it fairly quickly but I've had to change my whole tempo (it's not a bad thing, just a lot of trial and error on my part) to get it to react and hit the ball "well". I not hitting it great at this point, I am just at the "what is the shaft doing?" stage of figuring it out. This particular range uses TopTracer technology and doesn't track spin data at all- which I want to track.  It also doesn't export the data you get from the technology.  Sigh.

Average is in green for the session- using range balls.  I tried using the 'newest' balls in the tub they gave me, but they are still range balls. Average ball speed has increased an average of 7 mph over my C6 shaft and 10 mph over my Tensei shaft (again using range balls from different ranges)  but still very early days of testing.  I have had to de-loft the head down to 9.5 (from 10.5) to stop from hitting in the 25+ degree launch angle at home on both Rapsodo and Garmin LM's and it seems to have translated well on the range.

I am planning on going to my local no-tech range tomorrow with the Rapsodo MLM2 Pro and Garmin R10 to hit some balls and see what kind of numbers I get.  Switching between shafts is going to be interesting... completely different feel and swing profiles. What could go wrong?

I must say I had a lot of people looking at the very bright orange shaft...which means I had a lot of people looking at me trying to hit.  I don't know how the Tour players hit a ball with a huge gallery watching!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent data @Jean D, and I have to agree with you that this shaft is a different kinda animal! Had my first chance to swing the shaft tonight... and here's a waggle test to show you what Jean is talking about:

 

Edited May 4 by BallsLeon

[BallsLeon]

On 5/2/2024 at 9:08 AM, BallsLeon said:

Dropped the autoFlex off this morning and hopped on the sim some to get some numbers with my current setup. Currently playing with a Callaway Rogue ST Max LS 10.5° head and a TENSEI AV White 65g Stiff shaft (trimmed to 44.5"). Not having a good swing day, not enough coffee, or a combination of the two left me with some middling results.

Averaging 95mph swing speed, but my efficiency is pretty terrible only averaging 197yd total with 1.29 smash factor. A lot of that has to do with hitting off the heel (also why the spin is so high), but I'm working on zeroing out my club path to hopefully find the center of the face more. While I have my good days where I am seeing more like ~250yd totals, this is pretty indicative of my average experience with my current setup as my Trackman driving average is only 209yds. After 10 or so swings I seem to get diminishing returns as I start to get tired with the 65g stiff shaft.

TL;DR for my current driver situation:


Throwing uncut extra-long Dream7 shaft on my too heavy driver head:

• Club Speed: +4.9mph
• Ball Speed: +11mph
• Carry: +27.1yds
• Total: +28yds
• Attack Angle: +1.5°
• Club Path: -.5R
• Height: +14ft (not pictured, ~80 previously)

There's definitely something here... instant club speed gains without really trying (hard to say, I was pretty amped up). Like @Jean D mentioned there is going to be some adjusting to how to swing this shaft to dial in that dispersion, but it was never very good to begin with so hard to complain. 

Played a sim round afterwards that went pretty well! Played Bonnie Doon Golf Club (Par 71, 5671yds, 69.0/124) and shot an 85 (42 front/43 back) which is pretty solid for me with a 14.6 differential. Was finding the fairway the whole round, but left some meat on the bone with my iron play tonight. Trackman Driving Average has ticked up to 210.6yds (from 209.3yds) and Fairways Hit% has ticked up to 44% (from 38%).

Not a bad start at all from the Dream 7, going back tomorrow to work with my fitter on dialing in length and driver head. Also, this note my fitter left on the box made me laugh:

[Autoflexusa]

7 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Mine arrived at 6pm last night; got it cut down to 46" and a C9 swingweight with my Pure Pro midsize grip.

Good to hear….FYI, being one of the original founders of Pure Grip's, hoping to see this combination work..lol

[Jean D]

A quick early morning session on the sim to work on tempo and it is starting to come together (ish). As @BallsLeon showed in his waggle test, the shaft loads/unloads differently than anything else I have hit to date...but speed increases are real! 

My fairways hit % is pretty good, but need to work on center strikes, launch angle, distance, not slicing... (among other things!)

Edited May 4 by Jean D

[ZMendle10]

Had a range session and this shaft is for sure taking some getting used to. While there were some stretches of hitting the ball in the middle I was still seeing some high and spiny shots or just couldn't close the club face. The ball flight was very much out to the right and only went left if I pulled it or tried to hit a hook which isn't a feeling I am a fan of. 

 

I'm not too sure if it's because of the length at 46 1/8in or the shaft itself but I am potentially thinking of cutting it down to 45.5in to gain some control back. I think the additional length is causing me to be more out to in as well and not make the most middle contact so we shall see. I might give it a few more sessions as is and one more round on the course before I make my decision. 

Edited May 4 by ZMendle10

[KC Golf]

41 minutes ago, ZMendle10 said:

Had a range session and this shaft is for sure taking some getting used to. While there were some stretches of hitting the ball in the middle I was still seeing some high and spiny shots or just couldn't close the club face. The ball flight was very much out to the right and only went left if I pulled it or tried to hit a hook which isn't a feeling I am a fan of. 

 

I'm not too sure if it's because of the length at 46 1/8in or the shaft itself but I am potentially thinking of cutting it down to 45.5in to gain some control back. I think the additional length is causing me to be more out to in as well and not make the most middle contact so we shall see. I might give it a few more sessions as is and one more round on the course before I make my decision. 

Interesting data points.  The speed improvement is impressive.

[ZMendle10]

1 hour ago, KC Golf said:

Interesting data points.  The speed improvement is impressive.

Speed gains are there but I am coming way out to in right now as I adjust which is probably compounding a lot of these small errors. When I get back from Austin I will dive into trackman hard to dial it all in and if it means a bit shorter length then so be it. 

[BallsLeon]

Met with my fitter, Sean, this morning to better dial in the shaft, talk about different head options, and general swing lesson.

To echo some of the sentiments @ZMendle10 brought up, we had a discussion on changing swing feels for this shaft. Sean advised me to feel more like I was “releasing” the club on my downswing for this shaft, and it’s something I will have to play with to get a feel for. He thinks the shaft is super interesting, and the potential for gains are definitely there but the feeling of the shaft might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

The shaft was playing at almost 47”, but we cut it down to 46” for now. He wants me to measure out .25” increments down the grip, and practice with my hands choked up to those positions. He doesn’t think 46” will be my final length, but he’s hesitant to chop it before I’ve experimented with it. We also landed on staying with the Callaway Rogue ST Max LS 10.5° head for now as he didn’t see any major improvements from other heads we tested and changing too many variables at once might do more harm than good. This will also be helpful for testing as I already have two other Callaway tipped shafts, and a second Callaway head available.

Taking her out for her maiden voyage tomorrow afternoon!

[Golfspy_CG2]

On 5/3/2024 at 1:21 PM, Rearviewmirror said:

Bummer, that's right in my swing speed - was hoping to see how someone in that zone got on. Thanks for the reply

With a tester right above and one right below your choice, i think you ‘ll be able to extrapolate a pretty good idea of what you might expect from the 505.  
 

[Autoflexusa]

You guys are all spot on so far….it takes time to make the adjustments with the Autoflex..but if you can make them…..watch out!!! It’s deadly!!!!

[Golfspy_CG2]

To share another demonstration on how this shaft loads heres a screenshot of an on course drive.  
The usual —the MLM reads short—disclaimer.  I know the carry is more than 180 as its 170 from the tips to carry past that tree.  And the ball was near the top of the tree when it went by.  So likely more 190 and the total was 228 when i got to the ball per my GPS shot tracker. 
 

That is all to say.  My normal drive on that hole is closer to 195.   I normally play up one tee.  But we were practicing for a tourney that was playing from this tee.  
 

so yes the loading of this shaft has helped distance and ball speed —about 4 mph faster than normal.  
 

Now also this is my original AF as th Dream 7 will be in hand early next week.  And obviously it wasnt a 4 hybrid.  I wanted to keep the stats from the AF separate friom my TSR

 

 

[Golfspy_CG2]

13 minutes ago, Autoflexusa said:

You guys are all spot on so far….it takes time to make the adjustments with the Autoflex..but if you can make them…..watch out!!! It’s deadly!!!!

So true.  I am coming from a very quick jerky transistion to having worked very hard on a 2 second or count full stop at the top.   I’m not quite Cameron Young yet in that regard.   But at least 50% of the time i do.  And as You say. Deadly!   Including one 248 yard last week which is my longest in at least 7 years.   
 

And heres the thing. Those 50% or so where i dont quite have the tempo yet.  They are still very good results. Often times equal to whaf one od my previous decent shots would be ans certainly miles better than what my previous bad would be. 

[Rearviewmirror]

34 minutes ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

With a tester right above and one right below your choice, i think you ‘ll be able to extrapolate a pretty good idea of what you might expect from the 505.  
 

Oh for sure, and I feel like a lot of the testers will go through the Autoflex swing adjustments. I also wonder how or if that'll affect people's swing consistency in fairway woods and irons.

I was more curious about the 505 in particular - one because it perfectly mirrors my own speeds, and two because if you look at the fitting chart the 405X is 90 to 105mph, then 505X is 105 to 115mph, and so I was curious who the 505 was a good fit for, given the other two X shafts cover all the speeds from 90 to 115mph.

[Autoflexusa]

6 minutes ago, Rearviewmirror said:

Oh for sure, and I feel like a lot of the testers will go through the Autoflex swing adjustments. I also wonder how or if that'll affect people's swing consistency in fairway woods and irons.

I was more curious about the 505 in particular - one because it perfectly mirrors my own speeds, and two because if you look at the fitting chart the 405X is 90 to 105mph, then 505X is 105 to 115mph, and so I was curious who the 505 was a good fit for, given the other two X shafts cover all the speeds from 90 to 115mph.

I just saw that I have Autoflex fairway woods and irons for sale!!! It must be a “meant to be” thing….

[Rearviewmirror]

3 minutes ago, Autoflexusa said:

I just saw that I have Autoflex fairway woods and irons for sale!!! It must be a “meant to be” thing….

I assume the irons look like this?

 

[Autoflexusa]

Just now, Rearviewmirror said:

I assume the irons look like this?

 

I see you have set already???

[Jean D]

Just back from the range for a quick 50 balls to get the AF swing figured out for my official first on-course game tomorrow.  I am still struggling with my transition in a major way and trying to hit through the ball (powering through) instead of just letting the shaft do the work for me.  I didn't get any data this time around- too many people at the range milling about that I didn't feel like pulling out a piece of technology and leave it behind me. 

I was hitting in the 170 yd carry  range ( nothing out to 200's total) with a strong fade on 40 of the 50 balls I hit.  I am a little nervous of taking the AF out for the round tomorrow, but that's what testing is all about!  Will be tracking on-course data tomorrow with TM On Course App. No way I can setup one of my launch monitors for every shot and not get kicked off the course!

Edited May 5 by Jean D
Oh look , typo's!

[ZMendle10]

1 hour ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

So true.  I am coming from a very quick jerky transistion to having worked very hard on a 2 second or count full stop at the top.   I’m not quite Cameron Young yet in that regard.   But at least 50% of the time i do.  And as You say. Deadly!   Including one 248 yard last week which is my longest in at least 7 years.   
 

And heres the thing. Those 50% or so where i dont quite have the tempo yet.  They are still very good results. Often times equal to whaf one od my previous decent shots would be ans certainly miles better than what my previous bad would be. 

This is very reaffirming in some struggles that I have been having with getting used to the shaft. To me this is shaping up to mean 2 things so far.

First is you absolutely have to get fitted to have this shaft dialed in. If you don't you will never get the most out of it. 

Second, be patient there are gains to be made and there will be an adjustment period similar to a swing change. The work has to be put in but the results will be worth it. 

3 hours ago, BallsLeon said:

The shaft was playing at almost 47”, but we cut it down to 46” for now. He wants me to measure out .25” increments down the grip, and practice with my hands choked up to those positions. He doesn’t think 46” will be my final length, but he’s hesitant to chop it before I’ve experimented with it.

Absolutely stealing this since I am for sure considering going shorter as a possibility. 

[ZMendle10]

Review has been updated with First Impressions. Really looking forward to getting back home to continue some testing already. Wednesday can't come soon enough!!

 

[Jean D]

Dang it @ZMendle10 beat me to it . Review has been updated with first impressions and fitting.

This is what a good portion of my simulator session was like... heel strikes for a really bad result... sigh. That's on me, not the shaft.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4 by Jean D

[ZMendle10]

16 hours ago, Jean D said:

Dang it @ZMendle10 beat me to it . Review has been updated with first impressions and fitting.

The race is on for the final review now.

 

Edited May 5 by ZMendle10

[Jean D]

Rained out for my round today so I spent time on the home sim with the MLM2 Pro.  I am slowly starting to figure out the shaft... very slowly.

@Golfspy_CG2 had suggested a pause at the top of my back swing before the transition... and that has worked quite well this morning.  My club speed is hovering in the 90- 95mph range and my ball speed seems to be stalled in the 130-140 mph range at the moment. I am not yet seeing a distance increase,  but I can finally start to hit the ball more consistently. 

To be perfectly honest, this shaft is making me feel like I've never hit a driver shot before. I can see there is a lot of potential there, but it is not instant "fix" to speed and distance- at least not for me to this point.  In all fairness to AF, I have only been hitting it for 3 days! I am already at 250 drives hit, I have no doubt I will be hitting well over a 1000 by the time the review is done!

Much more consistent results today:

 

Edited May 5 by Jean D

[chisag]

1 hour ago, ZMendle10 said:

The race is on for the final review now.

 

... Like your first time with the head cheerleader, it is about the journey and it isn't a race to the finish.    Plus I won't even have my Dream 7 til later this week. 

[Golfspy_CG2]

1 hour ago, chisag said:

 

... Like your first time with the head cheerleader, it is about the journey and it isn't a race to the finish.    Plus I won't even have my Dream 7 til later this week. 

CHI, you and I are older and wise and know you want to savior the good things and make them last.   
 

The two of us getting our shafts in hand a bit later than the others while purely an accident kind of lends to this reasoning.  Ha 

[chisag]

3 minutes ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

CHI, you and I are older and wise and know you want to savior the good things and make them last.   

 

... Amen! Best purchase I ever made was a new bike for my paper route when I was 10yrs old. Bought it on lay-away from my local hardware store and after putting down $10 I made payments every week until it was paid off. I stopped in to look at it soooooo many times and the anticipation was heavenly and stretched out for 6 months. 

[KC Golf]

2 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... Like your first time with the head cheerleader, it is about the journey and it isn't a race to the finish.    Plus I won't even have my Dream 7 til later this week. 

No idea about head cheerleaders, but I will hopefully get mine later this week too.

[Kenny B]

My first on-course tryout of the Autoflex Dream 7 shaft in my Callaway Epic Max driver head was truly...  EPIC!  My wife and I had to be in Spokane later in the day Saturday, so we teed off at 7:15am... early for us with temp around 43º and winds 15-20mph.  I brought no other driver or shaft, so I was playing this club no matter how poorly I hit it.  I spent about 15 minutes on the range getting used to the feel of the shaft.

Overall, I'm happy with the results.  I hit two poor drives; one pull off the heel into the penalty area on the par 4 #3 hole, but after the drop I survived with only a bogey... I've done a lot worse!!  On the short par 4 #14 I tried a punch shot with the driver; a shot I use with my driver.  Sometimes I go for the green if wind is favorable; other times I opt for 3W.  Clearly, the punch driver is not a shot to use with this driver, at least until I practice it on the range; timing was completely off.  Still managed a par save.

Other than those two poor strikes, I hit every fairway and I was longer off the tee than my normal driver shots.  Using the shot distance feature on my Garmin S62 GPS watch, I saw several total distances over 200y with my best one at 236y.  That's summer and 100º day distances for me; not mid-40's temperature days!  Our #5 and #6 holes are back2back par 5's with #5 typically playing into the wind.  On #5 I have a difficult time getting to the green in 3 shots, but yesterday I did.  Then on #6 I was 25 yards past my typical drive, so the wind didn't really hurt me.

I will also note two differences in ball flight.  Most noticeably, the ball is flying higher than my typical ball flight.  I have always been able to flight a ball lower, but struggled to get the ball higher when I wanted.  I don't seem to have that issue with the AF Epic combo, and I can still hit a lower shot if I need (well, maybe excluding the punch shot at this time ).  Second, this driver was point and shoot for me.  I loved the fact that the ball went where I expected it to go.  My initial thoughts after swinging the whippy club a few times were... sure I'm going to hit the ball further, but am I going to spray the ball everywhere.  Didn't happen.  Ball went straight; dispersion was better than my standard Epic Max driver.  Further investigation is needed to see if this is typical.  I hope it is!!

My wife took one swing with my AF Max combo driver without a practice swing on the par 5 #5.  The swingweight is more than she is used to with her Callaway driver, and her mishit was a low shot to the right side of the fairway.  However, the ball ended up longer than a similar mishit with her driver.  One of the tests we will be conducting is the AF Dream 7 shaft on her Callaway Epic Speed driver head, and she will play 18 holes with it.

Stay tuned!!

[Golfspy_CG2]

2 hours ago, Kenny B said:

My first on-course tryout of the Autoflex Dream 7 shaft in my Callaway Epic Max driver head was truly...  EPIC!  My wife and I had to be in Spokane later in the day Saturday, so we teed off at 7:15am... early for us with temp around 43º and winds 15-20mph.  I brought no other driver or shaft, so I was playing this club no matter how poorly I hit it.  I spent about 15 minutes on the range getting used to the feel of the shaft.

Overall, I'm happy with the results.  I hit two poor drives; one pull off the heel into the penalty area on the par 4 #3 hole, but after the drop I survived with only a bogey... I've done a lot worse!!  On the short par 4 #14 I tried a punch shot with the driver; a shot I use with my driver.  Sometimes I go for the green if wind is favorable; other times I opt for 3W.  Clearly, the punch driver is not a shot to use with this driver, at least until I practice it on the range; timing was completely off.  Still managed a par save.

Other than those two poor strikes, I hit every fairway and I was longer off the tee than my normal driver shots.  Using the shot distance feature on my Garmin S62 GPS watch, I saw several total distances over 200y with my best one at 236y.  That's summer and 100º day distances for me; not mid-40's temperature days!  Our #5 and #6 holes are back2back par 5's with #5 typically playing into the wind.  On #5 I have a difficult time getting to the green in 3 shots, but yesterday I did.  Then on #6 I was 25 yards past my typical drive, so the wind didn't really hurt me.

I will also note two differences in ball flight.  Most noticeably, the ball is flying higher than my typical ball flight.  I have always been able to flight a ball lower, but struggled to get the ball higher when I wanted.  I don't seem to have that issue with the AF Epic combo, and I can still hit a lower shot if I need (well, maybe excluding the punch shot at this time ).  Second, this driver was point and shoot for me.  I loved the fact that the ball went where I expected it to go.  My initial thoughts after swinging the whippy club a few times were... sure I'm going to hit the ball further, but am I going to spray the ball everywhere.  Didn't happen.  Ball went straight; dispersion was better than my standard Epic Max driver.  Further investigation is needed to see if this is typical.  I hope it is!!

My wife took one swing with my AF Max combo driver without a practice swing on the par 5 #5.  The swingweight is more than she is used to with her Callaway driver, and her mishit was a low shot to the right side of the fairway.  However, the ball ended up longer than a similar mishit with her driver.  One of the tests we will be conducting is the AF Dream 7 shaft on her Callaway Epic Speed driver head, and she will play 18 holes with it.

Stay tuned!!

Kenny that is some impressive performance in those conditions.   And your “ miss on No.3 is almost identical to what happened to me on Hole 2 this week.  A complete heel mis which isnt really my typical.  But it ended up about 187 yards in the left rough.   I didn’t save oar like you but that waa due to a poor 2nd shot

Nexr hole, i turned around and hit the best drive of the group into the fairway of an uphill dogleg left hole leaving only 122 in.  Im usually 140 to 150 out on that hole. 
 

[chisag]

... Watching Jake Knapp swing his driver makes me really want to hit the Autoflex Dream 7 in my Qi10. Gonna be another 5-6 days though. 

[Kenny B]

1 hour ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

Kenny that is some impressive performance in those conditions.   And your “ miss on No.3 is almost identical to what happened to me on Hole 2 this week.  A complete heel mis which isnt really my typical.  But it ended up about 187 yards in the left rough.   I didn’t save oar like you but that waa due to a poor 2nd shot

Nexr hole, i turned around and hit the best drive of the group into the fairway of an uphill dogleg left hole leaving only 122 in.  Im usually 140 to 150 out on that hole. 
 

That's a big difference in yardage!!  

On that miss on #3... there is water all down the left side of the fairway that also run in front of the green.  I normally don't go left; generally a slight fade.  The second shot is tough for me as it's all carry over the pond and a mishit into the water usually follows a poor tee shot like that.  Flushed it onto the green!!

After a par 3 #4, my next opportunity to hit driver is #5 par 5.  I usually land the ball into an upslope that kills distance, so my latest miss on this hole is to swing out of my shoes to get past the upslope.  That puts me around/in a group of trees; staring double in the face!  I made a nice smooth swing and the ball went straight down the fairway, over the upslope area, and down the backside of the slope.  I was on the NEXT upslope in the fairway... about 25 yards ahead of my usual shot.  Now I have hit the ball to the same location with my stock Epic Max, but only with a tailwind.  If anything, I had a slight headwind and still got to the green in 3 shots... very rare for me on this 525 yard hole into the typical 15-25mph wind.