Graphite Design Tour AD Shafts - 2024 Forum Review

[GolfSpy AFG]

2 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

Question for the testers now that everyone has had the shafts for a bit.

Without an in person fitting and without an "online" fitting tool, how does everyone feel they did with their selections?  

Did it make choosing more difficult?

That's a great question.  For me, there are some unknowns in here but I have to say that I got it wrong.

As I mentioned in a previous post, last night I was able to hit 2 drives per hole on a twilight 9.  (That's only 5 drives per each driver; a couple of the holes are not driver holes.) It was the first time I'd hit my gamer (a TSR2 with a Ventus Blue 6s) since getting the PING and the UB.  I hit the PING okay, but I was killing the TSR 2...I hit every fairway with a nice little draw, with distances ranging between 270-290.  

Now, maybe that's less of an assessment of the UB and more of the PING head, but there is a buyer beware lesson here I think.  The UB is a solid shaft and a definite upgrade over the stock, but I'm learning that I'm frankly not enough of a gear head to be selecting shafts for myself without a fitting.

[Josh Parker]

26 minutes ago, GolfSpy AFG said:

That's a great question.  For me, there are some unknowns in here but I have to say that I got it wrong.

As I mentioned in a previous post, last night I was able to hit 2 drives per hole on a twilight 9.  (That's only 5 drivers per each driver; a couple of the holes are not driver holes.) It was the first time I'd hit my gamer (a TSR2 with a Ventus Blue 6s) since getting the PING and the UB.  I hit the PING okay, but I was killing the TSR 2...I hit every fairway with a nice little draw, with distances ranging between 270-290.  

Now, maybe that's less of an assessment of the UB and more of the PING head, but there is a buyer beware lesson here I think.  The UB is a solid shaft and a definite upgrade over the stock, but I'm learning that I'm frankly not enough of a gear head to be selecting shafts for myself without a fitting.

I had the UB and found it very "boardy" for me. 

I know the online fittings aren't the most accurate but it does give a buyer a little more hope on choosing if they can't do a true fitting. 

 

[RichL85]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy AFG said:

That's a great question.  For me, there are some unknowns in here but I have to say that I got it wrong.

As I mentioned in a previous post, last night I was able to hit 2 drives per hole on a twilight 9.  (That's only 5 drives per each driver; a couple of the holes are not driver holes.) It was the first time I'd hit my gamer (a TSR2 with a Ventus Blue 6s) since getting the PING and the UB.  I hit the PING okay, but I was killing the TSR 2...I hit every fairway with a nice little draw, with distances ranging between 270-290.  

Now, maybe that's less of an assessment of the UB and more of the PING head, but there is a buyer beware lesson here I think.  The UB is a solid shaft and a definite upgrade over the stock, but I'm learning that I'm frankly not enough of a gear head to be selecting shafts for myself without a fitting.

Out of curiosity, is there an option for you to swap the UB into the TSR2 to see if maybe it's more the PING head that isn't as cooperative?  I'm assuming no unless you are using universal adapters, but it would be interesting to see. 

[WaffleHouseTour]

6 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

Question for the testers now that everyone has had the shafts for a bit.

Without an in person fitting and without an "online" fitting tool, how does everyone feel they did with their selections?  

Did it make choosing more difficult?

Very good question.  I struggled with what to pick.  I also have trouble with "online" fitting tools...  "what is mid trajectory????"  "what is soft vs firm?" I want to see things side by side and put my eyes on them.  

My hope was to get a higher launch and trajectory without changing my swing - a higher flying arrow without raising the bow...  I struggled with what to choose.    I know I need to lower my spin.  So looking at the chart, what do I choose?

I was torn between the UB (my ultimate choice) and the DI and IZ.  Ideally I would have tried them out against each other.  But we were self fitting and I opted for a one step at a time approach. 

I did find the recommended speed to shaft flex chart and options helpful.  I think I did choose correctly on that.  I've found my speed has been pretty consistently in the range they suggested for a Stiff/Regular - and I think it is helping me get that club face closed.  Because the GD UB shaft is still in the shop being re-epoxied, I used my older stiffer Hzrdous, and I was back in slice city for a good part of my round this morning.  So i'm anxious to get the UB back in the game. 

I'd ask @kam89 or @pete1276 if I could borrow their shafts for a trial against my UB, but something tells me they are playing a much stiffer flex than what I should be in.  But sometime I want to try them (the DI and IZ) - I'll have to see if Austads or GG has them in stock...  Now that would be interesting... would a fitter actually put me in the UB, or something else.   But in the meantime I'll keep paying attention to my launch angle and see if I can get it a bit higher - that's my goal - or at least what my Mevo tells me I need to do to optimize my drives. 

 

[kam89]

6 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

Question for the testers now that everyone has had the shafts for a bit.

Without an in person fitting and without an "online" fitting tool, how does everyone feel they did with their selections?  

Did it make choosing more difficult?

I chose my shaft based on wanting a higher launch and lower spin. I admit I am not the most knowledgeable on shafts but given my results so far I feel like I chose pretty well. The shaft feels super stiff but almost a little whippy at the tip which took some getting used to but I'm really starting to like.  

 

 

 

I can swing this shaft much faster and still feels smooth, and has extended my fairway finder about 20 yrds.

[GolfSpy AFG]

3 hours ago, RichL85 said:

Out of curiosity, is there an option for you to swap the UB into the TSR2 to see if maybe it's more the PING head that isn't as cooperative?  I'm assuming no unless you are using universal adapters, but it would be interesting to see. 

I could explore that option, sure, but I'm really a fan of the Ventus by comparison to the point that I'm not sure I want to go to the trouble. I think part of what I'm learning about myself is that I'm not enough of a gear head or shaft aficionado to be able to make these sort of choices.  I'm a guy who needs a professional fitter.  

[DukeStKing]

10 hours ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

It does make it more difficult for sure. I have played plenty of their shafts and know my swing pretty well so that helped me. It has been pointed out plenty but the key is to understand that all GD shafts are based off the DI(blue board profile). So when you see their charts about launch/spin/bias/butt,middle,tip stiffness, it’s actually off the DI.  
 

This is part of the reason I have mentioned the Aretera a couple times when someone brings up the VF and Ventus Black. For me their feel is no where near the same even with my VF tipped 1.75” and the Ventus black I tried being untipped.  The Aretera Alpha One Grey is very much similar to the black for me. 

And to add to what @GolfSpy_BNG is saying, I’ve used the ADUB as my “control” with the PING G430 10k and have found that for me this chart had been accurate: 

if you take what @GolfSpy_BNG is saying about the DI, you can begin to get an idea to self-fit if you are inclined to do so (as I am). Of course some more reps are necessary on my part and getting back into a launch monitor after I’ve become completely accustomed to the VR will yield a better assessment . Stay tuned. 

[WaffleHouseTour]

Got Uby (if others are going to name their shafts I am too) back from the shop and put her into play today out at the Prairie Club.

Definitely a different feel. With the Hzrdous yesterday I was slicing. Today with Uby not a slice to be found. Some pulls. But some really good straight balls and a few draws. I’m clearly closing the face better. 
 

Was 103* out but with a 20mph wind in my face it only felt like 90* - and most importantly the epoxy held…. That is going to be in my head for a while. 

[DukeStKing]

8 minutes ago, WaffleHouseTour said:

Got Uby (if others are going to name their shafts I am too) back from the shop and put her into play today out at the Prairie Club.

Definitely a different feel. With the Hzrdous yesterday I was slicing. Today with Uby not a slice to be found. Some pulls. But some really good straight balls and a few draws. I’m clearly closing the face better. 
 

Was 103* out but with a 20mph wind in my face it only felt like 90* - and most importantly the epoxy held…. That is going to be in my head for a while. 

Great picture- just after impact! Well done! 
The great part about the heat is you get more carry.

[Alan Stewart]

On 7/24/2024 at 5:58 AM, Josh Parker said:

Question for the testers now that everyone has had the shafts for a bit.

Without an in person fitting and without an "online" fitting tool, how does everyone feel they did with their selections?  

Did it make choosing more difficult?

Graphite Design has such an array of shaft options to start with, so that process of sifting and winnowing took some head scratching.  Also, I have not hit any of their shafts before, so I was not sure of their starting points for defining their flex measurements.  So that made it a bit tough to start with but the joy of the InterWebs is the density of info (both signal and noise) available at your fingertips.

Instead of spending a more enjoyable hour or two in a hitting bay with a fitter trying and feeling the various options, I spent a couple of hours perusing websites that I have some level of trust in to find comparisons with shafts I have tried to narrow down my choice.  But it still felt a little like throwing up some grass to find wind speed and direction.

In the end, I think the choice I made was a good one and I am growing in my comfort with the new Tour AD UB 6S shaft. My driving Shots Gained has improved since the start of the test and I am very curious to get into the Trackman bay and swap out old with new to get real comparable numbers.

[Alan Stewart]

36 Holes with Tour AD UB 6S - 7/25 and 7/26 at Royal St. Patrick's Golf Links

TL/DR: Still liking the Tour AD UB shaft and learning how to hit with it more efficiently.  Overall up 2.0 Shots Gained-Driving for the most recent 4 rounds with the Tour AD UB compared to the 4 rounds before that with my HZRDUS Blue RDX.

7/25

Got out for an early round this morning and cruised through the course with 2 other guys as the first group of the tees.  We played in 2 hours and 50 minutes without feeling like we were rushing.  Great way to start a day.

Cooler temps, in the mid 60s to 71 when we finished.  Dewy but not wet and we chased the fairway mowing crew and then passed through them on No. 6.  So we were on untouched fairways after that.  No real wind to speak of.

Average driving distance including this than good hits, 254.2, with a long of 278 and 3 drives beyond 270.  Getting real close to my goal of 260 average.  Shortest 2 drives were 228 (sweeping fade that got up up short in the rough) and 235 (little pull into face of mound in rough). 

Throwing out the 2 holes where I hit less than driver, and another hole where the GPS position does not match up to where I hit my second shot from, I had 11 driver holes.  On 18, I hit the middle of the fairway but plugged into the grass bank above the fairway bunker on the fly.  Lost all my roll and I decided to include this drive in the numbers.

All of these swings were strong swings, though not really reaching for the stars.  I am getting more comfortable putting some effort into this shaft with decent results.

7/26

Another gorgeous day to be on the golf course!!

Almost the same result for today.  I didn't feel like I was as on with my tee balls but comparing the data, it was very close.  9/12 fairways and 257.7 avg distance with the 10 drives that were decently struck.

2 drives left off the yardage computation.  Hit one drive in the water (planned a fade and the dependable fade didn't show up). And one slider low drive pull slice. Not even sure how I made a swing like that. Made it to 198 yards when it stopped rolling.

 

 

Edited July 27 by Alan Stewart
Update for 2nd round this week.

[Nick_D]

Got in the garage for some numbers comparison between the CQ and my previous Maltby UL. 

Club and Ball speed are pretty much the same, however, you'll see the carry and total is quite a bit more in the CQ! Definitely a small sample size, but you'll see I delivered the club pretty consistently in all 14 shots when looking at club path and angle of attack. More to come, but what do you guys think? 

[DukeStKing]

5 hours ago, Nick_D said:

Got in the garage for some numbers comparison between the CQ and my previous Maltby UL. 

Club and Ball speed are pretty much the same, however, you'll see the carry and total is quite a bit more in the CQ! Definitely a small sample size, but you'll see I delivered the club pretty consistently in all 14 shots when looking at club path and angle of attack. More to come, but what do you guys think? 

Launch looks perfect at your (and my) swing speed. Spin is still a bit high, but clearly better than with the Maltby. What degree are you playing the head at- if you go down a degree that could help with spin, but you would want to try to increase your angle of attack by hitting more up on the ball to maintain that good launch angle. Have you ever tried the empty water bottle a foot ahead of your ball drill to force you to swing more up? 

[Nick_D]

8 hours ago, DukeStKing said:

Launch looks perfect at your (and my) swing speed. Spin is still a bit high, but clearly better than with the Maltby. What degree are you playing the head at- if you go down a degree that could help with spin, but you would want to try to increase your angle of attack by hitting more up on the ball to maintain that good launch angle. Have you ever tried the empty water bottle a foot ahead of your ball drill to force you to swing more up? 

I have a 10.5 degree head turned down to 9. Some of the spin could be side spin, when I hit a straighter ball flight the spin drops a bit like the one at ~2500. I can try to hit more up on the ball and see what that does to spin, I'd be curious to see what happens to the total carry as I imagine launch angle will go up as well. 

[DukeStKing]

1 hour ago, Nick_D said:

I have a 10.5 degree head turned down to 9. Some of the spin could be side spin, when I hit a straighter ball flight the spin drops a bit like the one at ~2500. I can try to hit more up on the ball and see what that does to spin, I'd be curious to see what happens to the total carry as I imagine launch angle will go up as well. 

If you’re struggling with side spin, then wouldn’t lower the loft. If you could get to 2500 that  would be perfect and you wouldn’t have to  hit up too much more than that. Personally, I would love to try to get my launch angle up to closer to +2. This is the chart I use to fit myself.

These are the ideal number ranges for players at our swing speed. 

Edited July 26 by DukeStKing

[Josh Parker]

15 hours ago, Nick_D said:

Got in the garage for some numbers comparison between the CQ and my previous Maltby UL. 

Club and Ball speed are pretty much the same, however, you'll see the carry and total is quite a bit more in the CQ! Definitely a small sample size, but you'll see I delivered the club pretty consistently in all 14 shots when looking at club path and angle of attack. More to come, but what do you guys think? 

It's always tough to figure out perfect numbers but alot of data I have found is around 12* launch and low 2k spin. 

Could try it back in your stance just a touch as you are hitting up on the ball plenty. 

[Nick_D]

20 minutes ago, DukeStKing said:

If you’re struggling with side spin, then wouldn’t lower the loft. If you could get to 2500 that  would be perfect and you wouldn’t have to  hit up too much more than that. Personally, I would love to try to get my launch angle up to closer to +2. This is the chart I use to fit myself.

These are the ideal number ranges for players at our swing speed. 

 

12 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

It's always tough to figure out perfect numbers but alot of data I have found is around 12* launch and low 2k spin. 

Could try it back in your stance just a touch as you are hitting up on the ball plenty. 

Obviously my biggest issue is the 10-11 degree out to in club path  I’ve been working with my club pro and hope to see that get a little better and I think the spin should follow suit 

[Josh Parker]

4 minutes ago, Nick_D said:

 

Obviously my biggest issue is the 10-11 degree out to in club path  I’ve been working with my club pro and hope to see that get a little better and I think the spin should follow suit 

Keep up the work!  All a process and one I'm working on almost daily. 

[WaffleHouseTour]

Good day with Uby. Played in a lot of wind. 

Like to keep seeing those little green arrows  - not happy w the over all score but it wasn’t Uby or the drivers fault .  Definately getting the club face closed  .  More lefts than rights  

  
 

complete side note unrelated to shafts (sorry) anyone ever been on Sportsbox?  My Skillest instructor has me working or trying to tighten up my knee flexion in an effort to restrict my backswing.  Fascinating stuff. Can see incremental improvement and how doing one thing impacts the rest of your body and movement 
 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

Gonna head out early tomorrow to try to grab some numbers with the VF vs the Aretera Blue 55/4.
 

Depending on how I feel, I’ll either play my VCT tourney round or use the round to play on course with the 2 shafts. 
 

Really looking forward to the comparison.   I told my local guy that my perfect shaft would be if the VF and Alpha One Grey had a baby.  Feel, right to left flight, and speed of the VF with the spin and launch of the Grey.

 

[Josh Parker]

14 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

Gonna head out early tomorrow to try to grab some numbers with the VF vs the Aretera Blue 55/4.
 

Depending on how I feel, I’ll either play my VCT tourney round or use the round to play on course with the 2 shafts. 
 

Really looking forward to the comparison.   I told my local guy that my perfect shaft would be if the VF and Alpha One Grey had a baby.  Feel, right to left flight, and speed of the VF with the spin and launch of the Grey.

 

Enjoy the round!

[Alan Stewart]

Just updated my report on my round from yesterday to add today's round on the same course.

On-course results are looking pretty strong so far.

Probably will head back to Trackman bay for A vs B testing next week.

[DukeStKing]

8 hours ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

Gonna head out early tomorrow to try to grab some numbers with the VF vs the Aretera Blue 55/4.
 

Depending on how I feel, I’ll either play my VCT tourney round or use the round to play on course with the 2 shafts. 
 

Really looking forward to the comparison.   I told my local guy that my perfect shaft would be if the VF and Alpha One Grey had a baby.  Feel, right to left flight, and speed of the VF with the spin and launch of the Grey.

 

When you look at the variety of GD shafts, I’m sure the VF had some illegitimate children with some other GD’s offerings…

[NM01]

On 7/25/2024 at 11:08 PM, Nick_D said:

Got in the garage for some numbers comparison between the CQ and my previous Maltby UL. 

Club and Ball speed are pretty much the same, however, you'll see the carry and total is quite a bit more in the CQ! Definitely a small sample size, but you'll see I delivered the club pretty consistently in all 14 shots when looking at club path and angle of attack. More to come, but what do you guys think? 

 

15 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

It's always tough to figure out perfect numbers but alot of data I have found is around 12* launch and low 2k spin. 

Could try it back in your stance just a touch as you are hitting up on the ball plenty. 

The club path is coming 10° out to in. That’s about 7° beyond where the optimal range is. 1-3° out to in or same in to out is a good range once you start reaching 5° it becomes an extreme.

I would look at setup and aim and then look at what’s happening early in the swing that causes this. My guess is handy get in early and club behind the hands

[WaffleHouseTour]

That blue shaft really pops…

And three rounds in a row with a little green arrow.  Again, the three club wind wore me out, messed with my short game more than my driving.  The last two days the GHIN has adjusted +2 and +3 PCC

[GolfSpy_BNG]

Thought for sure I’d have some updates today but this morning there was too ouch humidity or something as the Mevo kept misreading or just plain missing shots.  Ended up playing the Aretera the whole round as I forgot to switch it out before getting to the first tee.  Tomorrow’s round will be just the VG unless I get lucky and no ones on the course so I can switch around

[KC Golf]

Great work by the Testers so far.  Keep it up!  Loving that everyone is trying a different GD shaft…  Have only tried a couple so it’s interesting to see the different shafts and the performance variations. 

[GolfSpy AFG]

Another round in the books today, 77, but driver was a liability.  27 more holes tomorrow and then I'll have some comparison info.  Spoiler alert: I'm not sure the Graphite Design UB and I are going to keep seeing each other.  It's not the shaft, it's me.  It's something I'm going through... 

[Josh Parker]

8 hours ago, GolfSpy AFG said:

Another round in the books today, 77, but driver was a liability.  27 more holes tomorrow and then I'll have some comparison info.  Spoiler alert: I'm not sure the Graphite Design UB and I are going to keep seeing each other.  It's not the shaft, it's me.  It's something I'm going through... 

Nice round. Hate to hear the UB isn't working out.  

[GolfSpy_BNG]

Did get out this morning for 18. Felt I played really well. Driving was just decent except for the duck hook ob on 18 that lead to a triple.  As of now I’m finding good consistency with a constant right to left flight. It’s plenty long as well and has good kick to it.   Got a couple more weeks to get it perfectly dialed in before playing one of the top courses in Iowa(or so I’m told). 
 

I’ll leave this video here for those interested to see the VF in action.  Proper line for this dogleg right for me is right down the tree line you see as at the top of the hill it turns sharp right.