Graphite Design Tour AD Shafts - 2024 Forum Review

[GolfSpy AFG]

1 hour ago, Josh Parker said:

I saw a video on a comparison between the two shafts (ventus blue and UB) and the guy mentioned the handle on the UB feeling more stiff which could explain why you are seeing a push right?  The Ventus timing may just have you closing the club face that much faster because of the profile than with the UB.  

I know when I tried the UB it seemed more "boardy" than the ventus.  

Just a thought...

That seems like a pretty accurate description of what I’ve experienced.

[WaffleHouseTour]

Got out this morning before the temps hit the triple digits.  Have always wondered if the neighbors can hear the thwack of the ball hitting the net before breakfast….

One stinker in the group  

A little toe biased.  Probably doesn’t help that I’m gripping down - ironically to find the center of the club face.

[DukeStKing]

I played today in Quebec at my friend’s club. It had been raining a lot the past couple of days and it rained the last 4 holes. I can’t blame that they use meters or that the air up in Canada is different from New Jersey, but my distances with everything were off. My Canadian friends also noticed the difference- who knows? The AD VR performed well- I put a lot of balls in play, either on the fairway or the first cut. The stats are off with fairways hit, because of the last few holes as it started to rain and I’m not a “mudder” - although my muddah was mudder and my fatha was a betta mudder than my mutha… 

My longest drives were all 250 yards on the dot- most were 220-235. Some of the 235-240 drives were all carry, so I shouldn’t be too alarmed by the drop off in distance. This one I felt like I hit well and it was 239, but I saw the ball mark about 2 inches behind where it ended up:

 

I hit the 9 iron very well and it travelled a good 10-12 yards less than usual. This was the story all day- I clubbed up with every iron. The ball flight (still playing the G430 10k at +1 or 11.5*) was beautiful- just no roll with the soggy conditions. I lost a 4 drives to the right as my OTT swing reared its ugly head- I wish I could blame the rain for that, but that was all me. I’ll be playing my home course this week to see if the distance thing was just an anomaly or a Canadian conspiracy. (You got to keep your eye on those Canadians- with all their manners!) I’ll also get on a lunch monitor this week to get some numbers. Stay tuned.

 

Edited August 5 by DukeStKing
Type-o

[Nick_D]

On 8/4/2024 at 10:33 AM, GolfSpy_BNG said:

Not a good weekend for the TD Max/VF/Me combo. Hit just 1 fairway today and not many more yesterday.  I want off the planet bad and scrambled very well today the couple times I put myself in jail. 
 

The honeymoon period has ended for sure.  Hoping to get 2 more rounds in next weekend before putting the final touches on the review.  
 

Can’t wait to see everyone’s final thoughts. 

Looking forward to everyone's final thoughts as well! I'm hoping to get another round or two in this week to help make my decision. I'm finally starting to see some improvement though! Hit 6/13 fairways on Sunday, with most others just a few paces in the right rough. Only one was a huge miss out of bounds and the left side of the course is not even a thought in my mind which has been nice.

[GolfSpy_APH]

So GD testers - what's been your favorite and least favorite parts about these shafts?

[DukeStKing]

9 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

So GD testers - what's been your favorite and least favorite parts about these shafts?

I have found the AD VR to be very stable and smooth. It’s not boardy at all, but I wish it had more of a feeling of release. The stability has led to great results when it comes to hitting fairways; the lack of release has led to my one complaint: the VR is shorter than the Kai Li that came with my G430 10k. I need to confirm this in a launch monitor, but that’s what I’ve been feeling on the course over the past few weeks. 

[Alan Stewart]

11 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

So GD testers - what's been your favorite and least favorite parts about these shafts?

I am pleased with the stability of the shaft.  I knew the Tour AD UB was supposed to be more flexible in the mid section and the butt end and was interested to see how that translated to the stability and overall feel.  I have a smooth enough transition that we have tried regular flex at times and it always feels unstable or I just can't feel the head position.  Overall, the Tour AD UB was pretty good on both counts.

I improved my right miss and increased my fairways hit so I think the timing of this shaft was working for me once I got used to it.  I will be curious to see how much of that is swing and how much is equipment.  I have been working on driver more in practice than I have in years past.

I haven't found anything that I dislike performance wise.  Distance does not seem too different overall, maybe a little shorter, so no complaints there.  Height seems good, with the head lofted 1 degree down.  My predominant shot shape is fade and the fade seems tighter with the Tour AD UB.  It may not be the optimal shaft for me but it is certainly an acceptable choice.

I have a Trackman session with my swing coach today and will do a comparison back and forth between my old shaft and the Tour AD UB using the same head.  I plan on 5 swings, then swapping.  I want to have a total of at least 20, or maybe 25, reasonably good swings with each.

Overall distance, height, carry distance, average shot shape and dispersion circle are going to be primary objective metrics.

I also want to quantify, as much as possible, the subjective elements as well, feel, weight, balance, etc.

[pete1276]

Played 9 after work yesterday and Izzy the driver felt good.  Here's my tee shot on #3 at my home club.  Impact was a little on the toe, so it over drew a bit, but I was still in a pretty good spot in the left rough to go at the green.

  

 

I've found that with Izzy, I can increase my tempo a bit and get a little bit more out of him.  It protects me pretty well from those wild misses.  It just gives me a bit more confidence that I don't need to have this slow deliberate take away and that it'll load just fine with a bit quicker tempo.  I played around with it after the round with a sunset cooldown session.  

 

 

 

[WaffleHouseTour]

Today was a good day.  Mostly because I beat a buddy I've been playing with for 20 years for the first time ever...  But also because Uby performed well.   Got one of those little green arrows so I thought I whould share.

 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

20 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

So GD testers - what's been your favorite and least favorite parts about these shafts?

For me it’s hands down no question the feel. Smooth with a ton of kick.  I still need some more data via the mevo plus before making any final decisions 

[Golfspy_CG2]

Was late to this thread as its been a busy summer for me.  But the last hour and half of reading has been interesting to say the least
 

Really good job by all testers and good conversations 

@WaffleHouseTour i followed your results more closely than some of the others as i think i have mentioned before, we are very similar ball speeds and distances.  
 

I am encouraged by your results as i have a GT3 with the UB 5R on the way and will be a good comparison of sorts to my GT2 Autoflex.  
 

 

[WaffleHouseTour]

8 hours ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

@WaffleHouseTour i followed your results more closely than some of the others as i think i have mentioned before, we are very similar ball speeds and distances.  

So yer sayin we’re gettin old…
 

There are those that say speed is a trainable skill.  I want to believe that.  I thought I had made progress - but something went awry.  That will be be off season goal again.  Just have to find more sim time so I don’t groove in some funky movements. 

[Golfspy_CG2]

4 hours ago, WaffleHouseTour said:

So yer sayin we’re gettin old…
 

There are those that say speed is a trainable skill.  I want to believe that.  I thought I had made progress - but something went awry.  That will be be off season goal again.  Just have to find more sim time so I don’t groove in some funky movements. 

I think it can be.  I have the Rypsticks and when I followed the orogram for two weeks. I dis see some gains.   Now i kind of made yp my own routine using them before each round and ai think kt helps. 
But I plan to at some point get bsck on their routine.  

[WaffleHouseTour]

Another Green Arrow.  Not much, but a little.  The average is heading in the right direction.  And considering how frustrated I was with the rest of my game today I'll take what positives I can get. Its not UBy's fault my wedges were misbehaving...

Oh, and check out this monster crawling from a creek across the 7th fairway to a pond. 

 

[DukeStKing]

Might have to start building and ark here on the East Coast soon. The weather is awful. I got out yesterday and could only play 9, because the skies opened up. So with a limited number of drives (with zero roll I was able to tell my carry distance as every drive plugged), I hit most in the 230-235 range- one went 242. Any carry for me above 240 is good. So my numbers with the AD VR are close to the Kai Li in terms of distance. Dispersion was still good- although my first drive was a big slice - it was still playable (of course that was user error). Stay tuned. 

[Nick_D]

On 8/6/2024 at 11:05 PM, GolfSpy_APH said:

So GD testers - what's been your favorite and least favorite parts about these shafts?

I'll echo what the others have said and say the smooth feel is my favorite part. It really feels the same if I swing smooth or try to get after one. And so far that also has been my least favorite part as well  In the past I've liked shafts that feel very active in the swing and have a bit of a "kick". So its been a bit of an adjustment and I'm still trying to decide if it stays in the bag.

[pete1276]

Here are the results from my last simulator session before posting my final review.  Now that I've dialed in my Graphite Design Tour AD IZ (Izzy) shaft to 8.5°, I wanted to compare it against my Fujikura Ventus Red TR (Ginger) at the same setting.  I felt like Ginger was a little easier to turn over than Izzy, and the results showed. 

 

The ball speed and distances were virtually identical, but how they got there were very different.  I highlighted some of the key differences.

As you can see, the ball launched a bit lower with a little more spin with Izzy.  There were some issues with the simulator reading the spin, so I did have to discard some shots that were obvious misreads.  Even then it seemed that the spin numbers were still low overall than actual.  Still, I think this is still a valid test for comparison sake.

The overall height was a bit lower as well.  I really like the lower cut flight I was able to hit with Izzy, I felt like I had a lot more control with that flight.  Ginger performed admirably, but there was a bit more back and forth as far as shot shape.  Izzy was much more consistent.

For my swing, I feel like Izzy performs best on tighter driving courses where fairways are at a premium.  I can trust that little cut shot and let it fly.  My home course is one of those types of courses and I plan on using Izzy in our club championship this weekend.  I will let you know how it goes.

 

[pete1276]

On 8/6/2024 at 10:05 PM, GolfSpy_APH said:

So GD testers - what's been your favorite and least favorite parts about these shafts?

For me, my favorite part about Izzy is the consistency.  It seems that no matter what swing I show up with on any given day, I'm able to feel the shaft load and release on time.  I also really like the classic color scheme.

As far as least favorite, I would say that Izzy is a little more difficult for me to turn into a draw.  I'm the type of player that likes to be able to shape shots depending on need.  I can draw Izzy, but sometimes it feels like I really need to work to get the ball to turn over.  That's not necessarily a bad thing because many players only want a one-way miss. Izzy is great for that, if that's what you're looking for.  For me, if I want to try to draw the ball, I just have to make sure that I know my miss with Izzy on a draw is going to be a straight push, and I have to plan ahead to make sure that there's enough room out there to miss in that direction.  Fades are no problem with Izzy, that's his jam.  

[WaffleHouseTour]

Played 36 today.  Eighteen in a hit and giggle scramble and was playing well, so this evening went out and played 18 on my own scooting around the course in just over 2 hours.  Again, got the green up arrow from Arccos.  

Thought I lost my ball on the first hole, but it turned out I drove it over the hill (for the first time ever) and it rolled down toward the green.  I was looking way too short. 

Many of my fellow testers have described other shafts as feeling "board" - and I have to admit to not knowing what that feels like.  But I do feel the smooth and the release with Uby.  I usually have a good idea where it's going at impact.   Today my good shots were tight fades, and my bad shots were just over the top pulls that no shaft would stop.  In the scramble we used my drive 7 times - and I would not have been unhappy with the ones we did not if I was playing my own ball. I wasn't always the longest - though sometimes - but I was typically the most accurate. 

[WaffleHouseTour]

I was going to put this in my final review - which will be up momentarily - but that didn't seem like the right place, so I'll link to it here.

Because I chose the mid trajectory shaft, I’ve really wanted to try another version, specifically the IZ.   Last week I found and purchased a used Graphite Design IZ SR flex, used on eBay with a Taylor Made adapter already installed.  My hope was to surprise my fellow spies at the end with a comparison between my Graphite Design UB and an IZ in the same flex, but different advertised launch and spin characteristics.  As anyone who reads this thread knows, there has been quite a discussion about what difference a shaft makes.  However, after I got it I could tell something was off.  

  

When I compared it to my UB the decals and paint job didn’t match up.  While the shafts were the same length, the decals on the IZ were much closer to the tip of the shaft.  I did some investigating and discovered shafts purchased from Taylor Made are tip trimmed by an inch – that is their OEM spec.  So the shaft I got on line was trimmed at both the tip and the butt – thereby changing the flex at the tip (less launch) and making it a full flex stiffer.  That was definitely not what I wanted, and I thought that would be an unfair comparison.  

I did hit fifteen balls with it just to be sure, and the launch was no higher.  

So I’m still on the hunt, though I may break down and purchase a new uncut shaft.  If I can get my hands on one, I'll post again here. 

[DukeStKing]

Had a range session with the AD VR to compare before I go into the launch monitor (sun finally came out today after a week straight of rain). I hadn’t hit the Kai Li for a long time, as I’ve played my rounds exclusively with the AD VR. And I have to say, the Kai Li felt harsh in comparison to the AD VR. I’m officially spoiled by the VR’s smooth feel. While I could feel the Kai Li release more, I didn’t like it. I definitely preferred the smooth consistency (no big sensation of release through the ball) of the VR. The ball flight was better with the VR as I got a nice high trajectory that didn’t balloon- the Kai Li was lower for sure. Again the AD VR, was more consistent. I was hitting everything left, but the only hooks were with the Kai Li. I’ll get numbers tomorrow when I hit in my friends’s Foresight LM. Stay tuned. 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

Well I was trying to get some final data for the review and this is what happened. First time ever for me. Only caught my first 7 warmup swings and after it missed 2 in a row I had to check on it. Hopefully tomorrow after my round I can grab some data. 

[WaffleHouseTour]

3 hours ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

First time ever for me.

Welcome to my world… 

[Josh Parker]

3 hours ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

Well I was trying to get some final data for the review and this is what happened. First time ever for me. Only caught my first 7 warmup swings and after it missed 2 in a row I had to check on it. Hopefully tomorrow after my round I can grab some data. 

Hate to laugh... but this is anytime after 9am and up until 7pm. 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

Myself and a few others have posted our final reviews. Be sure to check them out

[DukeStKing]

I just posted my final review. Let me know if you have questions. 
 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

I managed to snag some quick data comparison between the VF and Aretera Blue this morning. Didn’t have a ton of time or a great swing so I only got about 4 shots each that were even close to normal. Bad swing day and more comparison needed for sure. 

[KC Golf]

Saw that GD has a couple of new shafts.  It will be interesting to see if and when they sell these new shafts in North America.

 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

12 minutes ago, KC Golf said:

Saw that GD has a couple of new shafts.  It will be interesting to see if and when they sell these new shafts in North America.

 

Anti gravity already available at Pro’s Choice and the GC available September 6th

[WaffleHouseTour]

Final review (waaay too long, sorry) is up here