Testers Announced: Graphite Design Tour AD Shafts

[GolfSpy BOS]

Looking forward to following along here... particularly interested in any UB reviews as those have popped up on my radar more than once, but I haven't tried one.

 

Enjoy the testing! 

[LeverUp]

This is awesome. Can't wait to follow along and see the reviews! 

[Rob Person]

Congratulations everyone!  This is a big group for testing! Shafts is not an area I have started getting into yet,  so looking forward to your posts and updates!

[GolfSpy_BNG]

11 hours ago, bens197 said:

Congrats fellas. AD-VF guys I’m watching you

Oh man the pressure is real!  As the only one testing the VF I’ll do my best lol

[Patrick Dawes]

Is anyone testing the IZ I am super interested as it seems to have a similar profile to the Venturus Red

[bens197]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

Oh man the pressure is real!  As the only one testing the VF I’ll do my best lol

My man!  

[Timberwolfmadcat]

Congrats testers! Anyone gaming a ventus blue tr 7-x or tensei white/orange in a 60-tx? If so what did you go with

[IndyBonzo]

Congratulations testers!  Lots of eyes on this one!

[Jean D]

Congratulations to all the testers, great group! Looking forward to seeing your reviews!

[pete1276]

6 hours ago, Timberwolfmadcat said:

Congrats testers! Anyone gaming a ventus blue tr 7-x or tensei white/orange in a 60-tx? If so what did you go with

My current shaft is a Ventus Red TR 7-X, so it's just a slightly higher flighted version of the Blue TR 7-X.  I will be testing the Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 7-X.  I'll be submitting my intro here soon, stay tuned!

[pete1276]

13 hours ago, Patrick Dawes said:

Is anyone testing the IZ I am super interested as it seems to have a similar profile to the Venturus Red

Yes! I'll be testing the IZ in 7-X, and my current gamer is the Ventus Red TR, so I'm right there with you.

[rarce_torres]

I have the Original Ventus Blue Velocore in 6S....  any of the testers game this shaft and if so, what are you trying?

[Flashberry_golf73]

I swear I never get picked a scratch golfer but never get picked lol  

[GolfSpy_APH]

28 minutes ago, Flashberry_golf73 said:

I swear I never get picked a scratch golfer but never get picked lol  

Give this a read and you'll find out why you have yet to be picked!

[GolfSpy_APH]

29 minutes ago, Flashberry_golf73 said:

I swear I never get picked a scratch golfer but never get picked lol  

I'll add your three posts have been about not getting picked - get involved, start a thread, create a what's in your bag and engage in the community. We make it pretty clear how we do our selections and what we look for. 

[golfjunky79]

Give us some good reviews guys. Im told these are supposed to be some good shafts. Cant wait to read about your experiences with them congrats and hitem straight....

[KC Golf]

27 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

I'll add your three posts have been about not getting picked - get involved, start a thread, create a what's in your bag and engage in the community. We make it pretty clear how we do our selections and what we look for. 

All great ideas from someone who is trying to get more testers involved!

[chisag]

18 hours ago, Patrick Dawes said:

Is anyone testing the IZ I am super interested as it seems to have a similar profile to the Venturus Red

 

... As stated earlier those were my two gamers before the autoFlex. While performance is quite similar for my swing, the profiles and feel are different. The mid section of the IZ is softer and while they both have stiff tips the IZ has much more feel in the butt end/mid section and launches a little higher with a hair more spin. I have never hit a shaft with a stiffer butt than the Velo Red and it took some getting used to. When demoing shafts most fitters always thought it would be a good match for my swing but I never got along with the Ventus Red just taking 3 or 4 swings. Thankfully I got a great deal on a Red Velo in a new Stealth2 HD and after getting used to the "ultra stiff" butt section, it became my favorite shaft just nosing out my AD-IZ. 

... But my experience may be very different from a high swing speed, fast transition player and as always this MGS testing will have smooth swingers and aggressive swingers with slower and faster swing speeds and makes this thread so very interesting. 

[pete1276]

13 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... As stated earlier those were my two gamers before the autoFlex. While performance is quite similar for my swing, the profiles and feel are different. The mid section of the IZ is softer and while they both have stiff tips the IZ has much more feel in the butt end/mid section and launches a little higher with a hair more spin. I have never hit a shaft with a stiffer butt than the Velo Red and it took some getting used to. When demoing shafts most fitters always thought it would be a good match for my swing but I never got along with the Ventus Red just taking 3 or 4 swings. Thankfully I got a great deal on a Red Velo in a new Stealth2 HD and after getting used to the "ultra stiff" butt section, it became my favorite shaft just nosing out my AD-IZ. 

... But my experience may be very different from a high swing speed, fast transition player and as always this MGS testing will have smooth swingers and aggressive swingers with slower and faster swing speeds and makes this thread so very interesting. 

That is some great insight, and it pretty much aligns my expectations with this test.  It should be interesting, I'm definitely looking forward to trying a shaft that should have a little more feel.

[HikingMike]

This will be a super interesting one for me. I'm learning more about shafts now, after never really paying attention to them before

I think 8 is a great number here! Congrats to the 8 testers.

17 hours ago, bens197 said:

My man!  

On 7/2/2024 at 11:28 AM, Flerric said:

The golf gods have spoken, and you’re chosen to go on this amazing journey traveling to Paradise Shaft Island where you’ll receive a Golden Rod…forever hitting thunderous drives with the Tiger Heart Beat thumping as you pierce every fairway! 

Love it! I had to bring it to life... I feel like there should probably be some wolves in there too, but anyway, hahah.

Edited Wednesday at 05:58 PM by HikingMike

[fixyurdivot]

Woo-Hoo and congratulations spies!!  That's a good group testers there .  Have fun with the testing, I'll be interested to see how Graphite Design's latest shafts work out.

[DukeStKing]

6 hours ago, rarce_torres said:

I have the Original Ventus Blue Velocore in 6S....  any of the testers game this shaft and if so, what are you trying?

I played the Ventus Blue and now switch between the AD UB and Kai Li White in my Ping 430 10K. I’ll be testing the AD VR. All were/are 60 gram stiff. 
I had the Ventus Blue in a G425. I moved into the Graphite Design shafts because I really like their feel- more active than the Ventus Blue. 

Edited Wednesday at 09:03 PM by DukeStKing

[DukeStKing]

For those interested in GD shafts, I’m most looking forward to testing the claim in this graphic:

 

I have the AD UB in my Ping 430 Max 10K and it is definitely fade biased for me- not bad, but I struggle to turn balls over to the left (draw for me). I’m testing the VR and I’m most interested in seeing if the claim GD makes in the graph is correct and the VR is draw biased. Stay tuned! 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

My intro is up as is @WaffleHouseTour and @pete1276

 

Go check them out

[WaffleHouseTour]

On 7/2/2024 at 8:06 AM, Swood1994 said:

Congrats Testers this should be a fun one! I'll be curious to see what everyone gets fit for!

I think we are all "self fitting" - or at least I am.  Part of the experiment.  Based on the profiles and information they provide can we choose correctly.  Not like we get to hit three or for of them - at least not for me.   Trying to figure out what is supposed to "fit" your need and then see if it lives up to the billing. 

[RichL85]

Definitely following this one. If it still existed, I'd game the old YS-6+ today. That has been, by far, my favorite shaft. Hopefully this test can clear up some of the... confusion... with regards to the differences between the GD shafts.

[Josh Parker]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

My intro is up as is @WaffleHouseTour and @pete1276

 

Go check them out

Great intros guys!  The VR is one I really looked at. 

[t2490jh]

On 7/2/2024 at 3:50 PM, Rob Person said:

Congratulations everyone!  This is a big group for testing! Shafts is not an area I have started getting into yet,  so looking forward to your posts and updates!

 

On 7/2/2024 at 4:03 PM, GolfSpy_BNG said:

Oh man the pressure is real!  As the only one testing the VF I’ll do my best lol

 

4 hours ago, DukeStKing said:

For those interested in GD shafts, I’m most looking forward to testing the claim in this graphic:

 

I have the AD UB in my Ping 430 Max 10K and it is definitely fade biased for me- not bad, but I struggle to turn balls over to the left (draw for me). I’m testing the VR and I’m most interested in seeing if the claim GD makes in the graph is correct and the VR is draw biased. Stay tuned! 

This will be interesting to hear everyone's results.   I just went through this process myself in the last month.  My previous shaft was the Mitsubishi AV White 65 X-stiff.  I liked the shaft but it my dispersion to where I was aiming was off.   I also had a Callaway 3D Rogue LS head 9.5 lofted to 11.5.  I had a chance to buy a GD Tour AD HD shaft 65 is stiff at a very good price.  All I can say is wow.  So smooth and accurate.  Even my lousy shots in in the fairway.  I've only played with it twice buy now I'm down to 9 degrees (standard loft) and getting at least 10 more yards.    What I really like about the shaft is that I can tell where the head is at or if I'm late to my swing.

Then I tried to see if I wanted a GD tour AD fairway shaft for a 3-wood.   I went to PXG to test the Black Ops 3-wood.  I tested the CQ, VR, TP, UB, VF and XC shafts (all in 60-gram territory).    Long story short is I didn't like the black ops 3 wood.  What I can say is that the differences between the GD shafts are noticeably different but small if that makes sense.  Their number system and description are dead on.   I tested the VF shaft along with Ventus Black (which I had in a previous driver set up).  The VF was too much shaft for me, but it is so smooth.  If you have the proper swing speed, this shaft is a direct competitor to VB.  

I didn't like the CQ, VR, UB, or XC.  All went left for me, no curve but just left.  I liked the TP.  Anti-left all center to right of center.  The TP and HD are very similar.  However, the TP tip is stiffer which is quite noticeable.  I ended up with the HD fairway shaft is 60 grams in a Ping G430 head.  This combination is extremely forgiving and accurate.  

All I can say is that I had wished I had joined the GD family quite some time ago.

 

 

GD 

 

[pete1276]

My introduction has been posted, let me know if anyone has any follow-up questions.

[KC Golf]

9 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... As stated earlier those were my two gamers before the autoFlex. While performance is quite similar for my swing, the profiles and feel are different. The mid section of the IZ is softer and while they both have stiff tips the IZ has much more feel in the butt end/mid section and launches a little higher with a hair more spin. I have never hit a shaft with a stiffer butt than the Velo Red and it took some getting used to. When demoing shafts most fitters always thought it would be a good match for my swing but I never got along with the Ventus Red just taking 3 or 4 swings. Thankfully I got a great deal on a Red Velo in a new Stealth2 HD and after getting used to the "ultra stiff" butt section, it became my favorite shaft just nosing out my AD-IZ. 

... But my experience may be very different from a high swing speed, fast transition player and as always this MGS testing will have smooth swingers and aggressive swingers with slower and faster swing speeds and makes this thread so very interesting. 

Tried the IZ in a 5FW and loved it.  Before the AF has the Tour AD Di and it was fantastic gamer for me.  Always wanted to try the other DIs.