Myth #2 - Graphite shafts are for slower swingers

If that was the case, why do long-driver champions and PGA Tour players all use graphite in their woods and hybrids? The main function of graphite shafts is to govern the overall weight of the club. A steel shaft can weigh as much as 132 grams down to 85 grams whereas a graphite shaft can go from 125 grams down to 39 grams. If you need to go lighter, as we do with wooden clubs, graphite becomes the norm. The reason is because to make a steels shaft lighter, you can only either thin out the wall thickness or make the shaft thinner, both of which have their limits for strength, whereas graphite fibres are naturally lighter to start with.

Myth #3 - Graphite doesn’t feel as good as steel

Feel is always going to be subjective but I’ve recently installed some graphite shafts into a Ryder Cup players irons to make the heads feel softer. I use graphite in every one of my clubs including my putter to dampen the vibration at impact after suffering with painful wrists from increased practice time a few years ago.

Myth #4 - Lighter shafts hit the ball higher than heavy shafts

Ok, there’s some truth in this because manufacturers assume that a golfer wanting a lighter product will also want to get the ball up in the air more and will design the shaft to do so. The reality is that a stiff flex lightweight shaft (steel or graphite), will naturally have a stiffer tip section where it enters the head than the same flex in a heavy shaft as they need to maintain the strength at this point. So, many lightweight shafts will actually hit the ball lower.

Myth #5 - Tour Pro’s get access to the best shafts and best fitting

This is totally believable and was very interesting to learn otherwise. Shaft manufacturers have tour reps who are there to service the equipment needs of the players on the different tours and help whichever company sponsors that player. Many pros will want to change their equipment mid-season as their game falters, or the course style and weather changes dramatically - the Phoenix Open in the desert and the Open Championship on British links would require totally different ball flights to win and the players can use the equipment to help them instead of just adjusting their style of play. Apparently there are four ways of getting your shafts into the hands of a player on Tour (none of them are paid to do so and ACCRA is used by 7 of the top 10 players at the moment including many of the biggest hitters like Tony Finau, Gary Woodland and Cameron Champ).

1. Hope that you’ve taken the players company rep/manager out to dinner recently when they want to try something new.
2. Hope that you’ve taken the Tour truck technician out to dinner recently.
3. Hope that you personally know the player
4. Hope that you’re in the right place at the right time when the player’s manager heads to the trucks to get some new shafts to try.

The fitting process then involves the different shaft reps scurrying to their vans to pick something that they ‘think’ will help the player fulfil their need - more height, less spin or whatever they’re after. They then have to guess what flex, tip trim and weight etc the player will want based on what length they know the player wants to use and put their option into the mix to be built up and tested. Two or three shots is usually the maximum a player will hit before making a decision - after this many shots the player will tend to make their own adjustments instinctively and the shaft is no longer the only element of change so it needs to work instantly.

I can see another couple of ways that tour players adopt a new shaft and it’s the same way that many of us do, which is never going to change. One would be because they’ve seen another player achieve success with a particular shaft and the other would be that they like the design or colour. This is more of a trial and error reason but one that exists nonetheless.