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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2005 (Part 2)

Tiger’s Driver, PX Update & New Shafts for 2005

Seems it never rains in Southern California

Seems I’ve often heard that kind of talk before

It never rains in California, but girl, ..don’t they warn ya?

It pours, man, it pours

--Albert Hammond, 1972

That was our story for most of December and the first week of January. We had to fit in a few rounds of golf between watching the approaching storms on the radar maps. But we played on New Year’s Day (my birthday). Eat your hearts out in Indiana and all those other States where you won’t tee it up until April.

Tiger’s Driver
I tracked down most of the answer to “The Big Mystery Question” -- as usual about Tiger. Everyone wants to know about Tiger’s driver. He hasn’t been driving it that well -- until lately. Maybe that’s why everyone wants to know what changed. He played his new driver at the Dunlop in Japan and won. He played it with his 15 best friends at the Target World Challenge and won. At the Mercedes, he led the field with a 298.5 yard driving average and won the longest drive contest with a 407 yard blast. I don’t agree with the cynical argument that the silly season events were cheap wins because they were in Japan or that the field was small. The trophies are real. They’re in Tiger’s trophy room.

Tiger’s new driver is the Nike Ignite 460 in 8.5¡ loft. That little tidbit came out in the Chronicles last month, but without a few key details. Tiger’s choice has to go down as one of the surprises of the year. That Tiger would go from his “retro” equipment to the biggest head in the business seems to be out of character. My conclusion last month was that if Tiger’s doing it, there must be something behind the “bigger is better” argument. Since last month, we’ve focused on larger size drivers, 440 cc and up. So far, our testing results are not quite 100 percent. I can’t say that 460 cc is the correct size for juniors and women. There’s an issue about keeping a club head in proper proportion. For a smaller player, it’s arguable that a 400 cc head is a little easier to handle at lower swing speeds. At the 460 cc size, you start thinking about wind resistance.

But, for average and better amateurs, there is little doubt that the 460 cc head size is an important breakthrough for distance and forgiveness. I admit I’m a golf snob. I like “classic” styles. No 460 cc head can be described as classic. Nevertheless, I’ve been playing the Nike 460cc Ignite for my last few rounds. It’s a very good driver. It goes straight most of the time. It NEVER goes right. It only goes left only if I suffer a spasm. I said it before; if you’re a golf snob, get over it. You’re going to buy a new driver in 2005. It will be 460 cc.

You will have a lot of choices. You won’t find a manufacturer that doesn’t offer the 460 cc size unless they’re on their way out of business. I’d look at Alpha, Nakashima, KZG, Ping, Cleveland and Callaway. Sorry for Taylor Made, that R7 is starting to look a little small. There will probably be a bunch of new models revealed at the PGA Show. I’ll compile a complete, exhaustive breakdown next month.

Late breaking news: Bill Kratzert reported from the Mercedes Championships on the Golf Channel. His entire segment was on how Tiger and Vijay are getting great results with new 460 cc drivers. Vijay’s new method: Hit it as far as you can and rely on your sand wedge to get the ball on the green. That might work at Kapalua (until the 13th on Sunday) and the Masters but it will be interesting to see how he plays the US Open. No matter, the drumbeat is on for 460 cc drivers.

Tiger’s Shaft
I tracked down the shaft Tiger is using. The scuttlebutt on the various online forums that originates from some guy peeking into Tiger’s bag at a tournament is that he’s playing the Graffaloy Blue shaft. Last month I broke the code on the real shaft that Tiger is playing but I ran into a variation of that old problem “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”

That warning got twisted around to “I told you and if you tell, I’ll have to kill you.” That possibility presented a problem. But this month I’ve got the complete scoop plus some testing on the new shaft from Mitsubishi.

Tiger is playing a Mitsubishi “Diamana” shaft. The Diamana is a derivative of the Mitsubishi Rayon that you’ve been reading about. Vijay, Tiger and others have been playing the Mitsubishi Rayon shafts for several months. The problem has been that no Mitsubishi shafts have been available for amateurs to buy. It’s strictly been an OEM shaft and “Tour Only” distribution. Mitsubishi is currently putting together a distribution network of select custom clubmakers. The new Diamana shafts will be available to clubmakers starting about February 15.

The Diamana comes in two weights, a 63 gram version and a much heavier 85 gram version. Torque is around 3¡. It’s a pretty silver color with the Diamana branding in a blue oval logo. Tiger, as you would expect, is playing the heavier model. Bob and I had a chance to mount a couple of Diamana shafts and give them a brief workout. We received the 63 gram models, thinking it wouldn’t do either of us much good to test Tiger’s actual shaft.

Bob went first. He mounted his Diamana “S” flex in a new lefty Nakashima 420 cc head. On the frequency meter, it was a pretty strong stiff, testing out at 258 CPM on our PCS Equalizer. That was a little less than we expected, but shows that Mitsubishi is not marketing pipes. In two trips to the range, he came back with a quizzical smile. Bob usually prefers slightly heavier shafts, which he likes to play in shorter lengths. He said that the Diamana gave him a good “pop” and that his drives held the line very well. He was surprised, given that the Diamana didn’t test overly stiff. He compared it favorably to the Fujikura Speeder 553 and rated it ahead of the ACCRA T-50 “X”. It definitely stays in the bag for a continued, serious on-course tryout.

I shafted up the Diamana “R”. I mounted it in an Alpha Reaction 9.5¡ head that we’ve been using to test shafts lately. It tested out to 242 CPM. I thought that was surprisingly soft for a high performance shaft. A normal player is going to be able to play the Diamana. The setup passed the driving range test and made it to the course on a very drippy Saturday -- the first tournament of the year at the Palo Alto Muni. I was frankly not expecting much. (I was a little jealous that Bob got the “S” flex.) But on the course, the shaft was a surprise. It didn’t play anything close to what I expected. Just like Bob, I was surprised at how well it held the line. No ballooning, no tendency to go “high right”. I purposely cut it a little long at 45.5” to leave and extra inch for tip trimming to firm it up at a later date. I don’t know of another shaft that would play that tight in that flex. The “R” flex Diamana reminded me of one my current favorites, the Fujikura SIX. I’m going to try the Diamana in the KZG Gemini 460 next.

Because of the weather and soggy course conditions, I couldn’t tell much about distance but I was a little surprised at where I ended up on three or four drives. I’m going to be anxious to try it on a day when I’ll really see if the promise of more distance is realized. The tournament results, you ask? An out-of-the-money 78. My belly putter was pouting for spending the last month in the closet.

We’ll have a chance to give the Mitsubishi line a more extensive test before next month so we should have plenty of follow-up information. It’s clear to me that the Diamana is going to be one of the hot performance shafts in 2005. Expect it to be priced in the Fujikura Speeder range.

The .350 hosel Conundrum
There’s one thought I just can’t get out of my mind. It’s all about drivers with .350 hosels that require .350 tip diameter shafts and whether they are really just for hacks. That’s the consensus opinion of the low-handicap snob crowd. There is a big difference in the second hand market. Take Taylor Made as an example. They offer their “consumer” line with .350 hosels requiring .350 shafts and their TP line -- Tour Proven -- line that accepts .335 shafts. The TP versions sell for good prices used on eBay and the consumer versions go begging by the thousands. But Makser makes all their drivers with .350 hosels. Nike makes their drivers with .350 hosels. Nikent uses the .350. Ping too. Cleveland ditto. Are all of these companies just trying to control the “warranty return” line item on their income statements? Or, is the .350 hosel a relentless trend that will dominate in the new, 460 cc era?

There is one unanswered question in the Great Tiger Driver Mystery. Is Tiger is playing a stock Nike head with a .350 shaft or are his heads a special run -- Nike’s own TP version? If you want to get someone puckered up at Nike, just tell them you’re a reporter and you want to know about Tiger’s driver. In fact, Tiger’s contract with Nike prohibits the company from talking about the exact specifications of Tiger’s driver. Tiger might not want his buddies to know -- or the Nike marketing managers have concluded that the question continues to be interesting only if they don’t answer it.

I wouldn’t care very much about this question if I didn’t have a nagging doubt that .350 hosel drivers and .350 tip diameter shafts might really be quite OK. To find out, I’ve been conducting my own orphan driver rescue operation, buying up a bunch of Taylor Made 580 XD’s from eBay. I was chasing some of the premium shafts that came in the 580’s, mainly the Mitsubishi Rayon OEM version, the Harmon CB, the Fuji VP 60 and the Graphite Design Purple Ice. I had in mind I would set all of these clubs up and find out once and for all if I could prove the .350 was better or worse. That should be interesting to a lot of Golf Today readers. If you want to buy a new driver with a .335 hosel, you won’t have much choice from the major OEM’s (except Titleist/Cobra) without paying a huge premium. Component manufacturers, on the other hand, are sticking with the .335 hosel size.

The rescue operation got me really interested in the Mitsubishi Rayon shafts. I pulled the drivers apart and PUREd the shafts. The SST PUREing process tests the shafts two ways. First it measures the force the shaft exerts around it’s circumference with the butt clamped and the tip tensioned. The result is a graph that looks like a sine wave that locates the “hard side” and the “soft side” and expresses the difference in force measured as a percentage. Shafts that are very consistent are graded “A” -- which is relatively rare, usually no more than 1 in 20 shafts. All of the Mitsubishi shafts graded “A”.

The second part of the SST PURE ª system locates the hard side at 9 o’clock in the line of flight and then finds the best “flat line oscillation” with sensitive instruments. Any “wobble” in the shafts is measured in fractions of an inch. Shafts are rejected that exceed .15” of wobble. All of the Rayon shafts PUREd up less than .05” vertical deviation. Once again, those were unusually good results.

There’s one problem. If you want to hit one of the Mitsubishi Rayon shafts that came with the TM 580 XD, you’d better be a gorilla. They tested out at 270 CPM, more or less. I gave the shaft a one day fling in my Nike head. My 110 MPH swingspeed would have needed a booster rocket to make the shaft perform. On the other hand, if you’re a strong player and are looking for a great shaft for a .350 head, you can’t go wrong with a Taylor Made Mitsubishi Rayon pullout. You’ll save a couple of hundred dollars to boot.

It’s no wonder to me that the 580 XD’s are for sale by the thousands on eBay. The drivers I tested are manufactured to strange specifications. They are 45.5” long and the swingweights varied from C-8 to D-1. I weighed a dozen heads and they varied between 195 and 202 grams. I test hit the drivers I bought in their original condition. I thought that they were difficult to hit -- no surprise they are orphans. All of the premium stiff flex shafts that were labeled “S” by their manufacturers tested out to over 268 CPM at 45”. That’s a solid “X” on the PCS Equalizer system that we rely on for interpreting shaft flex. Combined with the light head weight and long shafts, it’s no wonder they were for sale on eBay. Before I bought them, I thought they were cheap. After I tested them, I was afraid I paid too much.

For most amateurs, I don’t believe in playing a driver that’s too long. Most Tour Pros use drivers under 45”. They like shorter lengths and heavier heads. Major OEM’s want to sell a “standard” product, no matter whether the buyer is 6”5” and weights 250 or 5’4” and weighs 130. Before you go for the standard, you should find out which length and swingweight works best for you. A clubfitter with a launch monitor and good selection of demos can test your swing with different clubs. You might be surprised to find that you swing a shorter club faster. Clubs that are too long frequently have an adverse effect on swing path, causing an early release and outside-in pattern. If you find your “Magic Driver” off the rack, you’re just plain lucky.

As of now, we’ve got over a dozen Taylor Made drivers in various stages of disassembly. In the next month, Bob and I will PURE and frequency test all of the shafts, re-weight the heads, balance the clubs, trim the lengths and come up with a strategy for making off the rack Taylor Made drivers more playable for normal amateur golfers. The lessons learned should apply to other OEMs. In the process, we’ll enlist the Golf Lab Regulars to take them to the range and course and compare the playability of .350 shafts to .335. We will confirm or disprove our current theory that .350 shafts should be played a flex softer than .335’s.

The Party Line
As you might expect, no OEM will admit that the .335 tip diameter is better than the .350 models that they are selling to the public. However, they are all willing to discuss the “pros and cons”. At the very least, selling the .350 size is a difficult problem in an environment where PGA Tour play is the marketing method of choice. I’m wondering if there are any Tour players who have .350 shafts in their drivers? It would be so nice if a manufacturer would step up and say “all of our Tour Staff is playing straight stock products”. For the record, here are the pros and cons.

Pros:

1) Breakage -- less with lightweight, tip soft shafts.

2) Stability -- with larger head sizes.

3) Asthetics -- avoid the “Lollipop” look.

4) It’s just a matter of time until the Tour goes to .350 shafts.

5) Price Point -- it’s cheaper to make .350 shafts.

Cons:

1) Tradition. Tour Pros grew up playing .335 shafts.

2) Perception of more feel. Are you sure it’s only perception?

3) Most exotic, high performance shafts are only available in .335 models.

I promise to nail this subject down once and for all next month.

Followup on the Project X Story
About a year ago, I built out a set of irons with Japanese PRGR Data heads and the first release of Project X shafts in the 5.0 flex. At the time, we were totally spooked by how stiff the Project X shafts were playing so I soft stepped them twice.

Soft stepping refers to a clubmaking technique where shafts that are made for a two iron are inserted in the three iron and so on through the set. It is a technique that only applies to “constant weight” shafts. Constant weight shafts are manufactured in discreet lengths and get a little heavier as they get shorter so when they are trimmed to playing length, the three iron shaft will weigh the same as the wedge shaft. True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts, the most popular iron shafts on the PGA Tour, are constant weight. Rifle PX shafts are constant weight. Standard Rifles, including TFR’s, are not.

The theory behind soft stepping is that if you mount the two iron shaft in the three iron it will play a little softer. The tip will be a little more flexible so the ball will go a little higher. Softstepping doesn’t usually make a huge difference. It would be fair to call it “tweaking”. But soft stepping twice, mounting a one iron shaft in the three iron, is a little more extreme. After I played with the PRGR irons just once, I though they were too soft and the ball went too high so I laid them aside for almost a year. A couple of weeks ago, I gave the setup one more chance before buying it a one way ticket back to the parts bin.

I walked out on a Sunday morning for a casual round with Heather and a couple of Paly regulars without stopping at the range so the first hole was devoted to getting loose. On the second hole I hit a high six iron about 175 yards to six feet. That got my attention. I missed a seven iron to fifteen feet on the par three third. More attention. A couple of four irons went nice and high with a little draw. Several other iron shots finished closer to the hole than normal. I shot a smooth and unspectacular 77. I’d have left the set alone and played it again except that I thought that the short irons were going a little too high.

My swingspeed with a 5 iron is 90 MPH. I hit a 5 iron about 185 on a clear warm day with the wind at my back. I’ve set up three sets of Project X irons with various heads that I’ve played more than once. I’m convinced that 5.0 is a good flex for me. But don’t believe the flex numbers on PX shafts. If you trust in the Professional Clubmakers’ Society Equalizer system, which we do, your 5.0 PX shafts are going to test out just a little south of 6.5 -- a nice soft “X” flex. If that’s confusing, have a look at some of my prior articles, all archived on the Golf Lab website: www.calgolftech.com or www.golftodaymagazine.com.

One More PX Tweak
I decided to take one “step” back. I took the PRGR irons apart and installed the two iron shaft into the three iron and so forth down the line. To make up for the half inch I lost in length, I epoxied the Balance-Certified adapters into the shaft butt. I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and give backweighting another try with the PX shafts. On the range, the PRGRs were great. Compared head to head with my current “gamers” the Ping I3 blades set up with straight PX 5.0’s, the PRGR’s trajectory came down a little. I thought I felt a little more kick. And I started to think that the feel of forged heads was actually detectable (again).

Combined with the Balance-Certified counterweight system, the PRGR’s are going to be my new gamers for at least the next few weeks. In the meantime, I’m going to watch those long irons very closely. There is no reason that you have to install shafts just as they come in a “set”. I really liked the way the long irons got up into the air with the double softstepped setup. Nothing says I can’t change out shafts one at a time. In a couple of weeks, I might have that one iron shaft back in the three iron, and the two iron shaft in the four iron to get the exact ball flight I want. Take a lesson from Bobby Jones. He bought his clubs one at a time.

What’s the Story behind “Nano Technology”
You must have noticed the buzz around Nano Technology. Accuflex and Aldila came out with “Nano” shafts in the Fall. I thought it would be a good idea to track down just what Nano means for golf shafts and if it’s going to be important in 2005.

We had a chance to test out the Aldila “Protopype” and the Accuflex Evolution at the Golf Lab in December. They were good shafts, but it’s questionable how they relate to the nanotechnology that you read about in Scientific American.

Golf shaft nanotechnology is based on microscopic carbon fiber “nano tubes”. These are tiny but very strong objects. John Oldenburg, VP of Engineering at Aldila, revealed that the entire Aldila inventory of nano tubes resides in a container the size of a pickle jar in his office. The jar is worth $3000 and that represents a price breakthrough. A few years ago, the material would have cost tens or hundreds of thousands. The process Aldila uses to work the nano tubes into their Protopype product is to mix them carefully with the resin when they’re building the Protopype shafts. The result is the stiffest tip section in any shaft that Aldila every manufactured.

We received a couple of demos for testing. After a preliminary frequency test, I handed the “X” off to Iron Byron who took it over to Stanford for a couple of range sessions. Iron Byron can start a driver over the right tree line and miss the fairway on the left with an “X” flex Speeder 757. He brought the Protopype back and said “I can’t turn it over.” We swapped it for the “S” flex and that was still in his bag two weeks later, matched up with a Nakashima 420. He reported that he was “hitting it straighter”. If you want to test the Aldila Protopype nanotechnology shaft, unless you’re John Daly strong, start with the “S” flex. We’ll have more on playability and distance as we get a little more experience.

John Oldenburg was very helpful in understanding the historical perspective on the current interest in nanotechnology. He’s sanguine about the current state of the art but encouraged about the future as more advanced materials become available. For now, nanotechnology is not going to be a huge breakthrough.

Shaft companies, on the other hand, continue to push state of the art in paint finishes. You won’t find a more interesting paint job than the Accuflex Evolution. It looks like a golden holograph in the light. If there was an Academy Award for paint jobs, Accuflex would win it.

Aerotech Shafts
At the Golf Lab, we love to discover products that work great; nobody knows about and are inexpensive. It’s sort of a perverse way to poke fun at the golf industry that doesn’t know any better than to equate price with quality. It takes a lot of self-confidence to play an inexpensive product. From many years of testing and playing, we know one thing for certain: there is not a linear relationship between price and performance.

For the last couple of months, we’ve been testing and playing with the Aerotech Steel Fiber and PowerCoil shafts. It’s convenient that Aerotech makes all of its models in both .335 and .350 tip diameters so fitting the new drivers is no problem. The technical background is that Aerotech shafts are manufactured employing an innovative process that uses steel fiber from Belgium, in a very fine gauge, wrapped around the shaft. If you look closely, you can see the steel fibers just below the surface. The idea is to create a shaft that offers the feel and control of steel but with the vibration dampening of graphite.

We notice that the wall thickness of Aerotech shafts appears to be quite a bit thinner than other high performance shafts. As manufacturers try to build stout shafts for strong players, they tend to add weight to the shaft. The result can be a “boardy” feel. The Aerotech shafts are intended to keep the strength, but lose the weight. Bob and I like to feel the kick in our driver shafts.

We have had good luck with two models. The 75 gram Steel Fiber has been the shaft of choice in the Nike heads for Bob and Chuckie. Heather has stuck with the 50 gram PowerCoil in a stiff flex for well over a month. Aerotech deserves to be discovered.

Stories to Watch for Next Month
New Products from Nakashima

The biggest success story from a new company in 2004 was Nakashima. They were able to take advantage of the incredible surge in the popularity of Japanese products, even though the company is based in Stockton, California. Nakashima proved that you don’t have to be in Japan to apply Japanese attention to detail. Owner John Nakashima put his name on the company. He’s trying to make every Nakashima club as perfect as it can be.

After a debut with drivers, fairway woods and utility clubs, Nakashima is coming back for their second act. They have two models of irons that will be available by the time you read this. In addition, the new 460 cc driver will be available. Nakashima will be showing their new models and marketing their line at the PGA Show. They intend to be a “green grass” company, selling finished clubs to pro shops. They will maintain their elite clubmaker distribution channel to make sure custom fitting and a wide choice in premium shafts is always available. We invite you to check out a demo driver or a complete set to try Nakashima for yourself, on your course.

The True Temper Tour Concept (TC) Iron Shafts

There’s another big shaft buzz on the PGA Tour. True Temper has a new shaft that they’ve been promoting quietly for several months. It’s the Tour Concept. It’s painted with a stylish grey metallic paint. The TC shafts are heavy, weighing in at 126 grams in S flex. They were designed to produce a lower ball flight in the short irons, similar in concept to the Royal Precision Tour Flighted Rifles. The shafts are in short supply. We received our demos too late to build them out and put them through testing. If you play steel, the Tour Concept could be your next shafts.

The Northern California Golf Show

Mark your calendar for March 3-6, 2005. The Northern California Golf Show is returning to the San Mateo Fairgrounds. It’s been a few years since the last Northern California Golf Show. The company that produced that event fell victim to the malaise that followed 9/11 and the show disappeared. There’s a new promoter with plenty of experience. We look for the show to be a success and the Golf Lab will be there in a large booth with our best partners including Nakashima and Balance-Certified. Plan on coming out to the Northern California Golf Show and meet up with the “Golf Lab Gang”. We’ll make it worth your time.

Leith Anderson is a partner in the Golf Lab in Palo Alto. He will answer all questions related to clubmaking and clubfitting personally. Contact Leith Anderson by email: Leith@calgolftech.com. Cell phone 650-743-2816.