Anatomy of a Shaft Change on the Champions Tour

Understanding the positive impact of a properly fitted shaft can elude not only everyday golfers, but even successful tour professionals. The natural tendency for better players is to use their incredible talents and abilities to "overcome" ill-fitted equipment specifications. Average golfers also do this. For regular golfers, this adds a few more obstacles to their round. For tour professionals, in an intense competitive arena, this easily can be the difference between success and failure.

In the case of one such Champions Tour Player, a late season shaft change brought immediate results in the form of his biggest payday of the year.

Before we continue the story, please understand that it is not appropriate to list names and faces when discussing players- they own their celebrity name and likeness. We respect the legality and ethical nature of the situation, and anyways, it is not crucial to the telling of our story.

So this player was having a good season with $600,000 in earnings with 2 events left on the Champions Tour schedule. In a phone conversation with Chuck Taft, a Nippon Shaft Champions Tour Representative, our player reported that he was using the Rifle Project X shaft model, but was looking for something better suited to his swing. He tested the Nippon Shaft NS PRO 1150GH Tour model, but found this shaft to be a bit loose towards the bottom of the club, at impact. The 1150 model has a slight counterbalance of weight in the butt end of the shaft, and this is a common comment for golfers who prefer a more traditional balance. Next up, he tested the NS PRO Superpeening ORANGE shaft model, (pictured above), and found that it was excellent for his body and swing. He installed a set of 'S' flex NS PRO Superpeening ORANGE shafts into his iron and played with them at the AT&T Championship, garnering a top ten finish, and a check for $39,000.

In the next event, the season ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, our player kept the ORANGE model in his bag and fired four rounds of 69-66-68-68, good for a 2nd place finish, and his best payday of the season at $255,000. He told Chuck that with the Superpeening ORANGE shafts in his irons, all of his iron shots just go, "right at the flag". A quick check of his stats at pgatour.com show that his GIR, greens in regulation, were 16, 15, 14, and 16, which is way above a normal tour player's count for hitting greens in regulation.

These results are a testament to the quality of the player, and the quality of the shaft model, but in my opinion, the quality of the fit and the quality of the installation. This story is an example of an important ingredient of what it takes for golfers to achieve their best performance. We will have great days playing this game, but we will only have our best day, when our equipment allows our bodies and swings to reach our highest level of performance.