Choosing Wood Shafts

When building a driver or fairway wood the most important choice you make is what shaft and flex to use. The shaft has a major impact on shot trajectory, distance, direction and consistency.

The standard graphite shaft for GigaGolf woods is our proprietary PHG 100 manufactured for GigaGolf by United Sports Technology, Inc. (UST). The PHG 100's specifications are very similar to the stock shafts used by Callaway, Taylor Made, Ping and others.

Unlike most of its competition, UST does not manufacture commercial quality shafts. Everything they make is built to extraordinarily tight manufacturing specifications and has high percentage graphite content.

GigaGolf carries many other first quality wood shafts. The GigaGolf shaft fitting wizard can help you determine the best shaft for your game. Click here to open the shaft fitting wizard.

GigaGolf eFit Shaft Flex Recommendation

The GigaGolf eFit tool needs your average carry distance with a driver to make a shaft specific recommendation concerning shaft flex.

Flex is a critical determining factor for both distance and direction. Generally speaking, the more flex equals more distance but less control. Conversely, at a given swing speed, stiff shafts can result in less distance but more accuracy. These generalizations only work if the fitting is close to correct, taken to their extremes they do not hold up.

Shafts that are too stiff for a player will often feel "like a board." The unmistakable pop of a well-struck golf shot is difficult to achieve. The directional tendency will be to the right for right-handed players with a corresponding loss of distance. Shafts that are too flexible may feel better but are more difficult to control. The directional tendency will be to the left for right-handed players.

No Flex Standard

Like many specifications in the golf industry, there is no set standard for shaft flex. One manufacturer's R Flex may be as stiff as another company's S Flex. For woods, shaft manufacturers publish flex recommendations based on swing speed or carry distance with a driver.

Steel vs. Graphite Wood Shafts

Graphite wood shafts are almost half the weight of their steel counterparts. Lightweight shafts are easier to swing and therefore, generate more clubhead speed. The result is more distance. Some golfers play steel shafts in their fairway woods, while fewer still put steel in their drivers.

You could argue that steel shafted woods are more accurate because steel has a less torque (shaft twist) than graphite. However, woods are generally used to aim at larger targets like fairways. Distance is a priority when hitting the ball out of the tee box. Irons are most often used in hopes of getting the ball close to the pin. Therefore, it makes sense for most golfers to put graphite shafts in the woods and steel in the irons.

All Graphite Shafts are not Created Equally

There is no governing body regulating standards when it comes to shafts or any other golf equipment. A deceptive company (and there are many in the golf business) can state that their shafts are "low torque" when the opposite is true. There are no guidelines when it comes to the term graphite either. Most of the "graphite" shafts available at department stores are composites or blends that contain very little graphite.

GigaGolf's position has always been that our customers are saving a significant amount of money by purchasing direct from the manufacturer and avoiding the expensive markups other brands must charge to cover their endorsement and advertising expenses. Our customers want the same quality the pros play with, therefore, it does not make sense to compromise the quality of the shaft.