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There is no question the shaft remains one of the most confusing, if not THE most confusing part of the golf club. I'm not here to sell anything, in fact I never have and never will because I only want to offer facts and information that will erase the myths so golfers can end up spending their money for what best for THEIR game and swing. Many of you have known me for years. During that time, I like to think that you have NEVER heard me offer any information other than simply to tell the truth as I know it when it comes to the performance of any part of the golf club or its whole. I don't plan to change that because I know how hard it is and has been for golfers to get straight and truthful answers to their questions about golf clubs.

I have spent a huge amount of time in my career digging into the function, performance and design of shafts. I've had a lot of help along the way from some of the best minds in shaft R&D - Robin Arthur (ex Grafalloy/Royal Precision VP Engineering), John Oldenburg (current Aldila VP Engr) and Graham Horwood (ex Apollo and current TTemper VP Engr), as well as some very smart mech engrs I have used to bounce data off, when I could not come up with the conclusions or answers myself. What I am about to offer you with regard to the shaft's performance and function is not tainted or tilted in anyway - it is simply the facts as we, meaning me and the top brains in shaft design/engineering in the industry, believe the shaft performs and functions for different golfers.

This is going to be a little long - I apologize in advance - so if you're not interested in learning what those of us who REALLY take it seriously to figure these things out know as substantiated by facts and hard data and real science, click away from this and head to another post/thread.

The main reason shaft performance is so confusing is because the same shaft reacts totally different in how it bends and twists to different movements of the golf swing. Since we golfers do not all swing the club in the same way, the same shaft can perform one way for one golfer, and totally different for another.

That's not the way it is with the clubhead. Sure, two golfers with totally different swings can hit the same clubhead so it generates a different distance, different launch angle, different spin and all that. But it is a fact that if you take the same clubhead and change its loft, or face angle for example, the TYPE OF CHANGE in the ball flight will be the same for all golfers. Say you hit a 10* driver with 0 face angle low and straight, while I hit it higher and with a fade - that certainly can happen because your swing delivers that 10* loft with less DYNAMIC LOFT and with a square face to the ball at impact, while my swing delivers that 10* loft with MORE DYNAMIC LOFT and with an open face. OK, lets say we both change to hit a different head with 12* loft and a 2 hook face angle. Your swing will hit the ball a little higher and a little to the left - I'll hit it higher than I did before too and I will hit it with less of a fade or maybe even straight. What I am saying is the ACTUAL FLIGHT may be different but the RELATIVE CHANGES from the spec differences in the two different heads will still be the same for me and you - all other things being equal.

It's not that way with shafts because they are SO DEPENDENT on various, specific swing moves to bend and twist in different ways.

Regardless what material a shaft is made from or how it is manufactured, from a performance standpoint, all shafts can be boiled down to be compared by weight, torsional stiffness (torque), length, weight distribution (balance point) and the distribution of stiffness over their length (bend profile). Flex as we refer to it by letter codes is all tied up within the bend profile, which of course can be varied in a ton of different ways.

That's it - those are the only things that make one shaft PERFORM differently than any other. Now if you want to talk FEEL, there are some other things related to the shaft's material make up that will add to these other 5 factors that can affect FEEL. But we're not talking feel here now, we're talking about performance. Feel is very tough to quantify chiefly because different golfers perceive, note, detect, relate to the feel of the shaft in the shot differently in large part because of differences in their neurological make up and/or their inherent athletic/swing ability.

Take this one to the bank first - forgetting the feel aspect for now as I asked so we can talk only of performance, if three shafts have the same weight, torque, length, bal pt and bend profile, it does not matter if one is made from sheet wrapped, super high dollar composite material, the next from filament wound low dollar material, and the third from steel - they will PERFORM the same for the same golf swing moves. They may and will likely FEEL different to different golfers, but again, we're talking about PERFORMANCE HERE. This is no myth, this is simply a product of the science of what makes a shaft perform the same or differently and this is a fact that the top shaft minds on this planet agree with.