Shafts: The engine of the golf club
By Frank Thomas
A lot of people get very concerned about what
make and model of club they should be using. But
perhaps the most important piece of equipment is
that oft-overlooked bit between the grip and the
head -- the shaft. The shaft is the only way
energy can be transferred from the golfer to the
business end of the club, the clubhead.
During impact, the shaft is unnecessary --
its only use is to get the clubhead into the
proper position, traveling on the right path and
at the required speed just before impact.
Remember that impact, when the club and the ball
are actually in contact, only lasts for
approximately 450 millionths of a second. When
the shaft decides to react to a mis-hit the ball
is long gone, so it plays no part in reducing an
error, contrary to what is sometimes believed.
The shaft used to be a stick of hickory that
was turned in a lathe, shaved and sanded down by
hand. This allowed shafts to be custom-made
exactly how the golfer or the club maker wanted
them. Through trial and error, the best
shaft-makers became very adept at producing
high-performance hickory shafts. With the advent
of steel shafts (approved by the USGA in 1924 and
eventually approved by the R&A seven years
later), mass production took over and the days of
modifying custom shafts were over. The good news
is that quality control is so good nowadays that
there aren’t many bad shafts any more, but there
are hundreds of different varieties.
And there is still room for some innovation.
Shaft manufacturers have tried everything.
They’ve moved the flex point higher to produce a
lower ball flight. They’ve moved it lower to
produce a higher ball flight. They’ve
even turned
the shaft upside down, with the most flexible
part of the shaft under the grip, and the least
flexible section down near the head.
Inevitably, there has been a lot of
experimentation with different materials for
shafts besides steel. Before I joined the USGA, I
worked as Chief Design Engineer for the
Shakespeare Sporting Goods Company from 1966 to
1974, where I developed the first graphite shaft.
One company had started producing shafts made up
of a thin steel tube wrapped with a layer of
fiberglass, but in the early 1960s, Shakespeare
became the first company to introduce a complete
fiber glass shaft. These shafts were really
strong, but too heavy, and they didn’t have good
torsional properties. Steel remained as the old
standby while manufacturers continued to
innovate. Along came aluminum shafts that were
much lighter -- this was supposed to be a
revolution in golf, the hottest new thing.
Suffice to say, aluminum shafts only lasted a few
years.
Union Carbide had been providing graphite
fibers -- 50 of them bundled together make up a
strand the size of a human hair -- for use by
NASA, which had started to use graphite in the
space industry, and for use in pressure vessels,
and structural sections of aircraft. Union
Carbide wanted to introduce graphite to a
consumer market, and considering its strength and
lightness -- it’s 14 times stronger than steel of
the same weight -- golf club shafts seemed like a
good bet. So they approached me, and Shakespeare,
as I was developing new techniques to
filament-wind golf shafts using fiberglass. They
asked if graphite fibers could be a substituted
for the glass fibers. Material properties had to
be researched, but the application was eventually
successful. The technique was to wrap epoxy
impregnated bundles of fibers onto a thin steel
rod. This was in turn wrapped with a cellophane
sheath and then hung in an oven to cure and set.
When the epoxy set the central steel rod
(mandrel) was withdrawn, leaving a hollow shaft
made of graphite fibers and epoxy.
The first graphite shafts -- circa 1968 --
were tested by players like Don January and Gary
Player, and they officially debuted at the 1970
PGA Merchandise Show. Due to some technicalities
regarding time between disclosure and filing, the
patent wasn’t granted, which means that now
anyone is free to make graphite shafts.
What are the benefits of graphite? It’s much
lighter than steel -- the shaft is just over two
ounces, about half the weight of a steel shaft.
That means it may be possible to swing the club a
little faster with the same energy, and thus one
may be able to gain about five yards of distance
on average. There are other claims for graphite
-- that it allows you to "feel" the clubhead
more, for example, or that it is easier on your
joints, reducing the risk of golfers’ elbow --
which may or may not be true. The only downside
is that it’s still expensive. In 1968 the costs
were $500 for a pound of graphite, compared to 30
cents for fiberglass and 7 cents for steel.
Titanium was tried as a substitute for steel and
graphite about 10 years ago but never took hold.
It weighed more than the graphite but less than
steel but was also very expensive.
Is graphite the end of the line as far as
shaft material is concerned? It might be. Other
hybrids were used mixing graphite with Kevlar,
boron, or steel fibers, but I believe no other
material offers the combination of lightness and
strength that graphite has.
Is this the end of the line in shaft
innovation? No, but we don’t expect much is in
the wings where the weight- (or even cost)
to-benefit ratio will be worth the effort.
Today, most every good fishing rod is made of
graphite, as are plenty of tennis rackets and a
lot of golf club shafts. I would like to think
that eventually, when the price comes down
enough, practically all golf clubs will have
graphite shafts.
Frank contributes to golfdigest.com on a weekly basis.
