Shaft Flex

The other pages of the section on shaft flex are outdated. The last substantive update was more than 15 years ago, and closer to 20 years for most of the information. Today, in 2017, we know a lot more about shaft bending behavior and its effect on performance. We also understand a lot more what we don't know, and perhaps even how to find that out.

I intend to rewrite this entire section, but it will take a lot longer than my personally imposed deadline of June 1, 2017 for the current round of updates. So I am adding this page as a disclaimer. Do not take very seriously the information in the shaft flex pages, until it has been completely updated. If you need information now, I have written a few articles that include important bits and pieces of what I want to include here, and can also point you to things I didn't write.

1. Perhaps the best existing collection of shaft truths for now are in my article, "Lessons from ShaftLab". Read that first. Yes, it is ten years old. But I have tried to keep the information there current.
2. Russ Ryden has a wealth of detailed information on [mostly high-end] shafts at his Golf Shaft Reviews web site.
3. For a basic how-to-fit process, I sort of like Tom Wishon's proceess from his 2006 book, "Common Sense Clubfitting".
4. I know the academic community is working on a "Handbook of Golf Science". It will include a chapter on shafts from Sasho MacKenzie that is very up-to-the-minute. It is aimed more at the scientist than the clubfitter and will likely make dry reading, but there is useful information to be had there. I hope to incorporate some of it in my rewrite.
5. If you are interested in golf shaft spines -- directional variations in flex -- I have written an article on the subject.

I will update this list as I get more references worth looking at, until the section on Shaft Flex is rewritten. Not at the top of my priority list, so I don't know when that will happen.

Thank you for your patience.