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What would you do? Driver fitting - right between regular and stiff shaft?

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jhd12

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Driver fitting and you are told you are right between a regular and a stiff shaft. What would you do? Which would you choose?

Any advantages or disadvantages either has over the other?

Thank you for your time and help.
 
I’d go the regular and not swing as hard.
 
since i'm not getting any younger, I might go regular...
 
I would go regular. A good fitter should be able to find the correct shaft. Could always tip the regular flex shaft 1/2 in and that would stiffen it a bit.
 
Hmm, If it were me, I'd think I'm only getting older and go with regular.
 
Was this like an online/questionnaire fitting?

If not, what were the misses with each?
 
How old are you, and how long will you play the driver once you buy it? My inclination is to go with the one that gives you greater consistency.
 
If this was a professional fitting and you got good results from either shaft I’d go stiffer as it generally leads to a little more control/accuracy.

You could also tip the regular shaft anywhere from 0.25”-1” to make it play slightly stiffer.
 
I'd go with a shaft that fits perfectly. Flexes are not the same across companies so I'd go to a different brand or shaft line that fits better. A lot of options out there.
 
I agree with the ones that say find the right shaft, first and foremost. Assuming there is no shaft out there that fits you (a long shot with as many options as there are nowadays), I'd fall to those who say to tip the regular flex shaft a bit to find a good fit. If this is not a possibility as some shafts don't respond well to tipping, I'd go with those who say to go with the stiff shaft. As for me, when I'm playing regularly and confidently, I tend to lean toward the stiffer shaft and swing like I mean it. If I try to take some off, I end up trying to get cute with it and it turns out bad... very bad.
 
Golf Ghost said:
I'd go with a shaft that fits perfectly. Flexes are not the same across companies so I'd go to a different brand or shaft line that fits better. A lot of options out there.
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This was my first reaction as well. That said, getting out of the stock shafts can sometimes be more expensive, so that’s a consideration as well.
 
1st choice; I'd try a different brand shaft, since there is no consistency in flexes for different brands of shafts. One brand's stiff, flex is another brand's regular flex, and/or vice versa.

If you are stuck with the in between flexes, if you anticipate your swing becoming faster in the future, then go stiff. If you anticipate no change, or a slower swing speed in your future, then go regular flex.

Myself, if the fitter couldn't fit me with one flex, or the other, I'd probably find a different fitter. See my first choice above.
 
I would tip a regular shaft 1/2” to 3/4”.
Several companies offer Stiff Regular shaft flex options. Fujikura and GD have several models available is SR. Mitsubishi is offering the new D Limited in SR too.
 
Age would have a lot to do with this. An older person probably wants the regular flex, but shaft flex is really manufacturer dependent as flexes that say regular may be stiff by another manufacturer's standard. The differences are astounding when you try a variety of different brands.
 
Pantherhawk said:
This was my first reaction as well. That said, getting out of the stock shafts can sometimes be more expensive, so that’s a consideration as well.
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This is true. Though most companies now offer multiple stock shafts and those shafts in multiple weights.
 
My penny to add here:

You have not provided enough info in order for people to help you make an informed decision.

What are your ball flight tendencies now?

What ball flight are you looking to achieve?

What is your swing speed? Are you a low spin or high spin guy? What driver are you playing? Is this shaft for a new driver or planned to go into your current one?

You said this was a fitting, so please share some of the data from your sessions.


1. Shaft manufacturers have different standards, so one companies regular may be anothers stiff flex.
2. Shaft profile and specs can make a shaft feel or play as if it were stiffer or softer depending. In other words, the weight, torque, balance point also play a big role in the performance of the shaft.

So, you have not told us......exactly what shaft have you chosen/fit into?

Further thoughts if this is based on a specific shaft manufacturer, model and weight:
3. Even within a manufacturers shaft model, there are differences in the specs between weights and flexes.

Do yourself a favor and go to that manufacturer's website and review all the detailed shaft specs for the model and weight you were fit into.
See how big of a difference there appears to be between the regular and the stiff flex. Perhaps there are minimal differences, perhaps they are big.

Lastly, in my experience, there are a number of things to consider when choosing a driver shaft flex:
Weight is pretty huge. Go too light and you may loose the club in your swing. Too heavy and you may show up late to the ball.
Playing a shaft that is too stiff will likely lead to: over-swinging, a slightly lower ball flight, slightly less spin, more fade type bias.
Playing a shaft that is too soft, is the opposite of the above points.

You could also "tip" the regular flex a half inch to an inch and that in theory puts you between the flexes.
 
Get the stiffer one and improve your golf fitness a bit with some stretching, core training, or SuperSpeed training.
 
I had heard, or was under the belief, that you went with the softest shaft you could control.
 
Phil75070 said:
I had heard, or was under the belief, that you went with the softest shaft you could control.
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That is a guideline but for some like me it’s about feel. I have and x and stiff version of a few different driver shafts and will normally like the feel and trajectory of the x flex. I could also play a DGS400 in my irons but like the trajectory and dispersion of the X100 AMT better.
 
I don’t know how old are you but for me it would be regular as I am on the back 9 of my golf career and swing speed training is great but takes time, commitment and will get you on avg. 5 mph. If you lack any of these, you’ll never increase SS and maintain it.

Secondly, I’d buy the shaft that allows you to effortlessly swing your swing. I remember buying a shaft that had a significantly stiff tip it was different than my normal and despite getting good performance out of it it made me swing out of my normal swing. I had to really work hard at making everything perfect in the swing if I didn’t it was going right all day long.

I ended up ditching the club, got a shaft that matched my swing speed and tempo and ended up being 100% more accurate, longer and less tired at the end of a round. The old shaft just wore me out.
 
jhd12 said:
Driver fitting and you are told you are right between a regular and a stiff shaft. What would you do? Which would you choose?

Any advantages or disadvantages either has over the other?

Thank you for your time and help.
Click to expand...

Know that a golf shaft's stiffness tends to cause and, or, promote a particular swing tempo.
The most significant problem with too stiff of a shaft is that this tends to cause the player to over swing and, or, go too hard at the ball.
 
If the numbers between the two are negligible, I’d go with whatever had the best feel for your swing. Stiff or Reg, who cares! The same shaft in a stiff or reg are usually pretty close in weight and specs.
 
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