Miyazaki C. Kua Shaft Review

Introduced in May 2009, Miyazaki is quickly becoming a household name in the shaft and shaft fitting world. On September 1, 2010 SRI Sports’ Miyazaki Shafts officially announced the introduction of the new C. Kua series. THP managed to get its golf gloves on some of these shafts in order to test them out THP style and your friendly neighborhood tester was sent one of these to provide my thoughts on. Shaft fitting and customization is becoming more and more popular and even more accessible to the average golfer so how would it perform for this shaft newbie and partial skeptic? Check it out.

From the Company
The new C. Kua series pushes the limits of weight reduction through the use of advanced shaft materials and geometries. With ultra-lite innovation and performance already proven on tour, the C. Kua series is a True Tour Ultralite™ shaft. Coupled with the International Flex Code™ and Golf’s Most Precise Shaft Fit™, the Miyazaki C. Kua series is positioned to become the leader in tour quality performance and fitting in the ultra-lite graphite shaft category. SRI Sports is one of the premier golf manufacturers in Japan and the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has designed and produced over 15 million premium, graphite shafts. Miyazaki Shafts is introducing the new C. Kua series in response to requests from professionals and recreational golfers for lighter shafts and increased swingspeed. The C. Kua series is a follow-up to Miyazaki Shafts’ very successful Kusala series, a premium fitting series, which is extremely popular and helped familiarize the Miyazaki name to consumers.

Look
The Miyazaki C. Kua driver shaft that I tested features a gold finish. Sharp stuff. The graphics were created by Miyazaki artist C. Kua, whose designs were inspired by the Earth’s most powerful storms. In short, the shaft is a piece of art and truly captures your eye. Miyazaki is onto something here. If you’re going to replace your stock shaft to fit ‘your game’ then why not make it look like it was designed just for you? Putting one of these shafts onto your club is like a fountain in your front yard, instantly noticeable yet blends in and flows with its surroundings if done right. But do these work as well as they look? Read on my friends.

Technology
The C Kua isn’t all about looks. The wrapping is just a sexy way of putting the bow if you will on the whole technology package comprised of carbon-fiber. And when you read all about the technology and testing that goes into these shafts it really does make your head spin. For those obsessed with details, here is all the specs for the entire C Kua line of driver, fairway wood, and hybrid shafts.

Here are the specs of the shaft that I tested…. S flex, 59g, 46”, Low/Mid Trajectory, International Flex Code 5674. Wait, what’s International Flex Code? It’s a proprietary fitting system which replaces traditional measurement for frequency, kick point, and torque. More stuff from the company, the Miyazaki C. Kua 59 flex code profile was designed to feel extremely stable in the top 3/4 of the shaft with a slightly more active extreme tip section. This produces a mid-trajectory ball flight with added ball speed and a slight fade bias. The 59 series is the choice of players that prefer an extremely stable feel while reducing the weight of their graphite shaft. 

A little background on me and my numbers….avg swingspeed of 100mph, prefer mid-trajectory ball flight, avg ball speed of 148mph, main shot shape is a baby fade, preferred shaft weighting between 59-65g, driver loft of 9.5*.

Ok enough with the boring tech talk stuff. You want to know how this thing worked for me, what I think (maybe not?), etc right? Here we go……

Testing
Before I did anything with this shaft, I had it cut down to 45” to match my current shaft and put a grip on it. Also, my current driver (Nike VR St8Fit) isn’t user friendly when it comes to shaft changing so rather than wait 2+ weeks for Nike to install it, I went to option B. I switched shafts in my Nike Dymo2 driver and voila! Instant upgrade. Yes it’s like putting rims on a Pinto but it works ok? Not a whole lot of options for me so I had to be a little creative.

Special note to the companies who make drivers, if you really want to see your sales numbers increase for your product, make your drivers more accepting of after-market shafts. This trend is not going away and will only increase in popularity.

Back to our regularly scheduled review. So I take the shaft out to the range for it’s initial test. Wow, block party central and now I’m leery of this thing. My old shaft that I was fitted for earlier in the year was 65g and the fitter suggested this weight to bring my tempo down a bit and to make my transition more smooth. The C Kua as I mentioned is 59g so I found my hands racing through too fast and I ended up with a lot of blocks to the right. I figure it’s not my day and I put it back in the bag and will try again the next day. The second time out is much better. My swing quickly adapted to the shaft and I could really feel the shaft flexing and kicking the tar out of those poor range balls. My ball flight was exactly the same if not a tad more penetrating and distance was a tad longer as well. The shaft is designed to promote a slight fade bias and it was great to see that my fade wasn’t turned into a slice! Such a relief to see that if anything my distance and ball flight were better and think what would happen if I went through a fitting process to see what C Kua shaft is really my ‘shaftmate?’

After feeling like I had a handle on this shaft, I decided to put it into play for my next couple of rounds which happened to be at some pretty narrow tracts. I noticed no real distance loss and if anything I noticed a more accurate shot dispersion ratio. Same or more distance with better accuracy? Sign me up. Testers who were asked at the range and on the course to give this shaft a swing all came away with the same thought, ‘I didn’t know a different shaft could make such a difference!’ Once again, THP educates the consumer. Ha!

Overall
So who uses Miyazaki on Tour? Players like Vijay Singh, Kevin Stadler, David Toms, Jerry Kelly, and John Rollins. Is that validation or what? Yes the pros have access to all sorts of testing options, testing technology, etc. but isn’t it obvious? If the pros see improvement and results from mixing and matching shafts in their clubs to their game, don’t you think it might help you as well? If you’re looking to kick your game up a notch but don’t want to buy yet another club, try looking into switching out your current shaft. Maybe that can breathe some life into that old favorite driver of yours that you just can’t part with? The Miyazaki C. Kua series will carry a $249 MAP.

Ok, full disclosure here. Initially I was a skeptic when it came to the benefits of shafts, shaft fittings, etc. I mean, how much of a difference could a shaft really make for one’s game? Um, a lot actually. In talking with other forum members on THP I’ve realized how closed minded I was and now I’m a believer in the concept and process. Halleluiah! I wish I’d had this revelation before. After hitting this shaft I’m on a mission to change out the shafts in my woods and hybrids. It’s such an awesome feeling to see technology work for you so don’t make the same mistake I did, check out to see if a shaft change can help your game. If so, have the C. Kua on your short list. For more information check out THP Radio where they talked with Tim Gillis from Miyazaki.

T. Hanks

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