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Miyazaki JDL Shaft Review Thread

Nippon Shafts
Great stuff in here so far guys. Just going off of the IFC, the JDL 6R or 6S would seem to be a good fit for me but the fact that you guys seem to be seeing similar launch but more dispersion with the JDL is quite interesting.

I really need to hook up with Nate and swing both of these here really soon. Looking forward to reading more!
 
JDL 6S Shaft Testing - Driving Range

JDL 6S Shaft Testing - Driving Range

​I picked up my JDL shaft from the PGA Store with the Amp adapter installed and finally made it to the weekend to get some hits in. To those that may not be following the B. Asha thread, this shaft was sent to us after we received the B. Asha. Rumor has it that this will be a shaft available for the 2013 Cleveland driver line when it comes out. The JDL shaft was sent to us and matched as close as they could to the B. Asha shaft that we selected. This JDL shaft being tested is the 6S and will also be tested in the Cobra Amp 10.5 degree driver (driver set to the Open face so loft is lower).

The shaft still looked great to my eye. Not real busy but busy enough to grab your attention. I went to the driving range with this shaft 3 days in a row last weekend. So this is my combined summary of all 3 days of working with the shaft. I posted the video earlier in the thread of my first hits with the shaft and then some after thoughts of the driving range session. Here were some of my observations after hitting the JDL shaft:

- Hard to believe this is a stock option shaft. I know people hear the word "stock shaft" and sometimes think to themselves, well, there is probably a better shaft out there then for this driver. This is a darn good shaft. I think most golf companies would consider themselves lucky if they could have this shaft in their lineup. It's solid, so much so that while I was comparing the B. Asha to the JDL in my testing, I sometimes had to remind myself what shaft I was using as I changed them out.

- On solid stuck drives this shaft delivered, in all areas! Ball flight (mid-high), penetrating flight through the air and was long. As with my 1st video, it did take me a good 6 hits to get going with it. I also was using the B. Asha earlier but don't know if that ment anything. But once I got it going, they were going. This shaft is a bit more in what I use to hitting with past drivers as it seemed to add just a little more "kick" on the downswing. When stuck right, it goes forever. When not stuck right, error occur. Talk about this in a minute.

- Ball flight for me what higher than the B. Asha. Don't know why, but it was. I actually had a couple balloon on me but that was a combo of a very hard swing combined with a very bad pass at the ball on the downswing. But far and away the ball flight of the JDL was a nice mid to mid high flight which was very close in comparision to the B. Asha

- The one thing I noticed was that my bad swings seemed to be put in the penalty box with the JDL. I was playing for my cut and on swings where I was early or leaned a bit too much into the ball, I lost a few way right. This might go into the school of thought that this shaft is still very new to me and my swing. May also go into the thought that I've been playing with the B. Asha now for a good month and this shaft is a bit different is some things. But I'm bringing it up now for future reference.

As I stated earlier, I had to look down sometimes to remind myself which shaft I had just hit. That's a good thing. The one thing I came up with after the end of the 3rd day on the range was.......I needed more time to figure out if this shaft was for me. The B. Asha may be a bit more consistent while the JDL might be a bit longer on hits where everything comes together. I think there is only one way to find out.....I need some hard numbers on these 2 shafts to tell. Stay tuned........
 
Good info Nate! Really looking forward to those hard numbers.....the penal misses of the JDL have me a bit concerned to be honest.

Wondering if neutral would not be as penal to the right on those misses.
 
mcook77 said:
Good info Nate! Really looking forward to those hard numbers.....the penal misses of the JDL have me a bit concerned to be honest.

Wondering if neutral would not be as penal to the right on those misses.
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Probably very much so but since I'm working on my cut again I'm not going to jack around with that setting! But will let you take some cracks with both shafts in the Amp whenever you want! I know TexasHacker just bought himself the Amp and wants to get both shafts to see what he does with each of them when he comes back down for the holidays.
 
Nate said:
Probably very much so but since I'm working on my cut again I'm not going to jack around with that setting! But will let you take some cracks with both shafts in the Amp whenever you want! I know TexasHacker just bought himself the Amp and wants to get both shafts to see what he does with each of them when he comes back down for the holidays.
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Cool, sounds good and makes me feel a bit better since I will likely be playing on neutral. Think I may even prefer the 7S but at least the 6S is in that 60 gram range. Anything lighter is no bueno for me.
 
mcook77 said:
Cool, sounds good and makes me feel a bit better since I will likely be playing on neutral. Think I may even prefer the 7S but at least the 6S is in that 60 gram range. Anything lighter is no bueno for me.
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Cookie,
The 6s after being cut down was right at 59.5 gram range, so depending on how much you cut it down it would be right at 60 grams. Which makes it perfectly fit in too the 60 gram range....hehe
 
JDL 6s Range session

I'm more and more impressed with this shaft everytime I take it to the range. It really performs for me, like it handles business. This shaft has kicked the 6m3 out of the bag right now. Everyone knows my opinion of the B. Asha and if you didn't, I wasn't really a big fan. The accuracy was there, but nothing else was. With the JDL 6s I have everything I want with a driver. Mid launch, low-er spin, and really controllable. When I say low-er spin that is just what I am seeing. I don't know spin numbers yet as I have had a lot of things come up.

The feel of this shaft is great! It loads and unloads, the directional misses are just not BIG enough to be a concern for me, and the graphics are sweet. I feel that the distance is there and is very comparable to the 6m3. The JDL 6s is maybe a 1/2 club to a club behind the 6m3 and honestly I'm ok with that.

The ball flight I am seeing is a nice big draw. I can still hit a cut on command, but this shaft just wants to draw so I let it.

The JDL 6s and Matrix 6m3 are two totally different shafts. I know for a fact that I hit the 6m3 farther, but when you have issues controlling it you fall out of love quickly. I know my swing is in shambles. I have good days and bad days, but at the end of the day it's which shaft performs better on BAD days! That shaft is the JDL 6s.
 
JDL 6x On-Course Testing- 18 Holes

JDL 6x On-Course Testing- 18 Holes

I was able to get out for 18 more holes with the JDL 6x yesterday afternoon and definitely formed some more thoughts about this shaft. I hit 7/14 fairways, which seems okay at 50% but is actually quite low compared to what I’ve been seeing lately. I was playing the Bridgestone e5 on all my tee shots and had the loft at 10.5*. I saw some pretty bad misses, but also some misses that turned out quite good and some shots that I just flat-out pounded. Overall I’d call it a decent day out there swinging the big stick with some varying results.

I am didn't see the left to right (draw) movement that I had seen in previous outings with this shaft yesterday, and saw a relatively straight ball flight in general. I did see a bit of my fade that I play coming through, which I liked. The accuracy of this shaft is still underwhelming for me, even more so because I am comparing it directly (whether I want to or not) to my other gamer, the B. Asha. One miss from yesterday really sticks out in my head, and that was when I made a bad swing and hit a huge banana slice. It ended maybe 35 yards off the fairway, which is a much worse miss than I have seen in a while. I obviously don’t expect to be rewarded after bad swings, but this doesn't seem to cut down my misses at all. There were a few misses yesterday, though, that were not that bad at all. While the accuracy of this shaft is a bit sub-par for me (pun ftw), that is not what makes this shaft stand out in my mind.

What I continue to find as this shaft’s best attribute is distance on mis-hits. I am seeing next to no distance loss on off-center hits from this shaft, which is really awesome. I can step up to the tee box and know that if I make a decent swing, I will be out there a good ways. I can’t begin to imagine why this shaft seems to be so forgiving in the distance category, but I really do like it. That means that misses are less penalizing than usual because even if I am in the rough, I don’t have a longer shot like I usually would.

The ball flight I see from this shaft was high again yesterday, which still continues to surprise me. While this shaft is labeled at mid-flight, it gives me a higher ball flight than I see with the B. Asha which is labeled as mid-high. When I miss it left (slice) the ball flight goes up even more obviously, but at that point it is getting up there really high in the air. I am seeing a bit more distance with this over the B. Asha on well-struck shots, and I think that may have to do with the higher ball flight giving me more carry distance. I like the flight of the JDL on good shots as is because even though it is high, it does not seem to get pushed around by the wind much. It was a bit windy yesterday, but the ball didn't appear to get moved too much by the wind.

The feel of a well-struck shot with this shaft is something unmatched by any I have tried. I am starting to get addicted to that feeling. I’m not sure what it is that causes it, but it feels as if the shaft is just releasing into the ball and transferring over all of the energy. That makes me feel like I killed it after I strike one well. If I had to guess, I would say that I am feeling the unloading of the shaft into the ball right at impact, but I’m not totally sure. Either way it is a great feeling shaft for me and it makes me want to hit more good shots with it.

A decent day with the JDL yesterday left me wanting to get out there and hit some more golf balls with it. I really want to play some more rounds with it in the bag to totally solidify my thoughts on how it performs for me. Right now it doesn't seem to be working as well for me as the B. Asha, though I am seeing and feeling a bunch of good things out of this shaft, so we will see where it goes. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll answer as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. My next session with the JDL will be a bit on the range in Myrtle tomorrow and then maybe on Sunday if I get out to play then.
 
Thanks for the reviews, gentlemen.

Wess - I'll be curious to see your spin numbers in relation the B Asha.

Damaikis - The higher ball flight is defnitely interesting to me. It seems like I'm launching the ball low these days and the C Kua helps me keep it up compared to some others I've seen. I'd like to try one of these out to see if I'd see something similar to you. Eventually, spring is going to come and I'm going to need to rely more on carry for my yards.
 
Hawk said:
Thanks for the reviews, gentlemen.

Wess - I'll be curious to see your spin numbers in relation the B Asha.

Damaikis - The higher ball flight is defnitely interesting to me. It seems like I'm launching the ball low these days and the C Kua helps me keep it up compared to some others I've seen. I'd like to try one of these out to see if I'd see something similar to you. Eventually, spring is going to come and I'm going to need to rely more on carry for my yards.
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I thought it was really odd too. This shaft is supposed to be lower launching than the B. Asha and it is a bit more stout, but it ends up flying higher. I think I should be able to get out again this week with it, so we'll see.
 
Right on man. You've done an exceptional job with this shaft testing. Lots of work to keep up with all of it I know.
 
Hawk said:
Right on man. You've done an exceptional job with this shaft testing. Lots of work to keep up with all of it I know.
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Thanks buddy. I'm doing my best to keep up between school and everything.
 
I went out to the range the past two days to compare both Miyazaki's new shaft offerings. The JDL is still the number 1 shaft in my bag. The range session yesterday was a mediocre day, I was struggling a bit with clearing my hips to late and coming over the top a bit. So everything was a baby fade with some definite loss in yardage. The kicker here was for the target I was aiming at I was only missing by at most 25 yards right, so I know that on a day of struggling I could get away with it. By the end of the range session I started throwing my hip through early and unleashed a few big ol' bombs with a nice draw.

Todays range session was pleasantly better. I had a couple episodes where I would clear my hips early enough, but was able to correct immediately. The biggest factor today was the wind, it was howling 10-15mph and most of the time it was almost directly into me. The JDL 6s performed great for me I was seeing some nice mid-flighted draws that seemed like they cut through the wind and went forever!! I was very impressed with how this shaft acted today.

Update: I should be able to get some solid numbers tomorrow!!
 
Nice Wess, I look forward to seeing some numbers buddy!
 
Jman said:
Nice Wess, I look forward to seeing some numbers buddy!
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You and me both bro! It'll be interesting to see how all 3 shafts stack up to each other.
 
WessCook said:
You and me both bro! It'll be interesting to see how all 3 shafts stack up to each other.
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I can't wait to see it as well Wess. I have yet to get numbers from these shafts for me because I haven't been able to find a monitor to get on, but I'm interested to see your findings!
 
Range and On course testing
JDL 6x + Razr Fit 8.5
Wet Conditions - very soft fairways
Temps around 50-55 degrees


I have built a pretty heavy obsession with the B.Asha +Razr Fit combo, making it difficult to give the JDL a fair shake. That said, I managed to step away from my other testing for a range session and an on course testing of the JDL 6x. With the B.Asha 4x, I was able to increase my range at the top of my swing to really build momentum into the ball. Probably past parallel and aggressive through contact which seemed to increase my overall accuracy and distance.

With the JDL, I found that a more compact swing generated better results on the initial range session, reducing my extension at the top to avoid a small, higher fade. There is a pretty distinct difference between a swing with the JDL where the shaft is 'in' the swing, and one where it's slightly off. In terms of loading, I don't think it's on the same level as the B.Asha, but it holds strong through the swing and rarely if ever gave me that horrendous 'shudder' on a hit outside of center.

On course, it took a few holes to get dialed in. Fortunately it was a scramble so i could actively swing away without any real concern. The first strike was a high fade due to a big takeaway. That actually worked to my advantage as the following hole plays very well to a fade, and I stepped on that swing with wonderful results. A subtle fade gave an open door for a mid iron into a dogleg par 5, and a quick lesson about the shaft for me.

The following hole is a slight dogleg right with lots of trouble for a larger fade. I often set up to play this hole at the center point with the intentions of allowing a small fade/draw without trouble, and this time reduced my takeaway just a bit to try and avoid the fade. What I got was basically a dead straight, lower bomb. Through the dogleg into the rough but the perfect line for the green. Solid.

Moving to the next drive, a par 5 that favours the draw. With wind left to right, I really wanted to avoid the high fade miss, and my partner was in a bunker off the tee, so I reduced my takeaway even more and hit a low bullet straight down the middle. Good stuff.

My next three drives were much of the same, but got more aggressive with my takeaway each time. Draws that were mid launching and on strong lines. Sadly I didn't get any distance numbers, but each of the three were substantially further than my playing partners.

The final two swings were weak on my part. Over draws trying to really attack the ball due to quality partner drives and not my best efforts.

I came away with these thoughts:

1 - Considering I was able to take greater backswings as the range session/course efforts continued, I believe one of the big differences can be attributed to shaft weight and timing issues. I think I have a repeatable swing and the flight variables could be directly related to the ~10g difference. In my opinion, if I continued using the JDL I would quickly get more comfortable with it.

2 - My original thoughts suggesting this shaft had limited feedback may have been a bit inaccurate after my most recent experience. While I still don't think it loads like the B.Asha, I think it's got a nice stable feel that could add some solid confidence to my swing.

3 - Aside from a higher fade miss, I like the flight of the JDL. It's basically a mid launch. On the best drives I hit with it, the ball stayed relatively straight with maybe a small draw.

4 - I think accuracy could be a bit of an issue on mis-hits, as most that I missed were troublesome fades or overdraws. I enjoy the comment "good miss" and I don't feel like I had any 'good' misses with this shaft combination in the Razr Fit.

5 - Unfortunately this time of year doesn't really open the door for rollout references, as the ground is very soggy in Ohio. With that said, the flight characteristics would suggest I could probably receive some solid roll in the right conditions.
 
Good stuff Dan. I tend to agree with you on not seeing "good misses" with this shaft. I do love the feel of it though.
 
Launch monitor session.

Well today I got on the launch monitor and got some numbers with both the JDL 6s and B. Asha 5s. I will post these results in both shaft topics. Also, these are the average of 10 swings each with a Srixon Z-Star XV ball and TaylorMade R11s neutral ASP, neutral loft, and 9 degrees.

JDL 6s
Swing speed - 103 mph
Ball speed - 149.8 mph
Launch angle - 14.8 degrees
Backspin - 2194 rpm
Carry - 254.01 yards
Total distance - 279.13 yards

B. Asha
Swing speed - 105 mph
Ball speed - 152.2 mph
Launch angle - 15.8 degrees
Backspin - 2130 rpm
Carry - 256.72 yards
Total distance - 281.40 yards


Needless to say, as much as I love the JDL 6s I will be putting the B. Asha back in the bag for my next round of golf.
 
Not a whole lot between them. We're you able to notice any dispursion differences between the two?
 
WessCook said:
Launch monitor session.

Well today I got on the launch monitor and got some numbers with both the JDL 6s and B. Asha 5s. I will post these results in both shaft topics. Also, these are the average of 10 swings each with a Srixon Z-Star XV ball and TaylorMade R11s neutral ASP, neutral loft, and 9 degrees.

JDL 6s
Swing speed - 103 mph
Ball speed - 149.8 mph
Launch angle - 14.8 degrees
Backspin - 2194 rpm
Carry - 254.01 yards
Total distance - 279.13 yards

B. Asha
Swing speed - 105 mph
Ball speed - 152.2 mph
Launch angle - 15.8 degrees
Backspin - 2130 rpm
Carry - 256.72 yards
Total distance - 281.40 yards


Needless to say, as much as I love the JDL 6s I will be putting the B. Asha back in the bag for my next round of golf.
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I take it the dispersion is much better with the B. Asha? I have seen your previous posts so I am positive this is the case but any other reason because I doubt you are concerned about two yards.
 
Howzat said:
Not a whole lot between them. We're you able to notice any dispursion differences between the two?
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Not a whole lot of dispersion difference. I wish I would of printed out the sheet with all the numbers. That way I could of thrown out the high and low. I think the numbers would of been a little more different. I had one terrible swing with the B. Asha that went 251 yards total and 99 mph swing speed. That alone through off those numbers, plus it was like 2900 spin as well.

I also think its time to make a ball change and go back to a lower spin ball like the z-star XV I used today.
 
fairband said:
I take it the dispersion is much better with the B. Asha? I have seen your previous posts so I am positive this is the case but any other reason because I doubt you are concerned about two yards.
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Dispersion was minimal, but the B. Asha wins that category.

Like I said in the post above to Howzat, if I could dropped the high and low the numbers would of been better for the B. Asha.

I'm surprised with the results myself. I thought it would of benefitted the JDL, but it didn't.
 
On Course Testing
Tangle Ridge Golf Club
Sunny, 60-65 degrees, wind 5-10mph

Got the opportunity to play a round of golf with mcook77 and TexasHacker right before Christmas. What a great day it was and I was playing a course that I'd never played before. TexasHacker snagged my B. Asha shaft from me for the round so I popped in the JDL for the first time in a full round. Lately, as I've noted in the B. Asha thread, I've been struggling with a bit of an overhook with my driver. So while I had the JDL shaft in for the first time in a full round, I was also working on some swing thoughts and ideas. Please note! Ha!

I do want to tell this story because it involves TexasHacker which makes it all the more fun. We get up to the first tee and spotted some pot bunkers that lined the middle of the fairway (Click Here for view) After marking them at about 285-290 yards to reach (just past those guys in the cart) I start to think about using my 3 wood. TexasHacker then asks why I would do that, that certainly I wasn't going to hit it into them from where we were. Well, that sounded like a challenge to me if there ever was one so I told him I would hit the driver but if I did reach the pot bunkers like I thought I would then I would get a free drop out of them. He agreed in about .5 seconds to that and even added the additional leverage of, "I'll even give you a 1 on the hole if you do that". It was so on. I stepped up on the 1st hole and hit a pretty straight drive that was right center but heading right for the pot bunkers (right at the 1st cart in fairway). I knew it had reached but the other guys were not so sure. Needless to say, I was taking my "free" drop as promised by TexasHacker but oddly enough never received the magic 1 score that was offered on the tee box (Click Here for view of bunkers). Fun way to start off our round and it was a great start with the JDL!

I got a little quick on the next 2 drives but found the left side of the fairways on each hole (2nd hole and 3rd hole). It was not a snap hook but just started left center of the fairway and drew ever so much. Still left me in good spots on the fairway. I then got up to the 6th hole and WIDE OPEN par 4 (picture) and snapped the drive left and into the trees on the left. I was kicking myself!! I went for a little extra and got quick with my hands on the downswing and pulled it left. Terrible swing and terrible drive to show for it. Up till then I was hitting some fairly nice drives that were in play and were getting down the fairways.

I then hit it right down the center on the 7th hole (picture) to end my front 9 with the JDL. All and all was 4 out of 5 fairways with 2 really great drives and 2 good ones that were a slight pull. Ball flight seemd to be right around the flight of the B. Asha, maybe just slightly higher if that.

Back 9 was more of the same with some great drives and then some not so great drives. Started off the 10th hole and killed my drive down the center of the fairway (picture). One of my best drives of the day. Hit another decent drive on the short 11th that went over the trees on the right (picture). Then got into trouble on the 13th hole, a par 5 that I snapped a hooker on into the trees on the left (picture). In hindsight I should have used my 3 wood on the hole but it was still a horrible drive. Then hit another snap hook on the 15th hole (picture) into the trees and was about ready to shoot myself from those last 2 drives. My buddy that was playing with me made a comment after I hit saying that it just looked like I was getting really fast on my swing and downswing. When I looked back it did seem like I was trying to kill the ball and my legs and hips were flyinig all over the place. So I took the advice and slowed the lower body down on the 16th hole (picture) and 18th hole (picture) and hit just about perfect drives on each! Both pretty straight with not much movement right or left. Advice taken!

Ended the back 9 4 out of 6 and a total of 8 out of 11 fairways hit on the day. Considering my recent struggles with the driver this was a pretty good driving day for me. I let some easy driving holes get away from me but drove pretty well for the most part.

Ball Flight
I think the ball flight is pretty close to the ball flight of the B. Asha. Maybe it's a bit higher at times but not by much. It's very controlled and I never hit one too low or too high. It was a constant mid to mid high flight most of the day. Never had to worry about the ball flight which was nice.

Control
Despite the 3 that I snapped and pulled I really felt the shaft had some nice control to it. I could feel my swing with the driver head and knew exactly what went wrong on the bad shots.

Still intrigued with the JDL and want to give it a few more rides to see exactly what I think the pros and cons are with the shaft. It was a great day on the course with mcook and TexasHacker and a pretty good day with the JDL. Thanks to Cookie for providing me the picture links of the course from his Tangle Ridge Golf Course review he did a few weeks ago!
 
Testing Numbers
PGA Superstore Practice Range
B. Asha & JDL shafts

I'm going to post these numbers in both threads for those looking at either or shafts. For me, both these shafts felt very similar except in a few areas which I wanted to test. Here was my following process with both shafts:

Hit 8 drives with the B. Asha
Hit 8 drives with the JDL
Hit 9 drives with the JDL
Hit 9 drives with the B. Asha

Here were the results from the round of 7 drives with both shafts. I removed 2 drives from each set that were not my best.

B. Asha
Club Speed - 112
Ball Speed - 156
Vert. Angle - 8.3 (I had one drive that came up 1.0 so number was probably closer to 9.0-10.0)
Backspin - 3120
Carry - 268
Distance - 285

JDL
Club Head Speed - 110
Ball Speed - 153
Vert. Angle - 10.4
Backspin - 3321
Carry - 264
Distance - 283

Here were the results from the round of 9 drives with both shafts. I removed 3 drives that I didn't consider my best.

JDL
Club Head Speed - Club Head Speed - 112
Ball Speed - 154
Vert. Angle - 11.8
Backspin - 3785
Carry - 266
Distance - 278

B. Asha
Club Head Speed - 110
Ball Speed - 152
Vert. Angle - 11.7
Backspin - 3400
Carry - 259
Distance - 274

Numbers were very similar in most all categories expect backspin where it seems like the B. Asha was a good 200-300 less than the JDL. Not really sure if that has any meaning for my current driver swing.
 
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