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Iron shaft weight affect on getting club face squared at impact?

Nippon Shafts
Big SoIL

Big SoIL

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Does shaft weight affect getting the club face square at impact? Sorry, I'm a noob just trying to figure some things out.

I have a couple sets of irons I'm trying to decide which one to game. One has a lightweight graphite stiff shaft and a larger GI type of head, the other is a heavy iron shaft in X-stiff with a player's profile head. The graphite feel is great and I like the extra forgiveness, but I've been having trouble getting the face squared up. When I swing more naturally it feels like the toe is just dragging and doesn't catch up. So with this setup I'm constantly hitting a push or a fade and sometimes a push/fade. Am I imagining this or is this a possible scenario? The players iron are much straighter with the typical loss in distance from mishits. They're XR Pro's so they're not that punishing on misses. The two sets of irons I had before I bought these two were Cally X-16 Pro's and then J40's, so I don't think the XR's are too much club. I just wanted to try out some GI irons this year but I don't think these are a good fit without a big swing overhaul. I've been playing the GI irons for a few months and haven't really gotten in a groove with them yet so I think I'm taking out the XR's the next few rounds. Are the heavier shafts working better with my swing to help get the club face closed? When I use the GI irons swing on the XR's I hit a massive hook also.

The reason I started to think about this is at my lesson the other day my instructor commented on how light the shafts were while we were working on getting impact squared up. He doesn't know I have the XR's, but I'm going to run this by him also at my next lesson.

I know, I need to go get fit, but I'm one of those poor souls without many fitting options in my area outside of DSG and a couple clubhouses that only fit for Ping or Titleist. I live in the middle of nowhere and do plan on getting to a fitting center somewhere at some point in time.
 
smschulz said:
A heavier shaft can make you swing more on plane.
I saw a video here a while back showing it.
Click to expand...

This is definitely the case for me. When I try lighter shafts I tend to get out of sequence which causes me multiple problems.

Some people are sensitive to swing weight and adjusting that via lead tape may be worth a try as well.
 
smschulz said:
A heavier shaft can make you swing more on plane.
I saw a video here a while back showing it.
Click to expand...

So can a lighter shaft. That is completely dependent on the player.
 
smschulz said:
A heavier shaft can make you swing more on plane.
I saw a video here a while back showing it.
Click to expand...

What's interesting, when faced with a blind test, almost every golfer prefers the ball flight and feel of a lighter shaft.

I am in the camp that the shaft weight does not square the face or find the plane better. That is all about the faulty machine operating the golf club. The weight of the shaft is mostly a feel thing for me.
 
When I got fit, the clubs that worked best for me were the KBS tour and the Nippon Modus 105s. We went with the 105s because I was closing the face a bit better with the slightly lower weight.

So, I would say it's going to vary person to person. I've got more of a smooth transition at the top, so I'm finding lighter to be better more often than not.
 
-CRW- said:
This is definitely the case for me. When I try lighter shafts I tend to get out of sequence which causes me multiple problems.

Some people are sensitive to swing weight and adjusting that via lead tape may be worth a try as well.
Click to expand...

I thought about some lead tape and may try that, thanks.
 
So, what I'm taking away from the responses is that it's completely dependent on the specific golfer. Shaft weight will affect plane, path, face/path, and feel in different ways to each specific golfer. So what I feel like is happening could actually be, but may not affect anyone else the same way. I plan on spending a lot of time this weekend at the range and getting in a couple rounds to get in some more time with both to compared and hopefully figure something out.

Thanks for the responses everyone!
 
i also wonder whether bend profiles/kick points affect this as well.

for me, i see better results with heavier shafts. and i don't swing very fast.

i very much agree that it is a feel thing, and operator error. but that doesn't mean it's any less important.

i recently switched from dg pro r flex to modus3 120 s flex. i'm hitting the ball just as far and i really like the shafts, but i feel like lie angle adjustments we made when the dg pros were in now need to be reversed. i could draw the dg pros just fine, sometimes turning them over too much. with the modus, i am not able to draw as well but i'm still finding the center of the face. we flattened the lie angle a bit with the dg pros, now may need to go back a little upright closer to standard.
 
The affect of shaft weight on the swing is completely golfer dependent, some players are better with lighter, some with heavier, some can play with anything.

You are changing alot of variable to be able to pinpoint what could be causing the issues. Shaft weight, head offset, swing weight, have you checked the lie angles? Also stock graphite sets are often longer than stock steel sets so it maybe the extra club length is why are aren't squaring up.

See if you can get the two sets matched up for swingweight and lie angle and if the lengths are different choke up on the graphite.

DB
 
^^^^^^
straight from the source. I love THP.
 
Can you imagine how good #TheHandCraftedExperience is going to be? :D
He should also be GM for the Red Sox.
 
JB said:
Can you imagine how good #TheHandCraftedExperience is going to be? :D
He should also be GM for the Red Sox.
Click to expand...

I think even a mouth breathing Yankee fan like MWard could manage the Padres. 3 games, zero runs.
 
DB TT said:
I think even a mouth breathing Yankee fan like MWard could manage the Padres. 3 games, zero runs.
Click to expand...

Freaking mouth breathers.
 
DB TT said:
I think even a mouth breathing Yankee fan like MWard could manage the Padres. 3 games, zero runs.
Click to expand...

Let's just see how your Red Sox are at the end of the year. I fully expect a solid 4th or 5th in the AL East.
 
DB TT said:
The affect of shaft weight on the swing is completely golfer dependent, some players are better with lighter, some with heavier, some can play with anything.

You are changing alot of variable to be able to pinpoint what could be causing the issues. Shaft weight, head offset, swing weight, have you checked the lie angles? Also stock graphite sets are often longer than stock steel sets so it maybe the extra club length is why are aren't squaring up.

See if you can get the two sets matched up for swingweight and lie angle and if the lengths are different choke up on the graphite.

DB
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, that's really cool!!!

You are correct, the graphite shafts are about a 1/2" long, but the steel shafts are 2* up, so the lies are similar. The swing weights are way different though with the lighter shafts having the bigger heads, not sure about the exact swing weight! I do know the graphites are 82 grams and the steels are X-100's, so a huge difference.

Thanks again!
 
Don't know if this will help or just lead to more research for you, but I'm using 95g graphite and it seems lite in the handle (and I have wandering hands):bashful:, so let me say -- counterbalance weights. I am experimenting with 20g balance certified inserts that are inserted into the grip and down the butt of the shaft. The cb weight affects players differently. I don't think it's as much about distance as tightening dispersion. It affects static swingweight but since the hands surround the grip I have not had issues with dynamic swingweight. Just a thought.
 
I had a fitter tell me something similar, but the problem was that he put me in a different shaft and head, so it wasn't apples to apples. There is some theory though that the combination of shaft and head weight can help to put you more on plane at the top if you're slightly off one way or another. My belief though, is that if you're manipulating your club a lot while getting to the top, this isn't going to help you. I've had better luck just taking a few lessons from a good pro.
 
i ran into the same problem as you i went from a Cb iron 120g shafts to 85g Gi head i miss hit the gi iron more and hit it more offline then the players iron. i have tried to adjust for almost a year but i am going back to my old clubs i just hit them better.
 
ohio_striker said:
i ran into the same problem as you i went from a Cb iron 120g shafts to 85g Gi head i miss hit the gi iron more and hit it more offline then the players iron. i have tried to adjust for almost a year but i am going back to my old clubs i just hit them better.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I'm doing, I've pretty much always played a CB style head since I started playing and the heavy shaft feels better to me. My misses occur less often with the XRP's and it's not really a contact issue with either one, more of a just keeping the face open and pushing everything or hitting a slice.
 
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