Aldila Tour Blue and Green Driver Shafts

Measurments By Russ Ryden, A Golf Digest America’s 100 Best Clubfitter
Fit2Score, Dallas Fort Worth, Texas

Testing by John Dranshak
Dead Solid Perfect Golf Clubs, Columbus Ohio

The Aldila Tour Blue and Aldila Tour Green have now been with us for about a year and this review was first published last year. It has been updated with testing by John Dranshak, a club fitter that has been using 3 point EI profiles to guide his fitting process. These shafts are noted by Aldila as being made from ultra thin carbon fiber. This technology was first introduced in the Aldila NV and was unique in its day. Most premium shafts are now made with multiple layers of thin sheets. In my memory, Aldila pioneered this technique and a look at the radial consistency of these shafts shows what can now be accomplished in the mid price range ($250) of premium golf shafts. The shaft to shaft bend profile consistency of the Aldila Tour shafts is very good. You can be confident your shaft will be a very good match to the shaft you were fit with.

Aldila Tour Blue

The Aldila Tour Blue is an impressive classical design, soft mid in relation to tip and butt. Outstanding radial consistency, average 99.3% with a 0.5% standard deviation. This shaft is available as an option from most club companies.

With help from my friend and technical mentor, Dave Tutelman, I have expanded our 3 point EI measurements to create illustrations of shaft deflection under load. This is the first published illustration of the new addition to my software. The EI database that is the foundation of the GolfShaftReviews now shows how a shaft bends when loaded. Different loads can be applied and compared. With this information a fitter has a foundation to compare the relationship between a shaft profile and a golfers loading and release patterns. The bumps you see in the EI data shown in  these reviews come out during the swing. What is left are subtle changes. Those subtle changes create the differences in feel, flight and dispersion that we recognize in different shafts.

Experience with this profile predicts a mid high launch.It will fit those with an aggressive transition. I like this profile in fairways.

Aldila Tour Green

The Aldila Tour Green was in play on the PGA Tour at the end of the 2013 season. I saw it often on video coverage. A low launch design created with a soft trough at 26 inches and a stiff bump at 18. Not an uncommon design but new in the Aldila lineup. The reinforcement you can see in the tip section creates flat deflection below the mid-high maximum bend point, creating a lower launch. The Aldila Tour Green is one of the stock options in the Titleist 913D2 and the Titleist 913D3 drivers and can be found in many of the Titleist fitting carts. 

99.2% average radial consistency, with a 0.4% standard deviation. Excellent for rotating hosels. Both the Aldila Tour Blue and the Aldila Tour Green are high balance point shafts.

This is another illustration from the new deflection rendering software. The tip stiffening bump seen in the Aldila Tour Green is nowhere to be seen in the deflection of the shaft under load. Yet it is there, creating a change in the angle the shaft delivers the head at impact. What we see in this illustration is a comparison of deflection of the different models of the Aldila Tour Green with a 5 pound load. Using this information, an informed fitter has a guide to stiffness unlike any other method I am aware of. The illustration below shows the Aldila Tour Green 65 TX under different loads. The different EI profiles result in very subtle changes between the Green and Blue versions of this latest design from Aldila. 

Simulated Deflection Loading

The new addition to the Fit2Score software renders simulated deflection under load and unload as it might happen during a golf swing. It is a very unique tool for understanding the performance of a golf shaft. The ability to model performance of a golf shaft is created by the 3 point bending shaft instrument used by reviewers on this site.

Performance Testing by John Dranshak

Player testing was performed at Golftec (Easton) in Columbus, OH by Joe Stago PGA Professional. Joe tested the Phenom Nasty Long, RIP NV, and standard NV shafts earlier this year and is familiar with the Aldila line of shafts. The shafts were paired with Adams XTD heads including Driver, 16.5* fairway metal and 20* and 23* hybrids.

The data shows that the Tour Blue will launch slightly higher than the Tour Green as expected from the EI profiles. The Tour Blue launched 1.2* higher with the driver and also had slightly higher spin numbers. Joe commented that both shafts felt very solid with the Tour Blue being much easier to get airborne with the hybrids and fairway metals. He particularly liked the Tour Blue in the 23* Adams XTD hybrid and commented that it was significantly longer than his current 23* hybrid. Joe praised both shafts for their stability and accuracy, and although he prefers a slightly lower spinning shaft for his swing with a driver, he was very impressed with the performance of both the Fairway Metal and hybrid shafts. Overall these shafts have excellent performance for the better golfer looking for the right combination of accuracy, distance and feel.

OBAN KIYOSHI GOLD DRIVER SHAFT

By Tony Curro  –  Tru-Fit Custom Clubs
Colonie – NY, Lenox – MA, Manchester – VT & Latham – NY

The OBAN Kiyoshi Gold Driver shaft was introduced in 2014. It is the latest and perhaps the last we are told, of the Kiyoshi family of shafts from Oban composites.  This high modulus composite shaft features a tip section that is softer than all of the other  Kyoshi models.  Looking at the EI bend profile of this shaft, the shaft maintains it’s softness throughout the shaft into  the butt section when compared to the other Kyoshi models.  We used the 65 in 04 (stiff) flex when testing.  Although this shaft didn’t seem to be a perfect match for our tester, it did give us some interesting data to look at.

Oban Kiyoshi Golf Testing

Our tester is PGA Class A Professional Peter Girard Head Teaching Professional at Mill Road Acres Golf Course.

The data was taken from the Flightscope X2 Prime unit which contains the latest upgrades to the software.  The Kyoshi Gold was put in a Taylormade SLDR Driver at 9* with the weight moved towards the fade setting.  With a Swing speed that averages close to 102 mph, Peter was able to generate ball speeds that approached 150 mph and carry distances approaching 250 yds.  Most notably,  this shaft performed as advertised giving the golfer more tip action which proportionally increased as the shaft approaches the butt region.   Though not a great match for our tester, the more active tip section resulted in higher launch angles, while maintaining lower spin rates. (as low as 1500 rpm)   This resulted in some roll outs as high as 30+ yards allowing Peter to reach total distances close to 280 yds.   I believe the higher launch angles really help Peter, because he doesn’t possess swing speeds approaching warp speed.  With his smooth tempo, and later release some swings were excellent.  Because this shaft possesses a softer butt section (in comparison to other Kyoshi models)  it was more difficult for him to maintain his later release at times.  On several of the swings, his forceful transition caused him to hook the ball resulting in a loss of distance.  This shaft would greatly benefit golfers with both smooth tempo’s and smoother transitions than Peter.  He better matches shafts that provide much more butt stiffness.   In looking at the EI curves for this shaft, the tip flexibility softens to the 18 inch mark, then proportionally  stiffens on almost a straight line to the butt region.  This allows the shaft to accelerate and release  consistently for a smoother swinging golfer.    Conditions on that day allowed for calm winds and average rolling fairways.  These conditions allow me to say that the results gathered while testing this shaft were very reliable with minimal outside variables influencing the results.

Conclusion

The Kyoshi Gold 65 S was not a perfect match for our tester,but played as advertised.    The softer tip section combined with the higher  torque in that section provided sufficient stability enabling him to keep his spin rates at around 2000 rpm’s.  The softness of the Butt section combined with torque readings of 3.0* and a weight of 68 g would benefit smoother transitioning golfers.  Radial consistency of the Oban Kiyoshi Gold was measured at 99% with a 0.5% standard deviation. Translation, the shafts are round and  play to an extremely high level of consistency.

The 50 gram version has a different profile than the rest of the designs. This is not uncommon among current shaft designs. The designers are looking for a particular feel and performance.   In the 50 gram light weight shafts this often means a profile designed for the slower swinger, or players with ultra-smooth transitions that can use a light weight driver shaft.  As this model gets heavier, the stiffness increases, but still proportionally in relation to the rest of the Kyoshi family of shafts.  Softer tip, where stiffness increases linearly throughout the shaft. (this made it more difficult for Peter to fight his tendency to release a bit earlier when he doesn’t put a good swing on the ball, resulting in the dreaded hooks)  His “old” driver setup was a “hand me down” from a friend who works on tour in an OEM tour van.   We were able to match Peter in a better shaft match as the fitting progressed, but his numbers still surpassed what he was playing in his bag.  This , further emphasizes the profound edge professionally fit equipment gives any golfer.   The Kyoshi Gold maintains the consistency of the Kyoshi family of shafts, and plays precisely as the shaft model was designed to play.  For the golfer who possess a smoother tempo and transition, this shaft can be a perfect match.

OBAN TOUR LIMITED DRIVER SHAFT

By Tony Curro  –  Tru-Fit Custom Clubs
Colonie – NY, Lenox – MA, Manchester – VT & Latham – NY

The latest model from Oban Composites is the Kyoshi Tour Limited.  Released in 2014, this high modulus composite shaft features a tip section that is stiffer than all of the other  Kyoshi models.  Looking at the EI bend profile of this shaft, the shaft maintains it’s stiffness to about the 15 inch mark, then drastically softens and maintains that softness through the shaft to the butt section where it stiffens again around the 33 inch section.  We used the 60 in 04 (stiff) flex.  This shaft in the 60 and 70 stiffens in the butt section to produce higher launch conditions without increasing spin rates.   We took the shaft to the range to test it out, and came back with some profound results.

Oban Tour Limited Test Results

Our tester is PGA Class A Professional Peter Girard Head Teaching Professional at Mill Road Acres Golf Course.

The data was taken from the Flightscope X2 prime unit which contains the latest upgrades to the software.  The Kyoshi Tour Limited was put in a Taylormade SLDR Driver at 9* with the weight moved towards the fade setting.  With a Swing speed that averages close to 103mph, Peter was able to generate ball speeds in excess of 150+mph and carry distances which consistently exceeded 250 yds.  Most notably,  this shaft performed as advertised enabling Peter to launch the ball higher (nearly 13* of launch on some of the swings) while maintaining lower spin rates. (as low as 1400 rpm)   This resulted in some roll outs as high as 30+ yards allowing Peter to reach total distances close to 300 yds.  (It is difficult to see from the pasted photo, but on his last swing he reached a total distance of 299 yards with a spin rate of 2070, not bad for a golfer approaching 60 years old)  I believe the higher launch angles really help Peter, because he doesn’t possess swing speeds approaching warp speed.  With his smooth tempo, and late release, this shaft accelerates and releases nicely for someone who fights the occasional hook.  Conditions on that day allowed for calm winds and average rolling fairways.  These conditions allow me to say that the results gathered while testing this shaft were very reliable with minimal outside variables influencing the results.

Conclusion

The Kyoshi Tour Limited was a perfect match for our tester, giving him anywhere from 15-20 more total yards off the tee when compared to what he was currently playing.    The increased stiffness in the tip section combined with the lower torque in that section  gives him sufficient stability enabling him to keep his spin rates at around 2000 rpm’s.  The increased stiffness of the Butt section combined with torque readings of 3.8* and a weight of 71g allowed him to keep his smooth tempo, and late release.  (and fight any tendency to release early resulting in the dreaded hooks)  His “old” driver setup was a “hand me down” from a friend who works on tour in an OEM tour van.   The ability for us to reach optimal distances while maintaining consistency in the fairway, further emphasizes the profound edge professionally fit equipment gives any golfer.   The Kyoshi Tour limited 60 in 04 flex proved to be an excellent match for Peter, and he continues to keep this club in his bag in some of the biggest tournaments of the year.

The average radial consistency in our review samples was 99.3% with a 0.7% standard deviation. Excellent! That meets quality and consistency one would expect in a $490 MSRP shaft. This shaft is available only through Oban custom club fitters. Like the Kiyoshi Gold, the 50 gram version has a player profiled design. It is not stiffened in the 12 inch area as are the 60 & 70 gram versions. The 70 gram shaft is stiffened in the butt area, creating a higher balance point and a propensity to launch a little higher. In other designs, this creates a great fairway shaft. Unique to the Oban Tour Limited golf shaft is a 4 axis material wrapped the entire length of the shaft. This woven carbon fiber material is used by many shaft manufacturers, but rarely is it used the entire length of the shaft. The result is a shaft with more consistent torque along its entire length than we typically see.

Fujikura Pro Driver Shaft

Kirk James & Mark Vallier, Golf Digest America’s 100 Best Clubfitter
MK Golf Technologies,San Antonio, Texas

Measurements: Russ Ryden, Golf Digest America’s 100 Best Clubfitter
Fit2Score, Dallas Fort Worth, Texas

The 2014 Fujikura Pro driver shaft has an interesting look. Like the iron shaft, it ts two color. On one side the upper color fills the label, on the other side, the lower color. Going beyond cosmetics, the Fujikura Pro and the Tour Spec versions are very different shafts. The Pro is a mid soft shaft. This term only has meaning in the relationship of the mid section of the shaft to the butt and tip. The stiffness of the tip relative to the mid section provides stability and lower than average spin, while the butt section has been designed to provide a smooth feel in a player’s hands. In our testing and fitting of these shafts, we have found Fujikura’s marketing literature to be fairly accurate. These Pro shafts provide the player mid launch, mid to low spin, and a great feel in the hands. The higher carbon fiber content of these shafts enhance both the stability and smooth feel provided by the bend profile. These shafts are an outstanding value at their price point for the player looking for a mid launching shaft.

I have included a screen shot from Flightscope showing three shots hit by a good player with a Ping G30 driver fitted with a Fuji Pro 63 Stiff shaft.

The launch angle is somewhat lower than optimal (which was caused by the player’s negative angle of attack), however the spin rates for these shots are acceptable relative to the launch conditions which can be partially attributed to the low spin nature of these Fuji Pro shafts. A more neutral to slightly positive angle of attack would surely improve these launch and spin numbers.

Radial consistency of the review samples was 98.3% with a 1.0% standard deviation. It is a high balance design, higher than most. The tip to butt rations indicate a mid launch. The heavier, stiffer versions have a tip stiffened section in the 12″ to 18″ range. An advantage of the sectional bend testing done on the Fit2Score instrument used for these reviews is a microscopic perspective of the bending properties of the shaft. From the sectional analysis, we calculate the deflection of either butt loading or tip loading of the shaft. Our typical view is to apply a simulated 5 pound load. As we move forward with new tools which will give a fitter an understanding of an individuals loading pattern we are ready to model that on the shaft.

Fujikura Pro Tour Spec Driver Shaft

The tour spec version of the Fujikura Pro is a new design born from research done in the Fujikura ENSO fitting and R&D system. Using an array of 240 frame per second cameras, shaft performance metrics such as kick speed and contribution to club loft, lie, and face alignment due to bending and twisting can be quantified and displayed. Fujikura has seen that many highly skilled golfers are best fit into shafts with relatively soft butts compared the the mid section. The 2014 Tour Spec Fujikura Pro is such a shaft. I have been waiting to see this after a discussion about the shaft I had last year with Alex Dee of Fujikura.

We find in our fitting practice that these Tour Spec shafts maintain similar launch characteristics to the Pro but provide slightly less spin. The bend profile is somewhat unusual for a shaft with the playing characteristics of these shafts. Our measurements show a slightly soft tip section in the bend profile, but these shafts do not play like a soft tip shaft in any respect. Our feedback from customers describe a very stable yet playable feeling in both the butt and tip areas of the shaft. As typical of all the Fujikura Tour Spec shafts, these Pro Tour Specs are an extremely tight feeling shaft with excellent dispersion results.

I have included another Flightscope screen shot of several shots hit by the same player with the same Ping G30 driver head but shafted with the Pro Tour Spec 73 X flex shaft.

You will notice the average spin with the Tour Spec shaft is slightly lower, but two of the shots were extremely low spin. The average launch angles with the two shafts were identical. The carry distance with the Tour Spec was significantly lower – most likely caused by the shaft being too heavy and stiff for this player and his clubhead speed. The Pro 63 Stiff was a much better fit for this individual, and I would expect the Pro Tour Spec 63 Stiff would perform even better, as the Pro 63 was about at the limits of its swing speed range.  Based upon our experience and looking at these results, a player would need clubhead speed consistently in the 112-116 mph range to make the Tour Spec 73 X perform optimally.

The average radial integrity was 98% with a 1.2% standard deviation. This is a shaft design we do not find a really close match to in our knowledge base with over 1000 driver shafts.

Again, we are extremely impressed with these Pro Tour Spec shafts, and feel that they are an outstanding value for someone looking for a low to mid launching shaft with low spin characteristics.

Project X Loading Zone Driver Shafts

By Russ Ryden, A Golf Digest America’s 100 Best Clubfitter
Fit2Score, Dallas Fort Worth, Texas

The Project X LZ, or loading zone shaft features a linear soft zone in the middle of the shaft which is visibly reinforced with bias wraps to maintain torsional stability. This 2014 composite driver shaft from True Temper, released under the Project X brand, is made in limited numbers in the USA facility in San Diego California. I am told only 60 or 70 can be made in any given day with current staffing.

This is an interesting option now being offered by a few companies. The general golfing public has access to the shafts that are made in the tour department for the tour players. Most graphite shafts are hand rolled. As such, the care taken by the person putting the shaft together is reflected in the quality and consistency of the finished shaft. Almost every company has some highly skilled wrappers that make their prototypes. And very often, when these people are not making protos, they are making the shafts that go to the professional tour vans. These shafts are not necessarily better than the shafts made in the volume production shops, but they are free of the shaft to shaft inconsistencies found in the factory produced product. And I have seen some inconsistencies that are hard to believe from the high volume, low cost foundries, but that is another story.

The concept of the Load Zone was to create a soft midsection in the shaft. Mid soft shafts are among the most popular shaft in my fitting experience. No shaft company likes to hear a section of their shafts being discussed as soft. If you make the tip stiff and the butt stiff, the mid is soft in relation to those other two zones. In the Project X Loading Zone shaft, the soft mid section is reinforced by a material called flex lock. That is graphite fiber oriented on an angle from the length of the shaft, commonly refereed to as bias or hoop plies. This stabilizes the torque in this zone. A full discussion of the design is shown in the videoed discussion I had with Don Brown, the True Temper graphite shaft product development manager.

Radial integrity averaged 99% with a 0.6 standard deviation. These shafts can be oriented in any direction in rotating hosels. The Loading Zone shafts are counterweighted, with high balance points. A good match to the bling heavy driver heads that dominate the 2014-15 market. The GJ torque profiles were linear. The soft mid zones, stabilized with the flex lock material did not exhibit a significant drop in torque from the zones closer to the butt of the Project X Loading Zone Shafts. As shown in the averaged EI profiles, the shafts could be sorted into three distinct design groups. Sorted by flex, not illustrated, the position of the loading zone is centered across the 50, 60 and 70 g versions. Sorted by weight, the loading zone moves toward the tip and gets shorter as the stiffness increases. This is very interesting matrix of shafts for the fitter working with a client that fits into a mid soft design driver shaft. it illustrates the importance of working with a fitter that ‘knows’ the EI profiles of the shafts he works with.

This is an interview shot at the 2015 PGA merchandise show in Orlando. Don Brown is the Graphite Shaft Product Development Manger for True Temper Sports. The discussion of the Loading Zone Shafts gets technical. Many readers of this site tell me they do not understand some of the graphics and discussions in my reviews. What you see in this video is a discussion using the terms you see on this shaft review site. Enjoy!

FlightScope Monitoring
Project X Hand Crafted Loading Zone Driver Shafts

The images to the left are FlightScope acceleration charts. FlightScope radar tracks the clubhead as well as the golf ball. The head is picked up about 45 inches from impact. The FlightScope operator is presented with a large array of information to use in the club fitting process. I pay close attention to the stability and repeatably of the acceleration chart. We can see the hump in the chart, release, shifting further away from impact as the weight of the shaft increases. The combination of increased stiffness from the additional weight and the weight induced change in release manifested into a change in launch angle. The table below shows how this influenced ball flight.

Weight of the shaft and weight of the club head are key components of golf club fitting. Your sweet spot, the weight that creates the most stable speed and path can only be found by a fitter equipped with shafts and heads in various weights.

In this and future reviews we will be looking at deflection of the shaft derived from the EI profile. By looking at tip loading we see how the shaft bends from the weight of the head magnified by its speed and acceleration. The butt loading deflection shows how the shaft bends from the force applied at the handle. The 50 gram shafts are significantly easier to load from the butt. The 60 and 70 have much the same butt loading character, differing more at the tip, where the 70 gram shafts, designed for higher speeds have more tip stiffness and a lower launching propensity.

Mitsubishi Fubuki J Driver Shaft

By Russ Ryden, A Golf Digest America’s 100 Best Clubfitter
Fit2Score, Dallas Fort Worth, Texas

The fourth generation Fubuki, the Fubuki J, released to Mitsubishi Golf Club Fitters in June of 2014. It is still in play, the unique pattern was hard to miss in the final round of the 2016 Open. The Fubuki J is an update of the second generation Fubuki, the Fubuki Alpha. I see the Fubuki family as two different profiles and discussed them in an earlier article. Here is a quick overview of the two profiles.

 The original Fubuki Tour and the Fubuki K,introduced a few years later, are very much like the Diamana White and the second generation White, the ‘ahina. The third generation White, the Diamana ‘W” series is a different profile. The Fubuki Tour was discontinued in 2014. The Fubuki K is still in the product line.
The second generation Fubuki Alpha and the fourth generation Fubuki J are also the same profile. They similar yet subtly different than the Diamana ‘ilima and the KuroKage Proto TINI. The differences make these unique designs that must be tested to find your best fit.