Rick Shiels Golf was a regular until my driver fitting today. Now a stiff in a Ping g 400 max, standard length. Mental as I went in thinking I needed a shortened regular shaft.

Stiff Flex

X-stiff tipped one inch

Aldila tour ATX 65 on a stiff flex

Rick Shiels Golf I'm stiff 😜

Aidan Griffiths I tell my wife this

Hahahah

I read that comment at the exact moment he said that lol

@@thedude1744 Ask her if she wants regular or stiff.

Beat me too it lol

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not anymore

Lord Daniel Hagan Would make even less difference

No flex no distance. Surely the flex makes a huge difference at slow swing speeds!

It probably makes more of a difference if there's a flaw in your swing. A whippy shaft could make bad fade into a worse slice

Lol

Paul H That’s exactly right. Long driving golf champion Kyle, said that he used lower flex shafts for his long drive competition because the flex produces more speed and distance, but reduced accuracy, and accuracy is not the priority in long drive, all you need is one good hit out of 8 tries. When he plays regular golf he uses stiffer shafts for better accuracy.

FWIW- I have an 85mph clubhead speed (moderate tempo) with a driver and just finished a full set fitting using Trackman with multiple different shafts (A,R,S of different makes) in both irons and 'long' clubs (driver, fairways, 3/4 hybrid). Found an A flex shaft that gave me significantly more distance & accuracy, but observed little difference between shafts with the long clubs. Of course my swing feel was different with A-flex vs stiff, but actual distance/accuracy was quite similar. Very surprising to me, but fitter observed I tend to go after my long clubs harder so load the shaft differently.

The difference between Rick and you are on the polar oppposite. Rick is still able to generate alot of swing speed, which might have little impact on which shaft he uses. While you won't be able to genereate a fast natural swing speed like Rick here. My best bet would be for a slower swing speed, you should get fitted to the A shaft since it might create more bend on your shafts with your slower swing speed.

Rick, like your videos but not your conclusion that shaft flex is irrelevant. You should redo this test but without multiple mulligans. Instead of hitting one shot after another with the same shaft, try hitting only one shot with each, which is how golf is played. If you need more data to get a good average, repeat the sequence. On the golf course, many minutes elapse between driver shots. Also, you will find that you can hit the A flex driver the same average distance after 10 or 20 tries, because you make small unconscious adjustments between consecutive shots that poorer players cannot make. You would add 3 shots to your handicap if you played everyday with an A flex driver, because you would miss fairways left and right.

Im getting an X-FLEX today. I think this isn't accurate into a screen. Maybe Im wrong ill know by this evening.

Even without beer, if one has fun, it all that counts. Remember: We PAY to play golf, we are not PAID to play golf ! A heck of a difference. People who have never taken a single lesson, never hit practice balls, and do not go to the gym, will never hit 300 yds of the gold markers and will never play ''scratch'' except maybe a few and far apart gifted guys ! Let's get real here !

I'm a mid-handicapper and I tested shafts with very similar results as this. Not much difference.

😂

Underrated comment lmao

Wow just wow

Nice...

I'm 70 and just got new irons (Ping G400s) last fall with R shafts. My Mizuno driver has an R shaft too. I was fitted for all these clubs and like them a lot. Deciding I needed a 5 hybrid, I tried a Ping G400 with an A flex and hit it great (no fitting, I just pulled it out of the pro shop and tried it). Nothing to the left (unless I pulled one of my crappy swings out). Played in a tournament a couple of days after I bought it and was hitting it 180-185 and even backed one up, which I never did with my 5-iron. So I would agree with Rick's assessment that flex may not matter all that much.

@@capndave8474 i am 66 and have shafts in Regular, A- Flex and Ladies flex, all of which I can hit pretty well. My Driver swing speed is 85-90 m.p.h My take on this issue is that you hit a few shots with the club and automatically compensate with aim for that club shaft. I bought two Nike Vapor speed Drivers, one with R flex and one with A- Flex. I found the 45.5 inch A-Flex went a bit high left, so I shortened the shaft to 44.5 inches ( butt cut ) and the high left shots went away. The confusing issue is that there is no standard for shaft flex between different brands, so we are none the wiser when trying to compare shaft flex.

I agree I want someone that is older or someone with a slow swing speed just to see if the A flex helps and fell better to a older guy like us?

@@indychuckluck I'm 54 with several injuries and I recently switched from a 60 gram stiff to a 40 gram soft flex. Not much difference in performance but I do like the feel of the lighter shaft. I feel like I can swing slower but still get some decent distance.

I wonder if that's Nicky Hibbert from PHS in Hindley?

Seven Seven right!!?!!

Never underestimate the power of golfers to ignore data because their swing and/or clubs are "different"....lol.

According the WRX. Rick is a hack and everybody can take him to the wood shed lol. I agree though all the experts on WRX will try to say otherwise

I'd say No....likely ALL marketing garbage just to suck those $$$ out of peoples pockets! Especially after seeing that A flex came in second for total distance!

@@SurprizedDaily Mmm not ALL the case of you get what you pay for comes into play. Best thing to do is don’t be a sucker.

Exactly ..I commented the same as you 👍

Played Ping G series in stiff before switching to Ping Max regular. Only difference was feel. Launch same just Max more forgiving. The head made the difference for me not the shaft. Good vid Rick

Jesse Steffen agreed! Rick, great idea and very interesting result for fast swinger like you, but you really need a part 2 and 3 with an average(95?) and a slow(85?) speed swinger. We would love to see that!

I think a lot of us would like to see that.. Me included. Just aa I'd like to get a reply to my question how can you rate the Vokey SM 7 excellent then rate the Wilson only ok when they basically had the same numbers on your GC quad

Jesse Steffen good idea that would be interesting .!

My money would be on similar results taking the outliers out of th equation.

The results wouldn't be different.

Mark Crossfield did this with a senior golfer. Same results, it didn't matter. Shaft is mainly about feel.

@Ming K A much lower kick point with a faster swing speed means more "bow" at the bottom and middle of the shaft. Thus the club face delofts more and comes out lower and left.

@@shrimpflea I can both agree and disagree. If the weight of the shaft is the same (i.e 60 to 70 grams) there will be very little difference if any. Shaft weight and torque is for feel. The higher the flex; the lower the torque and vice versa. However; then we look at the model. CK Pro has 4 different models. Red; Blue, Orange and White (in ascending order according to MCA test results for launch and spin preferences). If we compare the blue to the white; blue has mid kick and white has high kick. Meaning that the ck white is significantly stiffer in the tip and mid points of the shaft. While at Edwin Watts golf store in my hometown we put it to the test. We gave an older man in his late 50s a blue then a white CK shaft at 86 grams TX flex. He had roughly about 85 swing speed. The blue he managed to get off the ground but it missed well right. The CK white he could hardly get off the ground and it sprayed farther right. He complained that the shaft was too heavy and he couldn't put anything behind it. So we gave him the 60 grams instead with the same flex. He hit them much better than the heavier counterparts; but he still missed right every time; just not as severe as the first ones. We came to the conclusion that a 60 X flex and an 86 X are 2 completely different flexes from each other. The heavier; the less flex.

@@Recon-cv1fe Makes sense. Thanks for that info.

@Ming K Correct. Attack angle could give a different result. Is it shallow or steep? A more rounded swing would most likely open the face more; while a more upright swing would have it more delofted at the bottom. I'll agree that shaft isn't everything; but with todays technology on graphite shafts, it can make a significant change for some. I'm not bandwagoning or anything; but i consider that if 99% of professional golfers use X flex, it must be for a reason. If the shaft made absolutely no difference; then they would play different flexes. I know you could say it's just a marketing gimmic; but they could still market shafts with A or R flex if that was the case.

I played golf in HS and noticed a marked difference in shifting from Regular to Stiff, dropped 10 shots a 9 in a year. Never was a great golfer but low 50 to low 40 was quite a difference. Even began making birdies that year

Yeah, it definitely makes a difference to your average golfer with a slower swing. My brother plays with stiff shafts and if I use them I lose the ball right. As my arthritis has gotten worse and I can't power through the ball it's more exaggerated as well. The opposite is true if he uses my regular or light flex shafts, he whips the ball left.

I have a slightly faster club head speed then Rick and I agree the shaft flex doesn't really have much to do left and right it's more height spin and distance I can't use lighter shafts as I jsut get to much height and spin

@@CrookedRedBeard says nothing if your statistics with putter and irons changed too. And ten shots less is not only driver shaft difference..

I'd watch that !

That's pretty much my speed. 85.

Paul P what would it prove? He’d probably be more susceptible to the feel of the shafts which would cause him to hit it all over the face and make the test useless.

Matthew Hall so shafts do make a difference then? The reason the results were all pretty similar is because Rick uses a X. Putting a mid/high handicapper to this test would prove that shafts do in fact make a difference

Ben Robertson they make a difference because different players react to the feel of a club in different ways. There’s absolutely no difference between different flex shafts if they’re swung the same. Even the manufacturers say that.

Matthew Hall you can’t believe that? If swing as hard and fast as I usually do (X Stiff) with a senior shaft I’d either snap the shaft or hit a massive duck hook

Ben Robertson it’s been proven time and again. The only evidence you have is your own. YOU perform differently with different flex shafts. That’s not the Club’s fault. It’s yours.

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Amen brother

Yeah, it wouldn't go as far.

SuperYoda7 More options = more sales. Simple as that.

He is not using all available variables. Nor can if be able to, there are to many physic problems that are going on into the equation that change from one person to another. Rick, has a smooth cookie cutting swing that they all been teaching for the last 20 years or so and... pretty much has mastered it. Take the old swings that were effective and quite different, you'll come up with different needs. Palmer, Snead, Nicklaus, Woods, Trevino...etc. Most average people who play golf, can't master cookie cutter swings.... so your are going to have an eklectic need of shafts.

Jon Lanier I highly doubt it would matter to anyone but those with the wildest swings and most of them aren't consistent enough for a different shaft to make a difference. Love to see the test though.

Stick older used shafts in the equation and the results will be very different.

Adam Seidel Dispersed..in the fairway

Barry Down yeah, Rick’s a pro... he can go to the range and smash 20 great driver shots in a row... the rest of us can’t. Even rick misses plenty of fairways on the course, less dispersion is helpful.

Barry Down Rick’s swing is far more consistent in tempo too, which has a big imapact on flex alonside speed. He’d be able to accurately predict the impact of a soft shaft better than another golfer, who may deliver the club with similar numbers usually but changing tempos which will make a big difference with a softer flex shaft

For a average joe like myself it will more wild.Personally I went from regular shaft to stiff.

Love it when golfers try to twist the data around to suit their bias. The power of marketing is huge!!

Alvin Holton II 90 for regular flex 100 for stiff

Likely all marketing hyped up BS imho...who would've thought the A flex would come in 2nd longest total distance? I'd have never thought so, until seeing it here!

Not really, if you pause the video at 6:15 you can see a CLEAR correlation of dispersion getting better the stiffer up the flex you go. Its also important to remember all golfers are different, angle of attack, swing tempo etc are all factors. So some golfers would get bigger results than this test. I had both the ping tour S and X and I definitely got better results with the x flex.

@@Dynamic3DLtd Seriously just look at a club fitting on the TXG channel. Not only do they get different numbers with different flexes, but also much different results between different shafts of the same flex. Shaft is very important to things like launch angle, and spin rate and the flex is crucial for dispersion.