What are the advantages of steel shaft clubs?

What are the advantages of steel shaft clubs?

Here's something to start the discussion

http://hirekogolf.wordpress.com/beginners-corner/choosing-a-golf-shaft-graphite-vs-steel/

Thanks heaps!

Most pros use steel shafts on their irons because they twist lesser as compared to graphite shafts. Shafts twist quite a fair bit if not by the minimal weight of the ball but also the divot you take.

That should be the main advantage of steel over graphite shafts on irons. Secondary should be more weight variances and choices.

Graphite shafts are generally lighter which equates to higher club head speed.

This information is from articles and books I read before, I may be wrong, but it kinda makes sense

I think some fitters will argue that modern graphite shafts have less torque than steel shafts...

as for lighter giving more speed, I'm not sure...

if you put a tennis ball at the end of a cane, would you be able to swing it faster than if you didn't have the ball at the end of a cane?

hmmm!

What do you recommend for a beginner?

Doesn't matter what I recommend. Some people prefer heavier, others prefer lighter, depending on their own strength, fitness, and swing

With technology ever advancing I wouldn't be surprised if one day graphite surpasses steel in every aspect, what with all the nanotechnology and carbon components up and coming.

As for the cane analogy, think we have to compare on a larger scale, say between a cane and a clothe bamboo of the same dimensions.

I believe the lighter of the two will swing faster, the heavier of the 2 will have more inertia.


On a side note, I've always wondered what my own tipping scale is. I'll explain:

Because much of the movement of a golf ball is caused by compression and decompression, club head speed and inertia are both a factor.

A lighter club would have, again to me, a quicker club head speed, but too light and the ball doesn't compress optimally. The same goes, too heavy and too little club head speed, compression might not be optimal also.

Had always wondered what my own optimum mix of club/swing speed and club weight was.

Will never know till I get fitted, maybe in the near future when I stabalised my swing.

Any thoughts of your own? Would love to hear!

Lizardman wrote:

What do you recommend for a beginner?

Think you might want to try how your swing becomes of when you use differently weighted or shafted clubs.

And like ghoonk said, its preference. Some like their clubs heavy, some like it lighter.

All that matters is it let's you play better golf! No one will judge you if you do

Hard to say. If you increase mass, you need less speed to get the ball to go the same distance. If you don't have mass behind the ball, you're going to need more speed.

But if you don't have enough mass, impact would be less stable, hence the introduction of perimeter weighting to increase stability without increasing mass, which makes the clubhead more head-heavy, which is less favourable with people who have less strength or are not able to generate sufficient club head speed.

That being the case, I'm guessing that's why touring pros prefer to use steel shafts instead of graphite -- for people who have not grooved their swing, i.e learned to use their big muscles to generate power/speed instead of using arms, wrists, etc, then -- because they are able to utilize the mass of the club to maintain the necessary level of stability.

With more mass throughout the club, I'm also guessing that overall club stability on the upswing and downswing is easier to maintain through tempo

Ok, thanks.

I seem to be able to manage steel shafts. I like the stable feel upon impact. The hit somehow feels more solid. My previous graphite set seem to provide more of a whipping feel but had given me better distances.

@ghoonk, yes I totally agree with you on the tempo part. Too light a club and it kinda goes everywhere through the swing. A problem I'm facing at the moment, plus being too manipulative of the angles

@yrt, yep! Go with the one with the better feel. Distance is overrated

Yea Im liking my new steel ones

Yay

If you have the chance, check out True Temper Feather Flight steel shafts, currently using them.

Really light! Too light!

Im currently using true temper dynamic gold. Pretty decent! Its just my swing that is not decent

This is why you go for a fitting instead of guessing whether R300, S200, S300, S400, X100, PX5.0, PX5.5, PX6.0, PX6.5, NS Pro 850/950/1150, KBS Tour Regular, KBS Tour Stiff, etc etc etc is best for you.

Indeed.

yrt wrote:

Im currently using true temper dynamic gold. Pretty decent! Its just my swing that is not decent

Nah, it never is as bad as you think... I think

Edit: Oh believe it or not, your dynamic gold is about 20grams heavier than my feather flight

Yea, i guess "blame the tee"!

Absolutely!

actually, these days, graphite shafts irons are just as good as their steel counter parts. Ie. Aerotech Steel Fiber, they are even used by pros in tournaments.

Unless you state you gender wrongly, you are quite strong to use steel shafts

Actually, there was a term called swing weight that was used way back.
This would be a relative weight of club/shaft/grip but the focus these days seems to be on type of shaft (steel/graphite), stiffness n torque.
These have to be taken relative to the weight of the club head and your swing speed, there are folks that 'like to feel the clubhead' as they swing their clubs.

Agree - with khorkar on the progress of graphite vs steel

Swingweight is about the balance of the club, total weight is the weight of the whole club. You can get 2 clubs with the same total weight but different swingweights, and if your swing is tempo-sensitive, they will make a difference.

The higher the swingweight (i.e. more head-heavy), the more you can 'feel' the clubhead, and the more stable it feels on onswing and downswing, but it requires you to know how to use the big muscles on takeaway and downswing. I have seen professional/tour equipment where the 7 irons is as heavy as D5.5 to D6 (my TM RAC MBs came in with S400 shafts with swingweight linear from D4.5 on the PW to D7 on the PW