Evaluating Driver Shafts for Sale and Why to Get Them Online

Here at Dallas Golf Company, we’ve already given you some insight in the past into what to look for in golf shafts for sale, but we’re going to freshen up your insight with some additional information. We’ll give you some updated insight into what to look for in driver shafts before making an argument for why you should shop for them online.

While the old saying “you drive for show and putt for dough” may be true, that’s no reason to put your initiative for finding a fitting driver shaft in the backseat. Each player has specific strengths and weaknesses, and for that reason, no single driver shaft will perform equally well in the hands of two different players. By the same token, no two driver shafts will afford the same single-player the same amount of functionality.

Driver Shafts for Sale - What Do You Need?

Because no two driver shafts for sale are created equal, you need to have some kind of grasp on what you need to look for in a driver shaft before you get to it. Without getting into the weeds on what matters, two of the most important aspects of golf shafts, for drivers or otherwise, are material and stiffness.

In addition to material and stiffness, there are other ratings, like torque, kick point, and more, but these and other features will be more directly impacted by material and stiffness than anything else.

Also, keep this in mind while shopping. While the stiffness and material matter, they matter because of your own personal traits, chiefly being your measurements, your form, and your swing speed. Once you have a good understanding of your own personal strengths and attributes, you can get onto matching a golf shaft to your own needs.

Stiffness

Stiffness rating, more than any other single feature of a golf shaft, is going to impact a shaft’s fitness for a player’s use. There are many different types of stiffness ratings, ranging from extra stiff on the one end all the way through to regular, senior and ladies on the other end, all of which are much more flexible.

We’re not going to attempt to quantify this with too much detail, as there is no universal methodology for assessing the stiffness of a shaft, and every manufacturer has its own metrics for controlling shaft stiffness.

What matters is that you have a baseline understanding of what it means for a shaft to be stiffer or more flexible and why it matters. Practice is the only way to really determine what works for you, but having a basic understanding of the matter will help you along your way.

Stiffness matters because it, more than any other feature, will affect your swing, your distance, the loft of your ball’s trajectory, and your accuracy as well. When you hold all things equal, the stiffer a golf shaft is, the farther and straighter you will be able to hit a ball, and more accurately as well.

You might take this to mean that a stiffer golf shaft is objectively superior to a shaft with a lower stiffness rating, but that is not the case. Only experienced players with refined form and high swing speeds can extract that functionality, which is why most stiff and extra stiff shafts are reserved for the use of more experienced players.

Shafts with lower stiffness ratings, like regular, senior, amateur, and ladies rated shafts, are more useful for players with slower swing speeds. Even experienced players with slower swing speeds will benefit from the use of flexible shafts. This is because shafts that are not as stiff are more accommodating, more forgiving, and also enable these players to add distance to their swings. Since they can’t attain the higher swing speeds of other players, the more flexible shaft adds some distance to their abilities.

This attribute of a shaft is largely impacted by the material from which the shaft is made, which is another thing that you should look out for when you’re shopping for driver shafts for sale.

Material

The material that a driver shaft is made from will also impact its performance, and for the most part, you’re going to come across two different types of materials: steel and graphite.

Steel shafts:

●Steel shafts are very tough - It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that given the choice between a graphite or steel shaft, steel shafts are a lot more resistant in the face of environmental stressors than graphite.

●Steel shafts can be more economical to produce - Some players prefer steel simply because some steel shafts come with a lower price tag.

●Steel shafts can be very stiff - Additionally, some of the stiffest shafts in golf are made from steel, which makes steel shafts highly desirable to some players.

Graphite shafts:

●Graphite shafts are more fragile - All things being equal, graphite shafts are a lot more fragile than steel shafts and require adequate protection. If not cared for properly, or stressed, they can fray or break.

●Graphite shafts are more expensive - Graphite shafts are also more expensive to produce than most steel shafts, which means they incur greater costs to players.

●They can be manufactured to a wider range of specifics in performance - If you were wondering where the drawing of graphite came from, especially since it is more fragile and more expensive (which is a bad combo) it comes from the fact that graphite can be made to exhibit a wide range of performance specs. It can be made very stiff or very flexible, and torque, kick point and weight can all be precisely engineered in graphite. Steel is not as accommodating.

Club Head Features

In addition to material and subsequent stiffness, the club head you pair with a driver shaft will also impact the performance of your golf clubs. Here are some of the features to take into account.

-Material - Most driver heads are made from steel, titanium, or composite materials (and woods were and are sometimes still made of wood) but the most common of these are titanium alloys and composites. Titanium is strong, durable, and light, meaning you can achieve a higher swing speed than with a heavier head. Some composites are even lighter, but there is a tradeoff between mass and the energy carried by the clubhead that will be imparted to the golf ball.

-Loft - Loft is the angle at which the face of the club head will contact a golf ball, and is used to impart backspin on the ball that results in lift. The less loft a club head provides, the flatter and straighter a ball will fly, and the more loft, the higher - this is why irons produce high, floating trajectories. There is a sweet spot in the middle of these two, and players must practice in order to refine their swings to identify the ideal loft angle for their skills.

-Center of Gravity - The center of gravity within a club head refers to the internal point at which the clubhead balances, and the point to which the club head could be reduced if it occupied no space. Some clubs give you the ability to manipulate or adjust the center of gravity through the use of moveable or removable weights. Several Ping club heads, among others, provide this utility, and club heads that offer this give you the ability to fine-tune your skills.

While we recognize these traits are not really features of the golf shafts themselves, they will impact the performance of a club and so should be included in this list of features to evaluate or ascertain in a golf club.

Why Get Them Online?

Now that you have some cursory insight into the things you need to weigh in the decision to purchase a new golf shaft, you might be wondering why you should do so online. This is a more pointed factor if you already have a shop that you trust most of your needs to.

Well, for one thing, if you don’t have a preferred supplier than the option to shop for driver shafts for sale online is a simple one with no counter-argument. Even if you do have a shop that you turn to for most of your needs, throwing online shopping in the mix will only benefit you.

Better Selection

Probably the best reason to give the online marketplace for golfing equipment a shot, and Dallas Golf Company in specific, is because you will have access to the most brands online. Some shops may only carry a preferred number of brands in shafts, clubs, and equipment, but we have one of the widest selections in the industry. When you come to us for a shaft, you can choose between steel shafts from True Temper and graphite shafts from Aldila, Fujikura, Project X, Graphite Design, and innumerable others. The same holds true for our other equipment, which deserves its own callout.

Access to More Additional Equipment

Sometimes you’re not just in the running for a new driver shaft or even for a new set of shafts, but for other accessories as well. In that event, shopping online for your golfing equipment and essentials will put you in front of more of the best accessories than you’d find elsewhere.

Our collection of brands on golf bags alone is impressive, covering Sun Mountain, Titleist, Datrek, Club Glove, and many others - but you’ll need other equipment along the way as well. Whether you need gloves, rangefinders, grips, golf balls, or anything else you could need in the sport, you don’t need to look any further.

Better Prices

When you shop online, you can also help yourself to better prices, if only for the fact that the power of information is on your side. With little effort you can find the best prices on your favorite gear with only a few swipes or clicks, and who doesn’t like to save a little money here and there?

Naturally, you’ll also save money when you shop online, on top of the fact that you won’t need to drive anywhere and spend money on gas doing that. Of course, it isn’t always about money, which brings up some other unique reasons that online shopping is the way to go.

Professional Services

When you shop with the right online supplier, like Dallas Golf Company, you can take advantage of several unique online services to better your shopping experience and educate you on the finer points of the sport.

For example, our online shaft fitting tool is designed to take into account your distance off the tee as well as your desired launch height, along with your swing speed and the club weight you would desire. That’s only one of our unique services, though. We also offer online trade-in services, and a number of professional services in our store, including club fitting services and repair services.

Professional Support

In addition to these professional resources, our team also constitutes a helpful consultative resource to our clients, and you can always call us first if you ever have any questions. For example, if you want to learn more about shopping for driver shafts and other clubs and equipment, just give us a call today!

Call Us or Stop by Our Store

Naturally, if you’re in our area, we’d love to see you in our retail shop in Dallas, Texas, where you can take us up on many of our professional services. Stop on by our retail shop any time you want to meet our team in person and get some hands-on experience with some of the unique golf equipment that we sell. Online shopping is great, but sometimes there’s no way to outdo personal experience.

Otherwise, if you just have some questions that need answering or you’re even looking for something like a recommendation for a new shaft or club head, we’re your team. Take a look through our collection of shafts, clubs, and equipment, and if you have any questions, give us a call at 800-955-9550!