How To Choose A Driver Shaft

Making sure you select the right driver is crucial to your success of the tee box. 

Playing with the wrong shaft can make you question everything you know about golf and become overly critical of your swing.

Getting the right shaft can instantly drop shots from your scorecard without changing your swing.

But finding out which shaft you should be using can be the stuff of nightmares. There is so much technical mumbo jumbo on the internet, and you can get overloaded with information.

Ideally, we would recommend for you to get fitted by a professional.

That being said, we have done our best to make selecting the right shaft for you as straightforward and easy as possible.

By the end of this post, you will be able to identify problems in your swing that are caused by using the incorrect shaft and what the solution is.

Best of luck!

What You Need To Know Before Buying A Shaft

There Are Two Types Of Golf Shafts:

Steel Golf Shafts

Although you may be able to find drivers with steel shafts, they are rare and require an extremely high swing speed to get the same distance as graphite shafts.

Steel irons, however, are more consistent in terms of accuracy if you have a consistent swing, as you don’t have to worry about flex or the shaft bending during the swing.

The trade-off is that they won’t go as far, but if you want accuracy or just have a soft spot for the good owl days, try steel shafts.

Just a little heads up, a mishit on a cold morning might turn your fingers numb!

Graphite Golf Shafts

A graphite shaft comes with every driver as stock shafts these days and is used by professional golfers, weekend warriors, and high handicappers alike.

These drivers allow for a more fluid swing feel and produce a lot more distance than their steel shaft counterparts. 

The only real downfall with graphite shafts is they can be hard to control depending on the amount of flex/bend you put on the shaft during your swing.

However, if you can choose the right shaft regarding golf shaft flex, length, weight, torque, and bend point, then you can start hitting more fairways overnight.

You can, of course, figure this out for yourself by checking off your requirements in the headings below, or you can always go and get fitted.

Getting fitted costs money, but if you can’t figure it out this is definitely the way to go.

Choosing The Right Flex

Ensuring you’re using the right flex is essential to hit consistent drives off the tee. 

When you use a shaft flex that’s not right for you, the ball will not behave how you want it to. 

For example, if you find that your golf ball struggles to get a decent amount of height, then you’re probably using a flex that is too stiff for you.

Likewise, if you find your golf ball launches too high into the air, you should probably swap to a stiffer flex.

Another telltale sign of a driver flex that is not stiff enough for you is that the ball sprays all over the course, even when it feels like you swung the golf club well.

Because of the looser flex, the shaft is bent all out of place, making it harder for you to make consistent contact with the golf ball regardless of how good your swing is.

So, what flex should you use?

Golfers with slower swing speeds = Softer Shaft Flex

Golfers with average swing speeds = Regular Shaft Flex

Golfers with higher swing speeds = Stiffer Shaft Flex

Pay attention to your ball flight and behavior with your current driver. Use the above tips to figure out if you need a stiffer or softer flex.

Choosing The Right Length 

Most golfers don’t have the money to try and test out cutting down their driver shafts to see which length they should need.

And a lot goes into figuring out what length is perfect for you. Things like your height, arm reach, build, swing speed and more can all affect what golf club shaft length you need.

Longer shafts can result in longer drives when compared to shorter shafts, as the club head will travel farther by default, that is if you make consistent contact.

Shorter shafts allow the golfer to control more easily the clubface than longer shafts. 

Also, it’s more common for longer shafts to favor heel strikes (Fade Biased), but shorter shafts favor toe strikes (Draw Biased).

Figuring this out by yourself can be done as there is plenty online about what shaft length matches which height.

However, golf swings are like snowflakes and what will work for someone else doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you.

We recommend paying for a fitting session before removing inches from your driver. 

Once it’s cut, there is no putting it back on, and a new shaft will cost much more than a fitting session.

Choosing The Right Weight

The weight of a shaft may feel insignificant as you hold it in your hand. After all, the difference between a light and a heavy shaft could be 40 grams.

But that 40 grams can make or break your accuracy on the golf course.

Heavier golf shafts are more tailored towards golfers with a higher swing speed, and lighter shafts are suited to slower swing speeds.

When a golfer with a slow swing speed uses a heavy shaft, the ball flight will stay low to the ground, and their speed will decrease further due to the weight.

On the other hand, when a golfer with fast swing speeds uses a lighter shaft, their ball will fly high into the sky, their accuracy will get worse, and their speed will increase.

Choosing The Right Torque

Torque in a golf shaft basically means if it has a stiffer or looser feel.

Shafts with low torque will feel more solid throughout the swing and favor golfers with faster swing speeds.

Higher torque shafts will almost feel like a whip or like you’re casting a fishing rod and will favor slower swing speeds.

This will be tougher to judge as you may not like how one shaft feels at impact and may prefer one with a higher or lower torque.

But if the ball is not spraying as much and you’re more consistent, that’s all that should matter.

Choosing The Right Bend Point

Lastly, and probably the easiest to figure out, is if you need a higher or lower bend point.

At what point the shaft bends largely affects how high or low the golf ball flight will tend to be. 

This means if you have a higher ball flight and want to lower it, a shaft with a higher bend point will lower your flight.

Likewise, if you can’t seem to get the golf ball airborne, then a shaft with a lower bend point should be able to counteract this and launch your ball higher.

Overall, there are plenty of shafts and variations. 

What you don’t want to turn into is a mad scientist with all the above information. The majority of golfers only need to worry about flex primarily. 

Experimenting with buying different shafts can become costly, so if in doubt, go to your local driving range or golf store to get a fitting session booked in.

A Brief History Of Driver Shafts

Early 20th Century 

Hickory shafts were seen throughout your entire golf bag during this period. The shafts in the drivers then would be considered short compared to todays standard. 

These wooden shafts would come in at around 43 inches in length. This short shaft was due to the fact if they were any longer the force of the swing would be likely to snap the shaft. 

1920s 

Around the 1920s steel shaft irons began to break onto the scene. Because of there improved durability and ease of production they began to get slightly longer. Steel shafts were a huge step up from the hickory shafts of old with both better accuracy and distance.

1970s 

Throughout the 70s golfers began gradually swapping out their steel driver shafts for graphite. Once again, they because a little longer in length and also in overall ball distance.

Although the accuracy wasn’t as consistent as steel shafts, the difference in distance was enough for golfers to make the change.

Today

 In the modern game today graphite is still king and drivers have become longer. So much so that specific rules were brought in on tour to stop pros using driver shafts exceeding 48 inches. 

Which isn’t really an issue because most tour players prefer to use a shorter shaft for more control.

Found this post helpful? Checkout our post that tells you how to get more distance with your driver, what length driver you should use, fix your mega slice, picking the right loft for you swing, 7 Best Drivers For Mid Handicappers Today, or how to use your irons of the tee when your driver isn’t behaving.