: In the Golfsmith catalogue, I found the following data of True
: Temper steel shafts:
:
: Gold Plus for Woods, stiffness R 300: raw weight 3.68 oz., raw length
: 44"
:
: Dynalite for Woods, stiffness R/S: raw weight 4.13 oz., raw length 47"
:
: The Gold Plus is praised and prized for its low weight. But although
: the raw Dynalite is markedly heavier, it is also longer. So, I am
: wondering, how much will the weight differ after t*** for final
: assembly?
: Let us a build a 43 " driver with a bore-thru head.
: Then, we have to trim only from the butt, cutting 1" and 4",
: respectively.
: Assuming for simplicity that the shafts have uniform wall thickness
: and the form of a cone stump (i.e. the radius increases proportional to
: the length from the tip to the butt), the final weight will be
: 3.57 oz. for the Gold Plus and
: 3.69 oz. for the Dynalite.
:
: The calculated difference is only 0.12 oz. or 3.2 %.
:
: Now my questions to the network community:
:
: Can anybody confirm or reject these considerations by practical
: measurements?
Well, I can't see it making too much a difference, but the
walls don't have a uniform thickness, and the "steps" in the
shafts are also different. This could make the weight
difference bigger or smaller, as well as changing the overall
swingweight.
:
: Is this difference of any significance for playability?
Some people will argue that the the low-bend point in the
Dynalites will allow the ball trajectory to be higher than that
of the Gold Plus mid-bend point (from what I've read, the
difference between a low and high bend point is generally less
than an 1.5 inches so this may not be a consideration). The
other thing that I notice is that the Dynalite is a combo flex,
meaning that the flex/stiffness changes depending on how much
you trim form the tip. Since you want the lower (read R) flex,
this should make a difference, but it makes me believe that the
flex ratings could be off from one shaft to the next (again,
from what I've read the flex ratings aren't very good ratings
even when comparing shafts from the same company).
:
: Are there aspects other than weight that should make you buy the
: Gold Plus rather than the Dynalite, disregarding the prize difference
: of more than 100 % ?
The differences that stand out are that the Gold Plus' are
Frequency Matched, and the tips are "'beefed-up' for additional
strength in the impact area on metal woods". The Frequency
Matching means that if you build a "set", the shafts should all
have the same "feel". The Gold Plus' are also sorted by weight,
so that when you build a "set", there will be some weight
consistency thoughout it.
Getting back to the "feel" issue, since the GPlus' have the
"beefed-up" tip, and a mid-bend point, they could "feel"
stiffer than what you want/expect.
What I suggest doing (if you can) is going down to a local shop
and getting two identical clubs with the shafts you want and
taking a few practice swings with both. Pick the one you fell
most comfortable with. If neither of them "feels" better, go
for the cheaper shaft.
BTW - have you read Dave T's articles on club design and taken
into account that 28 grams (about an ouce) of shaft weight can
change the swingweight (maybe irrelivant for you).
:
: Always good golfing
:
: Andreas
: ---------------------------------------
: Mayo Foundation 1-507-284-8591
: Rochester, MN 55905, USA
: ---------------------------------------
--
Test and Evaluation Specialist ...!princeton!marcelo.remote!marcelo
Advanced Technologies and Applications (609) 258-5661
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