Shaft Flex Point: Myth or Legend?

Golf Shaft Flex Point: Myth or Legend?
By: Mike Tait
President, and Club Designer of SMT Golf
You hear players giving advice all the time on getting the correct flex point on the shaft you are using. Retail store clerks tout the magic of this phenomenon when they have you in front of the display of brightly painted shafts on the wall. Truth be told, while not a myth, it has turned into one of the biggest mysteries in the sport.

Players have been conditioned to believe that the difference between a high flex point and a low flex point can be virtually from just below the grip to right above the ferrule on the clubhead. But the truth is that the distance between High and Low Flex Point is basically 2.5 inches in the middle of the shaft. Arguably hardly worth talking about, but I, of course, find myself unable to stop here.

Flex point is most talked about when discussing a shaft choice to make the golf ball trajectory change, The higher the "flex point", the lower the peak trajectory of the shot for that particular club. The lower the "flex point" the higher the peak trajectory will be for the club used. In reality, I have found that "flex point" is used more like a crutch in the clubfitting process and certainly when diagnosing playing problems. And is all too often used to help "ring the register" because it is something we have all heard of but really know almost nothing about.

Players and clubmakers are quick to want to suggest reshafting to a shaft with a different flex point, but in reality we might want to be looking at it a bit differently, perhaps a bit more logically.

We have all come to the golf course or driving range with a swing speed. I don't care what yours is, and you don't care what mine is. Each club in our bags really has a maximum speed that we can swing it. After a big bucket of balls, logic might tell us that we are probably swinging it a bit slower than earlier in the bucket due to muscle fatigue. We are not Tour Professionals and only have so many full swings in us before we lose a bit of the edge. As weekend players, we tend to reach that level sooner than your conditioned golf professional will.

That being said, and if you agree with that statement, you can agree that shaft WEIGHT has much more to do with trajectory and certainly has taken much more than its share of the blame, and of course, the glory, for the elusive "flex point" issue. What I mean is, if we all swing at a max speed, and we put a heavier product in out hands, we are certainly going to swing it a bit slower. If we swing it a bit slower, the ball flight laws tell us that the ball will not spin as much and therefore will not rise as high. Of course, if we go to a lighter shaft, we will swing the club just a bit faster, in effect adding spin to the ball causing it to rise quicker and higher. Either way, the blame or kudos are often given to "flex point". The example is really quite simple. Can you throw a bowling ball higher or a baseball higher? Remember, you came to me with a swing speed, and that did not really change within the two throws required to complete this simple test.

Don't get me wrong, flex point is not like the Loch Ness Monster, it can actually be found and identified. But just like the Loch Ness Monster, because we can find it, doesn't mean that we always know what to do with it, or if it has any real value once we have our hands on it.

I contend that shaft WEIGHT or overall weight of the club (not swingweight) has much more to do with the overall trajectory of our shots than "flex point" will ever have.

The answer, as with virtually all of my teachings and theories is really quite simple and basic. If you want to hit the ball higher, you can and should look to a lighter shaft or lighter overall product. If you want to hit the ball lower, you should look to a heavier shaft or heavier product.

Certainly loft and length are an issue, but for the sake of this topic, we will stick with weight and how it gets confused by virtually everyone for "flex point".

In the SMT - RLM shaft lineup, the sales leader Miridio is the lightest weight and produces arguably the highest trajectory of the three shafts available, while the Argent being slightly heavier tends to keep the ball down out of the wind a bit more than the others. The Basalt, is the perfect combination of the two. Experiment to see what works best for you, but take an assessment of your own game by asking yourself how you tend to hit the ball overall..... higher or lower, and how would changing that ball flight alter your game? But don't get bogged down in the marketing hype when looking to buy a new shaft. Close the catalogs and the golf magazines and use some common sense. If the shaft is heavier, the ball will fly lower in the same clubhead and if the shaft is lighter weight it will generally make the ball fly higher. It really is as simple as that.