Spec Library: Reading a Component Chart

Weight Is the Only Honest Column

Grams are grams. A 65 gram shaft from one maker weighs the same as a 65 gram shaft from another, and weight has a larger effect on how a club feels and where it delivers the head than almost anything else on the chart.

That is why we start weight sweeps early in a session. Move a player thirty grams and the whole delivery changes; move them a flex within the same weight and the change is far smaller than the label implies.

Flex Letters Are Not a Standard

There is no industry definition of stiff. One brand's S is another's R, and within a single brand the S in a lightweight family may be softer than the R in a heavier one. The letter tells you where a shaft sits inside its own family and nothing more.

The measurable version of the same idea is frequency, in cycles per minute, taken on a clamped butt with a known tip weight. We record that number on your build sheet because it is reproducible and a letter is not.

Bend Profile Beats the Kick Point Label

Charts often reduce a shaft's behaviour to a single term: low, mid or high launch. A profile measurement instead reports stiffness at several points along the shaft, which is a far more useful thing to compare because two shafts marked mid-launch can behave completely differently under load.

Two shafts labelled the same, measured a full flex apart in the tip section, will not produce the same ball flight no matter what the box says.

Torque Is Not a Ranking

Torque describes resistance to twisting along the shaft's long axis, in degrees. Lower is not automatically better. Very low torque in a light shaft usually means a stiff, harsh feel that many players time badly, and a slightly higher figure often smooths the transition without costing accuracy.

Torque figures are also not measured identically across manufacturers, so comparing 3.2 from one brand to 3.4 from another is close to meaningless. Within one family it is informative.

Tip Trim Is a Decision, Not a Delivery Instruction

Most shafts arrive uncut with a recommended trim chart. Following that chart blindly ties the finished stiffness to an assumption about your build that may not hold. Trimming an extra half inch from the tip firms up the tip section noticeably; trimming from the butt changes overall stiffness and playing length together.

We record the actual trim on your sheet, in inches from tip and butt, so a replacement years from now reproduces the same club rather than an approximation of it.

Swingweight Is a Feel Index, Not a Mass

Swingweight measures how head-heavy a club feels about a fixed fulcrum. Two clubs of equal total mass can sit three points apart, and two clubs at the same swingweight can differ by forty grams in total weight. Both numbers belong on the record because they answer different questions.

Frequency Progression Across a Set

In a matched set, frequency should step up in an even progression from the long irons to the short. Factory sets are often close but not even, and an uneven step tends to show up as one club in the middle that "never feels right" without an obvious reason.

Frequency matching an existing set is a bench job rather than a fitting, and it is listed separately on our rate card.