The shaft is often referred to as the engine of the golf club, but that implies just power. In my opinion, the shaft is the most important component of the club. Your irons and woods might be the best looking, feeling and forgiving on the market, but unless the shaft fitted in them is suited to your swing speed and technique you won’t fully benefit from them. The shaft will influence where the clubhead is at impact. With the wrong shaft you’ll get poor results.
There was a time when there were few choices of shaft for women. For the early pioneers who played in long skirts with hickory clubs, rhythm was a big requirement to make what would now be considered a very flexible shaft function effectively. Then along came steel and women’s clubs started to improve. My first set of steel shafts were definitely too heavy for me. The real transformation came with the introduction of graphite. We suddenly had options, and lots of them. It didn’t take manufacturers long to realise that the simplest solution was to offer a standard women’s flex, broadly suitable to the stereotypical women’s swing speed and they stamped it with an ‘L’ for Ladies Flex.
The abbreviation can equally be known as ‘L’ for ‘light’, usually around 55-69 grams, but sometimes as low as 40g. As the average woman swings the club at under 75 mph, a lighter shaft is easier to swing fast, helping boost speed and therefore distance. But, of course, no two women are alike and there’s definitely no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to shafts. The club doesn’t know who is using it. Shafts should be selected based on how you swing the club. There are options galore and the best solution is to get custom-fitted by a professional expert to make sure that you have a shaft which works with your golf swing and strength.
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The right shaft will help to create the optimum launch conditions (trajectory and spin rate) to produce every yard your swing can deliver. The correct shaft can add over 20 yards to tee shots and a good 10 yards to iron distances. But, just as importantly, it will ensure that the clubface is returned square to the ball, improving your accuracy.
One of the most recent advances in women’s shafts is the introduction of lightweight shafts that can still have stiffer profiles. These are designed to allow you to swing the clubhead faster without any extra effort. This allows you to maintain control over the clubhead while adding yards to your…
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