It's the stock Callaway shaft, built to average, i.e. it's meant to be all things to all people. But everyone's golf swing is different, so the chances of a good match are slim. I'm trying to think of an analogy ... wait, here's one. What are the chances of you being able to drive my car without adjusting the driver's seat?

BTW, the 454 is a throughbore (look at pictures on Callaway's own website, that grey plug on the sole is where the shaft goes through the head and out the sole, and is then trimmed and plugged). That makes it harder to a) remove it and b) fit an after-market.

It might be the "World's Longest Driver" (Remax WC, 2004) but the winner wasn't swinging an RCH shaft. He was swinging an AccuFLEX Assassin II.

No matter what you buy in any retail envireoment,you pay for what you get.
Cheap shafts have more carbon in them than graphite so won't perform as well,the more expensive the the shaft normally a higher grade manafacturing process has made it,try and get as much experience as you can,we've been playing with shafts for years which are quite cheap on e bay,experiment,what have you got to lose,the good shafts for me,inhibit my excesses instead of enhancing my swing which then happens naturally,a proforce in a Hippo head works wonders,as does a penley in a SMT 455. Instead of continual replacement of a driver,change the shafts.

One of the best threads for a while.

I have a Titleist 975J-VS and I tend to attack the ball on an out to in path. The symptoms of my bad driving days is a weak high pushy fade. Just like EXMAX mentioned earlier. Are you saying that if I replaced the shaft (Graffaloy Pro-Lite Pro 4565) with a better one I dont need to go and splash out on a new driver?

You need an interactive, artificially intelligent shaft, which can detect an incorrect swing path and twist itself into position to compensate, and hit the correct part of the ball square to the line of intended flight. It's likely to be a bit whippy though, so on a good swing day I'm not sure how it would behave. Or how you could avoid self strangulation.

Let me know when you find one, I'm all over it.

Line always outways both shaft and head performance.
It could work different ways
You could change your attack line through the ball or modify it so that it is less from the inside
Potentially you could use a shaft with lower torque but also a shaft with much more
The latter although helping to close the face could also turn the push int a push fade or slice.
Most guys who play with this type of swing attack usually go towards the Titleist drivers as the cog is closer to the neck and is therefore easier to close
Using a t made would always leave the face further open
The prolite in the titleist is a made under liscence by shaft using "prolite technology" imo it isnt as firm as a stock corresponding flex shaft direct from Grafalloy

well said Ex and the regular graffaloy plays quite stiff,so on and on,if you dropped a true graffaloy into one of ex's SMT'S which are thru bore{deeper insertion}it would play even stiffer so there are a lot of variables,so oh hook it,you basically know that your swing path is already corrupt and that you have to make a fundamental swing change as you won't give any shaft or head it's true potential but as in my case.a high kickpoint in the shaft gives me a low boring flight on a nine degree head(another variable} and tip stiff to lessen twisting in the head,stiff shaft.And excuse for repeating EX'S point again but that prolite shaft was a shaft built for a price on retail and altho ok,won't rip up any tree's on performance.

I get my Launcher 400 Back on Sunday Fitted with a NEW Reg Flex Grafalloy Blue Shaft.. Going to Give it a Test Drive on the Same day... Cant Wait ...

Paul.

oh hook it

The shaft you mention is a good one, it's what is fitted to my Taylor R580 instead of the stock shaft so maybe its just that the shaft does not siut you. I find I hit dead straight with it and can work it in both directions.

I tend to disagree with the view that Prolites play stiff (I have 3 clubs with one on. Its that they are designed to produce a low flight which some may interpret as stiff because they fail to get the ball into the air.

The fact that they have a highkick point may also lead one to think the are stiff because you do not get the head waggle that you do with a low kick point shaft.

Most of the time my flight is a long boring flight with a touch of fade. I only mentioned the bad driving days which are thankfully fairly rare.

The thing i'm not getting is if these stock shaft are so crap why do people go on buying clubs with them fitted. My guess is it's because they (like me) have never even considered swapping the shaft in the driver. My first thought if I'm not getting on with it would be to trade it in for aother driver with another stock shaft.

The other thing is how on earth do you decide what shaft is right for you, obviously buying a load of different shafts and trying them is way too expensive, so where would you go to try a variety of shafts out?

I bought a mizuno blue fire with one of their Fujikura £200 shafts in it for £80,pulled shafts on e bay can be had from the states for a pittance,experiment,it's cheaper than a new driver and loadsa fun to,I finally settled on the Penley stealths for me after loads of experimenting,its all a matter of choice.

Gil, I know there's been chat before about buying from the USA and duty, etc, but that was for more expensive items.

If, say, I bought a shaft for £40 from the States, how much are Customs likely to hit me for?

oh hook
Personally I'm not saying the stock shaft is necessarily rubbish just they are not as suited to my swing as the prolite . Several companies do fit the grafalloy as an option or as standard.

I bought my shafts off ebay as either pulls or at a good price on buy it now. The pro elite brought to our attention in a thread this week from McAlan are only £12.5 each +pp and my first prolite 35 only cost me £25 on ebay. I bought a batch of five assorted pulls for £45 resold the ones I did not want individually and what I kept worked out free.

I didn't know SMT did a thru' bore, they do some very deep ones (like my Spectrum!).

There are ways around import tax. If you can get your seller to label the package "promotion", "demo", "used", or "low value" you shouldn't have a problem. You run a risk that the goods might be insured for less than you pay for them ("used" or "low value"), but IMO it's worth it.

SMT s are deep bore as golf bhoy has said and not through