Opinion & Analysis

Flex Appeal: An interview with shaft guru Robin Arthur

Published

7 years ago

Nov 23, 2016

Life has a funny way of throwing people together. I was recently surfing the web, researching a new shaft for my driver. I sent off a few emails to shaft companies and OEM component companies asking for some advice. To my surprise, they all answered and had useful suggestions. But the response that captured my attention most was from Arthur Xtreme Engineering, a company that designs, tests and markets the Xcaliber brand of golf shafts. I received an email from Robin Arthur asking me a bunch of questions. Turns out he’s the CEO and President, so I was nice getting some VIP treatment!

I did a bit of Googling on Robin and, to my surprise, a ton of stuff came up. He’s a bit of a rockstar in the world of golf shafts, known in golfing circles as the King of the Lightweight Shaft, as his Grafalloy Prolite shafts are tagged as the “winningest ultralite shaft in Tour history,” according to multiple sources.

He’s now his own boss at Arthur Xtreme Engineering and XCaliber Shafts (King Arthur, remember!) and some of his YouTube videos, like this one, make compelling viewing. But don’t let this self-styled, West Virginian fool you. He’s a smart guy with degrees in engineering, applied science and business from Yale.

I recently caught up with Robin in his office in San Diego. A scheduled 30-minute interview turned into a fascinating two-hour journey covering grounds on all sorts of interesting and educational topics. I have tensile strength, modularity, fiber and resin content coming out of my ears. It’s hard not to feel the sense of enthusiasm with “King Arthur.”

Editor’s Note: This Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Mark Donaghy: What’s your background, Robin?

Robin Arthur: After college I spent my early years working in the aerospace industry, joining General Dynamics in 1982. I was involved in many, many programs designing and manufacturing aerospace composite structures. The evolution of graphite and epoxy materials were critical keys. They led to advancements in reducing weight while maintaining strength, opening doors to next generation design and manufacturing techniques. And I was at the forefront of all that.

MD: It’s a big transition from rockets to golf shafts. So how did that come about?

RA: Well, not really. I saw the opportunity to bring my knowledge and experience into another industry, one that was crying out for it. At that time I had just started playing golf and I was obsessed by the game. I was headhunted for a role in Grafalloy, a relatively unknown company in California, to breathe some life into it with innovative R&D and manufacturing. Graphite shafts had really just taken off, so you could say I was in the right place at the right time.

MD: When starting out in the industry, what did you think you could bring to the game of golf that was different, and do you feel you accomplished that?

RA: When I first started in the golf industry, I met a lot of people and asked a lot of questions. I spoke with all the major OEMs and saw what was available in the market and the claims that some of the existing shaft companies were making. I quickly began to realize that there was huge opportunity to improve on what was out there. Both manufacturing and design processes were archaic and resulted in shaft inconsistencies. I knew with my materials, science and engineering background, and experience in the aerospace industry, I could develop something lighter and more consistent, but I had to put some fundamental processes in place first and that took a few years. I’ve always seen myself as an “imagineer” — seeing the art of the possible — and I am constantly challenging both myself and the industry with new concepts. A lot of the stuff I’ve come up with has never made it to market, but I think my lightweight designs have held their own in the industry and then some.

MD: Why lightweight shafts?

RA: Lightweight shafts were originally targeted at the Asian, senior and ladies markets. They allowed more speed to be generated and the dampening properties of graphite meant they were easier on the joints. I tested some of these shafts, and although really whippy, I thought once the guys on the senior tour got hold of them, they would take off. The problem was getting something to play in the No. 1 head on all Tours – The Great Big Bertha. It was a great, titanium head concept….except the distribution of mass wasn’t….ummm….optimal. What some of the shaft companies were doing was sanding down an X-flex shaft to an R-flex, sometimes all the way to an L-flex, taking off 20g of weight and making it almost impossible to do it consistently. Some OEMs were using lighter weight grips (The Bubble) and altering the distribution of mass in the clubhead. Remember the Great Big Bertha? The pros were still putting the ball in orbit with four and five degrees of loft. The problem Callaway was having with the Great Big Bertha was the mass distribution of properties (weight, etc.) of that head design. This was complicated by the distribution of stiffness along the length of the shaft that existing shaft companies used. It took a while to get it right, but when I did, things really took off.

MD: With all your successes at Grafalloy, what keeps you going?

RA: I love golf and I love helping people, be it a tour professional, a club maker or the regular guy on the street. I get a kick out of helping someone get the right shaft to match their game, making it a lot more enjoyable. I really enjoy getting feedback that a shaft has made a big difference. So the pursuit of designing and manufacturing the best shafts available on the market always drives me. Also, being able to offer that at a realistic price is a fundamental cornerstone to my philosophy.

But here’s the real bottom line. I grew up as an athlete and performed at a high level. Every day I worked on becoming a better athlete, every single day. I take this same approach of continuous improvement to my shaft designs, marketing approaches and even pricing. That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning!

MD: What’s next with Xcaliber?

RA: Since leaving Grafalloy, I’ve been involved in several projects. I’ve worked with shaft companies like Royal Precision, Wishon Golf, and Golfworks, and served as a consultant to smaller OEMs. I also took a bit of a hiatus to follow some personal ambitions. But I’m now energized to really get going again with Xcaliber. For a few years I was running a one-man show, doing the R&D, the manufacturing, sales and marketing all by myself. But I’ve turned a corner. I have a whole new line-up of shafts coming out for 2017, and I’m excited. In fact, I’m just back after some extensive player testing all over the U.S., and with Gene Parente at Golf Labs. The results look awesome! So I’m ready to start scaling up. I’ve invested a lot of resources in new management and marketing, and I want to set up channels not just in the U.S., but also Europe and Asia. And I want to take that to the world with a reasonably priced product. Watch out for me in Orlando at the PGA Merchandise show. I’ll be the guy with the big smile on his face!

MD: What do you see as the next shaft developments over the next 10-20 years?

RA: The (golf) head guys have so many restrictions these days that it’s hard to see any major developments there in the near future. The only real way to improve is with the shaft. Luckily the launch monitors are getting so good these days that measuring shaft performance has become a lot more scientific. This is great because it allows me to give the golfing community objective differences in shaft designs. When this info is combined with subjective feedback from extensive player testing, which is just as important as in-lab testing, I can feel confident putting my name on an Xcaliber golf shaft. That’s because I know it’s the best, high-performance shaft I can make for a particular golfer.

I’m always experimenting with new, exotic materials no one has ever heard of before and continuing to blend existing materials such as steel, fibreglass and graphite epoxy in innovative ways. So lighter, stronger shafts will continue to grow in popularity. Also geometry will be a major development but I can’t say too much about that for now. Watch this space!

MD: Where do you get your inspiration?

RA: I already described myself as an imagineer. Technically I’m pretty good across the board, but I’m more of a concepts guy. My latest project came from watching a Zorro movie. When Antonio Banderas cracked his bull whip, it got me thinking about the angular acceleration of the lower portion a shaft, and immediately I was off developing a new concept. I also get ideas from the questions I ask. But like they say, genius is only 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. It’s funny…I’m constantly doing the perspiration part. Maybe someday I’ll get a glimpse of that genius thing.

MD: Over the years, have you worked on any special projects with any high-profile golfers?

RA: I’ve been lucky to have worked with a bunch of PGA Tour players, and of course, players of all abilities. I’ve learned from them all. But one of the biggest highlights in my career was working with Gary Player at Augusta. Mr. Player was in his early 60s and could still hit the snot out of his driver. He had heard about the Prolite shaft and asked me to get him a couple for his Bridgestone heads. He wanted to do a head-to-head comparison with his current gamer, and at the start he was skeptical. It came down to four shots, two with his current set up and two with the Prolite. He asked Peter Brooks, the CFO of Grafalloy at the time, to head down to the fairway to measure and mark the shots. Mr. Player hit his first two shots about 250 yards down the fairway and then indicated he was going to try my Prolite. I watched as his first drive sailed over Pete’s head! After Peter walked to the longer mark, Mr. Player’s second shot sailed over his head again! I wish I could have videoed Gary’s expression…and my smile. He leaned over to me afterwards and whispered, “Robin, I think you may be onto something big here with this shaft. I’ll take ‘em.” They weren’t even for sale!

MD: What sort of golfer are you?

RA: I’d love to tell you I was a scratch golfer, but the truth is that these days I play off about a 10 index. At one point I played to about 4, but right now all my energy is going into developing the business. Twelve- to 14-hour days mean I don’t get to play as often as I like, maybe only two or three times per month. It’s around the greens where I suffer. But I test a bunch of clubs. I’m a “testaholic,” and I can hit a ball well enough to know the difference. I then pass along those shafts I think are good enough to my testing teams who help me either continue the design process or say, “We’ve got it!”

MD: What clubs/shafts do you currently game?

RA: As you might expect, all my clubs have Xcaliber shafts in them, but because I am continuously testing clubs my bag is never the same. I do always carry a Maltby Tricept 58-degree with one of my Spin Wedge shafts in it. I’m getting 2000 rpm more spin with setup because of whip action in the shaft. I love that club! I can stop it on a dime. But I’m forever testing new heads with new shaft combinations so I’m usually grabbing what’s near, or what’s in test and heading out.

MD: Thanks, Robin. My brain hurts. Can I go now?

RA: Yes, go forth, newly appointed Sir Knight. The battle rages, so spread the word.

Have shaft questions for Arthur? He can be contacted at [email protected].

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans betting preview

Published

3 days ago

Apr 22, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.

TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.

Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.

However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.

Past Winners at TPC Louisiana

2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)

2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks

Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)

Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.

This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.

McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.

Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)

Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.

Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.

Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)

Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.

NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 LIV Adelaide betting preview: Cam Smith ready for big week down under

Published

3 days ago

Apr 22, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

After having four of the top twelve players on the leaderboard at The Masters, LIV Golf is set for their fifth event of the season: LIV Adelaide.

For both LIV fans and golf fans in Australia, LIV Adelaide is one of the most anticipated events of the year. With 35,000 people expected to attend each day of the tournament, the Grange Golf Club will be crawling with fans who are passionate about the sport of golf. The 12th hole, better known as “the watering hole”, is sure to have the rowdiest of the fans cheering after a long day of drinking some Leishman Lager.

The Grange Golf Club is a par-72 that measures 6,946 yards. The course features minimal resistance, as golfers went extremely low last season. In 2023, Talor Gooch shot consecutive rounds of 62 on Thursday and Friday, giving himself a gigantic cushion heading into championship Sunday. Things got tight for a while, but in the end, the Oklahoma State product was able to hold off The Crushers’ Anirban Lahiri for a three-shot victory.

The Four Aces won the team competition with the Range Goats finishing second.

*All Images Courtesy of LIV Golf*

Past Winners at LIV Adelaide

2023: Talor Gooch (-19)

Stat Leaders Through LIV Miami

Green in Regulation

Richard Bland
Jon Rahm
Paul Casey

Fairways Hit

Abraham Ancer
Graeme McDowell
Henrik Stenson

Driving Distance

Bryson DeChambeau
Joaquin Niemann
Dean Burmester

Putting

Cameron Smith
Louis Oosthuizen
Matt Jones

2024 LIV Adelaide Picks

Cameron Smith +1400 (DraftKings)

When I pulled up the odds for LIV Adelaide, I was more than a little surprised to see multiple golfers listed ahead of Cameron Smith on the betting board. A few starts ago, Cam finished runner-up at LIV Hong Kong, which is a golf course that absolutely suits his eye. Augusta National in another course that Smith could roll out of bed and finish in the top-ten at, and he did so two weeks ago at The Masters, finishing T6.

At Augusta, he gained strokes on the field on approach, off the tee (slightly), and of course, around the green and putting. Smith able to get in the mix at a major championship despite coming into the week feeling under the weather tells me that his game is once again rounding into form.

The Grange Golf Club is another course that undoubtedly suits the Australian. Smith is obviously incredibly comfortable playing in front of the Aussie faithful and has won three Australian PGA Championship’s. The course is very short and will allow Smith to play conservative off the tee, mitigating his most glaring weakness. With birdies available all over the golf course, there’s a chance the event turns into a putting contest, and there’s no one on the planet I’d rather have in one of those than Cam Smith.

Louis Oosthuizen +2200 (DraftKings)

Louis Oosthuizen has simply been one of the best players on LIV in the 2024 seas0n. The South African has finished in the top-10 on the LIV leaderboard in three of his five starts, with his best coming in Jeddah, where he finished T2. Perhaps more impressively, Oosthuizen finished T7 at LIV Miami, which took place at Doral’s “Blue Monster”, an absolutely massive golf course. Given that Louis is on the shorter side in terms of distance off the tee, his ability to play well in Miami shows how dialed he is with the irons this season.

In addition to the LIV finishes, Oosthuizen won back-to-back starts on the DP World Tour in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mauritus Open. He also finished runner-up at the end of February in the International Series Oman. The 41-year-old has been one of the most consistent performers of 2024, regardless of tour.

For the season, Louis ranks 4th on LIV in birdies made, T9 in fairways hit and first in putting. He ranks 32nd in driving distance, but that won’t be an issue at this short course. Last season, he finished T11 at the event, but was in decent position going into the final round but fell back after shooting 70 while the rest of the field went low. This season, Oosthuizen comes into the event in peak form, and the course should be a perfect fit for his smooth swing and hot putter this week.

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Opinion & Analysis

The Wedge Guy: What really makes a wedge work? Part 1

Published

7 days ago

Apr 18, 2024

Terry Koehler

Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.

Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.

But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.

To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.

Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.

If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.

In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.

Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.

While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.

So, what about grooves and face texture?

Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.

Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.

But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?

The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.

So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.

And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.

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