As it’s winter time, what else is there to do than try out new equipment.

While the Epic shaft from Grafalloy is not exactly brand new, it is still one of the newer shafts on the block. Bag Chatter got the opportunity to trial the standard Driver shaft, the Tour Driver shaft (available for Tour Concept dealers) and the Fairway wood shaft.

Grafalloy are one of the best known and most respected shaft manufacturers with a healthy representation on Tour, mostly with their Prolite, Blue and Prolaunch shafts. The Epic, released to the public in a blaze of publicity in March 2007, is their latest shaft aimed at the higher end of the market. An area that may be more commonly associated with products from the likes of Diamana and Ozik. The Epic shaft got a fair bit of notice when pictures of Tiger Woods trialling it made their way onto the web and when he used it for a driver swing lesson in a major magazine (GolfWRX partner Golf Digest).

The Epic then quickly picked up 2 wins on the Senior Tour, the Regions Charity Classic and the Senior US Open, quickly followed by a victory on the European PGA at the Alfred Dunhill Classic. This was part of Grafalloy’s impressive 2007 resume of 5 wins on the US PGA, 6 wins on the Senior Tour and 9 wins on the Nationwide Tour where incidentally 7 of the 25 players that graduated to the main tour play Grafalloy shafts. So far so good, but the real question is what is the Epic like?

Appearance

Exceptionally good looking. The brushed silvery metallic look with calligraphy-like lines covering the top half of the shaft and the reversible EPIC logo, finished off with inkish blue-violet highlights. It fact I might go as far as to say that they are possibly the best looking shafts currently available, more attractive than an ion finish Diamana even. The finish feels slick and tough and not easily damaged presumably from the large amount of metal in the shaft (and yes, you can stick a magnet to it) unlike some other ‘fancy’ shafts. Looking down the raw shaft, you can see that the shaft is not made from one material as there are 2 separate regions to this shaft – an inner black ring surrounded by an equal thickness of a shiny more metal-like outer ring – highlighting the fact that this shaft is made from two materials. Once installed, the graphics on the shaft aren’t distracting at all and the metal finish does not reflect any glare.

Technical Specs

The marketing info from Grafalloy tells us that the Epic is made from a proprietary new material called Nanofuse. Originally developed for the Defence industry, this material has expanded into the aerospace industry and is now available for commercial use such as sporting goods. The aforementioned 2 layers of this shaft are an outer layer of Nickel alloy while the inner layer is high modulus carbon fibre. While the Nanofuse bond between these two layers is quite narrow, it is exponentially stronger than steel giving the shaft extremely high levels of strength. It is interesting to note that Grafalloy tell us the this is the only shaft of the 2008 line-up to use the Nanofuse technology.

There are actually 6 versions of this shaft. Four retail versions - Driver, Fairway wood, Hybrid iron, Hybrid wood - and 2 Tour versions: Tour 75 and Tour 90. Here are the specs for extra-stiff flex versions of the shafts we trialled.

From first glance it’s pretty obvious that this shaft is reasonable heavy, even the regular flex version of the driver shaft weighs a minimum of 69g. Grafalloy tell us that this is a mid kick shaft with a stiff tip but that it is difficult measure and quantify the tip and butt stiffness of the Epic shaft because the material is unlike either graphite or steel.

Feel

The first thing that you notice is that Epic shafts do definitely feel different from graphite shafts or steel shafts. The best way to describe them would be to say that they feel like a very tight and smooth graphite shaft without any boardy qualities. Then again, that is as it should be for a high end/high cost shaft whether or not it is made from some proprietary material. The added weight means that they offer a great sense of location throughout the swing while the balance point ensures that you never feel as though you are swinging a sledge hammer even with the extra heft. As you would expect, the retail Driver shaft has the loosest, most active feel due to the softer tip but it manages this without feeling vague. The Tour 75 is smoother but also has more solidity to it with the stiffer tip section and the Fairway wood feels so right you think it might swing for you. As a general guide, they all feel excellent.

Performance

Grafalloy would have us believe that this shaft offers the strength, light weight and feel of graphite with the accuracy of steel. So does it?

Actually it does. While it is ostensibly a high launch, mid-low spin club, all versions of the Epic allowed great control over shot making. High/Low, Fade/Draw, these shafts allow you to play the shot you want at a distance you almost can’t believe and with a phenomenal sense of accuracy. For once the marketing blurb is not fluff, there is a real perceived difference in how the shaft feels and this translates into how much confidence you have in how you play your shots. The precision throughout the swing means that you are never lost and always have the sense that good swings are rewarded and bad swings can be recovered and turned into good swings. The distance is as good as anything else I have tested but what stands out here is the dispersion and control. The retail Driver shaft is easier to load than the Tour 75 version and produces a higher flight with very good dispersion but the Tour 75 has a better feel and has a better resistance to being over-powered when you swing hard and is exceptionally accurate. The higher torque of the Driver shaft does mean that there is the risk that really hard swings can generate unwanted excess spin but if you have that sort of hard loading, fast swing then you would be using the Tour 75 version anyway. The Tour 75 has a slightly lower and more penetrating trajectory compared to the standard Driver because of the stiffer tip section and it never produces an overly high trajectory, even on full out swings. The fairway version is flat out outstanding. I can’t say a single thing against it. It’s long, incredibly accurate and has a great trajectory similar to the Tour 75 but with an even greater ability to control shot shape to a degree that I thought was unthinkable. The confidence produced by this is astounding and makes a mockery of tight driving holes where it almost guarantees landing the ball on the short grass.

Overall

Firstly, hats off to Grafalloy for producing a superb shaft. The Driver version is very good and the Tour 75 is pretty much everything you could ever want in a heavy driver shaft but hands down, the fairway shaft is the best shaft I have ever had in a wood, and wasn’t just me either. I managed to convince a Tour player who just happened to be practising nearby to give it a go. To say that he was impressed was an understatement. He had two 3 woods with him, one with a Diamana Blueboard 103X and one with a Matrix Ozik TP-7x. He felt that the Epic was better than either of those as it gave the same distance but with better feel and tighter dispersion. Not a bad report at all for a shaft that he picked up only a few minutes before.

All in all, the Epic is a great shaft that offers great distance with outstanding control and being part of the Callaway Optifit system for 2008 can only be a plus. Those that do give it a go will experience a real treat as this is a top class shaft and deserves serious consideration for better golfers looking for that top end shaft.