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Inside info on Jason Dufner’s custom LA Golf Shafts long iron shaft

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5 years ago

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This week, on the range at the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, the inaugural event of the 2019 – 2020 PGA Tour season, we spotted Jason Dufner with a very custom LA Golf Shafts long iron shaft.

We reached out to LA Golf Shafts Chief Product Officer John Oldenburg to get the inside info, and John did not disappoint in the details and the story behind the switch by Jason.

“Duff reached out to me shortly after he put our new OLYSS 65 Tour X prototype in play in his driver last season.  He was looking for something for his 4-iron that would get the ball up in the air a bit easier, but maintain (or increase) distance, and keep the spin close to where it was with his existing shaft which was a TT Dynamic Gold AMT S400.  What I worked on providing him was a shaft that had an overall stiffness/frequency and weight that were comparable to his current set up, but with a softer tip section.  And to improve accuracy (decrease dispersion), I wanted to get him something with lower torque than the TT AMT shaft.  So, in a nutshell, that’s what I designed for him.  It’s a 125 gram shaft with a frequency close to the AMT S400, but with a tip that is pretty significantly softer and has 0.3 degrees lower torque.  The combo of a softer tip with lower torque will help him to launch the ball higher but maintain his accuracy.  The “Duff 4-iron”, also has a higher balance point than the AMT S440.  That way Duff can use a heavier head, get the same swingweight he is comfortable with, and put a little more mass behind the ball at impact to get an increase in ball speed and thus distance.”

“That’s the great thing about graphite.  The limitless design capability.  Graphite is a huge family of composite materials, with different stiffness, strength, density, etc..   Steel, although there are more alloys available today, is primarily a single material with a defined, limited set of mechanical properties.  And even with the additional alloys, individual steel shafts are made from one single steel alloy.  I can mix and match any number of composite materials into a single shaft, to change, enhance, fine tune any number of the shaft playing characteristics.  I can lower the torque and soften the tip.  With steel, if you soften the tip, the torque has to go up.  With steel, change the weight and you change the stiffness and torque.  Composites allow me to adjust individual attributes while having little or no effect on the remaining attributes.  This is a huge benefit of graphite and one of the reasons that I am working with Bryson and Duff and complete sets of graphite for their irons.  Stay tuned!”

This hopefully answers some of the questions that have been asked in the forums about a potential full iron set, and thanks to John we can look forward to more individual player-focused products.

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Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. David johnson

    Sep 13, 2019 at 4:36 pm

    Great article i am an old golf pro who learnt his golf as a club maker and player the comments make perfect sense and I would love to contact this company for some own use driver and fairway shafts to give me back some length I have lost if you give me the contact details I would be most grateful

    Reply Report comment

  2. dixiedoc

    Sep 12, 2019 at 10:11 am

    Duff’s going to need more that a new four iron

    Reply Report comment

  3. JP

    Sep 11, 2019 at 3:41 pm

    Too bad this isn’t available to the average consumer.

    Reply Report comment

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Whats in the Bag

Daniel Berger WITB 2024 (April)

Published

7 hours ago

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Apr 24, 2024

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  • Daniel Berger what’s in the bag accurate as of the Farmers Insurance Open. More photos from the event here.

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X

6-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 Tour (21 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X

Irons: TaylorMade P770 (3), TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC 2011 (4-PW)
Shafts: Project X Denali Blue 105 TX (3), Project X 6.5 (4-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (50-12F), Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (56-14F), Callaway Jaws Raw (60-08C)
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (50), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (56, 60)

Putter: Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Mini DB
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy PistolLock 1.0

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Wrap

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Check out more in-hand photos of Daniel Berger’s clubs in the forums.

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Equipment

Heavy Artillery: A look at drivers in play at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans

Published

8 hours ago

on

Apr 24, 2024

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What are the driver and shaft combinations of the best golfers in the world? For gearheads, it’s an endlessly interesting question — even if we can only ever aspire to play LS heads and 7 TX shafts.

At this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, GolfWRX got in-hand looks at the driver setups of a wealth of players.

Check out some of the most interesting combos below, then head to the GolfWRX forums for the rest, as well as the rest of our galleries from New Orleans.

Rory McIlroy

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees @8.25)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride MCC

Alex Fitzpatrick

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride MCC

Daniel Berger

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees @9)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Wrap

Rasmus Hojgaard

Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue 60 TX
Grip: Golf Pride MCC

Alejandro Tosti

Driver: Srixon ZX5 Mk II LS (9.5 degrees @10.5)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS T1100 75 6.5
Grip: Golf Pride MCC Plus4

James Nicholas

Driver: Titleist TSR3 (8 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 7 X
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Kevin Streelman

Driver: Titleist TSR3 (10 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Sang-moon Bae

Driver: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond (9+ @8)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Russ Cochran

Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke (9 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD TP 6 X
Grip: Golf pride MCC Align 

MJ Daffue

Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (10.5 degrees @9.5)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green RDX 65 TX
Grip: Golf Pride ZGrip Cord Align

Check our more photos from the Zurich Classic here.

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Whats in the Bag

Rasmus Højgaard WITB 2024 (April)

Published

1 day ago

on

Apr 23, 2024

By

  • Rasmus Højgaard what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.

Driver: Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue 60 TX

3-wood: Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Prototype (16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K White 80 TX

Utility: Callaway Apex UW (21 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw White 85 TX

Irons: Callaway Apex Pro (3), Callaway X Forged (4-PW)
Shafts: KBS $-Taper 130

Wedges: Callaway Jaws Raw (52-10S, 56-10S, 60-06C)
Shafts: KBS Tour 130 X

Putter: Odyssey Ai One Milled Eight T DB

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

Check out more in-hand photos of Hojgaard in the forums.

 

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WITB

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Daniel Berger what’s in the bag accurate as of the Farmers Insurance Open. More photos from the event here. Driver:...
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Rasmus Højgaard WITB 2024 (April)

Rasmus Højgaard what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic. Driver: Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees)...
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Rory McIlroy WITB 2024 (April)

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